310 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUKEUM, 1891. 



Letter from Col. Ahert to C<q)t. Willrs^ t^eptemher^ 1843. 



Dear Sir: Your letter lias been duly received. As well for our 

 owu justiflcatlou and for your satisfaction, 1 will go into some leugtli iu 

 a reply. 



Abstractly speaking there may be no right in tlie Institute to enquire 

 into the course of your official action, but if under aiiy circumstances 

 this action be hazardous to the property of the Institute, or to that 

 deposited and placed under its care, there can be no doubt, I think, 

 that the Institute has a right to enquire if such be the case and why. 



You can, if you choose, give us a very short reply — that what you 

 have done was in the execution of your official duties for whicli you 

 can account only to your official superiors. Yet, ne^'ertheless, the In 

 stitute would have the right to make the enquiry and to expect an 

 answer of some kind. IJut allow me to call your attention to the reflec- 

 tion that it is in your ci\'il relation of an ngent of the Library Com- 

 mittee, in which you are now temporarily acting; and it is only in that 

 capacity that any accountability can attach to you, or that any was 

 supposed by the committee of the Institute to exist. 



As an officer of the Navy you can not now be acting; your course is 

 not by virtue of your commission or rank in the Navy, or orders from 

 your constitutional or legal superiors, or of any duties connected with 

 your ]>rofession. No official responsibility cau exist between Capt. 

 Wilkes, of the NaVy, and the Library Committee; or official penalties 

 be incurred by a neglect of its directions. Your iwsition, if 1 under- 

 stand it correctly, is by virtue of the authority in the Library Com- 

 mittee, to place the collection under the care of such persons as they 

 may appoint. The executive or tlie constitutional session of the Army, 

 as well as Navy and War, etc., to assign you to a shij) to-morrow, you 

 would have to go and abandon the care assigned to you by the Library 

 Committee, which shoAvs, 1 think, that it is not the official relations of 

 the offices which are involved in your present position. I>r. King once 

 had the place, then Dr. Pickering, to whom you succeeded — both of 

 these gentlemen were civilians, and as you succeeded them in your 

 present place, it is clear, I think, that it is not in any official relation 

 which Capt. Wilkes can claim, or to which he can be assigned, that he 

 is now acting, but in the civil relation of a. person appointed l)y the 

 Joint Library Committee to take charge of matters the i)ublication of 

 which has been made a duty of that committee. I make these expla- 

 nations of our views, that you may feel relieved from the supposition 

 that we had the most remote idea of encroacliing upon your official 

 rights, for which I assure you, as well as for your well established pro- 

 fes.sional abilities, we all entertain the greatest respect. 



The specimens of the exploring sqnadron are to be deposited and ar- 

 ranged in the upper room of the Patent Office. This, however, does 

 not, we think, give the exclusive possession of that room for that pur- 

 pose, unless such exclusive possession be necessary. Whether it be or 

 not I am willing to admit is the right of the Library Committee to de- 

 cide, and if they so decide others must give Avay. The sign lately put 

 over the door would seem to indicate that such decision was in contem- 

 plation. The Institute has also possession of part of that room of the 

 eastern half by direction of the Secretary of State, under whose care 

 the whole building Avas then placed. The Institute has property there 

 of great amount, and in our judgment of great value, and if it has to 

 move its pro])erty, by Airtue of a decision by the Library Committee, 

 the courtesy of notice from the agent of that committee is not, I think, 



