TWENTY-SIXTH CONGRESS, 1839-1841. 187 



compliance with a resolution of the House of the 9th of July preced- 

 ing, requesting- the President to cause to be laid before the House all 

 such communications, documents, etc., in the possession of the Execu- 

 tive, or which could be obtained, as should elucidate the origin, prog- 

 ress, and consimimation of the process by which the Smithsonian 

 bequest had been recovered, and whatever might be connected with 

 the subject. For this message and accompan3dng documents the com- 

 mittee refer the House to No. 10 of the Executive documents of the 

 last session. 



On the 10th of December, 1838, these two messages, of the 6th and 

 7th of that month, were referred to a select committee of the House, 

 which proceeded at sundry meetings to consider and discuss the 

 principles upon which it might be desirable to establish the foundation 

 of the Smithsonian Institution so as best to fulfill the benevolent pur- 

 pose of the testator; to return, b}^ the most effective acknowledgment, 

 the signal honor done to our country and her institutions by the com- 

 mitment of this great and most honorable trust to the United States 

 of America; to prove them worth}^ of that trust by the dignity, dis- 

 interestedness, and propriet}^ of all their provisions for the disposal 

 of the funds; and finally to organize an establishment which by its 

 ultimate results would in the impartial judgment of mankind, our 

 own contemporaries, and of future ages, at once accomplish the glori- 

 ous purpose of the testator — the increase and diffusion of knowledge 

 among men, and justify to the eyes of posterit}' the confidence 

 reposed in these United States l)y the testator in selecting them for 

 his agents and trustees to accomplish, when he should be no more on 

 earth, his great design for the improvement of the condition of man. 



A variety of projects for disposing of the funds had been presented 

 by individuals, in memorials to the House, which were referred to the 

 committee for consideration. No one of them appeared to the com- 

 mittee adapted to accomplish the purpose of the testator. They gen- 

 erally contemplated the establishment of a school, college, or universit3^ 

 They proposed expenditures absorbing in the erection of l)uildings 

 the capital of the fund itself or a very large portion of it, leaving 

 little or nothing to be invested as a perpetual annuity for future and 

 continual appropriations, contributing to the improvement of future 

 ages as well as of the present generation; and in most of the projects 

 there might be perceived purposes of personal accommodation and 

 emolument to the projector more adapted to the promotion of his own 

 interest than to the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men. 



The committee from the earliest of their meetings had agreed that 

 in the report to be made to the House it should be recommended that 

 no part of the funds should he applied to the establishment or support 

 of any school, college, university, or ecclesiastical establishment. 

 They had also agreed to recommend as a fundamental principle for the 



