18 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



in wliicli tlie funds were invested ; and from these causes it was not 

 until after a delay of eight years that the law which organized the 

 Institution was enacted. Congress, it is true, intended in good faith 

 to compensate for this delay hy granting interest on the fund from the 

 time the money was received into the treasury of the United States ; 

 hut, unfortunately, the whole of this accrued interest, and as much of 

 the annual income as might he thought necessary, were hy the au- 

 thority of law appropriated to a huilding of a magnitude incommen- 

 surate with the means or wants. of the estahlishment. The adminis- 

 tration of the trust was given in charge to a Board of Regents, whose 

 special duty it was to study the character of the bequest with more 

 attention than it had previously received. They were not, however, 

 left entirely free to adopt such a plan as after mature deliberation 

 they might think best fitted to carry out the intention of the donor, 

 but were directed to include in the organization several objects which, 

 in the opinion of a majority of the Board, were not in accordance with 

 a strict interpretation of the will, or with the annual income of the 

 bequest. 



The founder of the Institution was a man of liberal education, a 

 graduate of Oxford, an active member of the Royal Society, and de- 

 voted, during a long life, to original scientific research. Not content 

 with the acquisition of ordinary learning, he sought by his own labors 

 to enlarge the bounds of existing knowledge. Well acquainted with 

 the precise meaning of words, while he left the mode of accom- 

 plishing his benevolent design to the trustees whom he had chosen, 

 he specified definitely the object of his bequest. In consideration of 

 his character, as evinced by his life, there can be no reasonable doubt 

 that he intended by the terms ''an establishment for the increase and 

 diffusion of knowledge among men," an institution to promote the 

 discovery of new truths, and the diffusion of these to every part of the 

 civilized world . This view, however, was not at first entertained, and 

 various plans, founded on misconceptions, were proposed for the or- 

 ganization of the Institution. The most prominent of these proposi- 

 tions were, first, to found a national university which should be 

 supplementary to the colleges of the country; secondly, to diffuse 

 popular information among the people of the United States by the 

 distribution of tracts ; thirdly, to establish at the seat of government 

 a large library; and fourthly, a national museum. Though these 

 propositions embraced objects of high importance in themselves, and 

 probably affected the legislation of Congress, they did not embody the 

 prominent ideas of the testator. They were restricted in their influ- 



