The Independence of the Smithsonian Institution: Where Character Is Destiny

The Smithsonian Institution is intended, by its very charter, to stand independent from the federal government.

My request that five billion dollars from awards granted in my name be transferred to the Smithsonian Institution is accompanied by my specifications that all of my documents be given to the Museum for a dedicated exhibition, to be made available for the foreseeable future, regardless of political maneuvering by the Executive, Legislative, or Judicial branches of government.  

In other words, the history of the United States should not be limited by any political agenda that may leave out critical events by which the American people could interpret their access to their Constitutional rights or their human rights in the long term.

How can we prevent slavery and human trafficking in the future if we do not have full access to transformative exhibits such as that regarding Frederick Douglass, curated by John Stauffer and Ann Shumard? 

Our chances of participating in defining and edifying change within the United States in the long term are entirely dependent upon our grasp of the remarkable Americans who came before us.

We cannot claim the future if we fail to understand the past.

It is in this aim that I expressly prohibit my documentation from being transferred to the White House at this time.

If I am contacted through honorable and peaceable outreach regarding my case, then I can participate in the curation of my documentation, together with Smithsonian Institution staff.

Those who would wish to communicate administration concerns regarding this documentation should do so through the appropriate channels directed to me, so that I may incorporate those concerns into the process of curating the exhibit in full.

In the absence of my participation, the Smithsonian Institution should make every verified document from me available to the public for its review and assessment, with stipulations provided within my Will.

My five billion dollar endowment should free the Smithsonian Institution from its immediate dependency on federal funding regarding this attempt to misappropriate documents regarding this matter.

Further, I hereby direct that a 50 billion dollar endowment be provided to the Smithsonian Institution from funds awarded in my name, with the intent that the Smithsonian Institution will become permanently free and independent from yearly budgetary approvals from any and all federal authorities.

Taxes on that gift are to be paid from funds awarded in my name through my case against the FBI and its affiliates.

I encourage the American people to view the Smithsonian Institution as an irreplaceable repository of knowledge regarding America's past.  It is a living library that houses the thoughts and events tied to America's greatest thinkers, leaders, artists, scientists, explorers, innovators and founders.

Yet, this great American institution, like the Constitution itself, will only survive and thrive as the gift to the nation that it is intended to be, if we ourselves participate in the history it preserves.  Our greatest potential in the long term future is dependent on our understanding of the most meaningful challenges we as Americans have faced and overcome in the past.

Mostly, it is critical for us to comprehend that power by itself ought not to have dispensation to redact our past, to withhold our beginnings, or to erase our history from our own knowledge, honor, and respect as a nation.

I understand that the federal government has long possessed objectives and advanced programs that have not been rendered immediately public.

But those perspectives should be addressed to me and not expressed through the loss of critical documentation through any means.

Fundamentally, a loss of the documentation on which I have labored tirelessly over the last eight years will easily translate to a loss of my life and the lives of all my family.

I cannot reclaim the nation's freedoms in the long term if I am prevented from documenting my own experience in a manner that will be most complete and meaningful for the American public in the long term.

The Greeks loved to opine that character is destiny.

And I daresay, as a student of literature and life, they were right.

But if character is destiny, then history is potential.

The Smithsonian Institution knows that open secret, so foundational to the greatest accomplishments of our nation.

So do I.

Lane MacWilliams