The Genesis of /he Unifed Sfafes Natio)iai Mnseinn. 125 



and addressed to Senator Walker a letter in further explanation of their 

 views. 



This letter, with the comments upon it by vSenator Walker and Sena- 

 tor Preston, is printed in a note appended to this memoir,' accompanied 

 by a hitherto-unpublished letter from Senator Woodbridge, of Michigan, 

 who, as a member of the committee, was al^le to explain the real signifi- 

 cance of its action. 



All of these papers are given in a pamphlet^ published at the time, 

 which is, however, now exceedingly rare and almost forgotten. 



The versions of the papers here given are for the most part from the 

 originals or verified copies in the archives of the National Museum. 



Senator Tappan's speech and the subsequent action of Congress did 

 much to undermine the foundation of the Institute, which was evidently 

 scarcely solid enough to sustain the structure which it had been proposed 

 to rear upon them. 



After this it was inevitable that there should arise conflicts of authority, 

 and they were not slow in coming. 



It is possible that they were precipitated by Captain Wilkes, who 

 naturally may have felt some irritation at the manner in which the con- 

 trol of the collections made by his expedition were taken out of his control, 

 while he himself was for a time under charges. 



The Commissioner of Patents, too, seems to have been irritated by the 

 occupation of a hall in the Patent Office controlled by alien authority. 



In July, 1843, Doctor Pickering resigned his curatorship, and the 

 Library Committee, now hostile and acting in the spirit of their report, 

 made use of the authority vested in them by the act of August 26, 1842, 

 and appointed to the custodianship of the Government collections the 

 Commissioner of Patents, Mr. Ellsworth, and in August placed Captain 

 Wilkes in special charge of the gatherings of the exploring expedition. 



The action of the committee does not appear to have been known to 

 the officers of the Institute except by rumor, but they were left to find 

 out the change of policy by an unpleasant series of experiences. 



The first serious friction was in connection with Captain Wilkes. Its 

 character is .shown by the following correspondence, which is here printed 

 on account of the new light it throws upon the condition of the National 

 Cabinet of Curiosities in the years 1843-44 and upon the otherwise inex- 

 plicable circumstances which led to the collapse of the National Institute 

 shortly afterwards : 



I^ETTER FROM COLONEL ABERT TO CAPTAIN WILKES, SEPTEMBER 5, 1843. 



Dear Sir: Reports of a painful character, involved in the questions of the 

 inclosed letter, have reached the ears of many of us, and I have been urged as chair- 

 man of the committee having charge of these matters to bring them before the 



' Note E, I, II, III, IV. 



. ^ 1843. [Abert, John J., and Francis Markoe, jr.] Reply | of | Colonel Abert and 

 air. Markoe | to the | Hon. Mr. Tappaji | of the | United States Senate. Wash- 

 ington, — , \Vm. Q. Force, printer. | 1843. I ^ vo. pp. i-i8. 



