1486 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 
acts they have to perform, except the trusts imposed by this last act, if any, the 
statute leaves silent. They were in office, having in charge an important trust, ‘‘for 
the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men,’’ and no doubt Congress regarded 
the lodgment of the control of the park in their hands as germane to the original 
object for which the incorporation was established. 
The Regents were authorized— 
‘‘To transfer to the park any living specimens, whether of animals or plants, now 
or hereafter in their charge, accept gifts for the park, at their discretion, in the name 
oh 
of the United States; to make exchanges of specimens and to administer the park | 
for the advancement of science and instruction and recreation of the people.’’ 
I repeat, this act vested in that well-established incorporation other and additional 
duties, and in my judgment required no formal act of acceptance on the part of the 
Regents or any of the officers of the Smithsonian Institution. Following the general 
line of the law that all incorporations must act by agents, and regarding the Secretary 
as the active agent in possession of the Institution, and knowing that the Regents 
were scattered throughout the several States of the Union, and recognizing the fact 
that all persons must take cognizance of the law, the Treasury Department, through 
the advice of this office, assumed that the Secretary had the legal right to act for the 
Regents, and as such had the right to make requisitions for money and cause it to 
be placed in the hands of the proper disbursing officers, to enable them to carry out 
the provisions of the act of Congress in regard to the park. This office was not 
advised that the Regents had ever made and formally filed any notice of acceptance 
of the trust imposed, nor does it now deem that any such formal action was or is 
necessary. The very fact that they continue in office, under the original appoint- 
ment, is evidence that they acquiesced in the provisions and trusts imposed upon 
them by the act of April 30, 1890. If the act of Congress had not imposed this trust 
of the park upon a well-known and established incorporation, well known to be 
organized and exercising its functions, the probabilities are that sufficient inquiry 
would have been made to have ascertained whether or not the Regents had organized 
under the law; but that was deemed unnecessary in this instance. 
As above stated, the Smithsonian Institution was established in 1846, and regularly 
organized for the ‘‘increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.’’ ‘‘The National 
Zoological Park’’ was established in 1889 by the act of March 2 of that year and the 
site purchased, for the ‘‘advancement of science and instruction of the people.’? By 
the act of April 30, 1890, the park was placed under the direction of the Regents of 
the Smithsonian Institution, to be administered for the ‘‘advancement of science and 
the instruction and recreation of the people.’’ The Regents of the Smithsonian 
Institution were authorized-to transfer to the park any living specimens of animals 
or plants in their charge, accept gifts, etc., in the name of the United States, as fully 
set out in the law. : 
These several acts seem to be in the same general line and for the same general 
purpose, and Congress doubtless conceived the fact to be that the general interest 
would be best subserved by placing the whole under one management. Congress, 
beyond question, had such right, and when done it was clearly the duty of the 
Regents to execute the trust. 
Upon this general line of authority and reason, ‘‘the Treasury Department has 
paid out that portion of the appropriation made by said act, which has been 
expended up to and including the 27th day of January, 1891.” 
Any bad results that might grow out of such action, if any such were possible, 
have been obviated by the Board of Regents themselves, by their resolution of the 
28th of January, 1891, which will be found in a communication from Professor 
Langley to this office, attached and made part of this communication, marked 
Exhibit A, to which your attention is especially invited. 
These several acts are all the evidence the Treasury Department has that the 
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