494 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



referred to a committee, with instructions to inquire into 

 the expediency of printin^^ this report, and also of printing 

 a work whicii they desired to have printed upon architect- 

 ure — a kind of mongrel report prepared by some of the 

 regents. He wanted a committee appointed to inquire into 

 all the facts about the institution, and to report them to this 

 House ; as well as to inquire into the expediency of print- 

 ing this long, voluminous report of the regents. 



Mr. HiLLiARD said he believed he had understood the 

 gentleman's remarks correctly, so fiir as his objections went 

 to the expenses of the printing. The gentleman now chose 

 to assume other grounds; that he desired to examine 

 whether it was such a report as the House ought to receive. 

 Now it would have been far better for the gentleman to 

 have allowed it to be printed, and then this House would 

 have been better enabled, at this session, to ascertain the 

 fact whether it was such a report as they would receive. 



But there was no concealing the fact, that the spirit in 

 which the gentleman made his motion did not grow out of 

 any desire to have the affairs of this institution better con- 

 ducted, or to make its action more efficient, or to relieve it 

 of .a single burden; but, on the contrary, from the uncom- 

 promising hostility which the gentleman from Tennessee 

 and a few others — he was happy to say they were but few — 

 felt against this institution. The gentlemen would be for 

 destroying its organization, for razing its structure to the 

 very foundations, and for returning to the British Govern- 

 ment, or to the trustees of the donor, the munificent sum 

 which had been received from that quarter. He asked the 

 gentleman if it was not so, and if he was not opposed to 

 any use, whatever, being made of the fund for the estab- 

 lishment of an institution in this country called the Smith- 

 sonian Institution? 



Mr. Johnson said, as the question had been asked him, 

 he would very cheerfully answer it. The gentleman wanted 

 to know if his hostility was not fixed to this institution. 



Mr. Smith, of Connecticut, rose to a question of order. 

 He wished to know of the Speaker whether it was in order 

 to discuss the general merits of the Smithsonian Institution 

 upon a mere proposition to appoint a committee ? 



The Speaker replied that the House had adopted no rules 

 of proceeding, and that the parliamentary law allowed a 

 very wide range of debate. 



Mr, Johnson proceeded in his explanation. He was sat- 

 isfied that the gentleman from Alabama with no unkind 

 spirit asked if he (Mr. Johnson) was not fixed in his hostil- 



