THIRTY-FIRST CONGRESS, 1849-51. 509 



Smitbson, shall be received into the Treasury of the United States on the 

 same terms as were provided for the original principal fund by the second 

 section of the act entitled " An act to establish th<^ Smitlisonian Institution, 

 for the increase and difl'asion of knowledge among men," approved August 

 tenth, eighteen hundred and forty-six, and that the interest thereon at the 

 rate of six per centum per annum, shall in like manner be payable half- 

 yearly, on the first of January and July in each year, from and after the 

 date at which it shall bo received into tbe Treasury of the United States, 

 for the perpetual maintenance and support of said institution : Provided, 

 That the suras thus to bo received, shall not exceed the amount of two 

 hundred thousand dollars. 



The Senate proceeded to consider the following resolu- 

 tion, submitted by Mr. Walker on the 28th instant. 



Resolved, That the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution be 

 directed to inform the Senate why the Gth section of the act entitled "An 

 act to establish the Smithsonian Institution, for the increase and diffusion 

 of knowledge among men," has not been complied with by making suitable 

 arrangements for the reception of the " objects of art," &c., named in said 

 section. 



Mr. Davis, of Mississippi. I hope that the resolution ^Yill 

 not be favorably entertained by the Senate. The Smithso- 

 nian Institution is not a department of the Government, 

 and I hope Con2:ress will never undertake to take charge of 

 it. This is a call upon the Board of Regents to explain to 

 us something in connection with the execution of their 

 duty. If it were a proper and a well-founded call, I should 

 still think it improper for Congress to interfere with the 

 administration of a fund wdiich it has confided to A Board 

 of Regents not entirel}^ formed of members of Congress, 

 and not responsible to it. An examination of the charter 

 would have shown the Senator v/ho introduced the resolu- 

 tion that there was no obligation on the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution to receive the museum, which I suppose is the matter 

 referred to, but that, on the other hand, it was considered 

 a grant w^hich the Government was willing to make in a 

 friendly spirit, of objects of art and curiosity, whenever the 

 instituti(Hi should appoint some person to receive them. 

 It is obligatory to deliver, but not to receive. In some 

 other countries there is a courtesy between the king and 

 his ministers, that a minister shall never refuse a present. 

 In Siam, whenever the king wishes to crush a minister 

 he sends him the present of an elephant. The minister can- 

 not refuse the present, because it comes from the king, but 

 the expense of keeping the present crushes the minister. It 

 is exactly such a present that the Senator from Wisconsin 

 wishes to force the Smithsonian Institution to receive. It 

 is a present the charge of which would deduct very grcatl}^ 

 from the means of the institution to carry out the purposes 



