TWENTY-NINTH CONGRESS, 1845-1847. 389 



Departments, the foreign ministers, the mayor of the city of Washington, members 

 of the Senate and House of Representatives, together with seven other persons, two 

 of whom shall be members of the National Institute and resident in the city of Wash- 

 ington, and the other five thereof shall be inhabitants of States, and no two of them 

 of the same State; and the managers to be selected as aforesaid from Congress shall 

 be appointed immediately after the passage of this act the members of the Senate 

 by the President thereof and the members of the House by the Speaker thereof and 

 those so appointed shall serve until the fourth Wednesday of December the second 

 next after the passage of this act; and then and biennially thereafter on every alter- 

 nate fourth Wednesday of December a like number shall be appointed in the same 

 manner to serve until the fourth Wednesday in December the second succeeding their 

 appointment; and they shall also constitute and be denominated a joint standing 

 committee of Congress on the Smithsonian Institution; and vacancies occasioned by 

 death, resignation, or otherwise shall be filled as vacancies in committees are filled; 

 and the other seven managers aforesaid shall serve for the term of two years from 

 the fourth Wednesday of December next after the passage of this act, when and on 

 every alternate fourth Wednesday of December thereafter a new election thereof 

 shall be made by joint resolution of Congress; and vacancies occasioned by death, 

 resignation, or otherwise may be filled in like manner by joint resolution of Con- 

 gress. And the said managers shall meet and organize, by the choice of a president, 

 in the city of Washington, on the first Monday in September next after the passage 

 of this act, and they shall then fix on the times for regular meetings of the board; 

 and on application of any three of the managers to the superintendent of the said 

 Institution it shall be his duty to appoint a special meeting of the board, of which 

 he shall give notice by letter to each of the members; and at any meeting of the 

 board of managers five shall constitute a quorum to do business. And each member 

 of the board of managers shall be paid his necessary traveling and other actual 

 expenses in attending meetings of the board, which shall be audited and recorded 

 by the superintendent of the Institution; but his service as manager shall be gra- 

 tuitous. And whenever money is required for the payment of the debts or perform- 

 ance of the contracts of the Institution, incurred or entered into in conformity with 

 the provisions of this act, or for making the purchases and executing the objects 

 authorized by this act, the superintendent or the managers, or any three thereof, 

 may certify to the president of the board that such sum of money is required, where- 

 upon he shall submit the same to a committee of three of the managers, appointed 

 for that purpose, for examination and approval, and upon such examination and 

 approval he shall certify the same to the proper officer of the Treasury for payment, 

 And the said board shall make all needful rules, regulations, and by-laws for the gov- 

 ernment of the Institution and the persons employed therein, and shall submit to 

 Congress, at each session thereof, a report of the operations, expenditures, and con- 

 dition of the Institution. 



And be it further enacted, That so soon as the board of managers shall be regularly 

 and legally organized, it shall be their duty to cause to be published for the space of 

 one year in such of the most widely circulated newspapers in the United States and in 

 Europe, as they may deem best, the offer of suitable rewards or prizes for the best written 

 essay on ten subjects, the most practical and useful which the majority of said board 

 shall determine upon; and when, after a decision upon the relative merits of the 

 different essays, they determine to which the prize shall be awarded on the several 

 subjects, it shall be their duty to have as many copies of each of the essays printed 

 as they may deem best, to be distributed to the governors of the several States, to 

 the several incorporated literary universities, to such European institutions as they 

 may choose, and the balance" to be distributed throughout the United States by the 

 members of Congress, thus fulfilling in the letter and spirit the wise and compre- 

 hensive intentions of the donor for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among 



