204 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



lish court of chancery ; and on the 1st of September, 1838, 

 the sum of $508,315.46 was deposited, in gold, at the mint 

 of the United States at Philadelphia, being the proceeds 

 then recovered of the bequest; a further sum having been 

 reserved by the English court of chancery for the payment 

 of a life annuity to the mother of Henry James Hunger- 

 ford. 



By the 6th section of the act of Congress of 7th July, 

 1838, to provide for the support of the Military "Academy 

 of the United States at West Point, for the year 1838, it 

 was enacted — 



" That all the money arising from the bequest of the late James Smith- 

 son, of London, for the purpose of founding at Washington, in this District, 

 au institution to be denominated the Smithsonian Institution, which may be 

 paid into the Treasury, is hereby appropriated, and shall be invested, by 

 the Secretary of the Treasury, with the approbation of the President of the 

 United States, in stocks of States, bearing interest at not less than five per 

 centum per annum ; which said stocks shall be held by the said Secretary, 

 in trust, for the uses specified in the last will and testament of said Smith- 

 son, until provision is made, by law, for carrying the purpose of said bequest 

 into eti'ect ; and that the annual interest accruing on the stock aforesaid 

 shall be, in like manner, invested for the benefit of said Institution." 



Under this authority, thus granted before the money was 

 received into the Treasury, the Secretary of the Treasury 

 did, on the 4th of September, 1838, invest four hundred 

 and ninety-nine thousand five hundred dollars, by the pur- 

 chase of five hundred bonds of the State of Arkansas for 

 one thousand dollars each, bearing six per cent, interest, 

 payable semi-annually on the 1st of January and July of 

 each year, from the said 4th of September ; and the further 

 sum of eight thousand two hundred and seventy dollars 

 and sixty-seven cents was applied to the purchase of eight 

 bonds of the State of Michigan, bearing six per cent, inter- 

 est, payable semi-annually on the first Mondays in January 

 and July from the 1st of May, 1838 ; the interest on all 

 these bonds being payable at the city of New York. 



By these transactions it will be perceived that the United 

 States became creditors of the States of Arkansas and of 

 Michigan to the amount of the purchase of their respective 

 bonds, and made themselves responsible to the Smithsonian 

 fund for the punctual pa^'ment of the principal and interest 

 of said bonds ; the faith of the United States having been 

 already pledged for the faithful application of the fund 

 itself to the purposes of the testator — the increase and dif- 

 fusion of knowledge among men. 



At the last session of Congress the President of the 

 United States, by a message to both Houses of the 6th of 

 December, 1838, informed them that the act of the 1st July, 



