976 CONGRESSIONAL PKOCEEDINGS. 



of the Joint Committee on the Library, addressed the following letter to the Public 

 Printer, J. D. Defrees, esq.: 



"Washington, D. C, October 34, 1868. 



"1 have the honor to call your attention to the provisions of the resolution of 

 Congress inclosed, approved July 25, 1868, and to request that the 50 copies of all 

 documents now being printed and hereafter to be printed at the Congressional Print- 

 ing Office, whether by order of either House of Congress or any of the Departments 

 or bureaus of the Government, be furnished by you, as fast as each edition is printed 

 and bound, to the Librarian of Congress, for the purpose specified in the resolution. 



"I would also request that of the Patent Office report and Agricultural report now 

 being printed 100 copies additional (or 150 copies in all) be delivered to the Libra- 

 rian for the purpose indicated. 



"In behalf of the Joint Committee on the Library." 



September 22, 1869, the Librarian of Congress addressed the Public Printer on the 

 subject of books required by law for the international exchange of official docu- 

 ments, as follows: 



"Washington, D. C, September 22, 1869. 



" Your attention is respectfully called to the provisions of the resolution of Con- 

 gress, approved July 25, 1868, requiring the Congressional Printer to furnish to the 

 Librarian of Congress 50 copies of all documents, printed under whatever authority, 

 for the purpose of exchanging the same for the publications of foreign Governments, 

 which are to be deposited in this Library. 



"The official direction from the chairman of the Joint Committee on the Library 

 to print and deliver these documents required by the resolution was communicated 

 to your predecessor, Mr. J. D. Defrees, on the 24th of October, 1868. (See letter of 

 Hon. E. D. Morgan, chairman, of that date. ) The only reply received was a verbal 

 one from Mr. Defrees to the undersigned that the documents should be regularly 

 forwarded, and that the 150 copies (50 regular and 100 extra) of the Agricultural and 

 Patent Office reports for 1867, then on the press, would also be supplied. Not having 

 received any documents whatever under this act of Congress, and the purpose of the 

 same being to enrich the Library with as large a number and variety of the docu- 

 ments of foreign Governments as can be procured in exchange for our own, you are 

 requested to have placed at my disposal 50 copies of each book, pamphlet, circular, 

 army order, or other publication, by whatever authority printed, and 100 copies 

 additional of all documents printed in excess of the usual number, to enable me to 

 carry out the resolution of Congress referred to. " 



And again, in reply to an inquiry on the part of the Public Printer, the following 

 communication was addressed to that officer September 30, 1869: 



"Washington, D. C, September 30, 1869. 



"In reference to the documents, not of Congress, but of the Departments and 

 bureaus of the Government, of which 50 copies are required by resolution of Con- 

 gress to be furnished to the Library for international exchange, I have to say that 

 all such documents as are printed at the public expense (with the single exception of 

 printed instructions or confidential official communications) are important and will 

 properly be furnished. The foreign Governments with which the exchanges are 

 made furnish us with great fullness the specially printed documents they print in 

 each department of their public service, and it is desired to make a return in kind." 



Owing to the failure of the Public Printer to comply with those portions of the 

 law relating to the second and third series of the United States official publications — 

 the annual reports of the Executive Departments and bureaus of the Government 

 and the memoirs, monographs, and special reports published by the Executive 

 Departments and bureaus of the Government (although occasionally some few of the 

 works of these classes have been received) — a circular letter was addressed by the 

 Smithsonian Institution on the 15th of February, 1884, to all the Departments and 



