When the fact of the bequest became known, some six years after Smithson’s death, much opposition was shown in Congress toward its acceptance. Eminent statesmen like Calhoun and Preston argued that it was beneath the dignity of the United States to receive presents, and that it was too cheap a way of conferring immortality on the donor. The wise counsels and enthusiastic labors of John Quincy Adams, who seems to have had from the first a thorough appreciation of the importance of the matter, finally prevailed, and the Hon. Richard Rush was sent to England to prosecute the claim. He entered suit in the Courts of Chancery, in the name of the President of the United States, and in less than two years—an event unparalleled in the Court of Chancery—had obtained a favorable decision. The legacy was brought over in the form of 104,960 gold sovereigns which were delivered September 1st, 1838, to the Philadelphia mint, where they were immediately recoined into American money, producing $508,318.46, as the first installment of the Smithsonian legacy. This was increased in 1861 to $534,529.09.
For eight years the legacy lay in the Treasury, while the wise men of the nation tried to decide what to do with it. In this instance the adage that in the multitude of counselors there is wisdom did not appear to be applicable in the ordinary interpretation. The delay, though irksome to those who desired to see immediate results, was, however, the best thing in the end for the interests of the trust. Every imaginable disposition of the legacy was proposed and discussed in Congress; the debates fill nearly three hundred and fifty pages of Rhees’s compilation of Smithsonian documents. Letters by the hundred, advisory, expostulatory and dissuasive were received from representative thinkers and from societies at home and abroad. Every man had a scheme peculiar to himself, and opposed all other schemes with a vigor proportionate to their dissimilarity to his own. Schools of every grade, from a national university to an agricultural school, a normal school and a school for the blind were proposed. A library, a botanical garden, an observatory, a chemical laboratory, a popular publishing house, a lecture lyceum, an art museum, any and all of these and many more were proposed and advocated by this voluntary congress of many men of many minds. It is not necessary in this place to discuss the history of the period at length, nor to relate the manner in which the prevalence of wiser councils was brought about. It is sufficient to say that though the new institution was burdened from the start with various undertakings which have since proved unprofitable or better suited to the capacity of other institutions, such have been the flexibility of its organization and the vitality of its membership that it has been able to work out a career for itself unparalleled in the history of benevolent foundations.
It need not be said that the accomplishment of these effects was the result of long continued effort on the part of men of unusual ability, energy and personal influence. No board of trustees or regents, no succession of officers serving out their terms in rotation could have developed from a chaos of conflicting opinions, a strongly individualized establishment like the Smithsonian Institution. The names of Joseph Henry and Spencer F. Baird are so thoroughly identified with that of the Institution that their biographies combined would form an almost complete history of its operations. A thirty-two years’ term of uninterrupted administrative service has been rendered by one, thirty-four years by the other. It is very doubtful whether any other institution has ever had the benefit of such an uninterrupted administration of thirty-eight years, beginning with its birth and continuing in an unbroken line of consistent policy a career of increasing usefulness and enterprise.
Joseph Henry, the first secretary, entered upon his duties at the end of the year 1846, a man already famous as an investigator in physical science, a professor of fourteen years’ standing in Princeton College, and recognized as eminent in scientific and general acquirements. From the age of forty-seven to that of seventy-nine, his life was merged in that of the Institution. Professor Asa Gray has pointed out so clearly the deep impression which he made upon the Institution while it was yet plastic, that I venture to quote his words in order to explain the character of this new force in the evolution of good results from the Smithson benefaction. “Some time before his appointment,” writes Professor Gray, “he had been requested by members of the Board of Regents to examine the will of Smithson and to suggest a plan of organization by which the object of the bequest might, in his opinion, best be realized. He did so, and the plan he drew was in their hands when he was chosen secretary. The plan was based on the conviction ‘that the intention of the donor was to advance science by original research and publication; that the establishment was for the benefit of mankind generally, and that all unnecessary expenditures on local objects would be violations of the trust.’ His ‘Programme of Organization’ was submitted to the Board of Regents in the following year, was adopted as its governing policy, and has been reprinted in full or in part in almost every annual report. If the Institution is now known and praised throughout the world of science and letters, if it is fulfilling the will of its founder and the reasonable expectations of the nation which accepted and established the trust, the credit is mainly due to the practical wisdom, the catholic spirit, and the indomitable perseverance of its first secretary, to whom the establishing act gave much power of shaping ends, which as rough-hewn by Congress were susceptible of various diversion. Henry took his stand on the broad and ample terms of the bequest, ‘for the increase and diffusion of useful knowledge among men,’ and he never narrowed his mind and to locality gave what was meant for mankind. He proposed only one restriction, of wisdom and necessity, that in view of the limited means of the Institution, it ought not to undertake anything which could be done, and well done, by other existing instrumentalities. So as occasion arose he lightened its load and saved its energies by giving over to other agencies some of its cherished work.” The character of the work done in manifold directions will be discussed topically below; its spirit is sufficiently indicated in Dr. Gray’s terse summary just quoted. Professor Henry died in 1878. “Remembering his great career as a man of science,” remarked President Garfield, “as a man who served his Government with singular ability and faithfulness, who was loved and venerated by every circle who was blessed with the light of his friendship, the worthiest and the best, whose life added new luster to the glory of the human race, we shall be most fortunate if ever in the future we see his like again.”[H] His statue, erected by Congress, stands in the Smithsonian Park.
