^ REPOET OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 13 



It is surely a legitimate source of pride to Americans that their work 

 in science should be so thoroughly appreciated by eastern nations, and 

 it is important that the reputation should be maintained. Nothing' can 

 be more in consonance with the spirit of our Government, nor more in 

 accord with the injunction of Washington in his "Farewell Address," 

 lately admiringly quoted by Sir Lyon Playfair in his address as presi- 

 dent of the British Association for the Advancement of Science: 



Promote, tJien, as an object of lyrimary importance^ institutions for the 

 general diffusion of Imowledge. 



In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to iniblic 

 opinion it should he enlightened. 



No one has been able to show why Smithson selected the United 

 States as the seat of his foundation. He had no acquaintances in Amer- 

 ica, nor does he appear to have had any books relating- to America ex- 

 cept two. Rhees quotes from one of these [" Travels through North 

 America," by Isaac Weld, secretary of the Eoyal Society], a paragraph 

 concerning Washington, then a small town of 5,000 inhabitants, in 

 which it is predicted that " the Federal city, as soon as navigation is 

 perfected, will increase most rapidly, and that at a future day, if the 

 affairs of the United States go on as rapidly as they have done, it will 

 become the grand emporium of the. West, and rival in magnitude and 

 splendor the cities of the whole world." 



Inspired by a belief in the future greatness of the new nation, real- 

 izing that while the needs of England were well met by existing organ- 

 izations such as would not bo likely to spring up for many years in a 

 new, poor, and growing country, he founded in the new England an in- 

 stitution of learning, the civilizing power of which has been of incalcu- 

 lable value. Who can attempt to say what the condition of the United 

 States would have been to-day without this bequest ? 



In the words of John Quincy Adams : 



Of all the foundations of establishments for pious or charitable uses 

 which ever signalized the spirit of the age or the comprehensive beneficence 

 of the founder, none can be na,med more deserving the approbation of man- 

 hind. 



The most important service by far which the Smithsonian Institution 

 has rendered to the nation, has been that from year to year, since 1846 — 

 intangible but none the less appreciable — hj its constant co-operation 

 with the Government, public institutions and individuals in every en- 

 terprise, scientific or educational, which needed its advice, support or 

 aid from its resources. 



There have been, however, material results of its activities, the ex- 

 tent of which can not fail to impress any one who will look at them ; 

 the most important of these are the Library and the Museum, wliich 

 have grown up under its fostering care. 



The library has been accumulated without aid from the treasury of 

 the United States ; it has, in fact, been the result of an extensive system 

 of exchanges, the j)ublications of the Institution having been used to 



