214 CONGRESSIONAE PROCEEDINGS. 



Troughton was paid for the Greenwich transit 315, which sum did not include 

 the object glass. Mr. Simms states that the cost now would be 450 guineas for the 

 instrument complete. Its length is 10 feet. 



Troughton received for the Brussels equatorial 450 guineas; but this was too little; 

 it ought to have been 600. (I think that the length of the telescope is 5 feet; the 

 diameter of the declination circle, 3 feet; and that of the hour circle, 2 feet, or 2 

 feet.) 



A very good clock for Lucknow cost 80. An inferior clock 28. 



G. B. AIRY. 



JUNE 11, 1839. 



Mr. ADAMS then reproduced the messages of the President and the 

 correspondence between Mr. Rush, the agent of the United States, and 

 Mr. Forsyth, Secretary of State, concerning the action taken to secure 

 the bequest, all of which appears in its proper place. 



A motion was made by Mr. JAMES MONROE that 5,000 extra copies 

 of the report above, made by Mr. Adams, and of the reports of com- 

 mittees heretofore made, with the other papers in relation to the sub- 

 ject, be printed for the use of the members. 



March 19, 1840 House. 



A letter from the Secretary of the Treasury, transmitting statements 

 of moneys invested in the stocks of the several States, was read and 

 laid upon the table: 



TREASURY DEPARTMENT, March 17, 1840. 



SIR: This report is submitted in obedience to a resolution of the House of Repre- 

 sentatives of the 9th instant, directing the Secretary of the Treasury to furnish "a 

 statement of all the public moneys of the United States invested in the stocks of the 

 several States, specifying the amount invested in the stocks of each State; the 

 authority by which each investment was made; the terms and rate of interest of each 

 contract; the security received for the payment of interest and principal of each debt; 

 the rate per centum given in the purchase of the bonds; and the market value of the 

 bonds at the times of the respective investments, and at the present time." I have 

 the honor to state that this Department is not aware that any "of the public moneys 

 of the United States," held in their own right, are "invested in the stocks of the 

 several States." But some of the moneys held in trust by the United States have 

 been invested in such stocks, either by agreement with those possessing the legal 

 title, such as treaty stipulations with Indian tribes; or by authority of acts of Con- 

 gress, such as that of the 7th of July, 1838, concerning the moneys received on 

 account of the Smithsonian bequest. 



******* 



There are no means here for ascertaining the market value of the State stocks at 

 any particular time with accuracy. Sales of such stocks are rarely entered in the 

 reports of stock operations at the boards of the brokers in the principal cities; and 

 extensive and tedious correspondence would alone enable me to give a near approxi- 

 mation to their worth at the periods of these numerous purchases. On examination 

 of the files of a New York price current, from 1836 to the present date (being the 

 only paper quoting the price of stocks preserved in this Department), not one-fourth 

 of the State stocks held here could be found, and not a single quotation at the time 

 the bonds were purchased. But all of the stocks purchased here were obtained at 

 the lowest price they could be had at the time, it having been an invariable rule 

 when funds were received which the Department was authorized to invest, to address 



