9. Shall select site for building, and sign records of the same.

10. Shall cause to be erected a suitable building.

11. Authorized, by themselves, or by a committee of their members, to contract for such building.

12. Shall deposit duplicates of such contracts with Treasurer of United States.

13. Authorized to employ superintendent of erection of building.

14. The Regents, or Executive Committee, shall certify to Chancellor and Secretary, sums of money required for operations.

15. Shall make an appropriation for a Library, not to exceed $25,000 annually.

16. They shall submit report to Congress.

XI. DUTY, &c., OF CHANCEllor.

1. Shall be the presiding officer of the Board.

2. By the name of Chancellor of the Smithsonian Institution.

3. He shall, with the Secretary, examine and certify all requisitions for money, of Executive Committee, for payment at the Treasury.— Sec. 3d.

4. He shall certify all copies of metes and bounds of site.-Sec. 4th.

XII. DUTY, &c., OF SECRETARY.

1. He is Secretary of the Institution, also of the Board of Regents. 2. On application of any three of the Regents, it shall be his duty to ap point a special meeting of the Board of Regents, by giving written notice to each.

3. He shall, with the Chancellor, examine all requisitions for money presented to him by the Executive Committee, and if he approve thereof, shall certify the same to the Treasurer of the U. S. for payment.-Sec. 3d.

4. These requisitions may be for: (1) payment of debts; (2) performance of contracts; (3) or making purchases; (4) and executing the objects authorized by this act; (5) for all claims on contracts made by Building Committee.-Secs. 3d and 5th.

5. He will record the selection of site, and make copies thereof when required.-Sec. 4th.

6. He will file duplicates of contracts for building, &c., with the U. S. Treasurer.-Sec. 5th.

7. He shall take charge of the building and property of said Institution. 8. He shall, under direction of Board of Regents, make a fair and accurate record of all their proceedings.

9. He shall discharge the duty of Librarian.

10. Also, of keeper of the museum.

11. He may, by consent of the Regents, employ assistants.-Sec. 7th.

XIII. DUTY OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

1. To execute acts of Board generally.

2. To examine and certify appropriations necessary to operations of In

stitution.-Secs. 3d and 5th.

XIV. PAY OF OFFICERS, and Tenure OF OFFICE.

1. Said officers shall receive for their services such sums as may be allowed by the Board of Regents.

2. To be paid semi-annually-on the 1st of January and 1st of July. 3. Removable by the Board of Regents.-Sec. 7th.

XV. DISBURSEMENTS.

1. All moneys required for payment of debts, or performance of con

tracts, shall be certified by the Board of Regents, or Executive Committee thereof, to the Chancellor and Secretary.

2. They shall examine the same.

3. And, if they shall approve thereof, shall certify the same to the proper officer of the U. S. Treasury for payment.-Sec. 3d.

XVI. REPORTS TO CONGRESS.

The Board of Regents shall annually report to Congress an account of the operations, expenditures, and condition of the Institution.-Sec. 3d.

XVII. SELECTION OF SITE FOR INSTITUTION.

1. After Board of Regents shall have met, and become organized, it shall be their duty forthwith to proceed to select a suitable site, &c.

2. May be taken out of the ground between Patent Office and 7th street: Provided, President, the several Secretaries, and Commissioner of the Patent Office, shall consent to the same.

3. If not, then such location may be made on other of the public grounds in the City of Washington, belonging to U. S., which said Regents may select, by and with the consent of the persons above named.Secs. 4th and 5th.

XVIII. EVIDENCE OF SELECTION.

1. Grounds so selected shall be set out by metes and bounds.

2. Description recorded in a book provided for the purpose.

3. Signed by said Regents, or so many of them as may be convened at the time of organization.

4. Certified copy thereof to be evidence of boundaries, &c.; and said lands are appropriated by said act.-Sec. 4th.

XIX. BUILDINGS TO BE ERECTED.

1. After selection of site, Board of Regents shall cause to be erected a suitable building.

2. Of plain and durable materials, and structure.

3. Without unnecessary ornament.

4. Of sufficient size.

5. With suitable rooms, or halls, for the reception and arrangement, upon a liberal scale: (1) Of objects of Natural History. (2.) A geological and mineralogical cabinet. (3.) A chemical laboratory. (4.) A library. (5.) A gallery of art. (6.) And the necessary lecture rooms.-Sec. 5th.

6. May be made to form wing of Patent Office.

XX. CONTRACTS AND CLAIMS FOR BUILDING.

1. Said Board shall have authority, by themselves, or by a committee of three of their members, to contract for the completion of such building upon plan adopted by Regents.

2. Shall take sufficient security for building and finishing same, according to plan, and in the time stipulated.

3. Duplicates of contracts to be filed with Treasurer of United States. 4. All claims under contracts shall be certified by Board of Regents, or the Executive Committee, and signed by Chancellor and Secretary, and paid at the Treasury of United States.-Sec. 5th.

XXI. COST OF BUILDING.

1. The sum was left blank in the act.-Sec. 5th.

2. The interest which had accrued previous to 1st September, 1846, minus the current expenses, and the surplus interest of any subsequent year, may be appropriated to this purpose.-Secs. 2d and 5th.

XXII. SUPERINTENDENCE OF CONSTRUCTION.

1. Board of Regents shall employ such persons as they may deem necessary to superintend the erection of the buildings.

2. And fitting up the rooms of the Institution.-Sec. 5th.

XXIII. PROTECTION OF PROPERTY BY LAW.

All laws for the protection of public property in Washington, shall apply to, and be in force for, the protection of the lands, buildings, and other property of said Institution.-Sec. 5th.

