TWENTY-SIXTH CONGRESS, 1839-41. 203 



bequest, and a joint resolution to authorize and enable the 

 President of the United States to assert and prosecute, with 

 effect, the claim of the United States to this bequest, in the 

 court of chancery, or other proper tribunal of England. 

 By this joint resolution, adopted on the 2d of May, 1836, 

 the faith of the Government of the United States was 

 pledged, that any and all sums of money which should be 

 received for or on account of the said legacy should be 

 applied to the purpose of founding and endowing at Wash- 

 ington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an 

 establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge 

 among men. 



In the House of Representatives the same message of the 

 President was, on the 21st of December, 1835, referred to 

 a select committee of nine members, which, on the 19th of 

 January, 1836, rej)orted a bill, together with a statement of 

 facts and principles connected with the origin and accept- 

 ance of this bequest, which the present committee ask leave 

 to refer to the consideration of the House as a part of their 

 own report. 



Mr. Adams here quotes his own report of January 19th, 1836, and pro- 

 ceeds : 



The bill accompanying this report was, in the House of 

 Representatives, substituted in the place of the joint resolu- 

 tion which had l)een received from the Senate. It author- 

 ized the President of the United States to appoint an agent 

 or agents to prosecute, in the court of chancery, in England, 

 the right of the United States to the bequest of Mr. Smith- 

 son, and to recover and pay over the amount of the same 

 into the Treasury of the United States. This bill passed 

 in the House without opposition ; was concurred in, with- 

 out amendment, by the Senate ; and, on the 1st of July, 

 1836, received the approbation of the President of the 

 United States. 



The third section of this act is in the following words : 



" A7id be it further enacted, That any and all sums of money, and other 

 funds which shall he received for, or on account of, the said legacy, shall 

 be applied in such manner as Congress may hereafter direct, to the purpose 

 of founding and endowing, at Washington, under the name of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowl- 

 edge among men ; to which application of the said moneys, and other funds, 

 the faith of the United States is hereby pledged." 



By virtue of this act the President of the United States 

 did, shortly after its passage, appoint Richard Rush, of 

 Pennsylvania, the agent for recovering the funds in Eng- 

 land : which was accordingly done by a decree of the Eng- 



