634 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



squandered. This seems irrelevant, for it bad not been. so 

 cbarged. But he thinks it a high meed of praise that its 

 capital has been augmented. If the object of the institution 

 were the increase of its wealth, this would indeed be just 

 cause for satisfaction. But, sir, this establishment was cre- 

 ated, not to hoard money, not to speculate upon it, not to 

 increase its income, but to expend money " for the increase 

 and diffusion of knowledge." We want knowledge more 

 than gold. We have no commission to accumulate for 

 future benefit, but to spend for continual profit. We should 

 remember, 



" There is that scattereth and yet increaseth ; and there is that withhold- 

 eth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty." 



It is asked, if Smithson intended a library, would he not 

 have said so ? I reply by asking, if he had meant a learned 

 society, would he not hav^e said so ? He knew all about 

 learned societies, and seems to have become dissatisfied 

 with them. I cannot suppose that he meant to indicate 

 anything in particular and exclusively ; but I suppose he in- 

 tended to give his money to whatever the United States, in 

 the discretion of its Government, might deem best suited 

 to promote his general purpose. 



For one, sir, I suppose that Smithson regarded the foun- 

 dation of a " Smithsonian Institution," from his property 

 as only a possibility. Look at the facts. He left the income 

 of his property, for life, to a nephew, and the property 

 " absolutely and forever," to the descendants of the nephew, 

 if he had any, " legitimate or illegitimate." The nephew 

 was a young man leading a roving life in France and Italy. 

 What was the chance that the contingency would ever 

 arrive when the United States could claim the legacy — that 

 of failure of descendants of the nephew ? A sentence has 

 been quoted from one of his papers to the purport that his 

 name would live in the memories of men when the titles of 

 the Percy's and jSTorthumberland's were extinct or forgot- 

 ten, and it seems to be inferred that he was then think- 

 ing of this institution. But it is altogether more likel}' he 

 was thinking of the articles which he had published in the 

 Philosophical Transactions. Every scientific man deems 

 the acceptance of his articles there a sure passport to im- 

 mortality; and this view is rendered more probable by 

 what is asserted, that he took such oflense at the rejection 

 of one of his papers by the Royal Society as to change his 

 will. But I do not, after all, see the applicability of this; 

 for the name of Smithson would be as much attached to the 

 Smithsonian Institution, and live with it as long and as 



