TWENTY-SIXTH CONGRESS, 1839-1841. 185 



Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an estab- 

 lishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge amono- men. 



In the House of Representatives the same message of the President 

 was, on the 21st of December, 1835, referred to a select committee of 

 nine members, which, on the 19th of Januar}^, 1836, reported a bill, 

 together Avith a statement of facts and principles connected with the 

 origin and acceptance of this bequest, which the present committee 

 ask leave to refer to the consideration of the house as a part of their 

 own report. 



[Mr. Adams here quotes his own report of January 19, 1836, and proceeds:] 



The bill accompanying this report was, in the House of Represent- 

 atives, substituted in the place of the joint resolution which had been 

 received from the Senate. It authorized the President of the United 

 States to appoint an agent or agents to prosecute, in the court of 

 chancery, in England, the right of the United States to the bequest of 

 Mr. Smithson, and to recover and pay over the amount of the same 

 into the Treasur}' of the United States. This bill passed in the House 

 without opposition; was concurred in, without amendment, by the 

 Senate; and, on the 1st of July, 1836, received the approbation of the 

 President of the United States. 



The third section of this act is in the following words: 



And he it further enacted, That any and all sums of money, and other funds which 

 shall be received for, or on account of, the said legacy, shall be applied in such man- 

 ner as Congress may hereafter direct, to the purpose of founding and endowing, at 

 Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for 

 the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men; to which application of the said 

 moneys, and other funds, the faith of the United States is hereby pledged. 



B}^ virtue of this act the President of the United States did, shortly 

 after its passage, appoint Richard Rush, of Pennsylvania, the agent 

 for recovering the funds in England; which was accordingly done by 

 a decree of the English court of chancery ; and on the 1st of September, 

 1838, the sum of $508,315.46 was deposited, in gold, at the mint of 

 the United States at Philadelphia, being the proceeds then recovered 

 of the bequest; a further sum having been reserved by the English 

 court of chancery for the pa^nuent of a life annuity to the mother of 

 Henr}' James Hungerford. 



By the sixth section of the act of Congress of July 7, 1838, to pro- 

 vide for the support of the Military Academy of the United States at 

 West Point for the year 1838, it was enacted — 



That all the money arising from the bequest of the late James Smithson, of Lon- 

 don, for the purpose of founding at Washington, in this District, an institution to be 

 denominated the Smithsonian Institution, which may be paid into the Treasury, is 

 herebj' appropriated, and shall l^e invested by the Secretary of the Treasury, with the 

 approbation of the President of the United States, in stocks of States, bearing interest 

 at not less than live per centum per annum; which said stocks shall be held by the 



