334 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1891. 



suitable for a museum or gallery of art which the Uiiited States at any 

 time might possess shall he delivered to the Regents and shall be ar- 

 ranged in the building. 



The national collections then existing and those afterwards to ac- 

 cumulate, were thus transferred to the goveruiiig board of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution as a contribution from the United States to the 

 resources of the Institution, and were evidently intended in a certain 

 way to counterbalance the gift of James Smithson for the same purpose. 



The intention of Congress is evident, and the law was almost manda- 

 tory in character. There was one phrase in the law, however, which 

 gave oi)portunity for adjustment of terms. 



The provision that the delivery of these objects should take place 

 "in proportion as snitable arrangements could be made for their recep- 

 tion," was, it may be, intended to give the Institution time for careful 

 and thorough i^reparation. This placed no limit upon the time for 

 completing the buildings, and indeed gave to the Board of Regents 

 the right to indicate the time when "snitable arrangements" could be 

 made. 



It was undoubtedly the wish of the members of the Twenty-ninth 

 Congress that the expense and res])onsibility of organizing and main- 

 taining a nation.d museum should be transferred forever to the Smith 

 sonian Institution, and it was quite far from their intention that the 

 public treasury should ever be called upon for aid. 



Not only the National Museum, the National Library, and a national 

 chemical laboratory were thus assigned, but also the expense of keep 

 ing up the previously neglected public park in which the Smith- 

 sonian buildings were to be erected. It was oidy l)y accident that a 

 national ob.servatory and an institution corresponding to the present 

 Department of Agriculture were not added to the burden. 



That was the day of small beginnings. The theory of our form of 

 government had not been settled in the minds of our public men, and 

 every new project brought up for discussion in Congress became the 

 subject of long and tortuous discussions. There were Congressmen 

 who ten years after the acceptance of the Smithson legacy were in 

 favor of returning the money to England to be given to anyone who 

 could legally take it, while Andrew^ Johnson, of Tennessee, in 1845 

 endeavored to overthrow wliat had already been established and to 

 substitute a "Washington University for the beueht of the indigent 

 children of the District of Columbia in memory of and out of respect 

 to George Washington, the Father of his Country."* 



The will of the Twenty ninth Congress was* not necessarily that of 

 the Thirtieth, Mr. Hilliard, of Alabama, made a bold and successful 

 stroke for the independence of the Board of Regents, and defeated a 

 motion to appoint a regular Congressional committee to supervise and 

 report upon their proceediugs. This was a step toward securing the 



Kbees. Pocuraents, p. 489. 



