154 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



which it carries with it. The weight of duty imposed is 

 proportioned to the honor conferred by confidence without 

 reserve. Your committee are fully persuaded, therefore, 

 that, with a grateful sense of the honor conferred by the 

 testator, upon the political institutions of this Union, the 

 Congress of the United States, in accepting the bequest, 

 will feel, in all its power and plenitude, the obligation of 

 responding to the confidence reposed by him, with all the 

 fidelity, disinterestedness, and perseverance of exertion, 

 which may carry into effective execution the noble purpose 

 of an endowment for the increase and dift'usion of knowl- 

 edge among men. 



A motion was made by Mr. Chapin, that five thousand 

 additional copies be printed of the message of the Presi- 

 dent, and the papers which accompanied the same, in rela- 

 tion to the bequest of James Smithson, together with the 

 report and bill this day submitted by Mr. John Quincy 

 Adams, from the committee to which the same was referred ; 

 which motion was laid on the table one day under the rule. 



House of Representatives, Wednesday, January 20, 1836. 



Mr. Chapin moved to consider the motion, which he sub- 

 mitted yesterday, for printing 5000 copies of the report 

 submitted yesterday by Mr. Adams from a select committee, 

 together with the President's Message, correspondence and 

 will, relating to the bequest of James Smithson, late of 

 London, deceased. 



Objection being made, 



Mr. Mann, of New York, said the report was in reference 

 to a subject of considerable interest, not only to the House, 

 but to the country generally. As the report was in the 

 hands of the printer, it was proper that, if an extra num- 

 ber of copies was ordered, it should be done at this time. 

 He moved to suspend the rule, for the purpose of entertain- 

 ing the motion to print, which was agreed to — ayes 107, 

 noes 46. 



Mr. Howard desired to know from some member of the 

 Committee the purport of the report, and what disposition 

 was proposed to be made of the bequest. He was entirely 

 ignorant on the subject. 



Mr. Chapin of New York, said he would, as a member of 

 the committee to which the subject of the Smithsonian be- 

 quest had been referred, answer the inquiry of the honora- 

 ble gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Howard.) It was not 

 proposed either by the report or bill which the honorable 

 chairman of the select committee (Mr. Adams) had sub- 



