118 EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT OF 



Whether in the exercise of this discretionary power, the Board ought 

 to look mainly to the gradual formation of a library, to the exclusion of 

 other objects which they may deem better calculated to promote the 

 purpose of Mr. Smithson, is a question which may be considered in a 

 two-fold view. 



We may inquire, 1. Whether there is an3^thing in the act of Congress 

 which requires this preference? I confine the inquiry to the act itself , 

 and exclude the expressed opinions of individuals who • participated in its 

 enactment, as well as the votes of the two Houses ujwn particular yroyo- 

 sitions submitted while it was under discussion; the first, because it is 

 tlie act, which alone expresses the will of the legislature, in the enact- 

 ment of which different individuals may have concurred for very dif- 

 ferent reasons ; the second, because a rejected proposition may have 

 been voted down, not because it was deemed unwise or improper, but 

 because it was considered unnecessary and superfluous*; at all events, of 

 those who reject it some may have been influenced by Ihe former, and 

 others by the latter consideration. The proceedings on this bill will 

 help to illustrate this. The bill reported by the committee contained 

 various specific provisions, as for a library, scientific collections, pub- 

 lications, &c., &c., &c. These were stricken out. Why ? Because 

 they were deemed inexpedient or improper ? No ; but because, since 

 the act specified no amount which the Board was required to expend 

 for a library, and left all the other accruing income, besides that which 

 they determined to apply to this object, subject to their entire control, 

 it would have, been simply superfluous, as they were provided for by 

 this general grant of power. I see nothing, therefore, in the act of Con- 

 gress which requires the Board to give this preference to a library, to 

 the exclusion of any other objects which they may deem more con- 

 sonant to the purposes of the donor. 



The remaining question is, 2. Have they erred in the exercise of 

 the discretion confided to them? I think not. The purpose of the 

 testator was two-fold. 



The ificrease of knowledge among men. 



Its diffusion among men. 



It was not to enable the few persons who could have access to a 

 library at Washington to master the knowledge already existing among 

 men, but to increase the sum of that knowledge, and to give it a world 

 wide diffusion. The first object might be attained by a library at Wash- 

 ington sufficiently comprehensive to embrace what is now knoum, 

 among men. The last can only be accomplished by the labors of 

 scientific men, and their diffusion by the Board throughout the civilized 

 toorld. But this subject is so well and thoroughly discussed by the 

 committee, that I leave it with the simple expression of my entire 

 concurrence in the reasoning and conclusion of their report. One other 

 remark. Looking to the limited amount of the income, and to the ex- 

 penditures, which Congress must have foreseen, I find it impossible to 

 suppose that they could have contemplated any considerable expen- 

 diture for the library, since in thus providing for the acquirement by a 

 limited portion of owr oion yeople of such knowledge as men have hitherto 

 attained, they would have precluded all eflorts for its inn-case and diffu- 



