EEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 15 



to Congress at two successive sessions requesting that the extra 

 fund which had been thus economised might be received into the 

 treasury of the United States, and form a permanent addition to the 

 original deposit. The proposition was favorably commended to Con- 

 gress by a report of the committees to which it was referred, but 

 from the pressure of business the recommendation was not acted on, 

 and the directors of the establishment were obliged to seek some 

 other investment of the money. State stocks naturally presented 

 themselves as apparently offering the safest means of accomplishing 

 the desired object, and accordingly a committee of the Board decided 

 upon the purchase of bonds of the States of Indiana, Virginia, and 

 Tennessee. About $63,000 were expended in the purchase of the 

 State stocks of Indiana, $50,000 in those of Virginia, and $11,000 in 

 those of Tennessee. It is scarcely necessary to state that no interest 

 has been received from Virginia and Tennessee since the date of the 

 last report, and it is not probable that anything will be obtained 

 from them for some years to come. The other sums invested in 

 State stocks have yielded the usual amount of interest. The Virginia 

 stock is still rated at 50 per cent, of its par value, and we trust that 

 the State will, in time, be again able to discharge her obligations to 

 this Institution; but in the interim there will be on this account a 

 diminution in the annual income of nearly four thousand dollars. 



As an offset to this effect of the unforeseen condition of the States 

 above-mentioned, information has been received from London of the 

 death, at an advanced age, of Madame De la Batut, the mother of 

 the nephew of James Smithson, to whom an annuity was conceded 

 as a compromise by the Hon. Richard Rush, with a view to the more 

 expeditious realization of the Smithsonian legacy. The principal of 

 this annuity, amounting to five thousand and fifteen pounds (about 

 $25,000) will now be added to the bequest of Smithson, of which it 

 originally formed a part. 



It has been considered advisable, in view of the distracted state of 

 the country and the failure of the States before-mentioned to pay 

 their interest, to curtail the expenditures of the Institution, as far as 

 practicable, without suspending what have been denominated the 

 active operations. Yet, while this cautious policy has been closely 

 observed, it is believed that the Institution has sustained its charac- 

 ter for efficiency, and that, although it has been exposed to the dis- 

 turbing incidents of a theatre of war, it has still accomplished much 

 during the year, and steadily advanced in the career prescribed by 



