appears to have been proud of his scientific attainments, and on one occasion wrote thus: "The best blood of England flows in my veins on my father's side I am a Northumberland; on my mother's, I am related to kings. But this is of no consequence. My name shall live in the memory of mankind when the titles of the Northumberlands and Percys are forgotten.'

"Smithson died at Genoa in the year 1829, leaving his property to his nephew, the son of his brother, with a clause in his will leaving it in trust of the United States, for founding an institution for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men, in case the nephew died without issue. He did so die, and the money, about $500,000, came into possession of our government."

Mr. Sims has voted against appropriations for harbors and rivers, because he denies the existence of any constitutional power which authorizes them.

He voted against the notice for the termination of the joint occupancy of the Oregon Territory-not that he thought it inexpedient or improper that the notice should be given; on the contrary, he believed the interest and honor of the country, the preservation of its peace, and the preservation of the territory itself, alike demanded such a measure. But it was a matter, in his opinion, belonging clearly to the treaty-making power, and not to the Legislature. Still, he thought that the House might, as an advisory act, say to the executive, "If you so conduct the important matters committed to you as to continue this convention, it will or will not be wise and prudent; and if you abrogate it, it will or will not be acceptable, in our opinion, to those whom we represent."

As to our claim to the territory, he contended that if the question had been a new one-what lawyers denominated res integra-we would have had the best title up to fifty-four degrees forty minutes. But it was not res integra; it was, in some respects, res adjudicata; and though there might be no tribunal to enforce decisions on nations, yet a decent respect to the opinion of mankind required fairness and justice in their practice and intercourse. England had enjoyed in that territory equal privileges with ourselves, and we had, in some sort, recognized the existence of her rights by solemn treaty. On repeated occasions we had offered to divide the territory on the

forty-ninth degree of latitude; south of that line, he believed, the people whom he represented would never consent to surrender one foot; but, in reference to all that had been done, he thought that a fair line of compromise, and if that line should be offered by Great Britain, he thought the President would be bound to accept it.

He believes the Mexican war to be just and necessary, and he is in favor of its prosecution until such time as indemnity for injuries sustained and for the expenses of the war shall have been made, and until our boundary to the Rio Grande and a suitable line from thence to the Pacific shall have been acknowledged. He thinks that the executive government of the United States had a constitutional right to do-and was, in fact, bound, under the high obligations of duty, to do—every thing which it has done. He has co-operated heartily with the administration in all measures touching the war, not excluding the proposition for the appointment of a lieutenant-general. He regretted that Congress did not think proper to respond to the recommendation of the President in this respect. But he thinks that, in point of fact, the President is already invested with the direct authority to make such appointment, under the sixty-second article of war, which declares that "if, upon marches, guards, or in quarters, different corps of the army shall happen to join, or do duty together, the officer highest in rank of the line of the army, marine corps, or militia, by commission there, on duty, or in quarters, shall command the whole, and give orders for what is needful to the service, unless otherwise especially directed by the President of the United States, according to the nature of the case."

The opinions of Mr. Sims on the subject of slavery are of the ultra Southern school. He thinks that no man who reads the Bible, and who is a Christian either in theory or in practice, can denounce slavery as immoral; and he believes that every foot of territory which we may permanently occupy south of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes will be slave territory. When this opinion was expressed by him in the House, the following colloquy took place :

"Mr. Burt, of South Carolina, desired to ask his colleague whether he had expressed the opinion that the country conquered from Mexico south of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes

would be occupied with the slave institutions, in consequence of the state of public opinion in the Northern, Western, and Middle States, or whether it was in consequence of the known determination of the Southern people that their institutions shall be carried into that country, if it be acquired.

"Mr. Sims. It is founded on the known determination of the Southern people that their institutions shall be carried there; it is founded on the laws of God, written on the climate and soil of the country; nothing but slave labor can cultivate profitably that region of country. I have no idea that the North or the West will resist to the death. The Union will never be dissolved on that question.'

“Mr. Bradford R. Wood, of New York, here interposed, and protested against the gentleman answering either for the North or for God.

"Mr. Sims. I answer for God, because His opinion is written in His revealed Word. I can speak authoritatively on that point. I do not believe that, on the slave question or any other question, the child is born in this country who shall witness a dissolution of this Union. I have no idea of the thing. Politicians may arise and flourish, and they will perish beneath the scorn and contempt of the large masses of the honest and wellthinking people in every portion of this Union, who shall attempt to subvert the institutions and government of their country. I repeat, that the child is not born who shall witness a dissolution of the Union on any question that has been suggested.'"

Among the more local matters to which he has directed his attention, we note propositions introduced by him to erect a light-house on South Island, on the southern edge of Winyaw Entrance; and one at Blythe's, or Waite's Point, at the confluence of Sawpit with Winyaw Bay, South Carolina; also for surveys to be made of the bar at Winyaw Entrance, and of the waters of Winyaw Bay; and a proposition to place buoys in Winyate Channel, leading to the port of Georgetown, South Carolina.

He avows great confidence in the people, and is said to enjoy great popularity in his own district. He knows that he is sometimes called a demagogue; but the respect he shows to the people he declares to be rather the result of his political

opinions, and of his sense of the duty which a public servant owes to his constituents, than of those notions which ordinarily influence the conduct of the demagogue. Though eminently successful in his career, he nevertheless, as we have shown, had his difficulties to surmount, in rising from obscurity to public distinction, in a community where he had neither the advantages of wealth, nor relations or family connections to sustain him. But his industry and equable temper overcame all these difficulties. Many anecdotes are told of his pleasantry and goodhumor in the conduct of his popular canvasses.

He published, in 1833, a pamphlet on Slavery, being a vindication of the morality of the institution. It is considered a wellwritten and strong defense of the system. In 1842 he published a popular novel, called "Bevil Faulcon," in one volume, the incidents of which were taken from the period of the Revolution. He has occasionally been in the habit, since he first settled at Darlington, of furnishing political essays to the public journals. Among his most admired literary productions is the oration delivered by him in Marlborough District, South Carolina, on the death of the late John Campbell.

Mr. Sims was married in the fall of 1830 to Margaret Dargan, daughter of Timothy Dargan, of Darlington, many years a member of the State Legislature. She died in 1844, leaving him with one child.

During his service in Congress he has been a member of the Committee on the District of Columbia; and it is known to us that, during the last Congress, most of the law cases which came under the cognizance of that committee were referred to him for examination and report.

He opposed, on constitutional grounds, the retrocession of the town and county of Alexandria to the State of Virginia. He believed that Congress had no power, after once having accepted a cession of the ten miles' square, to legislate on the subject, either of retroceding a part or all, or accepting another ten miles' square. He believed the power expired with its original exercise.