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account of the fund bequeathed by James Smithson, be, and the same hereby are, pledged to refund to the treasury of the United States the sums hereby appropriated.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the business of the said Institution shall be conducted at the city of Washington by a Board of Regents, by the name of the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution," to be composed of the Vice President of the United States, the Chief Justice of the United States, and the Mayor of the city of Washington, during the time for which they shall hold their respective offices; three members of the Senate, and three members of the House of Representatives; together with six other persons, other than members of Congress, two of whom shall be members of the National Institute in the city of Washington, and resident in the said city; and the other four thereof shall be inhabitants of States, and no two of them of the same State. All the Regents, to be selected as aforesaid, shall be appointed immediately after the passage of this act-the members of the Senate by the President thereof, the members of the House by the Speaker thereof, and the six other persons by joint resolution of the Senate and House of Representatives; and the members of the House so appointed shall serve until the fourth Wednesday in December, the second next after the passage of this act; and then, and biennially thereafter, on every alternate fourth Wednesday of December, a like number shall be appointed in the same manner, to serve until the fourth Wednesday in December, the second succeeding their appointment. And the senators so appointed shall serve during the term for which they shall hold, without re-election, their office as senators. And vacancies occasioned by death, resignation, or otherwise, shall be filled as vacancies in committees are filled. And the other six members aforesaid shall serve, two for two years, two for four years, and two for six years; the terms of service, in the first place, to be determined by lot; but after the first term, then their regular term of service shall be six years; and new elections thereof shall be made by joint resolution of Congress. And vacancies occasioned by death, resignation, or otherwise, may be filled in like manner, by joint resolution of Congress. And the said Regents shall meet in the city of Washington on the first Monday of September next, after the passage of this act, and organize by the election of one of their number as Chancellor, who shall be the presiding officer of said Board of Regents, by the name of the Chancellor of the "Smithsonian Institution," and a suitable person as Secretary of said Institution, who shall also be the Secretary of said Board of Regents; said Board shall also elect three of their own body as an executive committee, and said Regents shall then fix on the time for the regular meetings of said Board; and on application of any three of the Regents to the Secretary of the said Institution, it shall be his duty to appoint a special meeting of the Board of Regents, of which he shall give notice by letter to each of the members; and at any meeting of said Board five shall constitute a quorum to do business. And each member of said Board shall be paid his necessary travelling and other actual expenses in attending meetings of the Board, which shall be audited by the executive committee, and recorded by the Secretary of said Board; but his services as Regent shall be gratuitous. And whenever money is required for

the payment of the debts or performance of the contracts of the Institution, incurred and entered into in conformity with the provisions of this act, or for making the purchases and executing the objects authorized by this act, the Board of Regents, or the executive committee thereof, may certify to the Chancellor and Secretary of the Board that such sum of money is required; whereupon, they shall examine the same, and, if they shall approve thereof, shall certify the same to the proper officer of the treasury for payment. And the said Board shall submit to Congress, at each session thereof, a report of the operations, expenditures, and condition of the Institution.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That after the Board of Regents shall have met, and become organized, it shall be their duty forthwith to proceed to select a suitable site for such building as may be neces‐ sary for the Institution; which ground may be taken and appropriated out of that part of the public ground in the city of Washington lying between the Patent Office and Seventh street: Provided, The President of the United States, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Navy, and the Commissioner of the Patent Office, shall consent to the same; but if the persons last named shall not consent, then such location may be made upon any other of the public grounds within the city of Washington belonging to the United States which said Regents may select, by and with the consent of the persons herein named; and the said ground so selected shall be set out by proper metes and bounds, and a description of the same shall be made and recorded in a book to be provided for that purpose, and signed by the said regents, or so many of them as may be convennd at the time of their said organization; and such record, or a copy thereof, certified by the chancellor and secretary of the Board of Regents, shall be received in evidence in all courts of the extent and boundaries of the lands appropriated to the said Institution; and upon the making of such record, such site and lands shall be deemed and taken to be appropriated by force of this act to the said Institution.

