THIIITY-TIIIRD CONGRESS, 1853-55. Oil 



for the buildings in process of erection, and, exercising their 

 discretion within the limit prescribed to them, have made 

 an annual appropriation for a library, what remains is 

 placed at their "disposal," to promote the purposes of the 

 testator by the use of such means as "they (the Board of 

 Regents) shall deem best suited" to accomplish this object. 

 In construing the act of Congress the committee conline 

 themselves to the act itself — to the plain import of the terms 

 in which it is expressed, and to the necessary results of the 

 provisions which it contains. They do not resort to what 

 is called its parliamentary history. The reported speeches 

 of members upon the bill while pending in Congress, and 

 even votes upon amendments made or rejected, do not 

 answer this purpose. The first only disclose the individual 

 opinions of the speakers — the second frequently do not ex- 

 hibit the object of those who voted for or against the par- 

 ticular amendment. A speech made by one member is 

 often at variance with the views of those who unite with 

 him in voting for a particular provision. They frequently 

 sustain it on other and different grounds. So too the ma- 

 jority or intermediate vote is frequently' composed of the 

 friends and opponents of the bill ; the latter advocating a 

 particular amendment with the hope and in the belief that 

 it will prove an incumbrance to the measure in the view of 

 some of its advocates, and thus contribute to its defeat; or 

 they may think that a particular proviso proposed to be 

 stricken out is unnecessary as being comprehended in some 

 other part of the act. 



A careful scrutiny of the proceedings of the House of 

 of Representatives, while this law was pending before 

 them, would show how unsafe a guide the resort to the 

 parliamentary history of a bill would be in the ascer- 

 tainment of its true construction. This may reconcile us to 

 an adherence to those rules which the wisdom of ages has 

 devised for the interpretation of statutes. We are endeav- 

 oring to ascertain the powers and duties of the Board of 

 Regents, and to do this we seek to discover the true inter- 

 pretation of the act of Congress and the will of Mr. Smith- 

 son, which, taken together, confer their powers and pre- 

 scribe their duties. These two sources of power and duty 

 are spoken of as necessarily connected ; for, although the 

 Smithsonian Institution was created by act of Congress, and 

 will cease to exist whenever Congress shall think proper to 

 repeal that act, yet both Congress and the institution, so 

 long as it continues to exist, are bound to carry the inten- 

 tion of the testator into effect. 



