THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 13 



HEPOUT OP THE SECRETAEY. 



To the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution: 



Gentlemen : The year which has elapsed since the List meeting of 

 the Board of Regents has been marked by events which must have a 

 decided influence on tlie future history of the establishment intrusted 

 to your care. The plan of organization adopted, and the operations 

 in accordance with it, have been widely discussed by the public. The 

 subject has also been brought before Congress, and referred to a spe- 

 cial committee of the House of Representatives, and to the Judiciary 

 Committee of the Senate. The committee of the House had not time, 

 before the close of the session, to visit the Institution, or to make such 

 an examination of the management and the condition of its affairs as 

 the importance of the matter referred to them would seem to demand. 

 The members were divided in opinion as to the question of further le- 

 gislation, and no action was taken upon the reports which they pre- 

 sented. The Judiciary Committee of the Senate reported on the sub- 

 ject, and unanimously approved the acts of the Regents in construing 

 the law of Congress, in interpreting the will of Smithson, and in what 

 they had done in the way of increasing and diffusing knowledge among 

 men. 



The discussions that have taken place in the journals of the day in 

 regard to the policy pursued by the Institution, together with the print- 

 ing of an extra number of copies of the Regents' report to Congress, 

 have given the public generally an opportunity of becoming more 

 fully acquainted than heretofore with the character of the trust, and 

 the manner in which it has been administered. From the number of 

 letters received during the past year, containing spontaneous expres- 

 sions of opinion relative to the course pursued by the Regents, there 

 can be no doubt that the policy which has been ado])ted is the one 

 most in accordance with the views of a majority of the intelligent part 

 of the community. 



It is not contended that the plan of organization is in all respects 

 what could be wished ; on the contrary, it is believed that more of the 

 income is devoted to local objects — in the support of a large building 

 and the expensive establishment necessarily connected with it — than 

 is entirely consistent with a proper interpretation of the will of Smith- 

 son. But in establishing an institution in which various opinions 

 were to be regarded, the question was not, what, in the abstract, was 

 the best system, but the best which, under the circumstances, could 

 be adopted. It can hardly be expected that any plan, however faith- 

 fully and cautiously pursued, will give general, not to say universal, 

 satisfaction. In the faithful discharge of their duty, the directors of 

 the Institution are liable, frequently^ to make decisions which conflict 



