86 EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT OF 



human knowledge, it would not increase the stores of learning, but only 

 bring them together. It would develop no new truths, reveal no hid- 

 den Laws of nature, but only contain the record of what might be 

 already known ; so that in no proper sense could it be said to increase 

 knowledge. Neither would it difflise knowledge, except within a lim- 

 ited sphere. The Institution would necessarily be loual, for although 

 it might aid the few men of research residing in Washington, and such 

 students and investigators as occasionally visited the city, it would fail 

 to accomplish the more extensive purpose of the testator and of the 

 law, since it could not be expected to draw hither the great Ixjdy of 

 such men. These must always be scattered over the country, engaged 

 in pursuits which require their residence elsewhere, and with only oc- 

 casional opportunities of aiding their inquiries by resort to the library 

 of the Smithsonian Institution. While, therefore, a well selected library 

 of valuable books pertaining to all departments of learning may well 

 be one of the means employed by the Institution, its purpose requires 

 other instrumentalities by which knowledge may be increased and dif- 

 fused among men. We must never forget that both the will of Smith- 

 son and the act of Congress recognize that, as a nation is appointed the 

 great dispenser of the fruits of his munificence, so these benefits are to 

 be mmer'ial, and their recipients to be men everywhere and in all time. 



If the language of the will had been "to increase and diffuse know- 

 ledge among the people of the United States,''^ a library would be but a 

 feeble and imperfect instrument as an active agent even for that limited 

 purpose. The accumulation of books in the political centre of a great 

 country, or even in the centre of population of a numerous people, 

 would no doubt gratify the pride of the nation, and be attended with 

 some profitable results. But such a library would not ensure mental 

 activity to enquirers who should live remote from its locality, and its 

 relation to all increase of knowledge would be merely incidental. It 

 would have no effective operation in the thirty-one States which con- 

 stitute the nation, or people of the Union, and instead of being diffusive 

 in its nature, would be centralizing in its influence and passive in its 

 character. Even if the will and the act of Congress were limited by 

 the terms supposed, by no fair construction could the formation of a 

 library be considered as an execution of the trust. But when we con- 

 sider that the language of the will is not thus limited, and that tlie 

 benefits of the bequest are intended for mankhul, we cannot imagine 

 how the establishment of a library could be considered as corresponding 

 to the requisitions of a purpose so wide and liberal. That Smitbson did 

 not intend a library to be the prominent feature in the Institution con- 

 templated by his bequest, may be inferred from the fact that his will 

 did not mention it, when a single word would have been sufficient for 

 this purpose. 



And that Congress did not design to indicate a library as the prin- 

 cipal object of the establishment which they founded by law to carry 

 out the purpose of Smitbson, will be made to appear by an examination 

 of the enactment. 



In the construction of a law of Congress, the opinions expressed in 

 the speeches of some of those who voted f()r it cannot be taken as the 

 opinion of all or even of the major part of them, but the act must be 



