MR. PRESIDENT,--I hope there may be no hesitation in refusing to agree to this amendment. It seems to me that the House of Representatives has acted wisely in increasing the appropriation, and we shall act very unwisely, if we fail to unite with the House. We, Sir, are a Republic; we are living under republican institutions; and, as I understand them, one of their essential elements is Education. Now, Sir, here is an agency associated with the National Government, having education for its object; and what is the appropriation proposed by our excellent committee? It is $5,400: that is all. Looking on the opposite page of the bill, I find an appropriation of $9,000 for stationery, furniture, and books for the Interior Department; I find an appropriation of $16,000 for fuel and lights for the Interior Department; and yet we propose to give only $5,400 to create and support a Bureau of Education! Sir, is that decent? It seems to me, in this age, at this period of our history, when more than ever we are beginning to see the transcendent advantage of education, how much we owe to light,-- “Hail, holy light!”-- it seems to me strange that we should now cut down the appropriation for the Bureau of Education. Turning on, I come to the Department of Agriculture, and there I find an appropriation of $72,170; and then I turn back again to the $5,400 for the Bureau of Education. I think the House did not go far enough, when it made the appropriation $14,500. I would make the appropriation as large as that for the Agricultural Department; and I know full well the period is at hand when all of you will rejoice to make an appropriation for the Educational Bureau twice more than that for the Agricultural Department. As to the question whether there is any existing statute to sanction this appropriation, I dismiss it entirely. It is merely a technicality; and it ought not now, on this Appropriation Bill, at this stage, after the vote of the House, to be allowed to stand in the way. Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, supported the amendment as a step toward the abolition of the Bureau, which he regarded as useless,--at the same time urging the withdrawal, for consideration in a full Senate, of a proviso, just voted, for the restoration of the original clerical force; and it being thereupon suggested that the whole matter be passed over till the next day, Mr. Sumner said:-- Before that passes away, I wish to make one comment on a single word of the Senator from Ohio. The Senator said that he hoped we should take no backward step; and yet his speech and his proposition were a backward step. Sir, there is nothing that any State or any nation can do for education that is not for civilization itself; and now the Senator from Ohio is against appropriating a paltry sum of $10,000 for education. MR. SHERMAN. No,--for two or three clerks.