188 CONGRESSIONAL FROCEEDINGS. 



organization of the institution and the management of its funds that 

 the capital amount of the bequest should be preserved entire and unim- 

 paired, so invested as to yield an income of 6 per cent a year, which 

 income only should be annually appropriated by Congress and a con- 

 siderable portion even of those appropriations be constituted as funds 

 from the interest of which expenditures applicable to the purposes of 

 the bequest might be provided for, and the capital of the bequest 

 itself be annually rather increased than diminished. 



While the committee of the House were engaged in deliberating 

 upon the means of carrying into effect these principles by special 

 enactment, to be proposed in their report, on the 12th of January, 

 1839, the subject was taken up for consideration by the Senate of the 

 United States. At the motion of a distinguished member of that body 

 the following joint resolution was adopted: 



Resolved by the Senate {the House of Representatives concurring) , That a joint commit- 

 tee be appointed, consisting of seven members of the Senate, and such a number of 

 said House as they shall appoint, to consider the expediency of providing an institu- 

 tion of learning, to be established in the city of Washington, for the application of 

 the legacy bequeathed by James Smithson, of London, to the United States, in trust 

 for that purpose; also, to consider the expediency of a charter for such institution, 

 together with the powers and privileges which, in their opinion, the said charter 

 ought to confer; also, to consider the expediency of ways and means to be provided 

 by Congress, other than said legacy, but in addition thereto, and in aid of said benevo-. 

 lent intention; and to report by bill or bills in the premises. 



This resolution superseded at once all that had been done by the 

 House and its committee upon the two messages of the President of 

 the 6th and 7th of December, 1838. It contemplated an institution of 

 learning at the citj^ of Washington, the establishment of which should 

 not only absorb the whole fund bequeathed by Mr. Smithson, but large 

 appropriations of the public moneys of the nation. 



In deference, however, and courtesy to the Senate, the House imme- 

 diate l,y concurred in their resolution; and the same members to whom, 

 as a select committee of the House, the two messages of the President 

 had been referred, were appointed the committee on the part of the 

 House under the joint resolution. 



Several meetings of the joint committee were held and some discus- 

 sion was entertained; but the propositions of the chairman of the com- 

 mittee on the part of the Senate were so widely at variance with the 

 principles upon which the committee on the part of the House had 

 previously agreed that it soon became apparent that further joint 

 deliberation offered no prospect of a result in which both committees 

 would concur. The committee on the part of the House was notified 

 that the chairman of the Senate's committee was authorized by them 

 to propose any measure on their part which he might deem proper, 

 and to agree to any joint report in which the committee on the part of 

 the House might concur. 



