THE GENESIS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 3oL 



recognition of the right of the Kegeuts to interpret for themselves the 

 trne meaning of the charter. 



The next Congress was still less disj)0sed to exercise a minnte sys- 

 tem of control, and the Regents, through Senator Jefferson Davis, 

 boldly asserted that it was imi)roper for Congress to interfere with the 

 administration of a fund which it has confided to a Board of Kegents 

 not entirely formed of members of Congress and not responsible to it."* 



The attitude of Prof. Jicnry trom the beginning to the end of the 

 thirty one years of his secretaryship was singularly independent and oiit- 

 sjioken. Having l)efore his election submitted to the F>oard of Regents 

 a plan of organization which met with their approbation, lie was 

 elected with the understanding that he was to carry this plan into 

 effect. 



He was from the beginning in a certain way the authorized inter- 

 preter of the Smithsonian beipiest, and, as every one knows who has 

 studied the history of the Institution, his earnest and steadfast policy 

 and the wonderful clearness and force with which he explained his 

 views, supported by his scientific eminence and his grandeur of char- 

 acter, gave him a Avonderfiil influence witli the successive bodies of 

 men who acted as regents. 



His influence from the very start Avas on the side of publication and 

 original research and in opposition to constant expenditure of what 

 in time he began to designate as "local objects." 



His attitude toward museum and library, especially the former, was 

 at first a noncommittal one. He proceeded slowly, evidently not from 

 lack of courage, but witli the methods of a man of science, studying 

 the results of different courses of policy, and, when he expressed an 

 opinion, speaking from the standpoint of experience. 



The history of the National Institution and its ftite, hopelessly in- 

 volved and crushed to death by the weight of the collections and books 

 which had been given or lent to it, was constantly brought to his mind, 

 for the Institution was expected to take up this burden, Avith the pros- 

 pect of unlimited additions to its weight, and to bear it alone and per- 

 haps forever. 



To him, and to the Regents also, it must have been evident that this 

 burden once assumed, the fate of the Smithvsouian Institution would 

 eventually be similar to that of the National Institute. 



IVIore directly threatening was the evil of the immediate absorption 

 of a large i^art of the income, to the detriment of the plans which 

 seemed to him more likely to accomplish the Avishes of the Institution. 



The Avisdom of Prof.- Henry's policy has been alu\ost universally 

 conceded, and the success Avith Avhicli for thirty-one years he directed 

 the resources of the Institution toward the increase and diffusion of 

 knoAvledge compels the admiration of everyone who studies the history 

 of his life in connection with that of the Institution, and had done so 

 for many years before his death. 



'* Rbeee. Documeuts, p. 590, 



