THIRTY-SIXTn CONGRESS, 1859-61. 661 



The Presiding Officer. The question is on striking out. 



Mr. Hale. Is it in order to move to strike out more 

 words with those wliich the committee propose to strike out? 



The Presiding Officer. Perhaps it woukl be in order 

 as an amendment to the amendment; but the Chair woukl 

 suggest to the Senator that it woukl be better to take the 

 i^uestion on striking out the words which the committee 

 propose to strike out. 



Mr. Hale. I agree to that. 



The Presiding Officer. The question is on striking out 

 the words which have been read. 



The motion to strike out was agreed to. 



The Presiding Officer. The question now is on the 

 amendment of the Committee on Finance, to insert the fol- 

 lowing words : 



For the distribution of the collections of the exploring and surveying 

 expeditions of the Government, and the construction of additional cases to 

 receive such part of said collections as may be retained by the Grovernment, 

 $6,000. 



The Senator from North Carolina moves to amend the 

 amendment by adding to it: 



Such distribution to be only to institutions willing to receive the same, 

 and at their own expense. 



The question is on the amendment to the amendment. 



Mr. Hale, I am opposed to the whole of this, from be- 

 ginning to end. I have been in Congress I do not know 

 how many years; but about as long as the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution has been in existence. I have devoted some time 

 every year, more or less, to finding out what on earth that 

 Smithsonian Institution was for; I have had friends who 

 have visited Washington, who have told me that they were 

 going to examine it to find out; and I have asked them re- 

 peatedly, if any of them had found it out, to tell me. The New 

 York Tribune — I do not often quote from that paper; for 

 it is never very complimentary to me, any more than it is 

 to the Smithsonian Institution — said that it was a sort of 

 iyiug-in-hospital for literary valetudinarians. [Laughter.] 

 But, sir, it has a fund I believe of $500,000 



Mr. Grimes. Six hundred thousand dollars. 



Mr. Hale. Six hundred thousand dollars, making an 

 income, then, of $36,000 a year "for the increase and diffu- 

 sion of knowledge among men," I believe. So far as I am 

 concerned in the lot of humanity, they have never distributed 

 knowledge enough to me to let me know what the thing is 

 for, or what it does. In addition to the $36,000 which it 

 lias of its annual income from its funds, you propose now to 



