488 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



THIRTY-THIRD CONGRESS, 1853-1855. 



SMITHSON FUND. 



January 3, 1854 — House. 



Mr. Jos. K. Chandler offered resolution: 



Resolved, That a select committee, consisting of nine members, be appointed and 

 instructed to inquire into the expediency of withdrawing from the Treasury of the 

 United States the Smithsonian fund, and investing the same in sound stocks, or in 

 such other M'ay as may be to the interest of said fund. 



Mr. Chandler. This money is lying- in the Treasury of the United 

 States, and the Government has to pay for the use of it when it is 

 buying up its own stock at a large premium. It is, therefore, desira- 

 ble to place the fund in some other situation. 



Mr. George W. Jones, of Tennessee. I desire to make one inquiry 

 of the gentleman, and it is whether there is any certainty that a method 

 can be devised by which he can so invest this money in stocks, or in 

 any other way that, provided it should be lost, the Government will 

 not have to refund it? We made one investment of a portion of this 

 fund and had to pay the amount of the investment. 



Mr. Chandler. Invest it in Eastern stocks, and not in Western. 



Mr. T. H. Bayly, of Virginia, called for the reading of the resolu- 

 tion, and no objection being made it was accordingly again read. 



The question was then taken on the adoption of the resolution; and 

 there were, on a division — ayes 84; noes not counted. 



Adopted. 



March 10, 1854— House. 



Mr. J. II. Chandler. I ask leave to introduce a memorial from the 

 Smithsonian Institution, with a view of having it referred to the 

 special committee appointed earl}' in January. It is a memorial asking 

 Congress to authorize the Treasury Department to receive $160,000, 

 saved from the accrued interest, on the same terms as those on which 

 the original bequest was received. 



To the honorable the Senate and House of Representatives in Congress assembled: 



Gentlemen: The Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution have directed 

 me to transmit to your honorable body the resolution appended to this communica- 

 tion, and to solicit the passage of a law in accordance therewith. 



It is known to your honorable body that the original sum received into the United 

 States Treasury from the Smithsonian bequest was a little more than $515,000, and 

 that at the time of the passage of the act incorporating the Institution $242,000 had 

 accrued in interest, which sum, or so much of it as might be deemed necessary, the 

 Regents were authorized to appropriate to a building. 



In consideration, however, of the great demands upon the Institution for "the 

 increase and diffusion of knowledge among men," the Regents, instead of inxmedi- 

 ately expending this sum on the building, have carefully husbanded it, and have 

 extended the time of the erection of the building over several years, and have de- 

 frayed the expense in part out of the proceeds of this sum, and in j^art out of such 

 portions of the income of the original fund as could be spared from the operations 



