170 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



January 26, 1839 House. 



Mr. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, from the joint committee on the Smith- 

 sonian bequest, reported the following resolutions, viz: 



1. Resolved, That the sum of dollars, being the amount deposited in the 

 Treasury of the United States, proceeding from the bequest of James Smithson to the 

 United States of America for the purpose of establishing, at the city of Washington, 

 an institution to bear his name, for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among 

 men, together with what additional sum or sums may hereafter accrue from the same 

 bequest and so much of the interest as has become or may become due on the first- 

 named principal sum, until the day of , ought to be constituted a perma- 

 nent fund, to be invested in a corporate body of trustees, to remain under the pledge 

 of faith of the United States, undiminished and unimpaired. 



2. Resolved, That the said fund ought to be so invested that the faith of the United 

 States shall be pledged for its preservation unimpaired, and for its yielding an inter- 

 est or income, at the rate of six per cent a year, to be appropriated, from time to 

 time, by Congress, to the declared purpose of the founder; and that all appropriations 

 so made shall be exclusively from the interest or income of the fund, and not from 

 any part of the principal thereof. 



3. Resolved, That the first appropriations from the interest or income of the Smith- 

 sonian fund ought to be for the erection and establishment, at the city of Washing- 

 ton, of an astronomical observatory, provided with the best and most approved 

 instruments and books for the continual observation, calculation, and recording of 

 the remarkable phenomena of the heavens, for the periodical publication of the 

 observations thus made, and of a nautical almanac for the use of the mariners of 

 the United States and of all other navigating nations. 



The resolutions were laid on the table. 



Mr. ADAMS, from the same committee, reported the following 

 resolution; which was read and agreed to by the House, viz: 



Resolved (the Senate concurring herein) , That the joint committee of both Houses on 

 the bequest of James Smithson be authorized to employ a clerk, and to cause to be 

 printed such papers as they may deem necessary. 



Ordered, That the clerk request the concurrence of the Senate in the said resolution. 



January 28, 1839 Senate. 



The Senate concurred in the House resolution of January 26. 

 February 16, 1839 House. 



Mr. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, from the Committee on the Smithsonian 

 Bequest, reported a bill (H. 1160) to provide for the disposal and 

 management of the sum bequeathed by James Smithson to the United 

 States for the establishment of an institution for the increase and dif- 

 fusion of knowledge among men; read, and committed to the Com- 

 mittee of the Whole. 



Mr. ADAMS, from the same committee, reported another bill (H. 

 1161) to provide for the disposal and management of the sum be- 

 queathed by James Smithson to the United States for the establish- 

 ment of an institution for the increase and diffusion of knowledge 

 among men; read, and committed to the Committee of the Whole. 



[These bills appear in the Senate proceedings of February 18, 1839, 

 as S. 292 and S. 293. J 



