38 S. Mis. 53. 



last hundred years had been preserved in one hbrary, had that hbrary 

 been in town or country, in the remote east or farthest south, it would 

 have been the great place of resort for students of American history. 



How many would already have gained among its alcoves the means 

 of presenting to the world, in new and fresh pictures, the eventful his- 

 tory of our country. How many disputed and doubtful points would 

 have been settled. How many errors would have been avoided. How 

 much injustice to private character would have been silenced. How 

 many bright examples of patriotism and devotion, now lost, would have 

 been held up to the emulation of youth and the admiration of all. 



Although these remarks go to show the importance of a complete 

 collection somewhere, they do not show that the same rule of accepting 

 or rejecting should be followed where it is known that the collection 

 can never be made complete. 



Every partial collection is supposed to be a selection made for some 

 specific purpose ; and although many works, apparently very remote in 

 their character from those chosen, may be desirable, yet, when means 

 of procuring and preserving are limited, it may be best, it may be 

 necessary, to confine the selection to such as are most intimately 

 connected with the main purpose of the library. 



It might further be a question whether, admitting the importance of 

 a complete collection of copyright books, it should be made here. 



I endeavored to show, in my last report, that it would not be prac- 

 ticable to collect these books in any other way than by a condition of 

 the copyright law, enforcing the deposit somewhere. 



It seems appropriate, if not necessary, that the place of deposit 

 designated by government should be at Washington. Experience has 

 shown that the selection of the Department of State for this purpose is 

 inconvenient. The President of the United States, in his last message 

 to Congress, has expressed the opinion that it would be a benefit to the 

 pubhc service to transfer the execution of the copyright law from the 

 Stale Department. The other places of deposit would be the library 

 of Congress, and the Smithsonian Institution. Whether the deposit be 

 made here, or in the hbrary of Congress, it certainly is the duty of the 

 government to defray all expenses connected with it. It pertains to 

 the government, is a necessary condition of the protection which the 

 government promises to authors, and is precisely analogous to the case 

 of the deposit of models in the Patent Oflice. This Institution cannot 

 afibrd, at its own cost, to receive and take care of everything that is 

 deposited. At the same time it is bound, by its position, to urge the 

 necessity of the deposit, to show how it should be regulated, and to do 

 all that it can, without prejudice to its other interests, to secure to 

 authors and to pubhshers, as well as to students and hterary men, the 

 full advantages which the law contemplates. I accordingly proposed 

 last year a plan which seemed to me to meet all the necessities of the 

 case. 



The general features of this plan were : 



1. To dispense with the registration of title, rendering the publication 

 of the claim of copyright the only preliminary to the vesting of the 

 right, previous to the depositing of a copy. 



