208 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



or sums may hereafter accrue from the same bequest, and so much of the 

 interest as has become, or may become due on the first-named principal 



sum, until the day of , ought to be constituted a permanent 



fund, to be invested in a corporate body of trustees, to remain, under the 

 pledge of faith of the United States, undiminished and unimpaired. 



Resolved, That the said fund ought so to be invested that the faith of the 

 United States shall be pledged for its preservation, unimpaired, and for its 

 yielding an interest or income at the rate of six per cent, a year, to be ap- 

 propriated from time to time, by Congress, to the declared purpose of the 

 founder ; and that all appropriations so made shall be exclusively from the 

 interest or income of the fund, and not from any part of the principal 

 thereof. 



Resolved, That the first appropriations from the interest or income of 

 the Smithsonian fund ought to be for the erection and establishment, at the 

 city of Washington, of an astronomical observatory, provided with the 

 best and most approved instruments and books, for the continual observa- 

 tion, calculation, and recording of the remarkable phenomena of the 

 heavens, for the periodical publication of the observations thus made, and 

 of a nautical almanac, for the use of the mariners of the United States, and 

 of all other navigating nations. • 



These resolutions were ordered to be printed, and laid on 

 the table for consideration. 



On the 6th of February, 1839, the following resolutions 

 were submitted by the chairman of the committee on the 

 part of the House, to the joint conmiittee, for considera- 

 tion : 



1. Resolved, That the education of the children and youth of these 

 United States has for its object, not the increase and diffusion of knowledge 

 among inen, but the endowment of individuals of both sexes with useful 

 kni)wlodge already acquired, and suited to their respective conditions. 



2. That the declared object of the bequest of James Smithson to the 

 United States of America being the foundation, at the city of Washington, 

 of an establishment ' for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among 

 men,' no appropriation of any part of the fund to the purpose of educating 

 the children or youth of these United States would fulfill the intent of the 

 testator. 



3. That the education of the children of these United States is a duty 

 of solemn and indispensable obligation incumbent upon their parents and 

 guardians, not for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men, but 

 to qualify them for the enjoyment of their rights, and the performance of 

 their duties throughout life. 



4. That the United States of America, having, by their Congress, ac- 

 cepted as a trust a large and liberal bequest from a foreigner, for the in- 

 crease and diffusion of knowledge among men, and having pledged their 

 faith for the application of the proceeds of that bequest to the declared pur- 

 pose of the testator, would neither fulfill that purpose nor redeem their 

 pledge, by appropriating a fund, devised for the benefit of mankind, to the 

 education of their own children. 



5. Resolved, therefore. That no part of the Smithsonian fund ought to 

 be applied to the education of the children or youth of the United States, 

 nor to any school, college, university, or institute of education. 



After the meetings of the joint committee had ceased, 

 the chairman of the committee on the part of the Senate, 

 by virtue of the authority given him by his colleagues; pre- 

 sented to the committee on the part of the House counter- 



