266 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. - 



June 6, 1844 Senate. 



MR. BENJAMIN TAPPAN, from the Committee on the Library, reported 

 bill S. 188, which was read and passed to a second readm: 



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A bill to establish the Smithsonian Institution, for the increase and diffusion of knowledge emottg 



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Whereas James Smithson, esquire, of London, in the Kingdom of Great Britain; by 

 his last will and testament did give the whole of his property to the United States of 

 America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an 

 establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men ; and whereas 

 Congress have heretofore received said property and accepted said trust: Therefore, 

 that the same may be executed in good faith, and according to the will of the liberal 

 and enlightened donor, 



Be it enacted, etc. , That so much of the property of the said James Smithson as 

 has been received in money and paid into the Treasury of the United States, being 

 the sum of $508,318, be loaned to the United States Treasury, at six per cent per 

 annum interest, from the third day of December, in the year 1838, when the same 

 was received into the said Treasury ; and that so much of the interest as may have 

 accrued on said sum on the first day of July next, which will amount to the sum of 

 $178,604, be, and the same is hereby, appropriated for the erection of suitable build- 

 ings, and the enclosing of suitable grounds for the Smithsonian Institution, established 

 by this act; and that six per cent interest on the said trust fund, it being the said amount 

 of $508,318, received into the United States Treasury, third of December, 1838, paya- 

 ble, in half-yearly payments, on the first of January and July in each year, be, and 

 the same is hereby, appropriated for the perpetual maintenance and support of said 

 Institution. 



SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the business of said Institution shall be con- 

 ducted by a board of managers, to consist of twelve, no two of whom shall be citizens 

 of the same State or Territory ; that the persons first appointed on the board of man- 

 agers shall meet in the city of Washington on the first Monday of September next 

 after the passage of this act, and, when met, shall divide themselves, by lot, into 

 three sections, one of which shall serve two years, one four, and the other six years; 

 and whenever a vacancy occurs in said board the same shall be filled by such person 

 as may be appointed by a joint resolution of Congress; that all those who may be 

 appointed to fill vacancies occasioned by death, resignation, or removal out of the 

 United States shall serve the residue of the term, and all those who may be appointed 

 to fill vacancies which occur by lapse of time shall serve for the term of six years; 

 that after said board shall have met and become organized by appointing one of their 

 own body president of said board, it shall be their duty to proceed to select a suit- 

 able site for such building as may be, in their judgment, necessary for the Institu- 

 tion, and suitable ground, not exceeding ten acres, for horticultural and agricultural 

 experiments, which ground may be taken and appropriated out of that part of the 

 public ground in the city of Washington called the Mall; and the ground so selected 

 shall be set out by proper metes and bounds, and a description of the same shall be 

 made and recorded in a book to be provided for that purpose, and signed by said 

 managers, or so many of them as may be convened on said first Monday of Septem- 

 ber; and such record, or a copy thereof, certified by the president of the board of 

 managers, shall be received as evidence in all courts of the extent and boundaries of 

 the lands appropriated to said Institution. 



SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That so soon as the board of managers shall have 

 selected the site for the buildings of the Institution, they shall cause to be erected a 

 suitable building, of plain and durable materials and structure, without unnecessary 

 ornament, and of sufficient size and with suitable rooms for the reception -and 

 arrangement of objects of natural history, a library, a chemical laboratory, and lee- 



