TWENTY-SIXTH CONGRESS, 1839-41. 205 



1886, to enable the Executive to assert and prosecute, with 

 effect, the claim of the United States to the legacy be- 

 queathed to them by James Smithson, had received its 

 entire execution ; and that the amount recovered and paid 

 into the Treasury having, agreeably to an act of the preced- 

 ing session, been invested in State stocks, he deemed it 

 proper to invite the attention of Congress to the obligation 

 devolving upon the United States to fulfill the object of the 

 bequest. He added, that, in order to obtain such informa- 

 tion as might serve to facilitate its attainment, the Secretary 

 of State had been directed to apply to persons versed in 

 science, and familiar with the subject of public education, for 

 their views as to the mode of disposing of the fund best calcu- 

 lated to meet the intention of the testator, and prove most 

 beneficial to mankind. Copies of the circular from the 

 Secretary of State, and of the answers to it received at that 

 department, were communicated with the message for the 

 consideration of Congress ; and for the whole correspond- 

 ence, this committee respectfully refer the House to docu- 

 ment No. 11 of the Executive Documents of the 3d Session 

 of the 25th Congress. 



On the following day, (the 7th of December, 1838,) 

 another message was transmitted by the President to the 

 House of Representatives, with reports from the Secretaries 

 of State, and of the Treasury, in compliance with a resolu- 

 tion of the House, of the 9th of July preceding, requesting 

 the President to cause to be laid before the House all such 

 communications, documents, &c., in the possession of the 

 Executive, or which could be obtained, as should elucidate 

 the origin, progress, and consummation of the process by 

 which the Smithsonian bequest had been recovered, and 

 whatever might be connected with the subject. For this 

 message and accompanying documents, the committee refer 

 the House to No. 10 of the Executive Documents of the last 

 session. 



On the 10th of December, 1838, these two messages, of 

 the 6th and 7tli of that month, were referred to a select com- 

 mittee of the House, which proceeded, at sundry meetings, 

 to consider and discuss the principles upon which it might 

 be desirable to establish the foundation of the Smithsonian 

 Institution so as best to fulfil the benevolent purpose of the 

 testator; to return, by the most effective acknowledgment, 

 the signal honor done to our country and her institutions, 

 by the commitment of this great and most honorable trust 

 to the United States of America; to prove them worthy of 

 that trust, by the dignity, disinterestedness, and propriety 



