Doc. No. 11. 3 



most suitable appropriation of the proceeds would be premature. It is 

 with the warmest satisfaction that 1 have learnt ihe successful attainmenE 

 of this preliminary end. 



When, at the last session of Congress, provision was made, by the sixth 

 section of an act making appropriations for the West Point Academy 

 for the temporary investment of the Smithsonian bequest, 1 regretted^ 

 first, that this provision was made not in a separate bill, but as an append- 

 age to one with which it had no proper connexion ; secondly, that the 

 investment should be directed in stocks of States ; and, thirdly, that it 

 should give to the Secretary of the Treasury a discretionary power to 

 invest the fund, at a yearly interest of five per cent., at the very time 

 when the Government itself of the United States was issuing Treasury 

 notes at the rate of six per cent. Whatever may have been the occa- 

 sion or the design of these arrangements, it was impossible to evade the 

 remarks, that here was a deduction of one per cent, a year from the free 

 gift of a noble-minded foreigner, for the most exalted of purposes, to 

 bestow it, at the discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury, upon some 

 favorite State. This did not appear to me to be an appiopriation of the 

 fund to the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men, nor did it 

 lead me to augur very well of the sequel. 



This, however, was but a tempoiary investment of the fund, which, I 

 was willing to hope, would under no consideration be made permanent. 

 In the report of the committee to the House of Representatives, accom- 

 panying the bill which authorized the President to take the necessary 

 measures for recovering the fund, I had set forth, in very explicit language, 

 my sense of the duties which devolved upon the Government of the 

 United States by their acceptance, in behalf of the nation, of this be- 

 quest ; and, with the same views, 1 introduced into the bill a pledge of 

 the faith of the United States, that the fund should be applied to the 

 generous purpose of the testator. 



Before leaving Washington last July, I took the liberty of calling upon 

 the President, and of expressing to him my earnest hope that, in the in- 

 terval before the next session of Congress, he would be prepared with 

 some plan for the permanent safe keeping and security, unimpaired, of 

 the fund itself, by an investment which would yield a certain income as 

 large as the ordinary interest of the country, and for appropriating thai 

 income to the object of the testator — the increase and diffusion of knowl- 

 edge among men. 



I was kindly received by the President, who assured me of his readi- 

 ness to take into consideration any suggestions which I might be disposed 

 to make on the subject, or those of any other person whom I might rec- 

 ommend. 



Thus encouraged, I gave him freely the views which I entertained 

 with regard to fixing the permanency of the fund, unimpaired, and to 

 suitable objects of application for its annual income. The opinions 

 which I gave were general, and of course not matured. Further reflec- 

 tion siace that time has but slightly modified them, and I have not since 

 had the opportunity of consulting with any person in my own judgment 

 qualified to give counsel, at once judicious and perfectly disinterested ^ 

 for the disposal of the fund. 



The provision made at the last session of Congress was made merely 

 for an investment for a few months, that the fund should, after the arri- 



