THIRTY-TUIRD CONGRESS, 1853-55. 605 



" From his control of the business, constant intercourse with the trustees^ 

 and attendance at all their meetings, he has arisen to be the most important 

 officer in the establishment, though without that responsibility which at- 

 tached to the principal librarian and the heads of departments. The in- 

 fluence p'lssesscd by this officer in the affairs of the museum has followed 

 the usual course where the secretary is permanent, and where the adminis- 

 trative board is fluctuating, and must depend mainly upon the secretary for 

 the information required in the dispatch of ordinary business." — [Report 

 of G^mmission.) 



The case of the British Museum confirms the conviction 

 that whatever power is lodged in the secretary — and we do- 

 not advise to encroach upon or to diminish his authority — it 

 is all-important to have it defined and guided, and guarded 

 by express regulation. Gentlemen ol education and refined 

 sensibilities will be willing to conform to rules in the shape 

 of law, but will always reluct against and resent the exercise 

 of absolute and unrestrained power. Every American heart 

 instinctively resists arbitrary authority; no reasonable mind 

 objects to conformity to established regulations, and obedi- 

 ence to defined, permanent, and uniform rules. Beyond 

 those rules the rights of a subordinate ofiicer are as perfect 

 as those of any other man. Within them he feels that it is 

 no degradation to obey. It is not at all improbable that 

 many of the difiiculties that have been encountered in the 

 British Museum and in the Smithsonian Institution have 

 arisen not so much from lodging too much power in the 

 secretary as from the absence of by-laws fully defining the 

 powers, duties, and relations of all the officers employed in 

 them. The committee is particularly desirous to have it 

 understood that they feel justified in expressing a very de- 

 cided opinion that the difficulties that have arisen, and which 

 the evidence sufficiently discloses, in the bosom of the insti- 

 tution, and the dissatisfaction that may exist in some por- 

 tions of the community, may safely be attributed to the 

 causes just mentioned, and not in the least to an}' want of 

 fidelity or zeal on the part of its managers. 



As it respects the general policy advocated b}' the friends 

 of a library to make it the prominent feature of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, the committee are of opinion that the 

 funds of the institution are sufficient to accomplish that ob- 

 ject at a more rapid rate of gradual accumulation than here- 

 tofore, without essentially impairing the usefulness and 

 efficacy of the policy pursued at present by the managers. 

 Active operations, original researches, and the publication 

 of scientific treatises, if the whole income were consumed 

 in them, would have to be confined far within the limits of 

 what would be desirable. A limitation must be suffered at 

 some point within the income ; and the satisfaction of the 



