Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1848-06-24

INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES.
Our readers will have perceived, from the Report
we give Of Congressional Proceedings, that tn
bill making provision for the system Of Internationa
Exchanges, so zeaously advocated by M. ALEX
VATTEMARE, has triumphanay passed both Houses Q
Congress, and waits but the Presidential signature
to become law. The promptitude with which
this offering has been made to the cause of the pro
gress and the peace Of nations highly honorable t.
us as one of them. AS Americans we'feel gratfet
and proud to observe the growing devotion mani
tested in our National Councils 10 objects connect
ed with science and the general social improve
ment of mankind. Our Government has beer
charged, and not without some show of Justice
with discreditable Indifference, if not positive
prejudice, in regard to matters of this character
which have been held by some as lying wholly
without the jurisdiction of the National LegisIa.
tnre. This change in the views of the Peoples
Representatives argues like advance in the
opinions of the People themselves, and is cheering
evidence Of the gradual advance Of light and cor
in the community.
The project of an international exchange of the
the records of legislation the results Of official in
quiry, the products Of science and literature, and
the beautiful fruits of art between the people of the
Old and the New World, is one Of those signs of
the times which have an suspicious bearing on the
prospects of the world. Perhaps there never has
been exhibited in the annals Of human character a
more striking instance of total unreseryed devotion
of soul and body, time, talents, labor, enterprise
and influence to one grand and useful idea, than is
found in the course pursued, now for many years,
by the benevolent enthusiast who first struck out
this PLAN and the entire success which has crowned
the efforts of solitary nnaided individual, sus-
tanned and borne on by an inward conviction that
success was possible, is striking and an instruc-
tive phenomenon in the history of our nature and
our race II is peculiarly fitted to encourage Anne
ricans, held generally to be the most enterprising
among men. Never did audacity itself attempt
more improbable task than that of influencing, by
the efforts of single man. and he from the ordi-
nary ranks of life, the Governments of all the
nations of Christendom, and uniting them-mo-
narchs, Legislators, scholars, artists, and allin one
grand scheme of union and mutual good WILL Yet
M. VATrEMARE has achieved or is achieving all
this. Nation after nation is falling into the ranks
and joining this alliance of the wise and good
among all people. 1t is one of those few, those
very few enterprises, in which the good to be eff
ected is untainted, unalloyed with evil. Exchanges
like those here proposed, while they must obvi-
ousy benefit all concerned in them, cannot, as it
would SEEM by any possibility, prove injurious to
any. Whoever has thus far engaged in the scheme
has derived from it solid and important benefits,
and has the rational prospect of many more.
What is peculiarly gratifying in own case is
the great unanimity with which the law providing
for the System Of Exchange passed in both Houses
of the National Legislature. We may now hope
that the plan has been put upon permanent basis.
and will continue to bless the nations after the
teeming head of its amiable author lies low in
death. And il it does, what hero ever had
prouder monument A tomb adorned with the
olive wreathes Of national peace, hung round with
all the chapets Of art and all the honors Of science,
and inscribed all with the blessings Of his race.
The project has hitherto been but an experiment:
if il attains TO permanence, and fills the world with
its benefits, large measure Of human gratitude
will be due TO the men who have carried il with
such triumphant unanimity through the American
Congress.