The Genesis of the United States National Museum. i8i 



the writing or publication of the voyage and discoveries of the exploring squadron 

 all desired facilities." We really are at a loss to perceive the offensive matter in 

 this sentence. It has no allusion to the Library Committee, for they were neither to 

 write nor to publish. The law invested them with power to enter into contract for 

 the publication, and each member of the scientific corps of the squadron would, we 

 presume, be required to furnish the narrative of his observations. The persons 

 therefore emploj'ed in the "writing or publication of the voyage" were these scien- 

 tific men and the contractors. If furnished with all desired facilities it would be 

 all they ought to have, all they could want, and if furnished by the Institute there 

 would be some agent responsible for the specimens and interested in seeing that 

 they were returned after being taken out of the building by either the describer, the 

 engraver, or the publisher. The Library Committee expired on the 4th of March, 

 and there will be no committee until after a new election by the next Congress. We 

 believe the committee can not appoint an agent to have a longer existence than 

 itself ; hence, appeared in our judgment the propriety that the Institute should be 

 invested with the care of the collection. 



Had the Hon. Senator published our "remarks" with his "report," as was due 

 in all fairness, this letter would have been unnecessary, for the "remarks" contain, 

 in our opinion, ample refutation of the errors of the "report." We deem it wholly 

 unnecessary, also, to point out to you other inconsistencies and mistakes into which 

 the Hon. Senator has fallen, and which have been, on his motion, published in his 

 ' ' report ' ' to the Senate. 



We rather limit ourselves, in conclusion, to soliciting your advice as to the best 

 mode of correcting the erroneous impressions which the language of the vSenator is 

 calculated to make upon the public. 



We remain, dear sir, with great esteem and respect, your most obedient servants. 



LETTER FROM THE HON. MR. PRESTON TO COLONEL ABERT AND MR. 



MARKOE. 



Columbia, South Carowna, April, 1S43. 

 My Dear Sir : Having had ample occasion to witness the devotion which you and 

 Colonel Abert have manifested to the National Institute, you may imagine the sur- 

 prise and mortification with which I have seen the total misconception of your 

 motives and conduct in regard to it in Mr. Tappan's report to the Senate. To the 

 unwearied and enthusiastic exertions of yourselves and a few other gentlemen, ani- 

 mated, as it seemed to me, by nothing but a pure love of science, that institution 

 was mainly indebted for its origin and the eminent success which has attended it 

 from the beginning. I can say with entire certainty that my own interest in it was 

 stinmlated and sustained by you, and that I was continually made ashamed of how 

 little I felt and how little I did, while I saw the unabated zeal and unrecompensed 

 labour which you bestowed upon it. While I wished well to the Institute from a con- 

 viction that it would promote the advancement of science, you and he particularly 

 devoted yourselves to it with that deep enthusiasm which a more intimate knowledge 

 can alone excite, and upon which all scientific projects must depend for their success. 

 Men in public station or the munificent rich may contribute the means, but the vital 

 principle of all such institutions is found in the hearts of those who are willing to 

 work night and day, and whose labour is a labour of love. I was deeply impressed 

 that the Institute had found in you and Colonel Abert precisely such agents, and my 

 high hopes of its ultimate success arose from the fact that it had found such. I by 

 no means mean to say that there are not associated with you other gentlemen equally 

 impelled by as earnest and disinterested motives, but this I will say, that a vast deal 

 of the labour was thrown upon you two, and that, to my mind, the discretion and 



