550 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



build up a library, as the paramount object, or whether they should 

 be applied not only for a library', but for such other purposes "to 

 increase and diffuse knowledge" as would, in the judgment of the 

 Regents, best accord with the will of Smithson and the law of Congress 

 organizing the Institution. 



This is the starting point of the whole controversy. It is not pre- 

 tended by anyone that the funds have not been expended in an honest 

 effort to increase and diffuse knowledge, but that they have not been 

 chiefly devoted to a library as the proper instrument to effect the 

 desired end. 



Now, as this Government is only the trustee to carr}^ out the will of 

 the gentleman whose money supports the Institution, it becomes 

 important to examine into the nature of that instrument, for the law 

 declares its true intent to be to carry out " the will of the liberal and 

 enlightened donor." Sir, what is that will? I ask gentlemen to read 

 it and answer whether there is anything indicating that a library was 

 regarded as the paramount object, which, like the rod of Aaron, was 

 to swallow up everything else? The bequest, in the language of the 

 testator, is "to found at Washington an establishment, under the name 

 of the Smithsonian Institution, for the increase and diffusion of knowl- 

 edge among men." I submit that to devote the money of Smithson to 

 the building up of a library as a paramount object would neither cany 

 out the letter nor the spirit of his will. The benefit to be derived 

 from such an expenditure would necessarily ])e local in its character, 

 and, instead of being useful to "men" in the comprehensive sense 

 used by Smithson, would enure to the benefit of citizens of Washing- 

 ton and the privileged and fortunate few who might from time to 

 time visit the capital. Such an expenditure, in my judgment, neither 

 accords with the evident intent of the will or the character and senti- 

 ments of the man who made it. He did not bequeath his fortune to 

 found a librar}" alone, or to increase and diffuse knowledge among the 

 citizens of the United States, much less among the residents and 

 visitors of Washington, but "among men" — men of all classes and 

 everywhere — and to increase and diffuse every species of human 

 knowledge. 



James Smithson, Mr. Chairman, was a foreigner — the natural son 

 of the Duke of Northumberland and of Elizabeth, the niece of the 

 Duke of Somerset — but he was not possessed of that intolerant spirit, 

 that species of religious fanaticism and sectional prejudice which, I 

 regret to see, is entertained b}^ many of our own nation. A truly wise 

 and enlightened people should not arrogate to themselves a superiority 

 in all things over every other part of the world, and wrap themselves in 

 a rigid exclusiveness like the »Iapanese, but should rather pursue that 

 policy which would gather from other nations their best and most 

 valuable citizens, arts, and inventions. A Chinese map of the world 



