130 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. 



the civilized world in any region of the globe which has not taken part 

 in these contributions, and some of them with the largest generosity. 

 Men of science, most competent to pass judgment, pronounce them to be 

 of immense value, and are of opinion that, including the gifts from States 

 of the Union and the exhibits of the United States, they could not have 

 been brought together by purchase for less than a million of dollars. 



That the magnitude and value of the donations from foreign govern- 

 ments may be manifest, we annex to this memorial the list of the more 

 important of them, as prepared by Prof. S. F. Baird, who represented 

 the Smithsonian Institution at Philadelphia. Their adequate exhibition 

 requires an additional building, which shall afford at least four times 

 the space furnished by the present edifice of the Institution. 



The Government of the United States is now in possession of the 

 materials of a museum, exhibiting the natural products of our own 

 country, associated with those of foreign nations, which would rival in 

 magnitude, value, and interest the most celebrated museums of the old 

 world. 



The immediate practical question is, shall these precious materials be 

 for the most part packed away in boxes, liable to injury and decay, or 

 shall they be exhibited? 



It was the act of Congress which ordered the acceptance in trust of 

 these noble gifts to the United States. The receiving of them im[)]ies 

 that they will be taken care of in a manner corresponding to the just 

 expectations of those who gave them ; and one of the j)revailing motives 

 of the donors was that the productions of their several lands might con- 

 tinue to be exhibited. The intrinsic value of the donations is moreover 

 enhanced, by the circumstances under which they were made. They 

 came to us in the one-hundredth year of our life as a nation, in token of 

 the desire of the governments of the world to manifest their interest in 

 our destiny. This consideration becomes the more pleasing when we 

 bring to mind that these gifts have been received not exclusively from 

 the great nations of Europe from which we are sprung, or from the 

 empire and republics on our own continent beyond the line, but that 

 they come to us from the oldest abodes of civilization on the Nile, from 

 the time-honored empires and kingdoms of the remotest Eastern Asia, 

 and from the principal states which are rising into intellectual and 

 industrial and political greatness in the farthest isles and continent; 

 from states which are younger than ourselves, and bring their contribu- 

 tions as a congratulatory offering to their elder brother. 



We have deemed it our duty to lay these facts and reflections before 

 both houses of Congress, and to represent to them that if they in their 

 wisdom think that this unequaled accumulation of natural specimens 

 and works interesting to science, the evidence of the good- will to us that 

 exists among men, should be placed where they can be seen and studied 

 by the people of our land and by travelers from abroad, it will be neces- 

 sary to make an appropriation for the immediate erection of a spacious 



