be directed for the highest good of
present and future generations in our beloved country,

I am, gentlemen, with great respect, your humble servant,
George PEABODY.

_____

_Action of the Trustees of the Peabody Gift._

On receipt of the foregoing letter by the Hon. Robert C.
Winthrop, the Trustees present in Washington were called upon by
him to meet on February 8th, and the letter having been laid
before them, the following resolutions, moved by Bishop McIlvaine
and seconded by Gov. Aiken, were unanimously adopted:

_Whereas_: Our countryman and friend George Peabody has, in a
letter just communicated to the undersigned, made known his
determination, out of a grateful sense of the manifold (p. 426)
goodness with which God has prospered his life, and of an earnest
desire to promote the best interests of his fellow-citizens, to
devote a munificent donation of property for certain most wise
and beneficent uses indicated in said letter, and has requested
us to take in trust the charge and management of the same,
therefore,

_Resolved_, That the undersigned, being the Trustees assembled in
Washington, deeply sensible of the honor conferred on them by a
trust of such eminent importance and responsibility, and
realizing their dependence upon the guidance and blessing of God
to be enabled to discharge its duties with such wisdom and
faithfulness as may best secure the benevolent designs of the
giver, do hereby accept the office of Trustees of the same, and
promise our best exertions in its behalf.

_Resolved_, That we hereby express to Mr. Peabody our grateful
appreciation of the enlarged and unprecedented generosity which,
after having bestowed upon the poor of the city of London a
bounty that drew forth the admiration of Europe, and after having
exceeded the same in his recent return to his native land, in
benefactions to institutions of learning and education in the
Middle and Eastern States of the Union, has now crowned the whole
with this last deed of patriotism and loving kindness, so
eminently calculated to bind together the several parts of our
beloved country in the bonds of mutual well-doing and regard.

_Resolved_, That we express to Mr. Peabody our respect