THIETY-FIRST CONGEESS, iSiQ-lSol. 471 



missioner of Patents, but from inspection, if anyone choose to make 

 it and see the condition of things in that department, I think it may 

 be denied that there is room enough in the present building for the 

 wants of the department. If I understand the report of the present 

 Commissioner of Patents or the Secretary of the Interior, the argu- 

 ment against the want of further room by the Patent Department is 

 based upon the supposition that all which now belongs to the National 

 Institute, all connected with the exploring expedition which now fills 

 the museum of the Patent Office, is to be transferred to the Smithson- 

 ian Institution. That seems to be the basis of the conclusion. Now, 

 sir, I wish to state to the Senate that Congress has no power to impose 

 upon that Institution the duty of taking charge of this collection of 

 the exploring expedition — we may infer from their act — nor did they 

 ever intend to do so. They gave to that Institution the right to take 

 all such curiosities brought home by the exploring expedition as might 

 be desired for that Institution, and I will inform the Senate that it is 

 not the intention of the present Board of Regents of the Smithsonian 

 Institution to take charge of the museum of the Patent Office, and 

 the room appropriated to these curiosities will be required hereafter 

 as now. 

 January 28, 1851— Senate. 



Mr. Isaac P. Walker, of Wisconsin, submitted resolution, which 

 laid over one da^^ under the rule. 



Resolved, That the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution be directed to 

 inform the Senate why the sixth section of the act entitled "An act to estabhsh the 

 Smithsonian Institution for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men ' ' 

 has not been complied with by making suitable arrangements for the reception of 

 the "objects of art," etc., named in said section. 



January 30, 1851— Senate. 



The Senate proceeded to consider the resolution, submitted by Mr. 

 Isaac P. Walker on January 28. 



Mr. Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi. I hope that the resolution will 

 not be favorabl}^ entertained by the Senate. The Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution is not a department of the Government, and I hope Congress 

 will never undertake to take charge of it. This is a call upon the 

 Board of Regents to explain to us something in connection with the 

 execution of their duty. If it were a proper and a well-founded call, I 

 should still think it improper for Congress to interfere with the admin- 

 istration of a fund which it has confided to a Board of Regents not 

 entirely formed of members of Congress and not responsible to it. 

 An examination of the charter would have shown the Senator who 

 introduced the resolution that there was no obligation on the Smith- 

 sonian Institution to receive the museum, which, I suppose, is the mat- 

 ter referred to, but that, on the other hand, it was considered a grant," 

 which the Government was willing to make, in a friendly spirit, of 



