184 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



February 27, 1840 — House. 



Mr. J. Q. Adams asked Mr. George W. Crabb (who was entitled to 

 the floor) to give way to allow him to present a report from the select 

 committee on the Smithsonian bequest. It was a subject which had 

 excited a good deal of public interest; and he merely wished to make 

 the report, and have it printed, which would occupy but a few 

 moments of the time of the House. 



Mr. Crabb said if it was the universal consent of the House to 

 receive the report at that time, he had no objection to give way for 

 the purpose. But objection was made. 

 March 5, 1840— House 



Mr. John Quincy Adams, from the committee to which was 

 referred the bill to provide for the disposal and management of the 

 fund bequeathed by James Smithson to the United States for the 

 establishment of an institution for the increase and difl'usion of knowl- 

 edge among men, reported an amendatory bill, accompanied by a 

 report, which were committed to the Committee of the Whole. 



The select committee report the bill with sundry amendments. 



And inasmuch as the subject of this bill, and the bequest itself, and 

 the institution to the establishment of which, at the city of Washing- 

 ton, it was devoted by the testator, involve considerations and prin- 

 ciples other than those which usually regulate the legislation of 

 Congress; and as the purposes of the bequest have, as yet, been but 

 imperfectly made known to the people of the United States, and 

 probably to a large portion of the members of the House, the com- 

 mittee submit to the indulgence of the House a statement of the mate- 

 rial facts which have hitherto occurred in the tender of this fund to 

 the United States of America, and their acceptance of it, and an expo- 

 sition of the motives which have prevailed with the committee to 

 propose the disposal of the fund, and the provisions for its mainte- 

 nance and management, as they are set forth in the several sections 

 of the accompanying bill. 



[Mr. Adams then quotes message of President Andrew Jackson, dated December 

 17, 1835, the correspondence of Mr. Vail and Clarke Fvnmore & Fladgate, James 

 Smithson' s will, etc., and then proceeds:] 



This message was referred, in the Senate, to their Committee on 

 the Judiciar}^, which, on the 5th of January, 1836, presented a report 

 favorable to the acceptance of the bequest, and a joint resolution to 

 authorize and enable the President of the United States to assert and 

 prosecute, with efl'ect, the claim of the United States to this bequest, 

 in the court of chancery, or other proper tribunal of England. By 

 this joint resolution, adopted on the 2d of May, 1836, the faith of the 

 Government of the United States was pledged, that any and all sums 

 of money which should be received for or on account of the said 

 legacy should be applied to the purpose of founding and endowing at 



