ncome; that, assuming the amount of
the fund to be five hundred thousand dollars, it should be so
invested as to secure a permanent yearly income of thirty thousand;
and that it should be committed to an incorporated board of
trustees, with a secretary and treasurer, the only person of the
board to receive a pecuniary compensation from the fund."

Mr. Adams then refers to a report made by C. F. Mercer, chairman of a
committee of the House of Representatives, on the 18th of March, 1826
(during his own administration), relative to the expenses of an
Observatory, for much valuable information, and thus proceeds:

"But, as it is desirable that the principal building, the
Observatory itself, should be, for the purposes of observation,
unsurpassed by any other edifice constructed for the same purposes,
I would devote one year's interest from the fund to the construction
of the buildings; a second and a third to constitute a fund, from
the income of which the salaries of the astronomer, his assistants
and attendants, should be paid; a fourth and fifth for the necessary
instruments and books; a sixth and seventh for a fund, from the
income of which the expense should be defrayed of publishing the
ephemeris of observation, and a yearly nautical almanac. These
appropriations may be so distributed as to apply a part of the
appropriation of each year to each of those necessary expenditures;
but for an establishment so complete as may do honor in all time
alike to the testator and his trustees, the United States of
America, I cannot reduce my estimate of the necessary expense below
two hundred thousand dollars.

"My principles for this disposal of funds are these:

"1st. That the most complete establishment of an Astronomical
Observatory in the world should be founded by the United States of
America; the whole expense of which, both its first cost and its
perpetual maintenance, should be amply provided for, without
costing one dollar either to the people or to the _principal_ sum
of the Smithsonian bequest.

"2d. That, by providing from the income alone of the fund a
supplementary fund, from the interest of which all the salaries
shall be paid, and all the annual expenses of publication shall be
defrayed, the fund itself would, instead of being impaired,
accumulate with the lapse of years. I do mos