17 



* its citizens, and can only be strengthened and perpetuated as that 



* improves." 



The amount paid by Mr. Rush into the Treasury in September, 

 1838, was 1 04,960 8s. 6rf., equal to $508,318 46; and the Secretary 

 of the Treasury, under date of December 3, 1838, reported to the Presi- 

 dent, that " in compliance with the provisions of the 6th section of the 

 ' act of Congress for the support of the Military Academy of the United 

 ' States, and for other purposes, approved 6th July, 1838, the sum of 



* $499,500 has been expended in the purchase of five hundred bonds of 

 ' the State of Arkansas for $1,000 each, bearing 6 per cent, interest, 



* payable semi-annually, on the first day of January and July in each 



* year, from the fourth day of September last, (the period of their pur- 

 < chase.) The further sum of $8,270 67 has been applied to the pur- 

 ' chase of eight bonds of the State of Michigan, bearing 6 per cent, in- 



* terest, payable semi-annually hereafter, on the first Mondays in Janu- 



* ary and July, from the first May last," leaving in the Treasury the 

 sum of $547 79, which was not then, but would be, as soon as a favor- 

 able opportunity offered, invested. 



It is a matter of no importance, so far as the public here and abroad 

 are concerned, whether the two States in question pay the interest on 

 the above sum or not. The Government of the United States having 

 accepted the trust created by the will of James Smithson, bearing date 

 the 23d of October, 1826, by a solemn act of 1st July, 1836, stand re- 

 sponsible in the face of the whole world for the prompt and full per- 

 formance of said trust, and to that Government alone are we to look for 

 the forthcoming of the money when the plan shall have been agreed 

 upon by Congress for carrying the bequest into execution. 



That the fit time has arrived for carrying that bequest into execution, 

 and for redeeming the national honor from the reproach of indifference 

 to a solemn obligation voluntarily incurred, our present President asserts, 

 when, in the paragraph of his last message wherein he so warmly recom- 

 mends the interests of this District to the paternal care of Congress, he 

 says : " In connexion with its other interests, as well as those of the 

 ' whole country, I recommend that at your present session you adopt 

 ' such measures, in order to carry into effect the Smithsonian bequest, 

 ' as in your judgment will be best calculated to consummate the liberal 

 ' intent of the testator." 



The subject, therefore, being thus officially before the Congress of 

 the United States, and as it is to be hoped that the recommendation of 

 3 



