TWENTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS, 1843-45. 297 



tthe bequest, the faith of the United States was solemnly 

 pledged that all the sums of money and other funds re- 

 ceived for or on account of this legacy, should be applied 

 to the humane and generous purpose prescribed by the tes- 

 tator. 



For the redemption of this pledge, it is indispensably 

 necessary that the fund now locked up in the Treasury, in 

 the bonds of these States, and the accruing interest on 

 them, (the payment of which is now suspended,) should be 

 made available for the disposal of Congress to execute the 

 sacred trust which, in the name of the United States, they 

 have assumed. For this purpose, the committee report a 

 bill appropriating the sum of $800,000 to be invested in 

 certificates of stock of the United States, bearing interest 

 at the rate of six per cent, a year, payable half-yearly, and 

 redeemable at the pleasure of Congress, by the substitution 

 of other funds of equal value ; which sum of $800,000 

 shall constitute permanent funds thus appropriated, as 

 follows : 



1. To replace the sum of $508,318.46 deposited in the 

 mint of the United States, in gold, on the 1st of September, 

 1838, and $500,000 of which were, on the 4th of the same 

 month, invested for and on account of the United States, in 

 .bonds of the State of Arkansas. 



2. $300,000 to supply the place of the interest which has 

 accrued, and will accrue until or near the 31st of Decem- 

 ber, 1846, on the bonds now in the Treasury of the United 

 States, the payment of interest on which is at present sus- 

 pended. 



The committee will not entertain a doubt that the States 

 of Arkansas, Illinois, and Michigan, will have made, before 

 the close of the year 1846, provision for payment of the 

 arrears of interest due upon their bonds, and for the punc- 

 tual payment of the same interest as it may hereafter 

 accrue. The appropriations from the Treasury proposed 

 by the bill herewith reported, will require no disbursement 

 of money beyond one year's interest on the whole fund, 

 and the amount now in the Treasury and available for the 

 immediate disposal of Congress. The appropriations au- 

 thorized by the bill are necessary to enable Congress to 

 proceed immediately to the execution of the trust commit- 

 ted to them by the testator, and for the fulfillment of which 

 the faith of the nation has been pledged ; but they will 

 constitute no burdens upon the Treasury itself, and no 

 ultimate expenditure, other than the proceeds of the Smith- 

 sonian fund itself. The proposal is, that of this sum of 



