TWENTY-SIXTH CONGRESS, 1839-41. 223 



an ce by Congress of the solemn duties imposed on them by 

 the acceptance of this fund and trust to the honor and 

 pledged faith of the nation, it was wise and just to do noth- 

 ing with precipitation. The routine of the ordinary busi- 

 ness of Congress furnished neither principle nor precedent 

 for efficient legislation upon this subject: the trust was as 

 delicate as it was important to the niemor} 7 of the testator, 

 and honorable to the good name of the trustee. An error 

 in the first organization of the institution might, in its eon- 

 sequences, at once defeat the noble purpose of the founder, 

 fail in the express object of his bounty the increase and 

 diffusion of knowledge among men; arid react, most inju- 

 riously, upon the reputation of our beloved country, by 

 demonstrating to the world of mankind, of this and after 

 ages, that the generous confidence of this friend of man in 

 her upright and intelligent ardor in the pursuit of knowl- 

 edge was misplaced. 



It was in the true spirit of the bequest itself that the set- 

 tlement of the principles upon which the institution should 

 be founded should be calm and considerate, and, above all, 

 disinterested: separated from all projects of individuals, and, 

 perhaps, communities, for provisions of emolument to 

 themselves : separated from all speculative patent inven- 

 tions and discoveries in embryo, which, after wasting time 

 and money upon the false conceptions of genius, may never 

 come to the birth : separate, in fine, from all schools, col- 

 leges, universities, institutes of education, or ecclesiastical 

 establishments. 



It was particularly desirable that the exclusion of all in- 

 stitutes for education from a participation in the disposal of 

 these funds should be fully considered and debated before 

 its adoption as a fundamental principle of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, because the first impression upon the public 

 mind, whether learned or illiterate, in this country, very 

 -extensively, was, upon the first publication of Mr. Smith- 

 son's will, that the express design of his bequest was to 

 bestow his large fortune to the cause of education; and 

 that a school, 'college, or university, was the only mode of 

 providing 'for the increase and diffusion of knowledge 

 .among men. 



It is, then, to be considered as a circumstance propitious 

 to the final disposal of this fund, by the organization of an 

 institution the best adapted to accomplish the design of the 

 testator, that this first but erroneous impression of that de- 

 sign an institute of learning, a university, upon the foun- 

 dation of which the whole fund should be lavished, and yet 