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That, so soon as the Board of Regents shall have selected the said site, they shall cause to be erected a suitable building, of plain and durable materials and structure, without unnecessary ornament, and of sufficient size, and with suitable rooms or halls for the reception and arrangement, upon a liberal scale, of objects of natural history, including a geological and mineralogical cabinet; also, a chemical laboratory, a library, a gallery of art, and the necessary lecture rooms; and the 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 such plan as may be directed by the Board of Regents, and shall take sufficient security for the building and finishing the same according to the said plan, and in the time stipulated in such contract; and may so locate said building, if they shall deem it proper, as in appearance to form a wing to the Patent Office building, and may so connect the same with the present hall of said Patent Office building, containing the National Cabinet of curiosi ties, as to constitute the said hall, in whole or in part, the deposite for the cabinet of said Institution, if they deem it expedient to do so; pro

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vided said building shall be located upon said Patent Office lot in the manner aforesaid: Provided, however, That the whole expense of building and enclosures aforesaid shall not exceed the amount of sum is hereby appropriated, payable out of money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated; together with such sum or sums out of the annual interest accruing to the institution as may, in any year, remain unexpended after paying the current expenses of the Institution. And duplicates of all such contracts as may be made by the said Board of Regents shall be deposited with the Treasurer of the United States; and all claims on any contract made as aforesaid, shall be allowed and certified by the Board of Regents, or the executive committee thereof, as the case may be; and, being signed by the chancellor and secretary of the Board, shall be a sufficient voucher for settlement and payment at the treasury of the United States. And the Board of Regents shall be authorized to employ such persons as they may deem necessary to superintend the erection of the buildings and fitting up the rooms of the Institution. And all laws for the protection of public property in the city of Washington shall apply to and be in force for the protection of the lands, buildings, and other property of said Institution. And all moneys recovered by or accruing to the Institution shall be paid into the treasury of the United States to the credit of the Smithsonian bequest, and separately accounted for, as provided in the act approved July first, eighteen hundred and thirty-six, accepting said bequest.

SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That, in proportion as suitable arrangements can be made for their reception, all objects of art and of foreign and curious research, and all objects of natural history, plants, and geological and mineralogical specimens belonging, or hereafter to belong, to the 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, and shall be arranged in such order, and so classed, as best to facilitate the examination and study of them, in the building so as aforesaid to be erected for the Institution; and the Regents of said Institution shall afterwards, as new specimens in natural history, geology, or mineralogy, may be obtained for the muscum of the Institution, by exchanges of duplicate specimens belonging to the institution, (which they are hereby authorized to make,) or by donation, which they may receive, or otherwise, cause such new specimens to be also appropriately classed and arranged. And the minerals, books, manuscripts, and other property of James Smithson, which have been received by the government of the United States, and are now placed in the Department of State, shall be removed to said Institution, and shall be preserved separate and apart from other property of the Institution.

SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That the Secretary of the Board of Regents shall take charge of the building and property of said Institution, and shall, under their direction, make a fair and accurate record of all their proceedings, to be preserved in said Institution; and the said Secretary shall also discharge the duties of librarian and keeper of the museum, and may, with the consent of the Board of Regents, employ assistants; and the said officers shall receive for their services such sums as may be allowed by the Board of Regents, to be paid

semi-annually on the first day of January and July; and the said officers shall be removable by the Board of Regents whenever, in their judgment, the interests of the Institution require any of the said officers to be changed.

SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That the members and honorary members of said institution may hold such stated and special meetings, for the supervision of the affairs of said Institution and the advice and instruction of said Board of Regents, to be called in the manner provided for in the by laws of said Institution, at which the President, and, in his absence, the Vice President, of the United States shall preside. And the said Regents shall make, from the interest of said fund, an appropriation, not exceeding an average of twenty-five thousand dollars annually, for the gradual formation of a library composed of valuable works pertaining to all departments of human knowledge.

SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That of any other moneys which have accrued, or shall hereafter accrue, as interest upon the said Smithsonian fund, not herein appropriated, or not required for the purposes herein provided, the said managers are hereby authorized to make such disposal as they shall deem best suited for the promotion of the purpose of the testator, anything herein contained to the contrary notwithstanding.

SEC. 10. And be it further enacted, That the author or proprietor of any book, map, chart, musical composition, print, cut, or engraving, for which a copyright shall be secured under the existing acts of Congress, or those which shall hereafter be enacted respecting copyrights, shall, within three months from the publication of said book, map, chart, musical composition, print, cut, or engraving, deliver, or cause to be delivered, one copy of the same to the librarian of the Smithsonian Institution, and one copy to the librarian of the Congress library, for the use of the said libraries.

SEC. 11. And be it further enacted, That there is reserved to Congress the right of altering, amending, adding to, or repealing any of the provisions of this act: Provided, That no contract, or individual right, made or acquired under such provisions, shall be thereby divested or impaired.

Approved August 10, 1846.

The foregoing act of Congress is "the law establishing the Smithsonian Institution." It is the directory which the Regents are bound to follow in administering its affairs and applying its funds. An idea seems to have crept into the discussions that are prevalent on this subject, that the will requires one thing and the law another. There can be no ground for this distinction, as a few words will show.

The will declares a certain object, namely, "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." In accepting the bequest, the government of the United States pledged its faith that the funds should be "applied as Congress may hereafter direct, to the purposes of founding and endowing at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men."

The act establishing the institution also inserts into its title, and into

its body, the words of the will, so that whatever the will requires the act ordains, and there can be no conflict between them. No one can question the obligation of those who administer the institution, under the act, to assume that its requirements are in accordance with the will, and to carry them out, in good faith and good earnest. So far as the act leaves the officers, who exist by its authority, to their discretion, that discretion is to be guided by their sense of the import and design of the language of the will. All in the will that relates to the subject is incorporated into the act. We have occasion, therefore, to look only at the act, in ascertaining the duty of those who administer the affairs of the institution, and there can be no ground for a controversy in reference to the meaning of the will, as against the act, or

vice versa.

The will and the two acts of Congress that have been spread out on the foregoing pages in full, interpret themselves to the common sense and adequate apprehension of every reader. It is only necessary to regard the words as used in their ordinary sense, to avoid a mental interpolation of language not in the text, and to allow its natural meaning to flow out from all the language used in the instrument. In this spirit of fair and unstrained interpretation, we propose to consider for a moment the language of the act establishing the Smithsonian Institution, of which different and conflicting interpretations are advocated.

The word "INCREASE" is held by some of the zealous combatants in the Smithsonian controversy to be identical with "DISCOVERY." The idea seems to be that knowledge can only be increased by the discovery of new truth. This is an arbitrary and untenable position. A mind experiences an increase of knowledge if it knows more than it did before, although all the ideas it has received may be in the commonest text-books. There has been an increase of knowledge in the school, in the congregation, in the lecture room, if ideas not before known to them have been received into the minds of the hearers; even, indeed, it matters not if those ideas have been recorded for thousands of years in languages, classical or sacred, that have been dead long ago. Knowledge has been increased, if one mind has received more, whether it be new or old truth. The language of Smithson is perfectly simple, and in its natural sense covers the whole ground-it includes, but does not require new truth. Truth discovered a thousand years ago is as good as truth discovered yesterday. Knowledge embraces it all alike, and Smithson's object was to carry knowledge where it was not before, and to increase it where it was; to spread it over a wider area, and to a greater depth.

In like manner a particular meaning has been crowded upon the word "KNOWLEDGE"-not its ordinary meaning in common usage, but a narrow, technical, and special meaning. This has been done by confounding it with "SCIENCE." It is true that, in their primitive origin, or roots, in the languages from which they are derived, these words may be identical in their meaning, but not so as actually used in common conversation and familiar and general literature. "Knowledge" is all-comprehensive, embracing science, art, literature, politics, business, the whole world of nature and culture, the entire realm of facts and reality, all ages and all that they have contained. "Science" is

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