14 PROGRAMME OF ORGANIZATION. 



priated to these different objects. It is left to the discretion and judg- 

 ment of the Regents. 



" The fifth section also requires a library to be formed, and the eighth 

 section provides that the Regents shall make from the interest an ap- 

 propriation^ not exceeding an average of twenty- five thousand dol- 

 lars annually, for the gradual formation of a library composed of val- 

 uable works pertaining to all departments of human knowledge. 



" But this section cannot, by any fair construction of its language, 

 be deemed to imply that any appropriation to that amount, or nearly 

 so, was intended to be required. It is not a direction to the Regents 

 to apply that sum, but a prohibition to apply more ; and it leaves it 

 to the Regents to decide what amount within the sum limited can be 

 advantageously applied to the library, having a due regard to the 

 other objects enumerated in the law. 



" Indeed the eighth section would seem to be intended to prevent the 

 absorption of the funds of the Institution in the^ purchase of books. 

 And there would seem to be sound reason for giving it that construc- 

 tion ; for such an application of the funds could hardly be regarded as 

 a faithful execution of the trust ; for the collection of an immense 

 library at Washington would certainly not tend ' to increase or dif- 

 fuse knowledge ' in any other country, not even among the country- 

 men of the testator ; very few even of the citizens of the United States 

 would receive any benefit from it. And if the money was to be so ap- 

 propriated, it would have been far better to buy the books and place 

 them at once in the Congress library. They would be more accepta- 

 ble to the public there, and it would have saved the expense of a costly 

 building and the salaries of the officers ; yet nobody would have listened 

 to such a proposition, or consented that the United States should take 

 to itself and for its own use the money which they accepted as a trust 

 for ''the increase and difi'usion of knowledge among men.' 



" T)iis is the construction which the Regents have given to the acts 

 of Congress, and, in the opinion of the committee, it is the true one ; 

 and, acting under it, they have erected a commodious building, given 

 their attention to all the branches of science mentioned in the law, to 

 the full extent of the means afforded by the fund of the Institution, 

 and have been forming a library of choice and valuable books, amount- 

 ing already to more than fifteen thousand volumes. The books are, 

 for the most part, precisely of the character calculated to carry out the 

 intentions of the donor of the fund and of the act of Congress. They 

 are chiefly composed of works published by or under the auspices of 

 the numerous institutions of Europe which are engaged in scientific 

 pursuits, giving an account of their respective researches and of new dis- 

 coveries whenever they are made. These works are sent to the 'Smith- 

 sonian Institution,' in return for the publications of this Institution, 

 which are transmitted to the learned societies and establishments abroad. 

 The library thus formed, and the means by which it is accomplished, 

 are peculiarly calculated to attain the object for which the munificent 

 legacy was given in trust to the United States. The publication of 

 the results of scientific researches made by the institution is calculated 

 to stimulate American genius, and at the same time enable it to bring 

 before the public the fruits of its labors. And the transmission of 



