272 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



ments of interest remain suspended, neither principal nor interest is 

 available for application by Congress to the purpose of the bequest — 

 the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men. 



Yet in the act of Congress of July 1, 1836, accepting the bequest, 

 the faith of the United States was solemnly pledged that all the sums 

 of money and other funds received for or on account of this legacy 

 should be applied to the humane and generous purpose prescribed by 

 the testator. 



For the redemption of this pledge it is indispensably necessary that 

 the fund now locked in the Treasury in the bonds of these States, and 

 the accruing interest on them (the payment of which is now suspended), 

 should be made available for the disposal of Congress to execute the 

 sacred trust which in the name of the United States they have assumed. 

 For this purpose the committee report a bill appropriating the sum of 

 $800,000, to be invested in certificates of stock of the United States, 

 bearing interest at the rate of 6 per cent a year, payable half-yearly, 

 and redeemable at the pleasure of Congress by the substitution of 

 other funds of equal value, which sum of $800,000 shall constitute per- 

 manent funds, thus appropriated, as follows: 



1, To replace the sum of $508, 318. -16 deposited in the mint of the 

 United States in gold on the 1st of September, 1838, and $500,000 of 

 which were, on the 4th of the same month, invested for and on account 

 of the United States in bonds of the State of Arkansas. 



2. Three hundred thousand dollars to supply the place of the interest 

 which has accrued and will accrue until or near the 31st of December, 

 1846, on the bonds now in the Treasury of the United States, the pay- 

 ment of interest on which is at present suspended. 



The committee will not entertain a doubt that the States of Arkan- 

 sas, Illinois, and Michigan will have made before the close of the year 

 1846 provision for payment of the arrears of interest due upon their 

 bonds and for the punctual payment of the same interest as it may 

 hereafter accrue. The appropriations from the Treasury proposed 

 by the bill herewith reported will require no disbursement of money 

 beyond one year's interest on the whole fund, and the amount now in 

 the Treasury and available for the immediate disposal of Congress. 

 The appropriations authorized by the bill are necessary to enable Con- 

 gress to proceed immediately to the execution of the trust committed 

 to them by the testator, and for the fulfillment of which the faith of the 

 nation has been pledged; but they will constitute no burdens upon the 

 Treasury itself, and no ultimate expenditure, other than the proceeds 

 of the Smithsonian fund itself. The proposal is that of this sum of 

 $300,000, $60,000 shall be held as a permanent fund, from the interest 

 of which, without intrenching upon the principal, a sum of $3,600 a 

 year shall be provided for the compensation of an astronomical obser- 

 vator, and for the contingent expenses of repairs of an observatory, 



