PROPOSED APPLICATIONS OF SMITHSON'S BEQUEST. 843 



of the Smithsonian bequest, I regretted, first, that this pro- 

 vision was made not in a separate bill, but as an appendage 

 to one with which it had no proper connection ; secondly, 

 that the investment should be directed in stocks of States ; 

 and, thirdly, that it should give to the Secretary of the 

 Treasury a discretionary power to invest the fund, at a 

 yearly interest of five per cent., at the very time when the 

 Government itself of the United States was issuing Treas- 

 ury notes at the rate of six per cent. Whatever may Ijavc 

 been the occasion or the design of these arrangements, it 

 was impossible to evade the remarks, that here was a de- 

 duction of one per cent, a 3'ear from the free gift of a noble- 

 minded foreigner, for the most exalted of purposes, to be- 

 stow it, at the discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury, 

 upon some favorite State. This did not appear to me to be 

 an appropriation of the fund to the increase and dift'usion 

 of knowledge among men, nor did it lead me to augur 

 very well of the sequel. 



This, however, was but a temporary investment of the 

 fund, which, I was willing to hope, would under no con- 

 sideration be made permanent. In the report of the com- 

 mittee to the House of Representatives, accompanying the 

 bill which authorized the President to take the necessary 

 measures for recovering the fund, I had set forth, in very 

 explicit language, my sense of the duties which devolved 

 upon the Government of the United States by their accept- 

 ance, in behalf of the nation, of this bequest; and, with 

 the same views, I introduced into the bill a pledge of the 

 faith of the United States, that the fund should be applied 

 to the generous purpose of the testator. 



Before leaving Washington last July, I took the liberty 

 of calling upon the President, and of expressing to him my 

 earnest hope that, in the interval before the next session of 

 Congress, he would be prepared with some plan for the 

 permanent safe keeping and security, unimpaired, of the 

 fund itself, by an investment which would yield a certain 

 income as large as the ordinary interest of the country, and 

 for appropriating that income to the object of the testator — 

 the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men. 



I was kindly received by the President, who assured me 

 of his readiness to take into consideration any suggestions 

 which I might be disposed to make on the subject, or those 

 of any other person whom I might recommend. 



Thus encouraged, I gave him freely the views which I 

 entertained with regard to fixing the permanency of the 

 fund, uniinpaircd, and to suitable objects of application for 



