FORTY-SIXTH CONGRESS, 1879-1881. 857 



Mr. George F. Hoar. Will the Senator from Wisconsin allow me 

 to ask him whether the act founding the Smithsonian Institution 

 is unconstitutional? 



Mr. Carpenter. I have not any particular opinion on that subject, 

 never having thought of it or investigated it. 



Mr. Hoar. It occurred to me that possibly in forming the opinion 

 he has now expressed the Senator might have considered that question. 



Mr. Carpenter. It is a very easy thing to justify any action that 

 Congress wants to take, if it is a sufficient justification to say that 

 Congress has done such a thing, * * * As to the constitutionality 

 of the bill in regard to the Smithsonian Institution I have nothing 

 to say. I have had no connection with that subject; I never thought 

 of it and never examined it, and have no opinion to express upon it. 



ETHNOLOGY— ESTIMATES. 



April 17, 1880— House. 



The Speaker pro tempore laid before the House a letter from the 

 Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution (Misc. Doc. 35): 



Smithsonian Institution, 

 Washington, D. C, April 15, 1880. 



Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith a statement by Maj. J. W. Powell 

 relative to the subject of investigations into the past and present condition of the 

 Indian tribes of the United States — a work in which he has been engaged during the 

 past ten years, and commenced under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution 

 in accordance with an enactment of Congress. Subsequently it was continued by 

 Major Powell as director of the United States geographical and geological survey of 

 the Rocky Mountain region, the Smithsonian Institution assisting by placing in his 

 hands all the materials collected by its collaborators in this branch of science. 



By act of Congress approved March 3, 1879, the work was again placed under the 

 control of the Smithsonian Institution and Major Powell charged with its immediate 

 supervision for the purpose of continuing the systematic investigations he had pre- 

 viously organized. 



From the first the researches in question have been carried on with vigor, and the 

 results already obtained, as shown in numerous publications and the large collec- 

 tions deposited in the National Museum, are of great scientific and general interest. 



The plan proposed by Major Powell provides for a systematic and complete 

 account of the aboriginal inhabitants of this country — a work of importance from the 

 fact that at no distant time the opportunity will disappear, as the Indian tribes in 

 their primitive condition are rapidly passing away before the advance of civilization. 



A further argument for immediate action is furnished by the fact that exhaustive 

 researches are now being prosecuted within our own territory by foreign nations. 

 Collectors, amply provided with means, have been engaged for several years in 

 securing objects from the modern tribes and in disinterring the contents of aboriginal 

 graves and mounds, the results being carried away — almost in shiploads — to foreign 

 museums. An immense collection from the coasts of California, Oregon, and Alaska 

 has recently been transmitted to a government museum in Paris by an agent sent to 

 the United States for the purpose. Another French expedition will soon be under 

 way for the almost virgin archaeological fields of Arizona and New Mexico. 



The retention by a country of its own historical monuments has been considered of 

 such moment that laws have been passed by several foreign governments prohibiting 



