656 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



Mr. Grimes. According to the discretion of the superin- 

 tendent of that institution ? 



Mr. Pearce. Yes, sir; with the approbation of the Inte- 

 rior Department, of course, which is required for all things 

 of this sort. 



Mr. Hale. Then, I think, Congress should not appro- 

 priate the money. I think they ought to be distributed by 

 law, as books and manuscripts are, and should not be given 

 to the discretion of this Department. 



Mr. Fessenden. Why not add the words : " in the dis- 

 cretion of the Secretary of the Interior?" 



Mr. Hale. There does not seem to be any necessity for 

 the provision at all. 



The Presiding Ofmcer, (Mr. Polk in the chair.) If no 

 amendment be offered, the question will be on the amend- 

 ment reported from the Committee on Finance. 



Mr. Fessenden. I suppose the amendment may be 

 amended. 



The Presiding Officer. Certainly; but, as the Chair 

 stated, no amendment being offered to it, the question is 

 on the amendment as reported by the committee. 



Mr. Hunter. It seems to me that before we adopt this 

 amendment, its friends ought to put some limitation on it 

 by which hereafter the Smithsonian Institution is not to re- 

 ceive these things; for I am afraid it will be the beginning 

 of a system of annual distribution like those Patent Office 

 seeds, and may lead us into a large annual expenditure, un- 

 less there is some limitation. I w^ould be willing to distrib- 

 ute them once, if you would put a stop to it there; and there 

 ought to be something done to prevent the receipt of these 

 things hereafter. 



Mr. Pearce. The Smithsonian Institution has not the 

 slightest interest in this thing tvhatsoever ; but the Govern- 

 ment has for years — having no other place to put them — sent 

 all these collections to the Smithsonian Institution, which 

 building, large as it is, is very much lumbered up by them. 

 If you keep them there, they will be compelled to turn other 

 collections away. There is no room to receive any more. 

 They are enormous in bulk and very numerous. It is desi- 

 rable to get rid of them ; and we cannot make a better dis- 

 position of them than to send them to colleges and scientific 

 institutions which have already collections of this sort, 

 though imperfect. It is a very remarkable collection of 

 objects in natural history. There is no desire on the part 

 of the institution to obtain the distribution of this collec- 

 tion. It is a gratuitous thing on their part altogether. This 



