128 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



ject as the same had been reported to him by the Secretary of State, 

 and adds that "the Executive having no authority to take any steps 

 for accepting the trust and obtaining the funds, the papers are com- 

 municated, with a view to such measures as Congress may deem nec- 

 essary." 



The committee concur in the opinion of the President, that it belongs 

 to the Legislature to devise and prescribe the measures, if any, proper 

 to be adopted on this occasion and to provide for such expenses as 

 may be incurred in the prosecution of them. 



Judging from the letters of Mr. Vail to the Secretary of State and 

 of Messrs. Clarke, Fynmore & Fladgate to Mr. Vail, as well as from 

 the information which the committee themselves have been able to 

 gather as to the course of adjudication of the court of chancery of 

 England in such cases, the committee suppose it unquestionable that 

 the executory bequest contained in Mr. Smithson's will, of his whole 

 property to the United States, in the event that has occurred, for the 

 purpose of founding at Washington, under the name of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of 

 knowledge among men, is by the law of England a valid bequest; that 

 the United States will be entertained in the court of chancery of Eng- 

 land to assert their claim to the fund as trustees, for the purpose of 

 founding the charitable institution at Washington to which it is des- 

 tined by the donor, and that that court will decree that the fund shall 

 be paid and transferred to the United States, or their lawfully author- 

 ized agent, leaving it to the United States to apply the property to the 

 foundation of the intended charity at Washington and to provide for 

 the due administration of the fund, so as to accomplish the purpose of 

 the donor. The committee are sensible, however, that these are points 

 which can only be determined and settled by the judicial authorit} r of 

 England. 



In the opinion of the committee the questions which it behooves 

 Congress to consider are whether it is competent to the United States, 

 whether it comports with their dignity, whether (all circumstances 

 considered) it is expedient and proper that the United States should 

 appear as suitors in the courts of justice of England to assert their 

 claim to the legacy in question as trustees for the intended charitable 

 institution to be founded at Washington. 



It might be a question of much doubt and difficulty whether it 

 would be within the competency of the Government of the United 

 States to appropriate any part of the general revenue collected from 

 the nation at large to the foundation and endowment of a literary or 

 any other charitable institution in the District of Columbia; but, in 

 the opinion of the committee, no such question is involved in the con- 

 sideration of the present subject. The fund given to the United 

 States by Mr. Smithson's will is nowise and never can become part of 



