PROPOSED APPLICATIONS OF SMITHSON'S BEQUEST. 845- 



them, by the habitual observation of the stars, to trace their 

 courses to some of the sublimest discoveries of astronomy. 

 Nor could the application of the fund to any ecclesiasti- 

 cal or religious establishment be a proper fulfilment of the 

 testator's intention. The people of the United States have 

 also religious duties to perform, for the charge and discharge 

 of which they should not consent to be tributary, even in 

 gratitude, to the bounty of any foreigner. The preaching 

 of the gospel, like the education of youth, promotes the in- 

 crease and diffusion of knowledge ; but the worship of God, 

 and the fulfilment of moral duties to man, the special ob- 

 ject of religious institutions, do not so much import the in- 

 crease of knowledge as the right use of what is known. 



I suggested to the President that annual courses of lec- 

 tures on the principal sciences, physical and mathematical, 

 moral, political, and literary, to be delivered not by perma- 

 nent professors, but by persons annually appointed, with a 

 liberal compensation for each course, were among the 

 means well adapted to the end of increasing and diffusing 

 knowledge among men. 



But the great object of my solicitude would be to guard 

 against the cancer of almost all charitable foundations 

 jobbing for parasites, and sops for hungry incapacity. For 

 the economical management of the fund, and the periodical 

 application of it to appropriate expenditures, it should be 

 invested in a board of trustees, to consist partly of members 

 of both Houses of Congress, with the Secretaries of the De- 

 partments, the Attorney General, the Mayor of the city of 

 Washington, and one or more inhabitants of the District of 

 Columbia, to be incorporated as trustees of the Smithsonian 

 fund, with a secretary and treasurer in one person, and to 

 be the only salaried person of the board ; to be appointed 

 for four years, and to be capable of reappointrnent, but re- 

 moval for adequate cause by a majority of the board. Into 

 details it is unnecessary to enter. 



The first object of appropriation, however, in my judg- 

 ment, should be the erection of an astronomical observatory, 

 for all the purposes of the Greenwich Observatory, in Eng- 

 land, and the Bureau des Longitudes, in France. This alone 

 would absorb the annual income of the fund for seven years 

 and will form the subject of another letter. 



I am, with great respect, sir, your very obedient servant, 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 



JOHN FORSYTII, Esq., 



Secretary of State of the United States. 



