142 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



June 25, 1836 Senate. 



The Senate concurred in the amendments made by the House in 

 Senate resolution No. 4. 

 July 1, 1836 



An act to authorize and enable the President to assert and prosecute with effect the 

 claim of the United States to the legacy bequeathed to them by James Smithson, 

 late of London, deceased, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge 

 among men. 



Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 

 United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President 

 of the United States be, and he is hereby, authorized to constitute and 

 appoint an agent or agents to assert and prosecute for and in behalf 

 of the United States, and in their name or otherwise, as may be advis- 

 able, in the court of chancery, or other proper tribunal of England, 

 the right of the United States to the legacy bequeathed to them by the 

 last will and testament of James Smithson, late of London, deceased, 

 for the purpose of founding at Washington, under the name of the 

 Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion 

 of knowledge among men, and to empower such agent or agents so 

 appointed to receive and grant acquittances for all such sum or sums 

 of money, or other funds, as may or shall be decreed or adjudged to 

 the United States for or on account of said legacy. 



SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the said agent or agents 

 shall, before receiving any part of said legacy, give a bond or bonds, 

 in the penal sum of $500,000, to the Treasurer of the United States, 

 and his successors in office, with good and sufficient securities, to the 

 satisfaction of the Secretary of the Treasury, for the faithful per- 

 formance of the duties of the said agency and for the faithful remit- 

 tance to the Treasurer of the United States of all and every sum or 

 sums of money or other funds which he or they may receive for pay- 

 ment in whole or in part of the said legacy. And the Treasurer of 

 the United States is hereby authorized and required to keep safely 

 all sums of money or other funds which may be received by him in 

 virtue of the said bequest, and to account therefor separately from 

 all other accounts of his office, and subject to such further disposal 

 thereof as may be hereafter provided by Congress. 



SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That any and all sums of money 

 and other funds which shall be received for or on account of the said 

 legacy shall be -applied, in such manner as Congress may hereafter 

 direct, to the purpose of founding and endowing at Washington, under 

 the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the 

 increase and diffusion of knowledge among men; to which application 

 of the said moneys and other funds the faith of the United States is 

 hereby pledged. 



SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That to the end that the claim to 



