580 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



from promoting this purpose by the means which they deem best 

 suited to it would itself, in the opinion of the committee, approach 

 more nearly to a breach of faith. 



The Regents by pledging their faith to one another can not escape 

 from the obligation to apply the funds at their control to the objects 

 which they deem best suited to promote the purpose of the testator. 

 The act of Congress, according to the plain import of its terms, author- 

 izes the Board of Regents to employ all moneys arising from the income 

 of the endowment not therein appropriated nor required for the pur- 

 pose therein provided, in such manner as they shall deem best suited 

 for the " purpose of the testator," namely, "the increase and diffusion 

 of knowledge among men," and this authority is rendered incontestable, 

 in the judgment of the committee, by the concluding clause of the sec- 

 tion which empowers the Board of Regents to exercise their discretion 

 in the disposal of the surplus income, "anything herein (the act of 

 Congress) contained to the contrary notwithstanding." 



This grant of the power imposes the obligation to exercise the dis- 

 cretion which it confers. Judicial tribunals would never reverse the 

 construction of a statute, the terms of which were so plain and unmis- 

 takable, by what is at all times dangerous, a resort to speeches made 

 by a few of the lawgivers who framed it, or the votes of members actu- 

 ated by motives be} 7 ond the scrutiny of the expounder. Looking, 

 therefore, to the act of Congress itself, which, as was said by a Senator 

 in a recent discussion, is best construed by " the examination and com- 

 parison of its various provisions and the admitted purpose of its enact- 

 ment," the committee found no difficulty in coming to these conclusions 

 on this point. They find in the law directions to the Board of Regents to 

 erect, on a liberal scale, a building in which can be arranged collections 

 of natural history, a geological and mineralogical cabinet, a museum, 

 a library, chemical laboratory, gallery of art, a lecture room, and, of 

 course, to use these various means of increasing knowledge in the 

 manner and for the purpose to which they are adapted, and for which 

 they are required. In effect the law says: "All other portions of the 

 income dispose of as you may think best calculated to promote the 

 purpose of the testator." A larger discretion can hardly be conceived. 

 It is absolutely unlimited in relation to every one of its objects except 

 a library, and to this the appropriations, which the Regents are author- 

 ized to make, are limited to a maximum amount which they are not at 

 liberty to exceed. It would seem to be most singular if this had been 

 the primary and cherished object of Congress that it should be the only 

 one subjected to such a limitation. 



It might be thought, if this had been their primary purpose, that 

 the restrictions would have been imposed upon the appropriations for 

 other objects, leaving that for the library unfettered. If we turn 

 from the act of Congress to the will of Smithson to determine the 



