I share this bit of American history from chapters XV and XVI of the book Smithsonian Institution, a Smithsonian Scientific Book Series, Volume I. Chapter XV is titled "How Congress Established the Smithsonian." It discusses the legislative committee and their planning of the Institution. What struck me as interesting was who one of the early "Eight Great Regents" listed in Chapter XVI was. Turns out the man who led an armed rebellion of war (1861-1865) against the United States of America only eight years after he'd finished serving as a Smithsonian Regent was no other than Jefferson Davis.
H.R.5 - A Bill To establish the ''Smithsonian Institution,'' for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.
Whereas James Smithson, esquire, of London, in the kingdom of Great Britain, by his last will and testament did give the whole of his 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; and whereas Congress have heretofore received said property and accepted said trust; therefore, that the same may be executed in good faith, and according to the will of the liberal and enlightened donor
Chapter XV
Nearly eight years passed from the time when America received Smithson's gold before Congress passed the Act which established the Smithsonian Institution. A bill
In 1838 the matter of the Smithson bequest was referred in the House of Representatives to a committee of nine, with the Honorable John Quincy Adams, ex-President of the United States, as chairman, which received considered plans for its disposition. One of these early plans was for a large agricultural school and farm, others provided "for the instruction of females," for "courses of lectures," a "school for the blind," and even for "improved methods of rearing sheep, horses, and silkworms."
There soon developed serious opposition, particularly on the part of the chairman, Mr. Adams, to the use of any part of the fund for school or university purposes. He declared that he would rather see the Smithson money thrown into the Potomac than to see it devoted to the education of the youth of America. The scheme which he himself favored was the establishment of an astronomical observatory "to be superior to any other devoted to the same science in any part of the word." This scheme he pushed ardently and persistently throughout the ensuing years of discussion, in fact until the Government did provide the interests of astronomy in the U.S. Naval Observatory.
In the long list of Smithsonian Regents during three quarters of a century there have been vice presidents, several of whom have later become President, chief justices, distinguished senators and representatives, and citizens eminent in education, science, diplomacy, and literature. Among the citizen Regents in particular we find names to conjure with, of those who have taken the keenest interest in the affairs of the Institution and have served long and useful terms.
Chapter XVI
Jefferson Davis, next to Abraham Lincoln perhaps the most striking figure during the stormy days of the Civil War, was born in Kentucky in 1808. It is a strange coincidence that he, the future President of the Confederate States, and Abraham Lincoln, the future President of the United States, were born only eight months apart in time and forty miles apart in distance. Davis received an excellent education for that time, attending several schools and academies, and finishing with a military training at West Point. Immediately after his graduation, he entered upon a military career, and took part in the "Black Hawk" Indian war. After the defeat of the Indians and the capture of Black Hawk, Lieutenant Davis was detailed to take him to prison at St. Louis. The old chief was later transferred to Fort Monroe, where Davis himself was destined to be imprisoned at the close of the Civil War.
Davis married Sarah Knox Taylor, daughter of General Zachary Taylor, later President, but shortly after their marriage his young wife contracted the dreaded chills-and-fever malady of the South and died. Davis was so saddened by this tragedy that he went into seclusion on his brother's plantation in Mississippi, where he remained for five years. At the end of this time he emerged from the obscurity of the wilderness and entered politics, and his public career dates from 1843.
In 1845 he was elected to Congress from Mississippi, and he immediately attracted wide attention through his ability and his brilliant speeches on the important issues of the day. The following year he served with great distinction as a colonel in the Mexican War, his personal bravery and qualities as a military leader being demonstrated on many occasions, particularly at the famous battle of Buena Vista, during which he was wounded but remained in the saddle until the battle was won.
