REPORT OF THE SECRETARY FOR 1856. 



To the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution; 



Gentlemen : The report of the operations of the year which has just 

 closed may be considered as completing the first decade of the history 

 of the establishment entrusted to your care. The act incorporating 

 the Institution was approved by the President, August 20, 1846, and 

 the first session of the Board of Eegents was commenced on the 7th of 

 the following September. It was, however, principally occupied in 

 discussions relative to the plan of organization, which was not adopted 

 until the beginning of 1847 ; and hence, although this report will be 

 the eleventh, yet, in reality, it completes the account of but, little 

 more than the operations of ten years. It may therefore be proper , ; 

 on the present occasion, to present in review a few of the prominent 

 points in the history of the Institution. 



In the beginning of an establishment of this kind, intended to last 

 as long as the government of the United States shall endure, it was 

 more important that every step should be in the proper direction, than 

 that great advances should be made. The condition of an institution 

 after a given time is to be estimated by what it has done well, rather 

 than by the amount of what it has accomplished. Activity impro- 

 perly directed is worse than inaction, and a wrong step at the com- 

 mencement may produce effects which will be injuriously felt during 

 the whole succeeding career. 



From the outset there were many obstacles in the way of the proper 

 establishment of this Institution. It was not clear to the minds of 

 many that the general government had the power to accept a trust 

 intended for the promotion of knowledge ; and after this point was 

 settled in the affirmative, a new difficulty arose in construing the will. 

 The bequest was of so novel a character, and the terms in which it 

 was expressed so brief, though precise, that much difference of opinion 

 naturally prevailed as to the intention of the donor and the means of 

 carrying it into execution. Another difficulty grew out of the manner 

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