338 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1891. 



Moreover, all tlie objects of interest of this eollectioii have beeW de- 

 scribed and figured in the volumes of the expedition, and the small 

 portion of our funds which can be devoted to a museum may be better 

 employed in collecting new objects, such as have not yet been studied, 

 than in preserving those from which the harvest of discovery has al- 

 ready been fully gathered. 



The answer made to some of these objections has usually been, that 

 the Government would grant an annual appropriation for the support 

 of the museum of the exploring expedition. But this would be equally 

 objectionable, since it would annually bring the Institution before 

 Congress as a supplicant for Government patronage, and ultimately 

 subject it to i)olitical influence and control. 



After an experience of three years, I am fully convinced that tlie trite 

 I)olicy of the Insiitution is to ask nothing trom Congress except the safe- 

 keeping of its funds, to mingle its operations as little as possible with 

 those of the General Government, and to adhere in all cases to its own 

 distinct organization, while it cooperates with other institutions in the 

 Avay of promoting knowledge; and on the other hand, that it is desira- 

 ble that Congress should place as few restrictions on the Institution as 

 possible, consistent with a judicious expenditure of the income, and 

 that this be judged of by a proper estimate of the results produced. 



Tlie regents and their secretary were in harmony. 



in the Senate, April 15, 1850, the discussion of the bill for the com- 

 pletion of the Patent Oftice building elicited the following statement 

 from Senator Jefferson Davis: 



Mr. President : What the wants of the Patent Office are now is one 

 thing, and what those wants w\]\ be in a few years is another anfl an 

 entirely ditferent thing. Not only from the re])ort of the last Commis- 

 sioner of Patents, but from ins])cction, if anyone choose to make it, 

 and see the condition of things in that department, I think it may be 

 denied that there is room enough in the ]»(\sent building for the wants 

 of the department. If 1 understand the report of the present Commis- 

 sioner of Patents or the Secretary of the Interior, the argument against 

 the want of further room by the Patent J^epartment is based upon the 

 supposition that all which now belongs to the Naticmal Institute, all 

 connected with the exploring expedition which now fills tJie nniseum of 

 the Patent Oflice, is to be transferred to the Smithsonian Institution. 

 That seems to be the basis of the con<'lusion. Now, sii-, I wisli to state 

 to the Senate that Congress has no ])ower to im])ose upon that institu- 

 tion the duty of taking charge of this colh'ction of the exploring expe- 

 dition, we may infer from their act, nor did they ever intend to do so. 

 They gave to tliat institution the right to take all such curiosities 

 brought home by the exploring ex]>edition as might be desired for that 

 institaition, and I will inform the Senate that it is not the intention of 

 the present Board of Itegents of the Smithsonian Institution to take 

 charge of the museum of the Patent Office, and the room appropriated 

 to these curiosities will be required hereafter as now. 



By its actiiui in directing at this time the enlargement of the Patent 

 Office, Congress appears to have accepted the ideas of Senator Davis, 

 or, as Prof. Henry expressed it, " concurred in the opinions exjiressed in 



