The Foreign Service Journal, February 2012

It is possible, for instance, that he met Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) while he was the U.S. minister in Paris; we know that Smithson later lived on the same London street as Franklin’s nephew. In his youth Smithson had also known William Thornton (1759- 1828), the future architect of the U.S. Capitol. However, Thornton had not yet moved to the United States, and no subsequent correspondence between the two has turned up. Ultimately, though, all these expla- nations are speculative. Smithson’s mo- tivation for leaving his fortune to the U.S. is likely to remain a mystery. Uncle Sam Gets a Gift In 1828 Smithson relocated to Genoa, where he died on June 27, 1829, and was buried in the tiny Anglican Cemetery on San Benigno Hill, above the port. Three years later his nephew, Henry James Hungerford, had a monu- mental tomb built for his uncle there. A bit of a dandy, Hungerford trav- eled throughout Europe under the as- sumed name of Baron de La Batut. He was described in a 1965 biography of Smithson as “a wastrel, living for his pleasures, which did not, however, in- clude women.” While touring Italy, he died in a hotel in Pisa on June 5, 1835, at the age of 26 or 27. As James Smithson’s will provided, since Henry James Hungerford had died unmarried and without children, the estate of James Smithson became legally the property of the United States. Informed by Smithson’s London so- licitors, the U.S. chargé d’affairés there, Aaron Veil (1796-1878), wrote to the Department of State about the inheri- tance. Curiously, he cast aspersions on Smithson’s soundness of mind when the will had beenmade, writing that he had doubts on whether “the testator labored under some degree of mental aberra- tion at the time it (the will) was made.” Veil was chargé in London from April 1832 to July 1836; he was subse- quently a special diplomatic agent to Canada (1838-1840) and chargé d’af- faires in Madrid (May 1840–August 1842), where he was succeeded by au- thor Washington Irving (1783-1859). President Andrew Jackson (1768- 1845), in his second term when in- formed about the Smithson legacy, was not even sure that he had the authority to accept the gift. OnDec. 17, 1835, he dropped the issue into Congress’s lap. Some congressmen saw the legacy as “a cheap way of conferring immortality” on Smithson. Others, particularly Sen- ator John C. Calhoun (1782-1850) of South Carolina, argued that it was “be- neath the dignity of the United States to receive presents of this kind from any- one.” Calhoun hadmore than national dig- nity on his mind, however. He, like most of states-rights Southerners, was opposed to the legacy because it con- ferred on the national government the power to use it to set up a national in- stitution that neither the states, nor Congress through its appropriations process, could control. Fortunately, former President John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) advocated using the legacy to set up an astronom- ical observatory. Adams was well acquainted with the Department of State and foreign affairs, having lived abroad when his father, John Adams, was U.S. envoy to France and then to the Netherlands. Under President GeorgeWashington (1732- 1799), he himself was the U.S. envoy to the Netherlands (at age 24). He later served as envoy to Portugal, Russia and England before becoming Secretary of State, a position he held from 1817 to 1825. After leaving the presidency in 1829, Adams won a seat in the House of Rep- resentatives in 1830 and served there for 17 years. By the spring of 1836, Adams’ per- sonality and force of argument had gar- nered enough congressional support for accepting Smithson’s legacy, but the de- cision on what to do with it was left to a later day. In the meantime, Congress gave the president authority to appoint a representative to go to London and claim the bequest. A Rush Job On July 1, 1836, Pres. Jackson ap- pointed Richard Rush (1780-1859) of Philadelphia to represent the United States in its claim. A son of Benjamin Rush (1746-1813), a signer of theDec- laration of Independence, Richard Rush had held a wide range of govern- ment positions, including stints as comptroller of the Treasury, U.S. Attor- ney General, acting Secretary of State and Secretary of the Treasury, among many others. He had also been envoy to England, where he had replaced John Quincy Adams, and was well ac- quainted with English public figures and that country’s court system. Rush arrived in London in Septem- ber 1836 and soon learned the legal dif- ficulties of the case. Smithson had stated in his will that the estate would go to the United States only if his nephew died unmarried and childless. Because “Baron Le Batut” had traveled widely in continental Europe, the courts had to be satisfied that he had not left any illegitimate children in his wake. Complicating things further, his mother was also clamoring for a share of the money, as was the British gov- 28 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 2 If James Smithson did cross paths with Benjamin Franklin and other Americans, that might have influenced his bequest.