SKETCH OF THE SERVICES OF THE LATE HON. W. W. 

 SEATON IN CONNECTION WITH THE SMITHSONIAN INSTI- 

 TUTION, AND SOME NOTICES OF HIS LIFE AND PERSONAL 

 CHARACTER. 



Among the many friends and enlightened advocates of the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution, as at present established, none has hern more constant and more effi- 

 cient than the distinguished and lamented citizen to whose memory the following 

 brief and imperfect notices are dedicated. These notices are designed, in the first 

 place, to convey some idea of the character and value of his services in connec- 

 tion with the above-named establishment, as well by his co-operation in securing 

 for it as prompt and suitable a commencement as the circumstances of the time 

 permitted, as by sustaining eventually that plan of organization which corre- 

 sponded most nearly with the terms and spirit of the bequest to which it owes 

 its existence. He is to be remembered also as a benefactor of the Institution by 

 his gratuitous and faithful discharge, for a series of years, of one of its most 

 responsible executive offices. 



As is well known, the Smithson fund, paid into the treasury of the United 

 States in 1838, had been, with other moneys, lent by the government to the State 

 of Arkansas, and remained for eight years without appropriation to any object 

 contemplated by the donor. In 1846 Mr. Seaton, being then mayor of Wash- 

 ington, and surpassed by no one in zeal for the public good and in the influence 

 due to his rare social qualities, his known integrity, and peculiarly winning and 

 unaffected eloquence, united with other gentlemen of like feelings in urging 

 upon Congress the organization of an establishment which should at length do 

 justice to the benevolent and far-sighted views which had dictated the bequest. 

 Their labors, after much opposition, were finally crowned with success; the 

 good faith of the country was redeemed by an unconditional assumption of the 

 debt incurred by the improper disposition of the fund, which was now declared 

 to be a permanent deposit in the treasury of the United States for the objects of 

 the trust, while interest also was allowed upon the money from the time of its 

 receipt in this country. The Institution, organized in accordance with these 

 resolutions, was placed under the guardianship of fifteen regents, among whom 

 was included the mayor of the city of Washington, a provision chiefly due to the 

 zealous interest which had been manifested by Mr. Seaton in his enlightened 

 advocacy of the enterprise. 



At the first meeting of the Board of Regents he was elected treasurer, and sub- 

 sequently one of the building committee. The former office he continued to hold 

 until the time of his death, and during the whole of this period, nearly twenty 

 years, discharged its duties without other compensation than the pleasure he 

 derived from an association with the Institution and the laudable pride he felt in 



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