516 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



I take it for granted, from the object of the Smithsoniart 

 Institution, and from the plan on which its operations have 

 been commenced and will be conducted, that it will never 

 want such a museum as that in the Patent Office ; still less 

 will it want the garden of plants which has been collected 

 by the exploring expedition. I suppose it would cost the 

 institution not less than $10,000 a year to support such 

 an establishment ; and if it were transferred, Congress, 

 I think, would be bound to endow the institution with 

 $10,000 a year additional. I think it is quite appropriate to 

 keep these natural curiosities in the Patent Office. They 

 may aid inventive genius. Vegetable growth and animal 

 action are elements upon which mechanical invention rests. 

 There would therefore seem to be something appropriate in 

 lodging them in the Patent Office. If they are not to be 

 kept there, let the Government provide a room elsewhere, 

 get rid of them, destroy them, or give them to somebody 

 that will take them. But let not the Government coerce a 

 fund, of which it was the chosen trustee, which was granted 

 by a foreigner for a special purpose, with the charge of 

 keeping this collection. 



Mr. Badger. I move to lay the resolution on the table. 



The motion was agreed to, and the resolution was ordered 

 to lie on the table. 



Senate, March 1, 1851. 



The President of the Senate laid before the body, a letter 

 from the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, commu- 

 nicating the annual report of the Board of Regents of said 

 Institution ; which was read and ordered to lie on the table. 



On motion by Mr. Pearce that it be printed, and that 

 2,000 extra copies thereof be printed, the motion was re- 

 ferred to the Committee on Printing. 



Senate, March 5, 1851. 



On motion of Mr. Pearce the President of the Senate 

 was authorized to fill the vacancy in the Board of Regents 

 of the Smithsonian Institution occasioned by the expiration 

 on the 3d day of March, 1851, of the term of the Hon. 

 Jefferson Davis. 



Senate, March 6, 1851. 



On motion of Mr. Pearce, the President of the Senate 

 was authorized to fill the vacancy in the Board of Regents 

 occasioned by the expiration of the term of service of the 

 Hon. James M. Mason. 



