404 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



be applied. He was indifferent on that point. The great object he 

 had in view was, he repeated, the disconnection of the fund from the 

 public Treasury. He was for any bill in preference to this. 



Mr. Owen. Does the gentleman understand that one dollar except 

 that belonging to the Smithsonian fund is appropriated by this bill, 

 cither present!}" or prospectively ? 



Mr. FiCKLiN. The first section of the bill connects the fund with the 

 Treasury — places it in the Treasury. 



Mr. Owen. Not places it there; it was placed there eight years ago. 



Mr. FicKLiN. Exactly so; but this bill recognizes it there by law. 

 Then the interest is to be paid upon the money out of the Treasury. 

 This is sucking the lifeblood from the Treasury, We do not want to 

 create a perpetual debt of interest upon half a million of money to be 

 paid whilst this Government endures. We want no such polypus, 

 no such wen, fastened upon the Government. As to present or pro- 

 spective appropriations, I say that the machinery, the paraphernalia, 

 connected with this bill can not be carried out on a respectable scale 

 for less (Mr. Ficklin was understood to say) than $1,000,000 a year. 

 It is, to be sure, provided that the money shall not come out of the 

 Treasury at present; but do we not know that subsequent Congresses 

 can enlarge the appropriations ? Experience should teach us to guard 

 against everything of this kind. 



He regarded the bill as one of the most odious and abominable ever 

 presented here. He would rather see this half million returned to the 

 British court of chancery; he would rather see ten millions sunk to 

 the bottom of the Potomac, or melted, or destroyed, than see this 

 bill pass. 



Mr. Allen G. Thurman said that he had heard it stated this morn- 

 ing that the investment of the Smithsonian fund in State bonds was an 

 act unauthorized by law. Not having time to investigate the laws him- 

 self, he had privately inquired of a number of members whether such 

 was the fact, but they were unable to inform him. He had thereupon 

 made the inquiry of the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Adams], 

 whose acquaintance with the subject was so thorough. The inquiry 

 was important, for if the investment was an unauthorized act it would 

 not do for this Government to shield itself behind the misconduct of 

 its officers and say that the money is not in the Treasury. But if, on 

 the other hand, the Government had in good faith invested the fund 

 so that it might produce interest until an application of it should be 

 made pursuant to the design of the testators, then the objection of 

 the gentleman from Massachusetts that the money is not in the Treas- 

 ury is entitled to great weight. For as a general rule it is the duty 

 of a trustee to make the trust fund produce interest; and the Govern- 

 ment of the United States probably did right in directing this fund to 

 be invested and ought not, as a matter of course, to be held bound to 



