1 82 Memorial of George Brozvji Goode. 



wisdom of the Institute was evinced in the selection of such agents. I speak of 

 Colonel Abert and yourself especially because you and he are made the subject of a 

 most unmerited attack. 



It is with great pleasure that I bear this testimony in your behalf. If I had been 

 in the Senate when the report was made I think I would have been able to satisfy 

 Mr. Tappan of the mistake into which he had fallen, but at all events I would have 

 put upon record my opinion of the purity of pturpose and the wisdom of the plans 

 which have characterized the conduct of Colonel Abert and yourself throughout. 



I am entirely satisfied that if the government collection derived from the explor- 

 ing expedition, or from any other source, be not to a great extent subject to the 

 control of a scientific association, or of men animated by a philosophic spirit, which 

 spirit alone brings them to the task, it will not increase and will be dilapidated. 

 Our government is peculiarly incapable of a proper superintendence of scientific 

 institutes. In the first place, it may be said that it has no constitutional power, and 

 if it had, the tenure of ofl&ce is so liable to change, that in a department so removed 

 from interests of intense excitement, negligence and decay would soon creep in. It 

 therefore seems to me from the beginning that accessions to science, incidentally 

 made, like the collections of the exploring expedition, should be deposited for 

 arrangement, preservation, and exhibition with such a society as the National Insti- 

 tute, the government retaining the property while the Institute has the use of it, or 

 rather while the Institute makes it useful to the public. Without some such 

 arrangement the Government will find that its valuable specimens will be lost or 

 naoulder away in forgotten boxes, or become a mere mass of rubbish. 



I am persuaded that Mr. Tappan, upon such explanations as you and other gentle- 

 men in Washington can give him, will perceive the injustice of his remarks. He has 

 an earnest love of science and literal learning of all sorts, and without some obvious 

 misconception can not fail to sympathize and cooperate with gentlemen who with 

 such singleness of purpose and such broad intelligence as yourself and others of our 

 friends of the Institute have at heart the same objects with himself. 

 I am, my dear sir, yoiir obedient servant, 



Wm, C. Preston. 



Fratstcis Markoe, jr., Ksq. 



vSpringwp;i,i,s (near Detroit), May iS, 1843. 

 Col. J. J. Abert. 



Dear Sir: I have read with much interest, but not without some pain, the pam- 

 phlet you had the goodness to send to me. I regret that anything should have oc- 

 curred unpleasant to you, and especially in any matter in which the Library Commit- 

 tee should have participated. I do not remember the day when ' ' the remarks ' ' of 

 yourself and Mr. Markoe were submitted in the Senate by Mr. Walker and referred; 

 but my impression is that by reason of accident or delay in some of the officers of 

 the Senate they did not reach the committee until more than a week-after they were 

 referred ; and when taken up in committee the session had approached very nearly 

 its termination. I do not remember whether, when so taken up, they were read in 

 extenso, but the "bill" which accompanied them was read and its principle dis- 

 cussed. The committee was, I believe, unanimous in its opinion that it was not 

 expedient to pass the bill — if at any time, certainly not until the Library Committee 

 should have fully executed and terminated the trust committed to it by law. Very 

 much inconvenience and embarrassment had already grown out of a confliction of 

 an alleged power of control and direction, especially in relation to the "specimens 

 of natural history," etc., collected, and in respect to which it has been made the 

 duty of the Lil^rary Committee to cause to be prepared the appropriate publications. 



Great responsibility nnist grow out of the execution of those powers, for a wide 

 discretion must of necessity be exercised. Without expressing any opinion as to 



