550 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



This would seem to convey an imputation that the body of 

 gentlemen who are charged with the administration may 

 require a police officer or a messenger from this Capitol to 

 get from them papers or other evidence. I regret it, sir; 

 hut straws show how the wind blows, and this strange and 

 exigent demand of power for the committee has its own 

 meaning, which time may disclose. 



I am indisposed, sir, to commit myself, as to any present 

 disposition of this paper, and I submit, therefore, to the 

 Honorable Senator from Maryland that, for the present, it 

 would be better to allow it to lie on the table until it can 

 be considered by the Senate what disposition should be 

 made of it. 



Mr. Pearce. I beg leave to say, in regard to the sug- 

 gestion of the honorable Senator from Virginia, that I 

 remain of opinion that this paper should be referred to a 

 select committee of this body. I do not think that the 

 fact that it is the subject of investigation by a committee 

 of the House of Representatives, should operate to pre- 

 vent us from committing it to a committee of our own 

 body. I have no doubt that House took such action as 

 seemed to them to be proper ; but I submit, with due re- 

 spect to the House of Representatives, that, no matter what 

 may be the action of that House, it is for tlie Senate to act 

 independently. However, I make no motion for reference 

 to a select committee, because I am a member of the Board 

 of Regents, and I do not wish to sit in judgment on my 

 own cause, or over my fellow regents. 



Mr. Douglas. I regret, Mr. President, that there should 

 have been a necessity, in the estimation of any gentleman, 

 to bring the affairs and management of the Smithsonian 

 Institution before Congress for its action. As has been 

 stated by the honorable Senator from Maryland, in terms 

 kind and respectful, I am one of those who had the misfor- 

 tune to differ from a majority on the decision of the varioua 

 questions referred to in this paper. I do not read the letter 

 of Mr. Choate in the same sense with my colleagues who 

 represent the Senate in that institution, [Messrs. Pearce and 

 Mason,] in regard to its spirit. I am unable to perceive 

 that there is anything disrespectful or unkind, either in the 

 terms of the letter, or in the mode in wliich he has expressed 

 his ideas, I have listened to that gentleman, in the discus- 

 sion before the Board of Regents, with admiration for his 

 ability and his eloquence, and with equal admiration for 

 that high courtes}* which characterized everything that he 

 said and did. Althoua-h there is a firmness and a direct- 



