690 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



been paid to them in coin. The Smithsonian Institution ia 

 a very wealthy corporation, and is able to reimburse itself, 

 and to rebuild and refit the buildings which have been recently 

 destroyed. It will be remembered that when Mr. Smithson 

 made this bequest, or shortly after he made it, the Government 

 created a corporation. That corporation, or their trustee, saw 

 fit to invest their money in Arkansas bonds. Those bonds 

 mostly turned out to be valueless. The Government, how- 

 ever, assumed it, and we now pay, and have for many years 

 paid, the Smithsonian Institution upward of $30,000 a year 

 upon this amount of $515,000, I think that it is, which is 

 the amount of the permanent fund of the Smithsonian 

 Institution. 



Mr. Sumner. Allow me to ask the Senator whether the 

 Government did not make that investment in Arkansas 

 bonds ? I think it was not an act of the corporation, but of 

 the Government. 



Mr. Grimes. It is perfectly immaterial, so far as this ques- 

 tion is concerned, whether the Government made it, or 

 whether the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution made it 

 directly themselves ; for if the Government made it, the Gov- 

 ernment made that investment at the instance and the request 

 of the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. 



Mr. Sumner. No ; it was before the organization ; before 

 there were regents. 



Mr. Grimes. Mr, President, the amount of the fund be- 

 longing to the Smithsonian Institution is $515,000. They 

 expended in the building, on the public reservation, §325,000. 

 It is claimed by them that to put the roof on the building, 

 and put it in about the condition it was in before the fire, 

 there will be required from thirty-six to forty thousand dol- 

 lars ; but to improve it as they want to improve it, to make 

 it entirely fire-proof, to change its construction very materi- 

 ally, they say they have the opinion of an army engineer, 

 Colonel Alexander, but who is no architect, no expert, and 

 whose judgment, therefore, is worthless in a matter of this 

 kind, that it will cost somewhere in the neighborhood of 

 $100,000. This institution, beside the $515,000 upon which 

 we are paying them the interest, have accumulated from 

 that interest $75,000 in Indiana State bonds, which are 

 good; $53,500 in Virginia bonds, which are not of much 

 value; $12,000 in Tennessee bonds ; $500 in Georgia bonds ; 

 and $100 in Washington city bonds. Then they have in cash 

 $20,000, and they have in gold $26,200, which is worth 

 $52,000 to-day in currency. So it will be observed that 

 they have in available funds, saying .nothing about tlie Vir- 



