CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



I also enclose a letter from Mr. Daniel Brent, consul of 

 the United States at Paris, in relation to payments made by 

 him in endeavoring to secure property supposed by him tp 

 constitute a part of that bequeathed by Mr. Smithson, with 

 a copy of Mr. Hush's answer to his application for reim- 

 bursement. I would suggest ten thousand dollars as the 

 amount necessary to be appropriated for the continuation 

 of the prosecution of the claim of the United States, and 

 that it is of urgent necessity that it be made at this session, 

 in order that funds may be transmitted to the bankers of 

 the United States in London, to meet the drafts that may 

 necessarily be made upon them for the expenses to be in- 

 curred therein. 



I have to request that the papers enclosed may be shown 

 to the chairman of the Committee on Finance of the Sen- 

 ate, and that they may be returned to this Department. 



I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, 



JOHN FORSYTH. 



Hon. C. C. CAMBRELENG, 



Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, 



House of Representatives. 



OCTOBER, 1837. 



An additional appropriation of five thousand dollars was 

 passed by Congress to defray expenses, as follows : 



AN ACT making further appropriations for the year 1837 : 



For defraying the expenses attending the prosecution of the claim of the 

 United States to the legacy bequeathed by the late James Smithson, of 

 London, five thousand dollars. 



APPROVED, October 16, 1837. 



JULY, 1838. 



The following section providing for the investment of the 

 Smithsonian fund was passed : 



AN ACT to provide for the support of the Military Academy of the 

 United States for the year 1838 and for other purposes. 



SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That all the money arising from the 

 bequest of the late James Smithson, of London, for the purpose of found- 

 ing at Washington, in this District, an institution to be denominated the 

 Smithsonian Institution, which may be paid into the Treasury, is hereby 

 appropriated, and shall be invested by the Secretary of the Treasury, with 

 the approbation of the President of United States, in stocks of States, bear- 

 ing interest at the rate of not less than five per centum per annum, 

 which said stocks shall be held by the said Secretary in trust for the uses 

 specified in the last will and testament of said Smithson, until provision is 

 made by law for carrying the purpose of said bequest into effect ; and that 

 the annual interest accruing on the stock aforesaid, shall be in like manner 

 invested for the benefit of said institution. 



APPROVED, July 7, 1838. 



