THIRTIETH CONGRESS, 1847-49. 495 



ity to the very organization of this institution. He could 

 inform the gentleman from Alabama that he misconceived 

 his relation to the Smithsonian Institution. He had no 

 fixed hostility to it. The hostility (if it could be so called) 

 — the opposition which he had to this institution rested 

 upon other and different grounds from a mere hostility to 

 the design of such an institution One of the principal rea- 

 sons why he wanted this committee appointed was not out 

 of opposition to the Smithsonian Institution; but taking 

 into consideration the peculiar crisis of the country at that 

 time, and the continuation of that crisis at this time, and 

 the burdens which this institution was imposing upon the 

 Government, he wished to see its affairs thoroughly inves- 

 tigated and brought before the public. That this fund had 

 been received from the United States ; that the United States 

 had discharged its duty as trustee with fidelity; that this 

 fund had been sunk and lost — these were all true ; and ac- 

 cording to his construction of the Constitution and of the 

 duties of a trustee, he considered that the Government was 

 exonerated from any further responsibility in connection 

 with this fund. It was well known that the original fund 

 had been lost, and it was known, too, that the law estab- 

 lishing the Smithsonian Institution, took the money out of 

 the Treasury of the Government — out of the people's 

 pocket? When the Smithsonian Institution was founded, 

 every dollar of the money received from Mr. Smithson was 

 gone — not a dollar of it was available. He had opposed an 

 institution of this kind being established with funds taken 

 out of the Treasury; not that he was opposed to an institu- 

 tion established upon the Smithsonian fund — not that he 

 disapproved of the object of the donor; but he was opposed 

 in time of war, when w^e were incurring a very heavy pub- 

 lic debt, to going into the Treasury, and establishing an 

 institution of this description, at an expense to the people 

 of some five or six hundred thousand dollars. 



Another reason was, that he believed, under the law 

 itself, the money had been improperly withdrawn from the 

 Treasury of the United States. The House had been in- 

 formed, by the able and eloquent gentleman from Ala- 

 bama, that the regents had withdrawn money from the 

 Treasury to the amount of $242,000, and by an extraordi- 

 nary process of financiering, w^ere doubling and compound- 

 ing it. They had been informed, also, that none of the 

 principal had been expended. How had this been done ? 

 Why, when the law was passed, every gentleman here at all 

 familiar with the subject knew that this fund was gone — 



