REPORT 



OF THE 



SECRETARY, PROFESSOR HENRY, FOR 1866. 



Gentlemen: It again becomes my duty to present to your honorable 

 board the history of another year of the Institution founded on the be- 

 quest of James Smithson, and intrusted by the Congress of the United 

 States to your care. In presenting the following account of the events 

 of the year 1866 I am gratified in being able to state that the fire 

 which occurred at the beginning of the previous year, and which, at 

 the time, appeared so disastrous, has, in reality, led to the adoption 

 of measures for the increase and better security of the funds, and of 

 changes of importance to the future efficiency of the means of carry- 

 ing out the intentions of the benevolent testator. 



It will be seen by the report of the executive committee that, hj 

 judicious investments and the sale of coin received from England dt» 

 the residuary legacy of Smithson, as well as that of the asBual 

 interest from the United States, not only have the operations of the 

 Institution been maintained, and the reconstruction of the building 

 carried on without any aid from government, but the finances have 

 been improved and are now in a better condition than at any former 

 period. If the petition to Congress to permit additions to be made 

 to the principal on the same terms as those on which the original be- 

 quest was received into the treasury of the United States be granted,* 

 then the extra fund, at the present market value of the stocks in 

 which it is invested, will be sufficient to increase the endowment from 

 $515,169 to $650,000, and still leave enough to complete the general 

 restoration of the building, provided the cost of the restoration be 

 limited to $150,000. For these results the Institution is much in- 

 debted to the personal exertions and influence of the Chancellor, 

 Chief Justice Chase, to whom constant reference has been had during 

 the past year in the management of the finances of the establishment. 



Although the present condition of the fund is a matter of congrat- 

 ulation, yet there is another fact belonging to the history of 1866 of 



" Congress passed an act Febraary 8, 1867, in accordance with the above, allowing the 

 Regents to increase the capital by savings, donations, and otherwise, to a million dollars. 



