48 SMITHSONIAN BEQUEST. 



rather strive to obtain a decision of their suit as speedily as possible, 

 regardless of the small and temporary diminution of the fund, should 

 it be finally adjudged in their favor, which the foregoing payments to 

 Madame de la Batut would occasion. Opposition has been effectively 

 made to the claim up to the point, it is believed, that duty enjoined 

 and prudence would sanction; to go farther seems not reconcilable 

 with the latter, under the certain and contingent delays and dangers I 

 set forth. 



The occasion ma}^ be a fit one for remarking that when this claim 

 first assumed a vexatious aspect last summer, my immediate wish and 

 suggestions were to get a decree in favor of the United States for the 

 general fund, leaving such fractional portion of it sub judice as would 

 have been sufficient to satisfy the claim if established; thus cutting 

 short delay from this source by which this agency might have had the 

 chance to be closed the sooner, and the bulk of the fund secured to the 

 United States at the earliest possible day. The last I hold an object 

 of pressing importance, encompassed, as all lawsuits more or less are 

 (to say nothing of the peculiar nature of this), by hidden risks. But 

 it was part of the vexation of the claim that our legal advisers found 

 the course I desired to pursue impracticable for the reason mentioned 

 in the letter of the solicitors of the 22d of July, a copy of which was 

 forwarded with my No. 15 on the 19th of August. 



Now that this obstruction is removed from my path by the determi- 

 nation I have taken in regard to it, I indulge the hope that no new one 

 will be thrown across it; and can only repeat the assurance that noth- 

 ing within my power shall be left undone toward accelerating the 

 suit, anxiously desiring, on all public and personal accounts (if I may 

 speak in the latter sense), to see it terminated. 



In the continued hope that the decision when it comes may be favor- 

 able, I have the honor to remain, with great respect, your obedient 



servant, 



Richard Rush. 



The Hon. John Forsyth, 



ISecretary of State. 



S. Fleasantmi to John Forsyth. 



Treasury Department, 

 Fifth Auditor's Office, 



3£arch U, 1838. 



Sir: In reply to your letter of this morning, I have the honor to 

 inform you that the amount of the appropriation made by the act of 

 Congress of July 1, 1836, for the expenses of prosecuting the claim 



