before receiving any part of said legacy, give a bond or bonds, in the penal sum of five hundred thousand dollars, to the Treasurer of the United States, and his successors in office, with good and sufficient securities to the satisfaction of the Secretary of the Treasury, for the faithful performance of the duties of the said agency, and for the faithful remittance to the Treasurer of the United States of all and every sum or sums of money, or other funds, which he or they may receive, for payment in whole or in part of the said legacy. And the Treasurer of the United States is hereby author. ized and required to keep safely all sums of money or other funds which may be received by him in virtue of the said bequest, and to account therefor separately from all other accounts of his office, and subject to such further disposal thereof as may be hereafter provided by Congress.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That any and all sums of money, and other funds, which shall be received for or on account of the said legacy, shall be applied in such manner as Congress may hereafter direct, to the purpose of founding and endowing at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men; to which application of the said moneys and other funds, the faith of the United States is hereby pledged.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That, to the end that the claim to the said bequest may be prosecuted with effect, and the necessary expenses in prosecuting the same be defrayed, the President of the United States be, and he is hereby, authorized to apply to that purpose any sum not exceeding ten thousand dollars, out of any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated.

Approved, 1st of July, 1836.

PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, December 21, 1835.

A message, in writing, was received from the President of the United States, by Mr. Donelson, his private secretary, which was read. (See ante.)

Ordered, That the said message be referred to a select committee, and Mr. John Quincy Adams, Mr. Thomas, Mr. Garland of Virginia, Mr. Pearce of Rhode Island, Mr. Speight, Mr. McKennan, Mr. Hannegan, Mr. Garland of Louisiana, and Mr. Chapin, were appointed said committee.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, January 19, 1836.

Mr. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, from the committee appointed on the message of the President of the United States, of the 17th of December ultimo, and which was laid before the House on the 21st, communicating information in relation to a bequest made by James Smithson, late of London, in the Kingdom of Great Britain, deceased, to the United States, for the purpose of establishing a seminary of learning, reported, (by leave,) a bill (No. 187) to authorize the President of the United States to assert and prosecute with effect the right of the United States to the bequest of James

Smithson, late of London, deceased, to found, at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men, accompanied by a report in writing; which bill was read the first and second time, and committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union.

The following is the report:

The Select Committee, to which was referred the message of the President of the United States, of the 17th of December last, with documents relating to the bequest of James Smithson, of London, to the United States of America, for the purpose of founding at Washington, an establishment under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men, respectfully report:

That, from the papers transmitted to Congress with the message of the President, it appears, that James Smithson, a foreigner, of noble family and of affluent fortune, did, by his last will and testament, made in the year 1826, bequeath under certain contingencies, which have since been realized, and with certain exceptions, for which provision was made by the same will, the whole of his property, of an amount exceeding four hundred thousand dollars, to the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.

To the acceptance of this bequest, and to the assumption and fulfilment of the high and honorable duties involved in the performance of the trust committed with it, the Congress of the United States, in their legislative capacity, are alone competent. Your committee believe, not only that they are thus competent, but that it is enjoined upon them, by considerations of the most imperious and indispensable obligation. The first steps necessary to be taken for carrying into effect the benevolent intentions of the testator, must be to obtain the possession of the funds, now held by the Messrs. Drummonds, bankers in London, executors of Mr. Smithson's will, and subject to the superintendence, custody and adjudication of the Lord Chancellor of England. To enable the President of the United States to effect this object, the committee report herewith a bill.

But your committee think they would imperfectly discharge their duty to this House, to their country, to the world of mankind, or to the donor of this most munificent

bequest, were they to withhold a few brief reflections, which have occurred to them in the consideration of the subject referred to them by the House. Reflections arising from the condition of the testator, from the nature of the bequest and from the character of the trustee to whom this great and solemn charge has been confided.

The testator, James Smithson, a subject of Great Britain, declares himself, in the caption of the will, a descendent in blood from the Percys and the Seymours, two of the most illustrious historical names of the British islands. Nearly two centuries since, in 1660, the ancestor of his own name, Hugh Smithson, immediately after the restoration of the royal family of the Stuarts, received from Charles the Second, as a reward for his eminent services to that house during the civil wars, the dignity of a Baronet of England, a dignity still held by the Dukes of Northumberland, as descendents from the same Hugh Smithson. The father of the testator, by his marriage with the Lady Elizabeth Seymour, who was descended by a female line from the ancient Percys, and by the subsequent creation of George the Third, in 1766, became the first Duke of Northumberland. His son and successor, the brother of the testator, was known in the history of our revolutionary war by the name of Lord Percy; was present, as a British officer, at the sanguinary opening scene of our revolutionary war, at Lexington, and at the battle of Bunker's hill; and was the bearer to the British Government of the despatches from the commander-in-chief of the royal forces, announcing the event of that memorable day; and the present Duke of Northumberland, the testator's nephew, was the ambassador extraordinary of Great Britain, sent to assist at the coronation of the late King of France, Charles the Tenth, a few months only before the date of this bequest from his relative to the United States of America.

