714 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINOS. 



The committee divided; and the tellers reported — ayes 

 40, noes 55. 



So the amendment was not agreed to. 



Mr. TwiCHELL. I move to amend by striking out "one" 

 and inserting " four ; " so as to make the paragraph read : 



For the preservation of the collections of the exploring and surveying 

 expeditions of the Government, $4,000. 



The amendment was agreed to. 



May 1, 1868. — The Speaker laid before the House the 

 following communication from the Board of Regents of the 

 Smithsonian Institution ; which, on motion of Mr. Garfield, 

 was referred to the Committee on Appropriations, and 

 ordered to be printed : 



To the honorable the Senate and House of Representatives, ^c. : In behalf 

 of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, the undersigned 

 beg leave respectfully to submit to your honorable body the following 

 statement, and to solicit such action in regard to it as may be deemed just 

 and proper : 



The act of Congress organizing the institution ordered the erection of a 

 building which should accommodate, on a liberal scale, besides a library 

 and a gallery of art, a museum, consisting of all the specimens of natural 

 history, geology, and art, which then belonged to the Government, or which 

 might thereafter come into its possession by exchange or otherwise. Al- 

 though the majority of the Kegents did not consider the maintenance of 

 these objects to be in accordance with the intention of Smithson, as inferred 

 from a strict interpretation of the terms of his will, yet in obedience to 

 the commands of Congress they proceeded to erect a building of the neces- 

 sary dimensions, and to take charge of the Government collections. 



The erection and maintenance of so large and expensive an edifice, in- 

 volving an outlay of $450,000, and the charge of the Government museum, 

 have proved a grievous burden on the institution, increasing from year to 

 year, which, had not its eflects been counteracted by a judicious manage- 

 ment of the funds, would have paralyzed the legitimate operations of the 

 establishment, and frustrated the evident intention of Smithson. 



It is true that Congress, at the time the specimens were transferred to the 

 institution, granted an appropriation of $4,000 for their care and preserva- 

 tion, that being the equivalent of the estimated cost of the maintenance of 

 these collections in the Patent Office, where they had previously been ex- 

 hibited. But this sum, from the rise in prices and the expansion of the 

 museum by the specimens obtained from about fifty exj)loring expeditions 

 ordered by Congress, scarcely more than defrays, at the present time, one- 

 third of the annual expense. In this estimate no account is taken of the 

 rent of the part of the building devoted to the museum of the Government, 

 which, at a moderate estimate, would be $20,000 per annum. 



Besides the large expenditure which has already been made on the build- 

 ing, at least $50^000 more will be required to finish the large hall in the 

 second story, necessary for the full disphiy of the specimens of the Govern- 

 ment. But the Regents do not think it judicious further to embarrass the 

 active operations for several years to come, by devoting a large part of the 

 income to this object, and have, therefore, concluded to allow this room to 

 remain unfinished until other means are provided for completing it. 



It is not by its castellated building nor the exhibition of the museum of 

 the Government that the institution has achieved its present reputation, nor 

 by the collection and display of material objects of any kind that it has 

 vindicated the intelligence and good faith of the Government in the admin- 



