152 



CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



of poetical inspiration, in the loftier strain of Alnwick 

 Castle, tuned by a bard of our own native land ;* doubly im- 

 mortalized as iit is in the deathless dramas of Shakespear ; 

 " confident against the world in arms," as it may have been 

 in ages long past, and may still be in the virtues of its 

 present possessors by inheritance ; let the trust of James 

 Smithson to the United States of America, be faithfully ex- 

 ecuted by their Representatives in Congress ; let the result 

 accomplish his object, "the increase and diffusion of knowl- 

 edge among men," and a wreath of more unfading verdure 

 shall entwine itself in the lapse of future ages around the 

 name of Smithson, than the united hands of tradition, 

 history, and poetry, have braided around the name of Percy, 

 through the long perspective in ages past of a thousand 

 years. 



It is then a high and solemn trust which the testator has 

 committed to the United States of America, and its execu- 

 tion devolves upon their Representatives in Congress, duties 

 of no ordinary importance. The location of the Institution 

 at Washington, prescribed by the testator, gives to Congress 

 the free exercise of all the powers relating to this subject 

 with which the}' are, by the Constitution, invested as the 

 local Legislature for the District of Columbia. In advert- 

 ing to the character of the trustee selected by the testator 

 for the fulfilment of his intentions, your committee deem 

 it no indulgence of unreasonable pride to mark it as a signal 

 manifestation of the moral effect of our political institu- 

 tions, upon the opinions, and upon the consequent action of 

 the wise and the good of other regions, and of distant 

 climes ; even upon that nation from whom we generally 

 boast of our descent, but whom from the period of our 

 revolution we have had too often reason to consider as a 

 jealous and envious rival. Ilow different are the sensations 

 which should swell in our bosoms with the acceptance of 

 this bequest ! James Smithson, an Englisliman, in the ex- 

 ercise of his rights as a free-born Briton, desirous of dedi- 

 cating his ample fortune to the increase aud diffusion of 

 knowledge among men, constitutes for his trustees, to ac- 

 complish that object, the United States of America, and 

 ffxes upon their scat of (-iovernment as the spot where the 

 Institution, of which he is the founder, shall be located. 



The revolution, which resulted in the independence of 

 these United States, was commenced, conducted, and con- 

 summated under a mere union of confederated States. Sub- 



* Fitz-Greene Halleck. 



