10 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



States, wliicli may be in the city of Washiugtoii, in wbosesover custody 

 the same may be, shall be'delivered to such persons as may be author- 

 ized by the Board of Kegents to receive them, and shall be arranged in 

 such order and so classed as best to facilitate the examination and study 

 of them in the building so as aforesaid to be erected for the Institu- 

 tion 5 " provision having been made in the act for a suitable building, 

 etc. It was provided by Congress that the Smithsonian Institution 

 might be constructed adjacent to the Patent Oftlce Building, but the 

 project was not accepted, and an independent building, where now 

 located, was arranged, this being completed in the year 1853. 



It is said that the Secretary of the Interior and the Commissioner of 

 Patents were desirous of removing the collections of the exploring ex- 

 pedition and of the I^Tational Institution out of the Patent Office Build- 

 ing, and requested the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution to receive 

 them. This appears to have been acceded to by the Regents on the 

 condition imposed that the Secretary of the Interior should provide for 

 the payment of the expenses of the keeping and care of the collections. 



An approjiriation of $15,000 was made by Congress in the act of 

 March 3, 1857, for the construction of cases, and of $3,000 for the re- 

 moval of the articles. It was then held by the Attorney-General, in 

 response to a request of the Secretary of the Interior for his opinion, 

 that the provision in the eighth section of the act of the 4th of August, 

 1854 (10 Stats., 572), placing the collections under the control of the 

 Commissioner of Patents, and authorizing the employment by him of 

 keepers therefor, was designed to be tem[)orary only, and that the act 

 establishing the Smithsonian Institution, as well as that making the 

 appropriation in 1857, were to be regarded as indicating the purpose of 

 Congress respecting permanent provision for thi-se collections. 



In 1858, by the act of the 2d of June (11 Stats., 301), an appropria- 

 tion of $4,000 " for the preservation of tbe collection of the exploring 

 and surveying expeditions of the Government" was nuide as a contin- 

 gent expense in the office of the Secretary of the Interior. This ap- 

 pears to have been the product of the condition acceded to by the Sec- 

 retary of the Interior upon the occasion of the removal of the collections 

 from the Patent Office to the Smithsonian; and, pursuing the same 

 practice in October, 1858, Professor Henry, your illustrious predecessor, 

 requested of the Secretary of the Interior the renewal of the same ap- 

 propriation. Since that time this course appears to have been pursued 

 without any other reason for its support than this summary narration 

 indicates. 



By the seventh section of the act for the establishment of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution (9 Stats., 105) the Secretary is directed to discuarge 

 the duties of " keeper of the Museum," and authorized, with the con- 

 sent of the board, to employ assistants. No power of api)oiutment of 

 any of the officers who expend the money i)rovided by these annual ap- 

 propriations is supposed to exist, or, since the transfer to the Smith- 

 sonian, has ever been exercised by any officer of this Department. 



The manner of the appropriation has operated to impose upon the 

 disbursing officer of this Department the duties of an auditor and a 

 treasure!- for this fund, as an officer for whom the Secretary is respon- 

 sible. But no authority over the expenditures appears to rest with the 

 Secretary of the Interior or at least ever to have been exercised, so that 

 aiiyscrutinysupposablehas been thatonly of an auditor. Practically the 

 disbursement of this appropriation has been made by the officers of the 

 Smithsonian Institution, subject to two audits, one by this Department 

 and the other by the Treasury, while the disbursing officer of the In- 



