The Genesis of the United States National Mnseiini. 177 



Upon this plan the Institute would be made to fulfill the objects of its organiza- 

 tion, the most appropriate organ would be selected by the Government, and the 

 Government would, in the persons of its own officers, retain its just control over 

 its own property. 



If it should be said that this board of management can be controlled In- directors 

 of the Institute, the answer is easy. It would be worse than idle for the Institute 

 to come in conflict with the Government or hazard a loss of its confidence, and it is 

 not fair to suppose, against all experience, that the small portion of counnon sense 

 necessary to avoid such a consequence would not be possessed by the Institute or 

 that it would be unmindful of its own palpable interests. 



Moreover, if this board of management should be required to lay a statement of 

 its proceedings annually before Congress, it would be held to the established respon- 

 sibility of the different Government Departments, and be subject, like those, to have 

 its course and conduct investigated and corrected. 



Such a plan would also preserve that union between the Government and the Insti- 

 tute collections so desirable and so essential to the prosperity of both. 



It has been intimated to us that there was a desire to separate these and to form 

 a distinction between the Exploring Squadron and the Institute collections. A course 

 more fatal to the prosperity of both collections and to the great objects for which 

 the Institute was chartered, could not well have been imagined. 



All the collections in the care of the Institute, from whatever sources received, are 

 either now the property of the Government or must, by our charter, eventually be- 

 come so. They are the results of various donations from foreign ministers and con- 

 suls abroad ; from foreign institutions and foreign governments ; donations from 

 domestic institutions and from citizens of our own country ; donations from officers 

 of our Army and Navy, the results of the official circulars from the War and Navy 

 Departments; and deposits from individuals and from the different departments at 

 Washington. Let the opinion once get abroad that contributions from these various 

 sources are not to receive from the protecting hand of the Government that atten- 

 tion which their preservation and arrangement require ; let it once be .sujjposed 

 that all these are to be neglected and those only of the Exploring vSquadron to 1)e cared 

 for, and the conseqvience will soon be felt by the degenerating of the collection from 

 a great and increasing storehouse of all that our own and other countries can 

 furnish, to that of a small nuiseum, forever limited to the re.sults of the Exploring 

 Sfpiadron. 



Far be it from our intention, by these remarks, to imdervalue the collection from 

 the Squadron. We are too sensible of its excellence and too conscious of the aid it 

 has been to the Institute to entertain any such idea, and we fully and mo.st highly 

 appreciate the intelligent labor and industry of its collectors. But its specimens 

 neither exhaust our admiration or our wants, nor render us insensible to the highly 

 valuable and continually increa.sing supplies from other sources, nor relieve us from 

 the conviction that upon other sources we must principally rely, if our de.sire be to 

 extend the collection to a point worthy of the national character or of comparison 

 with similar institutions in other countries. 



In justice to the Institute it should also be l)()rne in mind that but for its efTorts 

 these very specimens from the Exploring Squadron would have been scattered, we 

 know not where; and but for tho.se efTorts the scientific describer might have .searched 

 in vain for a specimen upon which to found a description or to prove a discovery. 

 It is to the Institute, chiefly, that those who gathered these specimens are indebted 

 for the present collected results of their great industry and intelligence. 



Second. The next matter which we desire to bring to your notice is the right of 

 disposing of duplicate .specimens. Our efforts to exchange have been paralyzed for 

 the want of this right. The Institute is now seriously indebted to foreign govern- 



NAT MUS 97, PT 2 12 



