612 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



The trust has been accepted bj Congress in behalf of the 

 United States, and the faith of the United States has been 

 pledged for its faithful execution " according to the will of 

 the enlightenegl and liberal donor." While, therefore, 

 Congress, acting as agents of the United States, have the 

 power to divert the fund to purposes other than those which 

 may be according to " the will of the liberal and enlightened 

 donor," their right to do so can never be affirmed ; and 

 though the Board of Regents cannot and do not claim a 

 right to place themselves in an antagonistical position to the 

 Congress of the United States, whose sub-agents they are, 

 yet in construing the act of Congress, if it will admit of two 

 constructions, one of which seems to be most conformable 

 to the purposes of the will of Smithson, the regents would 

 not hesitate to accept such construction in preference to the 

 other which does not conform to the will of the testator. 

 This is merely the application of a principle universally 

 recognized in the interpretation of statutes. 



In the present case two constructions are given to the act 

 of Congress. If the Board of Regents consider one of them 

 to be more consonant to the purposes of Mr. Smithson's 

 will, which was the source of the authority of Congress to 

 legislate on the subject for any purpose, it ought to be 

 adopted, since the act was passed evidently for the pur- 

 pose of carrying into execution " the will of the donor," 

 and especial!}' when this interpretation affects two provi- 

 sions of the act, which otherwise would be without object 

 or operation. 



The committee will now proceed to inquire whether the 

 scientilic researches, and the publication of their results, 

 are, in the language of the acts of Congress, " best suited to 

 promote the purpose of the testator." The question is 

 between such researches, made and published at Washing- 

 ton, or examined under the authority of the institution, and 

 circulated throughout the civilized world, and a great na- 

 tional library, to be established in this city. Mr. Smithson 

 was a scholar, a man of science, an author of scientific me- 

 moirs, a contributor to the Transactions of the Royal Society 

 of London, familiar with the language in which his will is 

 written, and perfectly competent to decide upon the apti- 

 tude of words to convey the ideas they were intended to 

 express. 



It might well be expected that the language of such a 

 man would be characterized by simplicity, by the absence 

 of circumlocution and -perljihrasis^ which is well described 

 as the use of many words to express the meaning of one. 



