JOSEPH HENRY 131 



in impenetrable obscurity. The first idea to strike a reader would 

 be that Smithson had some especially kind feeling toward either 

 the United States or its form of government. But no evidence of 

 this has ever been discovered. He is not known to have had the 

 personal acquaintance of an American, and his tastes were sup- 

 posed to have been aristocratic rather then democratic. 



It would also have been supposed that the organization of an 

 institution which was to carry his name down to posterity would 

 have been a subject of long and careful thought, and of conversa- 

 tion with friends, and would have been prescribed in more definite 

 language than that used in the will. Some note, some appended 

 paper would certainly be found communicating his views. But 

 nothing of the sort has ever come to light. 



We thus have the curious spectacle of a retired English gentle- 

 man, probably unacquainted with a single American citizen, be- 

 queathing the whole of his large fortune to our Government to 

 found an establishment which was described in ten words, with- 

 out a memorandum of any kind by which his intentions could be 

 divined or the recipient of the gift guided in applying it. The 

 nephew, named Hungerford, died in 1835. An amicable suit in 

 chancery was instituted by our Government, through the Hon. 

 Richard Rush, as its agent, the defendant being the Messrs. 

 Drummond, executors of Smithson. Although there was no con- 

 test at any point, the suit occupied three years. On May pth, 

 1838, the property was adjudged to the United States, and during 

 the next few months disposed of by Mr. Rush for about 105,000. 

 The money was deposited in the Treasury in the following autumn. 



The problem now presented to Congress was to organize the 

 Institution described by Smithson. The writer must confess that 

 he does not share the views of those who maintain that the intent 

 of Smithson was too clear and definite to be mistaken, and that 

 the difficulty which our legislators found in deciding upon a plan 

 shows their lack of intellectual appreciation. It is very much 

 easier to see the right solution of a problem after it is reached than 

 before. It ought to be a subject of gratitude rather than criticism 

 that it took the country eight years to reach a solution. The plan 



