452 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



appropriate this fund, as in honor and justice they were 

 bound, SO as to carry out as near as might be the intentions 

 of James Smithson. 



Mr. E. II. EwiNG dissented from that part of the amend- 

 ment of Mr. Adams which went to make a legisLative 

 promise that nothing should be done until the arrears of 

 interest were collected from the States in whose bonds the 

 funds had been invested ; and gave notice of a motion to 

 strike it out. 



He was not able to say that this Government had per- 

 formed in a proper manner the duties of trustee, and with 

 proper precaution invested these funds. Clearly, if this in- 

 vestment had thus been made, and the duties of trustee 

 faithfully performed, the Government could not be held to 

 assume the debt, and carry out the intentions of the tes- 

 tator. 



He could not agree with Mr. Sims that this fund could 

 ever be replaced in the chancery of England. This Gov- 

 ernment was now a trustee in regard to this fund. By its 

 acceptance of it, it had obligated itself to make a disposal 

 of it according to the intentions of the testator, and was 

 incapable of divesting itself of it. 



If it had been properly invested, as a trustee should in- 

 vest it, the Government was not bound, for the sake of 

 keeping up its name, to make an appropriation of the 

 money of the people of the United States for the support of 

 this charity, or any other. The question was, whether this 

 investment had been made in good faith — whether at the 

 time there was a reasonable probability^ that it would be re- 

 turned, or the interest on it paid regularly. 



That question he was not able now to determine, and he 

 presumed this was the case with other members of the 

 House. Hence, in the absence from the Treasury of this 

 fund, he was willing to postpone action on the subject for 

 the present. 



Mr. J. Q. Adams had, he said, a few words to say. In re- 

 gard to the purposes of this bequest, and the obligation and 

 duty of the IJnited States to carry them into effect, he agreed 

 with the honorable chairman of the committee who reported 

 the bill. Both had the same object in view. In regard to 

 the mode of reaching the object, he did not agree with the 

 gentleman. He regretted this difference of opinion ; but 

 in all the public discussions of this question, hardly any two 

 persons had been found to agree. If he differed from the 

 honorable chairman, the honorable chairman had also dif- 

 fered from all who had preceded him in the investigation of 



