THIRTY-FIRST CONGRESS, 1849-51. 513 



take it for granted that some one suggested the resolution 

 to him. 



Mr. Walker. In that the Senator is altogether mistaken. 

 I have heard the subject spoken of in a great many quarters, 

 but my own mind suggested to me the course I have taken 

 here and elsewhere. I think I can appeal to the Senate that 

 I generally introduce my own thoughts, and a great many 

 of them, in opposition to wdiat seems to be the mind of the 

 Senate. I shall always act on the suggestions of my own 

 mind when right and justice requires me to do so. 



Both the Senator from Mississippi, and the Senator from 

 Maryland are altogether mistaken in what I intended by the 

 resolution. I have partly accomplished what I intended. I 

 wished information from the Senator from Mississippi and 

 the Senator from Maryland, whom I well knew were more 

 familiar with the subject than I was, and ought to be so, for 

 they are, I believe, both regents of the institution. My ob- 

 ject was, to call out information on the subject. On looking 

 to the sixth section of the act, approved August 10th, 1816, 

 which was the act. establishing the Smithsonian Institution, 

 I was really at some loss to determine what it meant, and I 

 am anxious to get views of the Board of Regents upon that 

 point. That section is this : 



Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, That, in proportion as suitable arrange- 

 ments can bo made for their reception, all objects of art and of foreign 

 and curious research, and all objects of natural history, plants, and geolog- 

 ical and mineralogical specimens belonging, or hereafter to belong, to the 

 United States, which may be in the city of Washington, in whosesoever 

 custody the same may be, shall be delivered to such persons as may be 

 authorized by the Board of Regents to receive them, and shall be arranged 

 in such order, and so classed, as best to facilitate the examination and study 

 of them, in the building so as aforesaid to be erected for the Institution ; 

 and the Regents of said Institution shall afterwards, as new specimens in 

 natural history, geology, or mineralogy, may be obtained for the museum 

 of the Institution by exchanges of duplicate specimens belonging to the 

 Institution, (which they are hereby authorized to make,) or by donation, 

 which they may receive, or otherwise, cause such new specimens to bo also 

 appropriately classed and arranged. And the minerals, books, manuscripts, 

 and other property of James Smithson, which have been received by the 

 Government of the United States, and are now placed in the Department of 

 State, shall be removed to said Institution, and shall be preserved separate 

 and apart from the other property of the Institution. 



I was in doubt as to the meaning of this section, and it 

 seems to me that almost every body would be in doubt as to 

 the meaning of Congress in its passage. A portion of it 

 looks as though this was a gratuity, and another portion 

 looks as though it imposed an obligation on the institu- 

 tion to provicTe for and receive those articles which are 

 mentioned. 

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