The suggestions which present themselves to the mind, by the association of these historical recollections, with the condition of the testator, derive additional interest from the nature of the bequest; the devotion of a large estate to an institution for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.

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 named more deserving of the approbation of mankind than this. Should it be faithfully carried into effect, with an earnestness and sagacity of application, and a steady

perseverance of pursuit, proportioned to the means furnished by the will of the founder, and to the greatness and simplicity of his design as by himself declared, "the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men," it is no extravagance of anticipation to declare, that his name will be hereafter enrolled among the eminent benefactors of mankind. The attainment of knowledge, is the high and exclusive attribute of man, among the numberless myriads of animated beings inhabitants of the terrestrial globe. On him alone is bestowed, by the bounty of the Creator of the universe, the power and the capacity of acquiring knowledge. Knowledge is the attribute of his nature, which at once enables him to improve his condition upon earth, and to prepare him for the enjoyment of a happier existence hereafter. It is by this attribute that man discovers his own nature as the link between earth and heaven; as the partaker of an immortal spirit; as created for a higher and more durable end, than the countless tribes of beings which people the earth, the ocean, and the air, alternately instinct with life, and melting into vapour, or mouldering into dust.

To furnish the means of acquiring knowledge is, therefore, the greatest benefit that can be conferred upon mankind. It prolongs life itself, and enlarges the sphere of existence. The earth was given to man for cultivation, to the improvement of his own condition. Whoever increases his knowledge, multiplies the uses to which he is enabled to turn the gift of his Creator to his own benefit, and partakes in some degree of that goodness which is the highest attribute of Omnipotence itself.

If, then, the Smithsonian Institution, under the smile of an approving Providence, and by the faithful and permanent application of the means furnished by its founder, to the purpose for which he has bestowed them, should prove effective to their promotion; if they should contribute essentially to the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men, to what higher or nobler object could this generous and splendid donation have been devoted?

The father of the testator, upon forming his alliance with the heiress of the family of the Percys, assumed, by an act of the British Parliament, that name, and under it became Duke of Northumberland. But, renowned as is the name of Percy in the historical annals of England, resounding as it does from the summit of the Cheviot hills, to the ears of our children, in the ballad of Chevy Chase, with the classical commentary of Addison; freshened and renovated in our memory as it has recently been from the purest fountain

of poetical inspiration, in the loftier strain of Alnwick Castle, tuned by a bard of our own native land;* doubly immortalized as it is in the deathless dramas of Shakespear; "confident against the world in arms," as it may have been in ages long past, and may still be in the virtues of its present possessors by inheritance; let the trust of James Smithson to the United States of America, be faithfully executed by their Representatives in Congress; let the result accomplish his object, "the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men," and a wreath of more unfading verdure shall entwine itself in the lapse of future ages around the name of Smithson, than the united hands of tradition, history, and poetry, have braided around the name of Percy, through the long perspective in ages past of a thousand years.

It is then a high and solemn trust which the testator has committed to the United States of America, and its execution devolves upon their Representatives in Congress, duties of no ordinary importance. The location of the Institution at Washington, prescribed by the testator, gives to Congress the free exercise of all the powers relating to this subject with which they are, by the Constitution, invested as the local Legislature for the District of Columbia. In adverting to the character of the trustee selected by the testator for the fulfilment of his intentions, your committee deem it no indulgence of unreasonable pride to mark it as a signal manifestation of the moral effect of our political institutions, upon the opinions, and upon the consequent action of the wise and the good of other regions, and of distant climes; even upon that nation from whom we generally boast of our descent, but whom from the period of our revolution we have had too often reason to consider as a jealous and envious rival. How different are the sensations which should swell in our bosoms with the acceptance of this bequest! James Smithson, an Englishman, in the exercise of his rights as a free-born Briton, desirous of dedicating his ample fortune to the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men, constitutes for his trustees, to accomplish that object, the United States of America, and fixes upon their seat of Government as the spot where the Institution, of which he is the founder, shall be located.

The revolution, which resulted in the independence of these United States, was commenced, conducted, and consummated under a mere union of confederated States. Sub

*Fitz-Greene Halleck.