Mr. Petigru. He was unquestionably a good Union man, a very distinguished man, a very true man to the Union; a very independent man, who incurred risks on accOunt of his Union sentiments; and so far I recognize his merits; but, sir, my objection to this resolution is twofold. In the 1st place, because a man remained true to his duty, whatever might be the circumstances under which he remained true and under which he was situated, living in the southern States, where, to be sure, it required a great deal of virtue, I do not think it would be safe to reco uize the principle that therefore, because he adhappened to be an eminent man, we are to provide for the support of his widow or family in an we. There were a great many people in the out who were not in eminent positions who made as great sacrifices, because they sacrificed all they had, being poor persons, not eminent persons, not distinguished persons, but having anequal degree of public virtue, who have remained true to the Union, and who have lost all. I do not see the propriety, unless you mean to go through with it and apply it to all, of picking out one particular person, because he happened to be more eminent and more distinguished than the others, and making provision for the support of his family, he bein in civil life, and rendering no active service. but simply remaining true to his duty and refusing to concur in the rebellion. The precedent would be a bad one. I recognize no more merit in him than I would in an humbler person, one of less distinction, perhaps of none, but yet who sacrificed all be adrather than desert the countryto which his allegiance was due; and I see no reason why, if we begin this, we should notgo through with it. I regard this proposition as simplya mode of doin indirectly what we could not constitutions y and properly do directly. In the next place, we know nothing about this library. If it is worth $25,000it will sell for that; but unquestionably it is just like other lawyers libraries a lihra that probably cost him $5,000, but would sell or very little. It is perfectly well known that law books which cost a man 5 dollars originally may. in the course of time. be bought rereadily at auction for half a dollar or a dol ar. It is very difficult for many of them to be sold at all. A libm that is picked up by a lawyer in the course of practice in a great many years is really of but very little money value. New books have taken the place of old ones; new editions have taken the place of old ones; and the older editions are really good for nothing in a money point of view, except as waste paper, at the end of the time when the la er terminates his business. That is the case wrth my library. It is not very valuable, but it costrne some money; it would not sell for the 6th part of what I gave for it; and that is the case with all the libra ries of old lawyers. We know nothing about the value of this library. No inquiryhas been made on the subject. That is probabl the character of it; it is the character of the li rary ofeverylawyer who has taken the trouble to acquire one that I ever saw. They are of but litt e money value. they were of value to the individual who owned em while he lived, bec e be was accustomed to the books, and thexrved him in place of others. In the next place, this being a mise ellaneous libra of that sort, picked up in that way, it can c early be of no value to us. It would not be fit to put into the Congressional Library, and robnbly would not be worth the room it won d take in the Law Library. We unquestionably have different copies of all the books we own. It is not pretended that these vol umes are rare ones or of the best editions; and it. would only be lumbering the shelves proba bly with mere waste aperif we had them. This is, then, merdiy an indirect way of giving $5,000 to this widow for what is really of no value to us, what we do not want, and should consider of no value, perhaps, ifwe had; books that would not be purchased by us from other persons to put into the Library, either the Law braryor any other. I disapproveof the principle of the thing, and I especially disapprove of, the way in which it is done. If we have any power to do it, let us do it directly, and give her $5,000, rather thanattempt to do a thing of this dese rition. That it is brought to us, and we are ased to give this money for it, only proves that it is perfectly well known that the works are not worth anything of any consequence to be sold in any other way. On these grounds I think the proposition is a very improperone. We cannot begin to support the families of persons in the southern States or elsewhere, however eminent they may have been, who simply remained true to their duty and died oor. We have no proof whatever that