28 The Smithsonian Institution 



higher or nobler object could this generous and splendid 

 donation have been devoted ? 



" In the commission of every trust there is an implied 

 tribute of the soul to the integrity and intelligence of the 

 trustee ; and there is also an implied call for the faithful ex- 

 ercise of those properties to the fulfilment of the purpose of 

 the trust. The tribute and the call acquire additional force 

 and energy when the trust is committed for performance after 

 the decease of him by whom it is granted, when he no longer 

 exists to witness or to constrain the effective fulfilment of his 

 design. The magnitude of the trust and the extent of con- 

 fidence bestowed in the committal of it do but enlarge and 

 aggravate the pressure of the obligation which it carries with 

 it. The weight of duty imposed is proportioned to the honor 

 conferred by confidence without reserve. Your committee 

 are fully persuaded, therefore, that, with a grateful sense of 

 the honor conferred by the testator upon the political institu- 

 tions of this Union, the Congress of the United States, in ac- 

 cepting the bequest will feel in all its power and plenitude 

 the obligation of responding to the confidence reposed by 

 him with all the fidelity, disinterestedness, and perseverance 

 of exertion which may carry into effective execution the 

 noble purpose of an endowment for the increase and diffusion 

 of knowledge among men." 



After much debate a bill was passed to authorize and en- 

 able the President to assert and prosecute the claim of the 

 United States to the legacy bequeathed by James Smithson, 

 and pledging the faith of the United States to the application 

 of the bequest to the purpose of founding an institute in 

 Washington under the name of the Smithsonian Institution 

 an establishment for the increase and diffusion of know- 

 ledge among men. 



On the first of July, 1836, this bill became a law through 

 the approval of the President, who at once appointed an 

 agent to prosecute the claim. The man selected was Richard 



