TWENTY-FOURTH CONGRESS, 1835-1837. 137 



If they had not the power to establish a university without the power 

 conferred on them by a grant, they could not have it with the grant; 

 or what they could not exercise directly, they could not exercise as 

 trustee. He referred to a report made by Mr. Adams in the House 

 of Representatives, in which the genealogy of Mr. Smithson was given 

 and traced through the line of the illustrious Percys and Seymours of 

 England. He thought this donation had been partly made with a 

 view to immortalize the donor, and that it was too cheap a way of 

 conferring immortality. There was danger of their imaginations 

 being run away with by the associations of Chevy Chase ballads, etc., 

 and he had no idea of this District being used as a fulcrum to raise 

 foreigners to immortality by getting Congress as the parens patrice of 

 the District of Columbia to accept donations from them. 



The committee had misconceived the facts; the bequest was to the 

 United States of America to found a university in the District of 

 Columbia, under the title of the "Smithsonian University," and the 

 execution of the terms of the legacy was to redound to the purposes 

 of the donation, which was for the benefit of all mankind. It was 

 general in its terms, and not limited to the District of Columbia; it 

 was for the benefit of the United States, and could not be received by 

 Congress. 



Mr. B. F. LEIGH said he would thank the gentleman to inform the 

 Senate that the report he had referred to was made in the House of Rep- 

 resentatives, and not by a committee of the Senate. The report of the 

 Senate's committee was simply a statement of matters of fact. Mr. 

 Leigh explained the provisions of the will, which were simply these: 

 The testator, James Smithson, bequeathed to his nephew, James Henry 

 Hungerford, a legacy of 100,000, providing that if Mr. Hungerford 

 should die without children the legacy should inure to the United 

 States, for the purpose of founding at the city of Washington an 

 institution for the increase of knowledge among men, to be called the 

 Smithsonian University; and the Government had received informa- 

 tion from the American consul at London that Mr. Hungerford had 

 lately died without ever having been married and without leaving any 

 children. It now became necessary, Mr. Leigh said, for Congress to 

 determine whether it was competent for the United States to receive 

 this money, and, if they should receive it, to take measures for carry- 

 ing the intentions of the testator into effect. The committee to whom 

 this subject had been referred were all of opinion, with the exception 

 of the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Preston), that it was 

 proper for the United States to receive this money. They had not 

 considered the question at all, whether it was in the power of Con- 

 gress to establish a national university, nor was it necessary they 

 should do so. They looked upon this bequest as having been made 

 simply for the benefit of one of the cities of the District of Columbia, 



