DEPARTMENT OF PREHISTORIC ANTHROPOLOGY. 327 



or institutions have ever, to my knowledge, eveD considered a proposition 

 for the purchase of any of these prehistoric monuments; and if they or 

 any of them have ever supervised an excavation, it certainly has not been 

 with a view to purchase the objects that they might be displayed in auy 

 of the museums. By our law no officer or institution has either power 

 or authority to purchase real estate, whether it be a prehistoric monu- 

 ment or not. No such power has ever been proposed to be given by 

 Congress, and we stand to-day in this position upon this subject, that the 

 Smithsonian Institution, which may fairly claim to be the representative 

 scientific institution of the Government, can not purchase any one of 

 our numerous prehistoric monuments for the purpose of its preservation 

 (as was done in the case of the Serpent Mound in Ohio) for want of the 

 necessary legal authority. More than that, it can not accept and hold 

 the title of any such monument, however great its value and necessity 

 of preservation, even if such monument shall be presented as a gift.* 



I will not attempt to complete the comparison of labors performed 

 and interest taken in the science of prehistoric anthropology between 

 the two countries Europe and America. That will be known by 

 American readers without citations. I make two remarks concerning 

 American investigations and publications that, with a few exceptions, 

 are easily recognized. The work has been done by piecemeal, a little 

 here and a little there, devoted to a single locality or a single view of 

 the subject, isolated, divided, without connection or harmony either in 

 investigation, publication, or comparison, without any comprehensive 

 or general system by which the workers, each performing his own 

 labor, should assist. 



The duty of investigating prehistoric man in the United States clearly 

 belongs to the scientists of our own country. It is the history of our 

 own people and country, depending upon investigations made upon our 

 own soil ; a studying, and, if need be, the excavatiou of monuments 

 erected upon territory belonging to us. If it is to be done at all, it should 

 be done by us. True, there is no law nor any legal obligation by which 

 we can be required to make these investigations or perform this labor, 

 and naught but national pride and our own sell' respect will compel 

 it. We should apply'to science the Monroe doctrine of politics. We 

 should recognize and declare our ability to do this work and our inten- 

 tion to perform it, that we may contribute to the science of the world, 

 a history of our prehistoric people. If the work is not done by us, or 

 insufficiently performed, it should not be because the matter was neg- 

 lected or forgotten liy either our Government or people, but for the rea- 

 son that we decided it was not worth the effort, and in this we must jus- 

 tify ourselves in the eyes of the world. The sciences of astronomy, 

 chemistry, metallurgy zoology, and paleontology may have certain de- 

 mands for recognition, but their claims rest upon other countries with 

 equal weight as upon ours. Uur country is under no greater obligation 



* Since the above was written the legislature of Ohio has authorized 1 1 1 * - purchase 

 of the prehistoric earthwork of Fort Ancient, Warren County. 



