20 U.S.C. § 80e: Congressional declaration of policy

that a living institution expressing the ideals and concerns of Woodrow Wilson would be an appropriate memorial to his accomplishments as the twenty-eighth President of the United States, a distinguished scholar, an outstanding university president, and a brilliant advocate of international understanding; that the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Commission, created by joint resolution of Congress, recommended that an International Center for Scholars be constructed in the District of Columbia in the area north of the proposed Market Square as part of the Nation’s memorial to Woodrow Wilson; that such a center, symbolizing and strengthening the fruitful relation between the world of learning and the world of public affairs, would be a suitable memorial to the spirit of Woodrow Wilson; and that the establishment of such a center would be consonant with the purposes of the Smithsonian Institution, created by Congress in 1846 “for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.”