36 BOARD OF REGENTS. 



The following resolutions accompan} 7 the foregoing report, viz : 



Resolved, That the sum of two hundred and fifty dollars be paid by the Executive 

 Committee to Mr. Isaiah Eogers, architect, of Boston, in full remuneration for plans 

 submitted by him to the Board. 



Resolved, That the Secretary be requested to inform Mr. John Notman, of Phila- 

 delphia, architect, in reply to his letter, that the Board understood him as offering his 

 plans in competition with the other architects, and as such, awarded him a premium ; 

 that, being informed by him that he considered himself, as requested by the Building 

 Committee, to furnish 'a plan to the Board, trusting to the Board for the amount of 

 remuneration ; they have again carefully examined his plans, and have decided that 

 the sum of two hundred and fifty dollars, which the chairman of the Executive Com- 

 mittee has heretofore been authorized to pay Mr. Notman in full for his plan, be paid 

 to Mr. Notman, on demand, as remuneration for his plan, on receiving from him a 

 receipt in full. 



The question being put, Shall the resolutions pass ? 

 It was decided in the affirmative. 



On motion of Mr. Hough, the Board adjourned until Wednes- 

 day next, the 24th instant, at 10 o'clock, a. m. 



February 24, 1847. 

 The committee appointed on the 5th December last, to " procure 

 the introduction, if they deem it expedient, of a bill amendatory 

 of the act establishing this institution," submit, as the best expla- 

 nation of their proceedings, the following communication addressed 

 by them to the editor of the Union, and published in that paper of 

 the 15th February : 



To the Editors. 



Sir : The undersigned, appointed by the Board of Begents of the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution, a committee to " procure the introduction into Congress, if they deem it 

 expedient, of a bill amendatory of the act organizing the institution," have, in dis- 

 charging the duty assigned them, had brought under their consideration the subject, 

 treated of in an editorial published in the Unionof February 11. And they beg leave 

 to offer, in reply, a few remarks and a brief statement of their intentions in the prem- 

 ises. 



The Building Committee of the Smithsonian Institution have already exonerated 

 the Board from all responsibility connected with the selection of a site on the Mall in 

 preference to one in the populous portion of the city ; no choice being in fact left to 

 the Board, since no suitable unoccupied square is to be found on the entire plan of 

 the city this side of the canal ; and, with no other powers than those contained in the 

 act organizing the institution, no site already occupied could be purchased by the in- 

 stitution. 



There is a site the most eligible, probably, in the city, for our institution — that of 

 the present City Hall. It has been represented to the undersigned that it would be 

 most desirable, on the score of public convenience, if it could be procured. They 

 concur in this opinion. In the immediate vicinity of the principal hotels and board- 

 ing houses, comprising an eminence whence the ground gradually falls off in all direc- 

 tions, in a healthy portion of the city, utility and appearance would be equally con- 

 sulted in selecting it. But it is in the occupation of the city, and, while the present 

 building remains upon it, it can properly receive no other public edifice. Without 

 the concurrent action of Congress and of the City Corporation it cannot be obtained 

 as a site for the Smithsonian Institution. 



The undersigned, however, having had their attention called to this subject not 

 only by the article to which they are replying, but by other similar representations, 

 after maturely considering the subject, have resolved to endeavor to obtain such con- 

 current action. They examined the plan of the present City Hall, the same of which 

 a model now stands in the corridor of that hall, and of which the building now 



