712 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



men perform in the course of the year. There is residing in my own 

 city a gentleman, the librarian of the Antiquarian Society there, who 

 prepared by the labor of years a very interesting and important paper 

 upon the origin of races in this country- — the aboriginal settlers of the 

 country. That paper was published at the expense of the Smithson- 

 ian Institute, and now letters come from all parts of Europe testif^nng 

 to the appreciation of the scientific world of that paper published by 

 the Smithsonian Institute. Now, the man who is to pronounce upon 

 the character of a publication, or upon the propriety of an examina- 

 tion, should be the best authority upon that special question in the 

 countrj. 



Mr. H. Maynard. I desire, in the first place, to make a verbal cor- 

 rection. My friend from Massachusetts has fallen into a common 

 error in speaking of this establishment as the " Smithsonian Institute." 

 James Smithson, who founded it, called it the "Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution."" 



Mr. Hoar. I am much obliged to the gentleman for that correction, 

 and now will the gentleman be kind enough to state to the House with 

 regard to the gentleman whose name he proposes, what special branch 

 of science he has devoted himself to? I am not myself as familiar with 

 his labors as perhaps I ought to be. 



Mr. Maynard. I listened to the gentleman from Massachusetts with 

 great pleasure and instruction, as I always do. We can best ascer- 

 tain the character of the Regency of the Smithsonian Institution ]>3^ 

 giving the names and residences of those who recentl}^ constituted it. 

 They are, Louis Agassiz, a citizen of Massachusetts; Theodore D. 

 Woolsey, a citizen of Connecticut; William B. Astor, a citizen of 

 New York; Peter Parker and William T. Sherman, citizens of Wash- 

 ington; and John Maclean, a citizen of New Jersey. All of these 

 gentlemen^ it will be seen, come within the category of the gentleman 

 from Massachusetts; but the time has not 3'et come, and I trust it 

 never may come, when the scientific talent of the country will be con- 

 fined within a limited area. 



The gentlemen proposed are all distinguished, and I did not predi- 

 cate my motion upon any unfitness, suggested or implied, or intended 

 to be understood in reference to the superior fitness of any one of 

 them. I suggested what seemed to me to be a better and wiser 

 administration of this great public trust, a trust committed to us in 

 the presence of the civilized world, and for the wise administration of 

 which we stand conspicuously responsible. My suggestion is that we 

 should select the Regency from different portions of the land, so as to 

 represent the vast geography of the whole country. The gentleman 

 from Massachusetts asks me what have been the distinguishing studies 

 and the character of the intellectual labors of the eminent gentleman 

 whose name I have ventured to mention — a divine of eminence in the 



