644 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



Eegard for the memory of the dead who conferred upon 

 our citizens the benefit of the fund, and upon our nation 

 the honor of its administration, no less than a mere self- 

 respect will ever lead this nation, through its representa- 

 tives, to guard with peculiar vigilance the sacred trust in- 

 volved in the bequest of Mr. Smithson, and carefully and 

 diligently to watch the progress of the institution in the 

 fulfilment of the noble wishes of the founder, and the just 

 expectation of mankind in its regard. 



With this view, evidently, the Government supplied the 

 deficiency in the funds resulting from loans authorized by 

 act of Congress ; and pursuing the same object, it is believed 

 that Congress will suggest that the Treasury of the United 

 States be the depository of the fund, and that the institu- 

 tion shall derive an unfluctuating income from the interest 

 which the Government of the United States shall pay for 

 the use of that deposit. 



James Smithson was the son of the Duke of Northumber- 

 land, by Elizabeth, niece of the Duke of Somerset. The 

 disadvantages of the circumstances of his birth seem to 

 have been less than the benefits of the wealth of his parents, 

 and he surmounted the former by the assistance which the 

 latter gave to the energy of his character and the ennobling 

 objects of his pursuits, and having achieved distinction by 

 science, an attainment fortunately not dependent upon 

 hereditary honors, his wish was evidently to open up 

 avenues to knowledge and facilitate its attainment for the 

 multitude. It is better to suppose that the exalted opinions 

 of mental cultivation and scientific attainment which Smith- 

 son manifested in his life and writings, and the eftbrts and 

 contribution which he made towards ensuring to learning a 

 superiority to an}' distinction founded on hereditary title, 

 resulted rather from the ennobling influence of great scienti- 

 fic attainments upon his own character than from the mis- 

 fortunes of his birth, which forbade his enjoyment of the 

 titular honors that distinguished his father. 



Or, if made to feel the incompatibility of his condition 

 with the kind of distinction which was enjoyed by his more 

 fortunate relatives, he may be pardoned the ambition which 

 led him to adopt a course to give imperishable distinction 

 to his name, " when the titles of Percy and Northumberland 

 are extinct." And the Smithsonian Institution, in the city 

 of Washington, is the means by which that distinction is to 

 be achieved and perpetuated. Such an end, with such ample 

 means demanded appropriate administrations and suitable 

 measures. 



