The Board of Regents 71 



request of the Regents, the following statement in regard to 

 his services, which were by the Secretary deemed more sig- 

 nificant than those of any other of its early members, is 

 made : 



*' In 1846 he had been named in the act of incorporation as 

 one of the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, and by 

 successive reelection was continued by Congress in this 

 office until his death, a period of nearly twenty years. To 

 say that he assisted in shaping the policy of the Establish- 

 ment would not be enough. It was almost exclusively through 

 his predominating influence that the policy which has given 

 the Institution its present celebrity was, after much opposition, 

 finally adopted. The object of the donation, it will be re- 

 membered, had been expressed in terms so concise that its 

 import could scarcely be at once appreciated by the general 

 public, though to the cultivators of science, to which class 

 Smithson himself belonged, the language employed failed not 

 to convey clear and precise ideas. Out of this state of things 

 it is not surprising that difference of opinion should arise 

 respecting the proper means to be adopted to realize the in- 

 tentions of the founder of the Institution. Professor Bache, 

 with persistent firmness, tempered by his usual moderation, 

 advocated the appropriation of the proceeds of the funds 

 principally to the plan set forth in the first report of the Sec- 

 retary, namely, of encouraging and supporting original re- 

 search in the different branches of science. Unfortunately 

 this policy could only be partially adopted, on account of the 

 restrictions of the enactment of Congress by which provision 

 was to be made for certain specified objects. He strenuously 

 opposed the contemplated expenditure of a most dispropor- 

 tionate sum in the erection and maintenance of a costly edi- 

 fice; but failing to prevent this, he introduced the resolution 

 adopted by the Board as a compromise, whereby the mischief 

 which he could not wholly avert might at least be lessened. 

 This resolution provided that the time of the erection of the 

 building should be extended over several years, while the 



