576 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1925 



ward, Congress accepted the trust and created by enactment an 

 " Establishment " called by the name of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion, consisting of the President of the United States, the Vice 

 President, the Chief Justice of the United States, and the members 

 of the President's Cabinet. It has also a secretary, the executive 

 officer of the Institution, who is also the keeper of the National 

 Museum. 



Smithson's money, which amounted to over half a million dollars, 

 and later to three-quarters of a million, a great fortune in that day 

 of small things, was lent to the United States Treasury, the Govern- 

 ment agreeing to pay perpetually C per cent interest upon it. 



In the fundamental act creating the Institution, Congress, as 

 above stated, i)rovided that the President and the members of the 

 Cabinet should be members of the Institution — that is, should be 

 the Institution itself — but that nevertheless it should be governed 

 by a Board of liegents, composed of the Vice President and Chief 

 Justice of the United States, three Regents to be appointed by the 

 President of the Senate (ordinarily the Vice President), three by 

 the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and six to be selected 

 by Congress; two of whom should be residents of the District of 

 Columbia, and the other four from different States, no two being 

 from the same State. The fundamental act further provides that 

 the secretary of the Institution already deiined shall also be the 

 secretary of the Board of Regents. The Museum is primarily to 

 contain objects of art and of foreign and curious research; next, 

 objects of natural history, plants, and geological and mineralogical 

 specimens belonging to the United States. Provisiori is also made 

 for a library, and the functions of tlie Regents and of the secretary 

 are deiined. 



The preamble of this l)ill states that Congress has received the 

 property of Smitlison and provided " for the faithful execution of 

 said trust agreeable to the will of the liberal and enliglitened donor." 

 It will thus be seen that the relations of the General Government 

 to the Smithsonian Institution are most extraordinary, one may even 

 say unique, since the United States solemnly bound itself to the 

 administration of a trust. Probably never before has any ward 

 found so powerful a guardian. The Smithsonian is neither en- 

 dowed nor maintained by (xovernment appropriation, though the 

 Government entrusts the administration of several of the publicly 

 supported bureaus to its care. 



Very eminent men have served upon the Board of Regents, both 

 as members of the Government and from civil life. Among them 

 may be found Louis Agassiz, Alexandei- Dallas Bache, George Ban- 

 croft, Rufus Choate, James Dwight Dana, Asa Gray, Gen. Mont- 