XXIV. PROPERTY OF JAMES SMITHSON-HOW KEPT.

1. The minerals, books, manuscripts, and other property of Smithson, shall be removed to said Institution.

2. And kept separate and apart from the other property of the Institu tion.-Sec. 6th.

XXV. COLLECTIONS, OBJECTS OF ART, SPECIMENS, &C.-How CLASSED, PRESERVED.

1. In proportion as suitable arrangements can be made for their reception, all objects of art, and of foreign and curious research, and of natural history, plants, geological and mineralogical specimens, be longing to, or hereafter to belong to, United States, which may be in the city of Washington, in whosesoever custody the same may be, shall be delivered to such persons as may be authorized by the Board of Regents to receive them.

2. They shall be arranged in such order, and so classed, as best to facilitate examination and study thereof, in the building aforesaid.

3. Regents may make exchanges of duplicate specimens.

4. And cause new specimens received also to be classed and arranged.Sec. 6th.

XXVI.

PROVISION FOR OBJECTS NOT MENTIONED IN THE ACT. Managers of the Institution are authorized to make such disposal for the promotion of the purposes of the testator, of all interest which has accrued, or shall hereafter accrue, not otherwise appropriated for carrying out the object of this act, as they may deem best.-Sec. 9.

XXVII. COPY RIGHTS TO BE DEPOSITED.

1. One copy of all books, maps, charts, musical compositions, prints, or engravings, shall be delivered to the Librarian of said Institution within three months from publication.

2. Another copy to Library of Congress.—Sec. 10th.

XXVIII. ALTERATIONS OR REPEAL OF THIS ACT.

1. Congress retains the right of altering, amending, adding to, or repealing, any provisions of this act.

2. Provided no contract or individual right made or acquired under such provisions shall be thereby divested or impaired.-Sec. 11th.

EXTRACTS FROM THE MEMOIRS OF JOHN

QUINCY ADAMS.

EDITED BY CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.*

JANUARY 9, 1836.

At ten o'clock, or as soon after as I could get out of my house and reach the Capitol, I met the Committee on the President's message relating to the Smithsonian bequest. The members present were Garland, of Virginia, McKennan of Pennsylvania, Pearce, of Rhode Island, Thomas, of Maryland, and Chapin, of New York. The absent members were Garland, of Louisiana, Hannegan, of Indiana, and Speight, of North Carolina, who is still confined by illness. The members now present had got over their scruples with regard to the acceptance of the bequest, and directed me to prepare a report and a bill to that effect. A committee of the Senate, the chairman of which was Benjamin Watkins Leigh, of Virginia, have already reported to that effect, and presented a joint resolution authorizing the President to obtain the funds, and making an appropriation of five thousand dollars to defray the expenses which may thereby be occasioned. Mr. Leigh's report contains a short and satisfactory argument for the competency of Congress to accept the bequest, and showing it to be their duty. But, as money cannot constitutionally be appropriated by resolutions, my direction from the committee is to prepare a bill, and to make the appropriation ten thousand instead of five thousand dollars.

JANUARY 10, 1836.

I called successively upon Mr. Bankhead, Chargé d'Af faires from Great Britain, and upon Colonel Aspinwall, who is at Fuller's, to inquire if either of them could give me any further information respecting Mr. James Smithson; but they could not. I was desirous of obtaining it for the purpose of introducing into the report of the committee upon his bequest some complimentary notice of the

* Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1876.

763

donor. But so little are the feelings of others in unison with mine on this occasion, and so strange is this donation. of half a million of dollars for the noblest of purposes, that no one thinks of attributing it to a benevolent motive. Vail intimates in his letter that the man was supposed to be insane. Bankhead thinks he must have had republican propensities; which is probable. Colonel Aspinwall conjectures that Mr. Smithson was an antenuptial son of the first Duke and Duchess of Northumberland, and thus an elder brother of the late Duke, but how he came to have a nephew named Hungerford, son of a brother named Dickinson, and why he made this contingent bequest to the United States of America, no one can tell. The report, if it hazards any reflection upon the subject, must be very guarded. Mr. Bankhead thought it was a fine windfall for the city of Washington, and hoped if a professor of divinity should be wanted we should remember his friend Hawley. Mrs. Bankhead was in admiration of the splendid edifice that might be erected with the money.

Colonel Aspinwall said it would be easy to obtain the information which I desired in England, but that he had made no inquiries at the time when he had procured and for warded to the Department of State a copy of the will, because the bequest was then contingent, and it was very uncertain whether it would ever take effect. The will was made in 1826-the year before which, the testator's nephew, the present Duke of Northumberland, had been upon a magnificent Embassy Extraordinary at the coronation of Charles the Tenth of France. There seems to have been a determination in the mind of the testator that his estate should in no event go to the Duke of Northumberland or to any of his family. But certainly in the bequest itself there is a high and honorable sentiment of philanthropy, and a glorious testimonial of confidence in the institutions of this Union. A stranger to this country, knowing it only by its history, bearing in his person the blood of the Percys and the Seymours, brother to a nobleman of the highest rank in British heraldry, who fought against the revolution of our independence at Bunker's Hill-that he should be the man to found, at the city of Washington, for the United States of America, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men, is an event in which I see the finger of Providence, compassing great results by incomprehensible means. May the Congress of the Union be deeply impressed with the solemn duties devolving upon them by this trust, and carry it into effect in the fullness of