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[[stamped]] 137?8 [[/stamped]]

-69-

[[stamped]]OCT 23 1987[[/stamped]]

Honorable John Glenn
Committee on Governmental Affairs
United States Senate
Washington, D. C. 201510

Dear Mr. Chairman:

I am writing to share with you the concern of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution about the inclusion of the Institution in S.908, an act to amend the Inspector General Act of 1978, in view of the Smithsonian's unique status and the controls that already exist. 

The Smithsonian Institution was created under the will of James Smithson, an Englishman, who died in 1829. Mr. Smithson's will provided that if his heir died childless (which he did)

"...I then bequeath the whole of my property...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."

In essence, Mr. Smithson's will named the United States as trustee of a sizeable sum of money if the U.S. would agree to establish the Institution and administer it as an educational organization to benefit all of mankind - not just the people of this country. The Smithson bequest amounted to more than half a million dollars - a magnificent sum in the early 1800's - and the matter was taken very seriously by our Government. 

In 1935 President Andrew Jackson wrote to Congress:

The Executive having no authority to take any steps for accepting the trust and obtaining the funds, the papers (concerning the bequest) are communicated (to Congress) with a view of such measures as Congress may deem necessary. 

By the Act of July 1, 1836 (5 Stat. 64) Congress accepted the trust and pledged the faith of the United States that all