694 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



tion as an institution apart from the Government of the 

 United States, to my humble comprehension is perfectly 

 absurd. It is the United States that own this institution. 

 It was for the benefit of the United States that the fund v. as 

 given to them ; and Congress, because it was not convenient 

 to take it and manage it, as they did the other interests of 

 the Government, created these agents, created this institution, 

 as a mere matter of convenience by which the Government 

 might manage the fund that was intrusted to them for the 

 purposes specified in Mr. Smithson's will. They have no 

 claim, no interest, in this matter. The only question was, 

 how shall the Government, if they accept the trust, carry it 

 on ? They concluded to carry it on by this machinery. It 

 is not an institution adverse to the United States Govern- 

 ment. It is not an institution that has the least claim under 

 heaven upon the Government. They are the mere creatures 

 of the Government, to enable them, according to the pur- 

 port of the will, to execute the trust that has been confided 

 to them. How can they come here and occupy the position 

 of creditors? They are no creditors. They have no interest 

 under heaven, not the slightest; the}' are the mere agents 

 appointed by law to execute this trust for the United States 

 in the use of a fund which belongs to the United States. 

 That is the whole of it. That being the case, this being the 

 property of the United States, managed for their benefit 

 through this instrumentality, it is contended that the Gov- 

 ernment of the United States shall increase by a hundred- 

 fold the appropriations for the institution. I do not see the 

 slightest claim in the world. 



Let me state another fact. The honorable Senator from 

 Iowa did not state this thing exactly as it was. The fact 

 was that about 1840, or not far from that time — I do not 

 know the exact time that this fund was given to the United 

 States — was a pretty hard time for the Democratic party; 

 they had had bad luck, and the Secretary of the Treasury 

 took the whole of this fund, every dollar of it, and gave it 

 to Arkansas, no doubt for highly patriotic purposes, [hiugh- 

 tcr,] and it was all sunk; and there was an end of the 

 bubble, or ought to have been. But Congress were so much 

 tickled with the idea of this bequest that they assumed the 

 debt. They did not make much by investing it in Arkansas 

 politics; everything went by default, and then Congress 

 stepped in and paid out of the Treasury that which they 

 had wasted. 



I will not repeat what I have heretofore said in regard to 

 this institution ; I will not say but that it is possibly a wise 



