684 REPORTS OF THE BUILDING COMMITTEE. 



thereon the wine, the Grand Master said : ' May the Kegents of thi3 Institution, and 

 all connected therewith, he cheered onward and rejoice in the success of all their meas- 

 ures connected with the erection of this building, and with the government of the 

 Institution.' In pouring the oil upon the stone, he said : ' May harmony, peace, and 

 brotherly love prevail among all connected with the Smithsonian Institution, and 

 may they witness the placing of the capstone of the complete edifice under circum- 

 stances as propitious as those which attend the present ceremonies.' 



" The Grand Master then informed the assembled multitude that he held in his 

 hand the identical gavel used by the immortal Washington in conducting the Masonic 

 ceremonies upon laying the corner-stone of the Capitol of these United States — this 

 happy and glorious Union, which had now so greatly extended, and was still extend- 

 ing, so that no man could foresee its magnitude or its power. He also stated that he 

 had the honor then to wear an apron worn upon the same occasion by the Father of 

 his Country, which was presented to Washington by the Grand Lodge of France, 

 through that great and good patriot and Mason, General Lafayette. This apron, he 

 said, had been in possession of Mount Nebo Lodge, of Shepherdstown, Virginia, for 

 many years, and that that lodge had kindly delegated a brother, S. McElroy, Esq., 

 to bear the apron to this city, and to present it to the Grand Lodge, with a request 

 that 'it be worn by the Grand Master on this occasion, which he had done at the 

 meeting of this morning. 



" The Grand Master then gave three raps upon the stone with the gavel of Wash- 

 ington, the Masonic brethren gave the grand Masonic honors, and the Masonic cere- 

 monies were concluded. 



ADDRESS BY HON. GEO. M. DALLAS. 



" Mr. Dallas, the Chancellor of the Board of Eegents, then rose and delivered the 

 following address : 



" Friends and fellow-citizens : It has been deemed proper, that, at a ceremony so 

 interesting as the present to the Smithsonian Institution, its chief officer should make 

 to you a few general remarks explanatory of its origin, its purposes, its plans, and its 

 prospects. Let me, therefore, ask your attention while I undertake that duty. 



" The Congress of the United States, by an act passed on the 10th of August last, 

 organized ' an establishment,' through the instrumentality of which to apply faith- 

 fully to its directed objects a legacy of five hundred thousand dollars, received by our 

 Government under the will of a philosophic and benevolent Englishman. This 

 ' establishment ' is composed of our highest public functionaries for the time being : 

 the President, the Vice-President, the Chief Justice, and the Heads of the six Execu- 

 tive Departments, with the Commissioner of the Patent Office and the Mayor of 

 Washington ; and, as the active council of management, a boai'd is created of fifteen, 

 known in the act by the scholastic name of ' Eegents,' one-fifth of them chosen by 

 the Senate, another fifth by the House of Representatives, and of the remainder, two- 

 fifths, by the joint action of both legislative chambers. It is to accommodate this 

 imposing agency, to give it permanent and suitable means with which to effectuate 

 its important and various purposes, and to shelter as well as exhibit its collections 

 and property, that Congress enjoined to be erected, 'of plain and durable material 

 and structure, without unnecessary ornament,' the edifice whose corner-stone you 

 have seen deposited. 



" James Smithson, a Londoner born, and claiming to be the son of a distinguished 

 nobleman, gave his life exclusively to intellectual pursuits, and especially to researches- 

 in physical and experimental science. Supplied with larger means than his wants 

 required, and steadily practising a strict scheme of personal economy, he amassed 

 considerable fortune. He died at Genoa in 1829, and, by his will, bequeathed his 

 accumulated property to this Union — a country that, notwithstanding his frequent 

 change of abode, he had never visited, whose citizens he had never associated with, 

 but in whose inevitable future he saw the most solid ground on which to cast the 

 anchor of his fame. This legacy, for some time the subject of litigation in the Brit- 

 ish Court of Chancery, was finally secured, brought over, and received into the trea- .. 

 sury of the United States on the 1st of September, 1838. Its exact amount, when 

 deposited, was five hundred and fifteen thousand one hundred and sixty-nine dollars. 



" The legacy was accompanied by a declaration of its design ; and the execution of 

 that design has been assumed, as well by an acceptance of the money, as by several 

 open and formal avowals by our Government. It was to 'found an institution at 

 Washington for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men ;' to found, not an 

 academy, not a college, not a university, but something less technical and precise, 

 something whose import and circuit should be bolder and more comprehensive ; an 



