The Smithsonian

As members of the House pointed out when the First Congress refused to finance a scientific expedition to Baffin's Bay, the clause in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution gave Congress power only to provide for patents and copyrights, not to promote knowledge generally. Endeavors to employ authority over the seat of government as a pretext for evading limits on congressional powers within the states had been rightly rejected, before James Smithson's legacy to the US of a substantial sum of money for the increase and diffusion of knowledge. In passing the bill authorizing the Smithsonian Institution, Congress seemed to have played fast and loose with the power to legislate for the seat of government. Another aspect of the legislation deserving mention is that the statute did not say whether the Institution was a government agency.