702 THE STATE AND HIGHER EDUCATION. 



among men." A simpler educational bequest, with such far-reaching 

 results, was never before made. Whether James Smithson was influ- 

 enced to this foundation by the example of Washington is a curious 

 problem. Smithson's original bequest, amounting to something oxer 

 $500,000, was accepted by Congress for the purpose designated, and 

 was placed in the Treasury of the United States, where by good admin- 

 istration and suiall additional legacies (in two cases from other individ- 

 uals) the suui has increased to over $700,000. Besides this, the Smith- 

 sonian Institution now has a library equal in value to the original en- 

 dowment, and acquired by the simple process of government exchanges^ 

 and it owns buildings equal in value to more than half the original en- 

 dowment. During the past year, as shown by the Secretary's report, the 

 Institution was "charged by Congress with the care and disbursement 

 of sundry appropriations,"* amounting to $220,000. The National Mu- 

 seum is under the direction of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution, and the Government appropriations to that museum, since its 

 foundation, aggregate nearly $2,000,000. The existence and ever in- 

 creasing prosperity of the Smithsonian Institution are standing proofs 

 that ])rivate foundations maji receive the fostering care of government 

 without injurious results. Independent administration of scientific insti- 

 tutions can co-exist with State aid. It is a remarkable testimony to the 

 wisdom of George Washington's original idea that Andrew D. White, 

 who, when president of Cornell University, hap{)i]y combined private 

 endowments and Government land grants, lately suggested in The 

 ^orww t the thought of a national university upon individual founda- 

 tions. This thought is a century old, but it remains to this day the 

 grandest thought in American educational history. 



George Washington, like James Smithson, placed a private bequest, 

 so that the Genenil Government might extend to it " a favoring hand ;" 

 but in those early days Congress had no couce{)tii)n of the duties of 

 govern tnent towards education and science, although attention was re- 

 peatedly called to these subjects by enlightened Executives like Thomas 

 Jefferson, "father of the Uijiversity of Virginia," James Madison, 

 James Monroe, and John Quiucy Adams. It took Congress ten years 

 to establish the Smithsonian Institution after the bequest had been 

 acce{)ted and the money received. Unfortunately, George Washington's 

 Potomac stock never paid but one dividend, and there was no x)ressur6 

 in those days towards educational appropriations from an ever-increas- 

 ing suri)lus. The affairs of the Potomac Company were finally merged 

 into the Chesai)eake and Ohio Canal, which became a profitable enter- 

 prise and endures to this day. What became of George Washington's 

 ^^consolidated stock" of that period, history does not record. Jared 

 Sparks, Washington's biographer, thought the stock was '^ held in 



* Report of Samuel P. Langley, Secretary of ^lie Smithsonian Institution, 1887-!'88, 

 p. 7. 

 ^ t The Forum, February, IS8'J, 



