448 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



I thank the House for the attention with which thej^ have heard 

 these remarks; it evinces the interest which they feel in an institution 

 which claims their protection. 



Mr. Hilliard concluded by moving to lay the proposed rule on the 

 table. 



Mr. Andrew Johnson said he thought he understood the agreement 

 between the gentleman from Alabama and the gentleman from Penn- 

 sylvania to be that this subject should be postponed to a day certain. 



Mr. C. J. Ingersoll. My suggestion was that the consideration of 

 the subject be postponed to any given day which the gentleman from 

 Alabama might name. 



Mr. H. W. Hilliard. I had no choice at all, sir. 



Mr. Ingersoll indicated his wish that the gentleman from Alabama 

 should name the day. 



Mr. Hilliard said he would move, if agreeable to the House, that 

 it be postponed to this day twelve months. 



Mr. Andrew Johnson addressed the Chair, and inquired if that 

 motion was not debatable. 



The Speaker (Mr. R. C. Winthrop) replied in the affirmative. 



Mr. Ingersoll suggested to Mr. Hilliard that his understanding 

 was that it should be postponed to some day not distant, when the 

 House could reach and dispose of it. 



Mr. Hilliard said he would withdraw the motion, as he preferred 

 the gentleman from Pennsylvania should make his own motion. 



The Speaker said the gentleman from Pennsylvania had not the 

 floor to make the motion. The gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. A. 

 Johnson] had taken the floor. 



Mr. Hilliard then remarked that he had been reminded that his 

 pledge was to move a postponement to a day within a reasonable 

 period, and said he would modify his motion so as to name the 3d day 

 of January next. 



The Speaker said the motion could not be altered without the con- 

 sent of the gentleman from Tennessee, who had the floor. 



Mr. Hilliard appealed to the gentleman from Tennessee to permit 

 the modification to be made. 



Mr. Andrew Johnson had no objection, provided it did not deprive 

 him of the floor. 



The motion was accordingly modified by Mr. Hilliard, so as to post- 

 pone to the 3d day of January. 



Mr. Johnson then proceeded in his remarks. He said the gentle- 

 man who had just closed his remarks had seen no propriety or neces- 

 sity for the appointment of this committee. He seemed to think it 

 would be humiliating, and detracting somewhat fi'om the dignity of 

 these individuals — who were called "" Regents," he believed, in the act 

 establishing the Smithsonian Institution — to have their proceedings 

 come under the supervision of a comfiiittee of this House. Now, his 



