TWENTY-NINTH CONGRESS, 1845-1847. 397 



out the principle of the ancient proverb, "Catch the bear before you 

 sell his skin." But a very small portion of these funds was now in 

 the Treasury; and the bill proposed to take from the Treasury the 

 money of the people of the United States, raised by taxation, to the 

 amount of $700,000 or $800,000, to be expended in lieu of the fund of 

 the late Mr. Smithson, which was not in our power at present. The 

 gentleman from South Carolina [Mr. Sims] said that this money was 

 to be considered as if it was in the Treasury of the United States. 

 Mr. Adams would be very glad if he could so consider it. 



Mr. SIMS said, in the report which the gentleman from Massa- 

 chusetts made to this House a few years ago he took the identical 

 ground that this money ought to be considered in the Treasury, and 

 that Arkansas, and the other States in whose bonds this was invested, 

 were debtors of the General Government. 



Mr. ADAMS replied, that if any report made by him three or four 

 years ago stated that this money was to be considered in the Treasury 

 of the United States he would inform the gentleman and the com- 

 mittee that he had had some experience since that time that convinced 

 him very perfectly that it was not in the Treasury of the United 

 States. 



It was the office of the amendment which he proposed to try to get 

 it back into the Treasury, to enable the Congress of the United States 

 to redeem the pledge which they gave, by the acceptance of this fund, 

 to this nation, to the memory of the testator, and the civilized world, 

 that it should be faithfully applied according to the intentions of the 

 donor. The money was not in the Treasury, and could not without a 

 violation of all reason be considered in it. 



The question whether the Treasury of the United States, or the peo- 

 ple of the United States, were responsible for this money and for its 

 application according to the intent of the testator, Mr. Adams was 

 understood to say, was another question. If it were necessary now, 

 in order to redeem the plighted faith of the nation, he was ready to 

 vote an appropriation of that amount, or of ten times that amount, to 

 be raised by a tax upon the people. But he did not think the contin- 

 gency had arisen, and especially that it had not arisen for the appli- 

 cation of the money to any of the purposes proposed in this bill. 



He had heard with great delight the learned and ingenious remarks 

 of the gentleman from Vermont [Mr. Marsh] a few days since, and 

 especially that portion which advocated the application of that fund 

 ultimately to the only purpose of erecting a great and magnificent 

 library, instead of the paltry application of $5,000 a year out of the 

 more than $30,000 which this sum ought to give us. There was no 

 other object to which it could be more worthily applied to promote 

 the object of the testator. 



To the main object proposed by the bill viz, the application of 



