SMITHSONIAN BEQUEST. 131 



To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives 



in Congress Assembled : 



The Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution 

 have directed the undersigned to transmit to your honor- 

 able body the resolution herewith appended, and to solicit 

 the passage of an act in accordance therewith. 



It is known to your honorable body that the original sum 

 received into the United States Treasury from the bequest 

 of James Smithson, of England, was $515,167, which was 

 considered a trust fund, the interest alone to be applied to 

 carrying out the purpose of the testator, viz : " The increase 

 and difiusion of knowledge among men." 



This, however, was not the whole of the Smithsonian be- 

 quest, the sum of £5,015 sterling, having been left by Hon. 

 R. Rush, the agent of the United States, as the principal of 

 an annuity to the mother of the nephew of Smithson. 



The annuitant having died, the sum of $26,210.63 has. 

 been received from this source, and is now in charge of the 

 Secretary of the Treasury of the United States ; and no 

 provision having been made in the act of August 10, 1846, 

 establishing the Institution, for the disposition of tlais re- 

 mainder of the legacy, your memorialists, in behalf of the 

 Board of Regents, now ask that it be added to the original 

 bequest on the same terms ; and that the increase which has 

 arisen from interest or otherwise on the sum before men- 

 tioned, also in the hands of the Treasury Department of the 

 United States, be transferred to the Board of Regents for 

 assisting to defray the expense of the reconstruction of the 

 building, and for other objects of the Institution. 



And your memorialists would further ask that the Board 

 of Regents be allowed to place in the Treasury of the 

 United States, on the same terms as the original bequest, 

 such sums of mone}^ as may accrue from savings of income 

 and from other sources, provided the whole amount thus 

 received into the treasury shall not exceed one million dol- 

 lars. 



The sole object of this request is the permanent invest- 

 ment and perpetual security of the entire Smithsonian 

 bequest and such other sums as may be accumulated from 

 savings of accrued interest, legacies, &c. 



And your memorialists will ever pray, &c. 



S. P. Chase, 



Chancellor. 

 Joseph Henry, 

 Secretary Smithsonian Institution. 



