REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 157 



reseutative of such Department or Bureau, and said representative shall, uuder the 

 direction and control of the head of the Department or Bureau, supervise the prepa- 

 ration and conduct of the exhibits hereiu provided for. 



That no officer or employee appointed as aforesaid shall be paid extra or additional 

 compensation by reason of services rendered in virtue of such employment ; but noth- 

 ing herein shall be so construed as to prevent the payment of the just and reasonable 

 expenses of any committee, officer, or employee appointed or employed under or by 

 virtue of the provisions of this act. 



That all articles imported from the Republic of Mexico or the Dominion of Canada 

 for the purpose of being exhibited at said exposition shall be admitted free of duty, 

 subject, however, to such condition 6 and regulations as the Secretary of the Treasury 

 may impose and prescribe. 



Approved May 28, 1888. 



Shortly after the passage of the above bill the President, in accord- 

 ance with its requirements, designated one of the officials of the Treas- 

 ury Department as special auditor. This gentleman at the outset 

 questioned the right of the various Departments under the act to pur- 

 chase any specimens for the completion of their exhibits, claiming that 

 the collections must be made up of materials already on hand. This 

 necessitated further action on the part of Congress which took the 

 shape of a joint resolution declaring the meaning of the act. The reso- 

 lution read as follows : 



JOINT RESOLUTION declaring the true intent and meaning of the act approved May twenty-eighth, 



eighteen hundred and eighty-eight. 



Resolved by the Senate and Bouse of Representatives of the United States of America in 

 Congress assembled, That it is the true intent and meaning of the act of Congress 

 approved May twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and eighty-eight, by the President of 

 the United States, entitled "An act making appropriation to enable the several 

 Executive Departments of the Government, and the Bureau of Agriculture, and the 

 Smithsonian Institution, including the National Museum, and the Commission of Fish 

 and Fisheries, to participate in the Centennial Exposition of the Ohio Valley and Cen- 

 tral States to be held at Cincinnati, Ohio, from July fourth, to October twenty-seventh, 

 eighteen hundred and eighty-eight," that the President of the United States may, in 

 his discretion make an order directing that any documents, papers, maps, not origi- 

 nal, books or other exhibits which properly and pertinently relate to the establish- 

 ment of civil government in the territory northwest of the Ohio River, may be sent 

 upon an Executive order from any of the several Departments in said act named, or 

 from the exhibits now at Cincinnati; and that the appropriation of money in said 

 act t<> defray the expenses of such exhibits, may be made applicable, in so far as the 

 President of the United States may direct, to the payment of the expenses, of the care, 

 transportation to, and return of, such exhibits from Marietta. And the same shall be 

 paid from such fund heretofore set apart for each Department as the President may 

 order. Nor shall anything in said act be bo construed as to prevent the purchase of 

 suitable materials, and the employment of proper persons, to complete or modify 

 series df object.-,, and classes of specimens, when in the judgment of the head of any 

 Department, such purchase or employment or both is necessary in the proper prepara- 

 tion and conduct of an exhibit. Nor to authorize the removal from their places of 

 deposit in Washington of any original paper or documentor laws or ordinances what- 

 ever. 



Approved, July It',. 1888. 



The original bill received the President's approval May 28th and on 

 the following day in accordance with its requirements tli<> Secretary of 



