LETTERS ON PROGRAMME OF ORGANIZATION. 971 



Entertaining these views the Committee would look upon any large ex- 

 penditure for the construction or ornament of buildings at Washington as 

 misplaced, as contravening the comprehensive and liberal designs of the 

 founder, and as calculated to the extent to which such expenditures might 

 be carried, to delay the period when the munificence of the endowment 

 might become operative, in stimulating the inventive genius of men, and 

 in aiding the efforts of enterprising individuals in diffusing the results of 

 their discoveries and researches. 



The details of the plans to increase and to diffuse knowledge, as set forth 

 in the Programme, seem to j'our Committee wise and well considered, and 

 as eminently fitted to render the bequests of the liberal Englishman pro- 

 ductive of its legitimate and highest results, in which not Americans only, 

 but all men are so deeply interested. 



Your Committee therefore propose these resolutions for the adoption of 

 the Society : — 



Resolved, That the Programme of organization of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution as explained by Dr. Henry, seems to this Society to lay down the 

 most efficient and fitting means for rendering available in its highest degree 

 the munificent endowment of the Institution and of carrying out the views 

 of its founder. 



Resolved, That a copy of these proceedings duly authenticated by the 

 officers of this Society, be transmitted to the Board of Kegents of the 

 Smithsonian Institution. 



Charles King. 

 EiCHARD S. Field. 

 Wm. B. Kinney. 



L. KiRKPATRICK. 



Nicholas Murray. 



The report having been accepted, the resolutions were unanimously 

 adopted. 



From Nath'l F. Moore. 



Columbia College, 

 New York, JSovemher 24, 1848. 



As regards your well considered programme I should 

 hardly have presumed to ofi'er even an approval of it, but 

 for your request. I can give it heartily however, and fully ; 

 though (complying again with your request) I venture to 

 suggest that perhaps the limitation under the 7th head of 

 section 2d is too narrow, while on the other hand, the great 

 value of the line arts and the just appreciation of them by 

 cultivated minds, may create a risk of the institution's going 

 too far in the direction opened under the 10th, 11th, and 

 12th heads of the same section. «. 



I read some time ago what seemed to be a studied vindi- 

 cation of the step taken by the Institution iu publishing 

 the work of Messrs. Squicr and Davis, but the volume now 

 issued from the press carries with it its justification, and 

 will, I think, be everywhere regarded as a curious and val- 

 uable contribution to knowledge of a kind that was much 

 needed. 



