438 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



State would make every effort to pay all just claims against 

 it; and in regard to this fund, would at all times pay the 

 interest fairly and honorably. 



Mr. SIMS continued. He had not intended (he said) by 

 any remark he had made to inculpate any State to which 

 this fund might have been loaned. He merely wished to- 

 show what the duty and the obligation of the Government 

 were in regard to the fund itself. Whatever disposition 

 might finally be made of it whether an institution such as 

 was contemplated should be established ; whether the fund 

 should be returned to the British chancery ; or whether it 

 should be distributed among the heirs of Smithson no 

 difficulty ought to arise as to the fact of the fund itsi-lf hav- 

 ing been loaned out by the Government; and that, for all 

 honorable, practical, and proper purposes, it must be re- 

 garded in good faith as in the Treasury of the United 

 States, to be devoted to whatever purpose might be thought 

 proper. For his own part, he had no apprehension or fear 

 but what each of the States would in good time and in good 

 faith redeem their obligations, and refund every dollar that 

 had been loaned to them. 



He now approached the main question. Much had been 

 said in praise of the munificent arid splendid liberality of 

 James Smithson. It had been said that, animated by a 

 spirit of benevolence to hia race, he had made 1 his will, con- 

 stituted the Government of the United States his trustee to 

 carry out his intentions, and had dedicated to the noble 

 purpose of the increase and diffusion of knowledge among 

 men an entire estate, under the management of the Gov- 

 ernment of the United States. It was" not his (Mr. Sims) 

 disposition, nor was it his wont, nor would it become him, 

 to speak in terms of reproach of one who now slept under 

 the sod. But he must be permitted -to say, that none of 

 these feelings of pride and admiration which seemed to 

 glow in the bosoms of some gentlemen, in contemplating 

 the will of Mr. Smithson, found an echo in his (Mr. Sims) 

 heart. He saw in the will of that individual what he had 

 seen in the wills of many other men. After having griped, 

 through their lives, every shilling that came into their 

 hands, animated at last by some posthumous vanity, they 

 sought to build up a name which should live after them ; 

 and such, rather than any feeling for humanity, so much 

 lauded, was the motive that guided them. In the present 

 case he saw abundant evidence of this disposition in the ap- 

 pointment of the Government of the United States as a 

 trustee to carry out this splendid vanity. 



