6B0 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



This sum the Regents ask to be allowed to place in the Treasury of the 

 United States with the original bequest, and to add to it, from time to time, 

 such other sums as may come into their possession by donation or otherwise 

 until the sum thus added shall amount to $ . 



The sole object of this bequest is the permanent investment and perpetual 

 security of the accumulated fund, and when your honorable body is assured 

 that the operations of the institution have received the approbation of the 

 wise and good in every part of the world where literature and science are 

 cultivated, the undersigned trusts that the request will be granted. 



And your petitioner will ever pray, &c. 



JOSEPH HENRY, 

 Secretary of Smithsonian Institution. 



House of Representatives, July 20, 1854, 



Joint Resolution No. 13 approved. — One copy of the works 

 of Thomas Jefterson to be given to the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion. 



House of Representatives, July 25, 1854. 



The House havino^ under consideration as in Committee 

 of the Whole the Navy Appropriation Bill — 



Mr. Haven said: I ofler the following amendment, not 

 by direction of the committee, for I take it that the com- 

 mittee is against me : 



To enable the" Secretary of the Navy to pay the salary of Professor James 

 P. Espy, for the current fiscal year, ending 30th June, 1855, $2,000; pay- 

 ment to bo made in the same manner and under like control as former ap- 

 propriations for meteorological observations. 



Mr. Phelps. I rise to a question of order on the amend- 

 ment. 



Mr. Haven. Let me state just why I think the amend- 

 ment is in order. Similar appropriations are to be found 

 in the Navy appropriation bills for the last three or four years. 

 You will find it referred to in the report of the Secretary of 

 the Navy, President's message and accompanyingdocuments, 

 page 302. On page 393 the committee will find a letter from 

 Professor Espy, from which I will read a short extract After 

 detailing the duties which he has performed in reference to 

 collecting and collating meteorological observations that 

 have been made at the military posts in the country, he uses 

 the following language in his letter to the Secretary of the 

 Navy: 



I have already finished collating the years 1849, 1850, and 1851, with the 

 exception of the third quarter of 1849 and the third quarter of 1851. These 

 quarters I shall finish by the end of the present year, and if you so direct, 

 the report for these three years can be handed in to Congress. 13ut I respect- 

 fully suggest that a report on this subject would bo greatly increased in 

 value by even a small increase of time contained in it ; and I should be 

 pleased if you would allow the report to be withheld from Congress till 

 its second session, at which time the year 1852 would be embodied in it. 



