THIRTY-THIKD CONGRESS, 1853-1855. 561 



sitions. One proposing a normal school was rejected yeas 72, nays 

 42; one proposing lectures and professors was rejected 77 to 42. 

 The plan of lectures, as a leading feature, was rejected by similar strong 

 votes on several occasions. 



Various bills were reported, substitutes offered in both Houses, anjl 

 sundry amendments made, until in August, 1846, a bill as passed by 

 the House was passed by the Senate without amendment, and became 

 the law on which the Institution has existed to the present date. [The 

 committee then quote the act approved August 10, 1846, and proceed:] 



The foregoing act of Congress is "the law establishing the Smith- 

 sonian Institution." It is the directory which the Regents are bound 

 to follow in administering its affairs and applying its funds. An idea 

 seems to have crept into the discussions that are prevalent on this 

 subject that the will requires one thing and the law another. There 

 can be no ground for this distinction, as a few words will show. 



The will declares a certain object, namely, "for the increase and 

 diffusion of knowledge among men." In accepting the bequest the 

 Government of the United States pledged its faith that the funds 

 should be "applied as Congress may hereafter direct, to the purpose 

 of founding and endowing at Washington, under the name of the 

 Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion 

 of knowledge among men." 



The act establishing the Institution also inserts into its title and into 

 its body the words of the will, so that whatever the will requires the 

 act ordains, and there can be no conflict between them. No one can 

 question the obligation of those who administer the Institution, under 

 the act, to assume that its requirements are in accordance with the 

 will and to carry them out in good faith and good earnest. So far as 

 the act leaves the officers who exist by its authority to their discretion, 

 that discretion is to be guided by their sense of the import and design 

 of the language of the will. All in the will that relates to the subject 

 is incorporated into the act. We have occasion, therefore, to look 

 only at the act in ascertaining the duty of those who administer the 

 affairs of the Institution, and there can be no ground for a controversy 

 in reference to the meaning of the will as against the act, or vice versa. 



The will and the two acts of Congress that have been spread out on 

 the foregoing pages in full interpret themselves to the common sense 

 and adequate apprehension of every reader. It is only necessary to 

 regard the words as used in their ordinary sense, to avoid a mental 

 interpolation of language not in the text, and to allow its natural mean 

 ing to flow out from all the language used in the instrument. In this 

 spirit of fair and unstrained interpretation we propose to consider for 

 a moment the language of the act establishing the Smithsonian Insti 

 tution, of which different and conflicting interpretations are advocated. 



The word "increase" is held by some of the zealous combatants in 

 H. Doc, 732 36 