Concerning the influence of Professor Baird, upon whom the mantle of his predecessor has descended, it would perhaps be premature and out of taste to speak. His eminence as a naturalist and his patriotic service as Commissioner of Fisheries are too well known to need mention, and indeed may be quite as appropriately discussed elsewhere. As assistant secretary from the age of twenty-four he was intimately associated with Professor Henry for twenty-seven years, and his executive ability found full scope in the development of the systems of publication and international exchange, as well as the museum, and the explorations, biological and ethnological, which were from the beginning under his charge. As secretary his policy has been a direct continuation of that of Professor Henry. The services of Mr. William J. Rhees, for thirty-two years chief clerk, merit also especial notice.
The formal direction of the Institution is vested in a board of regents, consisting of the Vice President and Chief Justice of the United States, three members each from the Senate and the House of Representatives, and six persons citizens of the United States appointed by Congress. The President and his cabinet are ex officio members of the Institution, and there is a provision, not at present carried into effect, providing for the election of honorary members of the Institution. The secretary is the only executive officer of the board, and is responsible to the board for his conduct of affairs. The regents meet once a year in January. Many eminent men have served in the capacity of regents, and the records of their proceedings indicate that their interest in the work under their charge has been uniformly very active.
The building occupied by the Institution and bearing its name is an ornate structure of Seneca brown stone, occupying a prominent position in the “Mall” which extends from the Capitol to the Washington monument. This building was begun in 1847 and completed in 1855. It is hybrid in character, combining features selected from both Gothic and Romanesque style, and is more admired by the public than by connoisseurs in architecture. It is doubtful if a building more unsuited to the purposes for which it was designed was ever constructed. The diversion of the funds of the Smithsonian bequest to this building was one of Professor Henry’s greatest griefs, and before the close of his life by careful economy of the annual income, he had succeeded in restoring the entire sum, amounting to about $450,000 to the permanent endowment fund, beside increasing this fund nearly $150,000 over and above the original bequest. The eastern wing of the building, for so many years the hospitable home of the secretary, has been reconstructed internally, and the offices of the Institution are all established within its walls. The remainder of the building is occupied by laboratories and exhibition halls connected with the National Museum. Another building has recently been built east of the Smithsonian for the reception of a portion of the national collections. This was put up by congressional appropriation, and Congress has at last recognized the justice of the claim, so many years urged upon them by the secretary, that the Smithson money should not be used to provide shelter for the government cabinets, and has assumed the care of the Smithsonian building and votes money for its repairs and maintenance.
Few people who visit Washington make the proper discrimination between the Smithsonian Institution proper, and the establishments under its custody. What they see is the National Museum. The relations of the Museum to the Institution will be discussed more fully in a separate article, but it is necessary to state just here that it is not the property of the Institution, but rather its ward—its management being intrusted by law to the Institution which is provided with funds for its maintenance by annual congressional grants. In early days the Smithsonian supported collections of its own, but these were not primarily for public exhibition, but for the uses of scientific investigators. Professor Henry always maintained that not one cent of the Smithson fund could with propriety be applied to the support of the National Museum, and his view is now the accepted one.
In the Smithsonian proper, little is to be seen by visitors. In the regents’ room is an interesting collection of relics of the founder, including his portrait, his scientific library, and certain of his pictures and personal effects. Beside the regents’ room there are offices, store rooms and packing rooms occupied by busy clerks and mechanics. The Smithsonian is, first of all, an executive establishment, to which have been confided various trusts, to be mentioned hereafter. It is also a publishing house, and an “exchange” for the reception and transmission of scientific materials. The great masses of books in brown wrappers and cases of papers, apparatus and specimens constitute therefore the greater bulk of the material with which it has to deal.
The leading feature of the plan proposed by Professor Henry was from the first “to assist men of science in making original researches, to publish them in a series of volumes, and to give a copy of them to every first-class library on the face of the earth.” The manner in which the first item of policy has been carried out can not be described here. Those who wish to know how it has been done must consult the thirty-four thick volumes of the annual reports, presented to and printed by Congress. It is safe to say, however, in general terms that there is probably not a scientific investigator in America to whom the helping hand of the Institution has not at some time been of service, and that assistance of this sort has been by no means restricted to this side of the Atlantic. Books, apparatus and laboratory accommodations have been supplied in thousands of instances, and every year a certain number of money grants have been made. Not less important has been the personal encouragement afforded, especially to beginners and persons remote from other advice, in the hundreds of thousands of letters which have been written by the two secretaries during the seventy years of their added terms of office. No communication is ever passed by unnoticed and the archive rooms of the Institution packed from floor to ceiling with letter files and letter copy books are well worthy of inspection.