After the Mexican War, Jefferson Davis again appeared in public life, as United States Senator, and later as Secretary of War. He was exceptionally influential as a cabinet officer, and introduced desirable improvements into the Army. When the problems of States rights and slavery became serious, Davis was returned to the Senate, and often expressed himself ardently in favor of the individual rights of the States. When at last his own State of Mississippi withdrew from the Union, he left the Senate and returned home. He took leave of the Senate in a speech of great power in which he said in part:
"I rise, Mr. President, for the purpose of announcing to the Senate that I have satisfactory evidence that the State of Mississippi, by a solemn ordinance of the people in convention assembled, has declared her separation from the United States. . . . It is known to Senators who have served with me here that I have for many years advocated, as an essential attribute of State sovereignty, the right of a State to secede from the Union. . . . A great man who now reposes with his fathers, and who has been arraigned for want of fealty to the Union, advocated the doctrine of nullification, because it preserved the Union. It was because of his deep-seated attachment to the Union, his determination to find some remedy for existing ills short of a severance of the ties which bound South Carolina to the other States that Mr. Calhoun advocated the doctrine of nullification, . . . not to disturb the Union, but to be a means of bringing the [actions of their] agent [the Union] before the tribunal of the States for their judgment.
"Secession belongs to a different class of remedies. It is to be justified on the basis that the States are sovereign. . . . It is by confounding of nullification and secession that the name of a great man, whose ashes now mingle with mother earth, has been invoked to justify coercion against a seceded State. The phrase, 'to execute the laws,' was an expression which General Jackson applied to the case of a State refusing to obey the laws while yet a member of the Union. That is not the case which is now presented. . . . If it be the purpose of gentlemen, they may make war against a State which has withdrawn from the Union; but there are no laws of the United States to be executed within the limits of a seceded State.
A State finding herself in the condition in which Mississippi has judged she is, in which her safety requires that she should provide for the maintenance of her rights out of the Union, surrenders all the benefits (and they are known to be many), deprives herself of all the advantages (and they are known to be great), severs all bonds of affection (and they are close and enduring), which have bound her to the Union; and thus divesting herself of every benefit, taking upon herself every burden, she claims to be exempt from any power to execute the laws of the United States within her borders. . . .
"I see around me some with whom I have served long; there have been points of collision; but whatever of offense there has been to me, I leave here; I carry with me no hostile remembrance. Whatever offense I have given which has not been redressed, . . . I have, Senators, in this hour of our parting, to offer you my apology for any pain which, in the heat of discussion I have inflicted. I go hence unincumbered of the remembrance of any injury received, and having discharged the duty of making the only reparation in my power for any injury offered.
"Mr. President and Senators, having made the announcement which the occasion seemed to me to require, it only remains for me to bid you a final adieu!"
With the formation of the Confederacy, Davis was first selected as commander-in-chief of the volunteer troops of the State of Mississippi, but with the meeting of the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States, he was elected President of the Confederacy, and shortly afterwards established the capital at Richmond, Virginia.
With unwavering fidelity to his beliefs and ideals, Jefferson Davis served the South throughout the terrible years of the Civil War. He was in turn praised and bitterly assailed for his policies, and biographers still differ radically in their estimates of his administration. Upon the final defeat of the South, Davis was accused of implication in the assassination of Lincoln, and was incarcerated in Fort Monroe under heavy guard for two years. He was never tried, but was released on bond, and after traveling for a year or two, settled near Biloxi, Mississippi, for the purpose of writing a history of the Confederacy, which he completed in 1881. Jefferson Davis died in 1889 at the age of eighty-one years.
During his career in the United States Senate, Davis was a member of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, and took an active interest in its affairs. During the debates in Congress on the foundation of the Institution, he also appeared prominently, and it was he who insisted that the United States Government must make good the loss of a large part of the Smithson fund through its investment in State bonds which later became worthless.
On August 10, 1846, the bill was signed by President James K. Polk, and the Smithsonian Institution was at last a reality, just twenty years after James Smithson wrote his will in London. This Act establishing the Smithsonian permitted of considerable latitude in interpretation in certain sections and went into minutest detail in others. In substance it was as follows:
A BILL TO ESTABLISH THE "SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION" FOR THE INCREASE AND DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE AMONG MEN
The Smithsonian Institution: The History of the World’s Largest Museum and Research Complex | In Custodia Legis (loc.gov)
James Smithson: Founder of the Smithsonian Institution | Smithsonian Institution Archives (si.edu)
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