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 classi cal 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.

sequently to that period, a more perfect union was formed, combining in one system the principle of confederate sovereignties with that of a Government by popular representation, with legislative, executive, and judicial powers, all limited, but co-extensive with the whole confederation.

In

Under this Government, a new experiment in the history of mankind is now drawing to the close of half a century, during which the territory and number of States in the Union have nearly doubled, while their population, wealth, and power have been multiplied more than fourfold. the process of this experiment, they have gone through the vicissitudes of peace and war, amidst bitter and ardent party collisions, and the unceasing changes of popular elections to the legislative and executive offices, both of the general confederacy and of the separate States, without a single execution for treason, or a single proscription for a political offence. The whole Government, under the continual superintendence of the whole people, has been holding a steady course of prosperity, unexampled in the cotemporary history of other nations, not less than in the annals of ages past. During this period, our country has been freely visited by observers from other lands, and often in no friendly spirit by travellers from the native land of Mr. Sinithson. Their reports of the prevailing manners, opinions and social intercourse of the people of this Union, have exhibited no flattering or complacent pictures. All the infirmities and vices of our civil and political condition have been conned and noted, and displayed with no forbearance of severe satirical comment to set them off; yet, after all this, a British subject, of noble birth and ample fortune, desiring to bequeath his whole estate to the purpose of increasing and diffusing knowledge throughout the whole. community of civilized man, selects for the depositaries of his trust, with confidence unqualified with reserve, the Congress of the United States of America.

In the commission of every trust, there is an implied tribute of the soul to the integrity and intelligence of the trustee; and there is also an implied call for the faithful exercise of those properties to the fulfilment of the purpose of the trust. The tribute and the call acquire additional force and energy, when the trust is committed for performance after the decease of him by whom it is granted, when he no longer exists to witness or to constrain the effective fulfilment of his design. The magnitude of the trust, and the extent of confidence bestowed in the commital of it, do but enlarge and aggravate the pressure of the obligation

which it carries with it. The weight of duty imposed is proportioned to the honor conferred by confidence without reserve. Your committee are fully persuaded, therefore, that, with a grateful sense of the honor conferred by the testator, upon the political institutions of this Union, the Congress of the United States, in accepting the bequest, will feel, in all its power and plenitude, the obligation of responding to the confidence reposed by him, with all the fidelity, disinterestedness, and perseverance of exertion, which may carry into effective execution the noble purpose of an endowment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.

A motion was made by Mr. CHAPIN, that five thousand additional copies be printed of the message of the President, and the papers which accompanied the same, in relation to the bequest of James Smithson, together with the report and bill this day submitted by Mr. John Quincy Adams, from the committee to which the same was referred; which motion was laid on the table one day under the rule. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, WEDNESDAY, January 20, 1836.

Mr. CHAPIN moved to consider the motion, which he submitted yesterday, for printing 5000 copies of the report submitted yesterday by Mr. Adams from a select committee, together with the President's Message, correspondence and will, relating to the bequest of James Smithson, late of London, deceased.

Objection being made,

Mr. MANN, of New York, said the report was in reference to a subject of considerable interest, not only to the House, but to the country generally. As the report was in the hands of the printer, it was proper that, if an extra number of copies was ordered, it should be done at this time. He moved to suspend the rule, for the purpose of entertaining the motion to print, which was agreed to—ayes 107, noes 46.

Mr. HOWARD desired to know from some member of the Committee the purport of the report, and what disposition was proposed to be made of the bequest. He was entirely ignorant on the subject.

Mr. CHAPIN of New York, said he would, as a member of the committee to which the subject of the Smithsonian bequest had been referred, answer the inquiry of the honorable gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Howard.) It was not proposed either by the report or bill which the honorable chairman of the select committee (Mr. Adams) had sub