698 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



on the part of the Government to pay this interest in gold. 

 It is according to the practice of the Government, and I 

 should think it a shame to the Government to do otherwise. 

 Mr. Trumbull. I am a little surprised at the course of 

 the Senator from Iowa and the Senator from New Hamp- 

 shire. The Senator from New Hampshire says this is not 

 a trust at all ; this property was given to the United States. 

 It was given to the United States by James Smithson; but 

 it was given for a particular purpose, and it is as much a 

 trust as when any testator bequeaths property to a particular 

 person for a particular purpose. The Congress of the United 

 States in 1846 passed an act by which they recognized this 

 as a trust; and I would like to inquire of the Senator from 

 New Hampshire if he means to repudiate the action of this 

 Government, if he means to repudiate the solemn obligation 

 which this Government has taken upon itself? It is a direct 

 act of repudiation on the part of the Government to deny 

 that this is a trust, and that it is held as a trust for particular 

 purposes. The act of 1846, which I have before me, declares : 



" That James Smithson, Esq., of London, in the kingdom of Great Britain, 

 having by his hist will and testament given the whole of his property to the 

 United States of America to found at Washington, under the name of tht3 

 Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and dilTusion of 

 knowledge among men, and the United States having, by an act of Congress, 

 received said property and accepted said trust : Therefore, for the full execu- 

 tion of said trust according to the will of the liberal and enlightened donor, 

 Be it enacted," &c. 



Here is a solemn act of Congress acknowledging the re- 

 ceipt of this property as a trust fund. It was given for the 

 purpose of founding "at Washington, under the name of 

 the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the in- 

 crease and diffusion of knowledge among men;" and the 

 Senator from Iowa says " not useful knowledge." Why, 

 sir, I thought that the term "knowledge" implied that it 

 was a useful thing. I supposed that knowledge was valuable : 

 that it was what we all sought to acquire. This propert}'' 

 was accepted in trust for this identical purpose ; and to re- 

 pudiate it now, and say it is no trust, it is the money of the 

 Government, and you have a right to squander it and use 

 it, is as direct a breach of faith as it would be on the part 

 of this Congress to pass a law that it would pay no debt 

 whatever that it had created. It would be the worst species 

 of repudiation — worse than borrowing money and refusing 

 to pay it under ordinary circumstances. The Government 

 has accepted it; it has committed itself to it; and this insti- 

 tution had as perfect a right to call for the payment of the 



