542 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



be deemed to imply that any appropriation to that amount, or nearly 

 so, was intended to be required. It is not a direction to the Regents 

 to apply that sum, but a prohibition to apply more; and it leaves it to 

 the Regents to decide what amount within the sum limited can be 

 advantageously applied to the library, having a due regard to the 

 other objects enumerated in the law. 



Indeed, the eighth section would seem to be intended to prevent the 

 absorption of the funds of the Institution in the purchase of books. 

 And there would seem to be sound reason for giving it that construc- 

 tion; for such an application of the funds could hardly be regarded as 

 a faithful execution of the trust; for the collection of an immense 

 library at Washington would certainly not tend "to increase or diffuse 

 knowledge" in any other country, not even among the countrymen of 

 the testator; very few even of the citizens of the United States would 

 receive any benefit from it. And if the money was to be so appro- 

 priated it would have been far better to buy the books and place them 

 at once in the Congress Library. They would be more acceptable to 

 the public there, and it would have saved the expense of a costly 

 building and the salaries of the officers; yet nobod}' would have listened 

 to such a proposition or consented that the United States should take 

 to itself and for its own use the money which they accepted as a trust 

 for "the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.'' 



This is the construction which the Regents have given to the acts 

 of Congress, and in the opinion of the committee it is the true one, 

 and acting under it they have erected a commodious building, given 

 their attention to all the branches of science mentioned in the law 

 to the full extent of the means afforded by the fund of the Institu- 

 tion, and have been forming a library of choice and valuable books, 

 amounting already to more than 15,000 volumes. The books are for 

 the most part precisely of the character calculated to carry out the 

 intentions of the donor of the fund and of the act of Congress. They 

 are chiefly composed of works published by or under the auspices of 

 the numerous institutions of Kurope which are engaged in scientific 

 pursuits, giving an account of their respective researches and of new 

 discoveries whenever they are made. These works are sent to the 

 Smithsonian Institution in return for the publications of this Insti- 

 tution, which are transmitted to the learned societies and establish- 

 ments abroad. The library thus formed and the means by which it is 

 accomplished are peculiarly calculated to attain the objects for which 

 the munificent legacy was given in trust to the United States. The 

 publication of the results of scientific researches made by the Institu- 

 tion is calculated to stimulate American genius, and at the same time 

 enable it to bring before the public the fruits of its labors. And the 

 transmission of these publications to the learned societies in Europe 

 and receiving in return the fruits of similar researches made by them. 



