THIRTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS, 1861-63. 679 



fund is not absorbed in salaries? I understand that $6,500 

 is paid annual!}' in the shape of salaries to the secretary and 

 his assistants. It is true that the amount does not come out 

 of the Government directly, but it comes out of the money 

 to sustain that institution, of which some thirty thousand 

 dollars is appropriated by the Government annually. 



Mr. Morrill, of Vermont. I answer the gentleman that 

 the expenditure of the Smithsonian Institution fund is un- 

 der the control and direction of the regents of that institu- 

 tion, and I suppose they are responsible for the manner in 

 which those funds are expended. So far as I know, their 

 management does not fully meet my approbation, and if we 

 have the power, I should certainly be willing to ask for a 

 reform in the management of that institution. But this is 

 an entirely separate and distinct matter. 



Mr. Colfax. I move to reduce the appropriation $1,000. 

 I make this motion merely for the purpose of saying that I 

 hope the gentleman from Ohio, [Mr. Cox,] who is one of 

 the regents of the Smithsonian Institution, will take care 

 of my colleague [Mr. Holman] in this matter, and that he 

 will defend the institution from the attacks upon it from that 

 side of the House. [Laughter.] 



Mr. Holman. I wish to ask my colleague whether, in 

 the expenditures of the $30,000 annually appropriated to 

 supply the funds of this institution, there is any feature 

 more entirely popular in its character or better calculated 

 to carry out the purposes for, which the original grant was 

 made than the preservation and enlargement of the museum 

 of the institution ? 



Mr. Colfax. I say to my colleague that I concur with 

 him in the remarks he has made ; but as I am not yet sworn 

 in as one of the regents, I must refer him for more partic- 

 ular information to the gentleman from Ohio. [Laughter.] 

 Mr. Cox. One word, sir. My friend from Indiana, [Mr. 

 Holman,] who has been placed under my charge by the 

 gentleman of Indiana over the way, [Mr. Colfax,] has made 

 an attack upon this appropriation, and based his attack 

 upon the expenditure of the Smithsonian fund. He finds 

 fault with the action of the regents. In other words, he 

 finds fault because they have taken the interest upon the 

 fund left by that philanthropic Englishman, Smithson, and 

 appropriated some six thousand dollars of it for the salaries 

 of ofiicers. I submit, sir, that the gentleman has no right, 

 and that the House has no right, to inquire into the expen- 

 diture of that fund. 



