TWENTY-EIGHTH CONGEESS, 1843-45. 293 



York, for the Smithsonian fund, at the rate of $100 in stock for $94 in 

 cash, is accepted. 



The amount to be invested, as mentioned in my letter of the 8th, may be 

 diminished about $1,000 by the non-payment of some coupons. Of this I 

 shall be able to inform you in the course of the day. 



I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 



Thomas EwiNG, Secretary of the Treasury. 

 Messrs. Corcoran & Eiggs. 



House of Eepresentatives, June 7, 1844. 



Mr. Adams from the select committee on the subject of 

 the Smithsonian bequest, made a report thereon, accompa- 

 nied by a bill (No. 418) to provide for the disposal and 

 management of the fund bequeathed by James Smithson to 

 the United States, for the establishment of an institution 

 for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men : 

 which bill was read a first and second time, and committed 

 to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the 

 Union. 



The following is the report : 



The select committee, to whom was referred the letter of 

 the Secretary of the Treasury of 19th February last, relat- 

 ing to the then state and condition of the funds bequeathed 

 by James Smithson to the United States, for the establish- 

 ment of an institution for the increase and difiusion of 

 knowledge among men, have attended to that duty, and 

 respectfully submit to the consideration of the House a bill, 

 to give immediate effective operation to the purposes of 

 the testator in that bequest; and in explanation of the 

 necessity and object of this bill, take leave to recall to the 

 memory of this House the material circumstances of the 

 acceptance of this bequest, of the reception of the funds 

 bequeathed by the testator, and of the disposition of them 

 hitherto made by Congress, and its present condition. 



The existence of the bequest of James Smithson to the 

 United States of America was communicated to Congress 

 by a message from the President of the United States of 

 the 17th December, 1835 ; and by an act of Congress, ap- 

 proved July 1, 1836, the bequest was accepted, and the 

 President was authorized and enabled to assert and prose- 

 cute, with effect, the claim of the United States to the 

 property thereby bequeathed, and then held in trust by the 

 English court of chancery. The third section of this act is 

 in the following words : 



Sec. 3. And be it further enacted. That any and all sums of money, and 

 other funds, which shall be 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 



