THE GENESIS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 371 



ginning. I cau say with entire certainty tliat my own interest in it was stimulated 

 and sustained by yon, and that I was continually made ashamed of how little I felt 

 and how little I did when I saw the unabated zeal and unrecompensed labor which 

 you bestowed upon it. While I wished well to the Institute from a conviction that 

 it would promote the advancement of science, you and he particularly devoted your- 

 selves to it with that deep enthusiasm which a more intimate knowledge can alone 

 excite, and upon which all scientific projects must depend for their success. Men in 

 public station or the munificent rich may contribute the means, but the vital prin- 

 ciple of all such institutions is found in the hearts of those who are willing to work 

 night and day, aud whose labor is a labor of love. I was deeply impressed that the 

 Institute had found in yoti aud Col. Abert precisely such agents, and my high hopes 

 of its ultimate success arose from the fact that it had found such. I by no means 

 mean to say that there are not associated with you other gentlemen equally impelled 

 by as earnest and disinterested motives, but this I will say, that a vast deal of the 

 labor was thrown upon you two, and that, to my mind, the discretion aud wisdom 

 of the Institute was evinced in the selection of such agents. 1 speak of Col, Abert 

 and yourself especially because you and he are made the subject of a most unmerited 

 attack. 



It is with great pleasure that I bear this testimony in your behalf. If I had been 

 in the Senate when the report was made I think I would have been able to satisfy 

 Mr. Tappan of the mistake into which he had fallen, but at all events I would have 

 put upon record my opinion of the purity of jjurpose and the wisdom of the plans 

 which have characterized the conduct of Col. Abert and yourself throughout. 



I am entirely satisfied that if the Government collection derived from the explor- 

 ing expedition, or from any other source, be not to a great extent subject to the 

 control of a scientific association, or of men animated by a philosophic spirit, which 

 8i)irit alone brings them to the task, it will not increase and will be dilapidated. 

 Our Government is peculiarly incapable of a proper superintendence of scientific 

 institutes. In the first place it may be said that it has no constitutional power, and 

 if it had, the tenure of oflice is so liable to change, that in a department so removed 

 from interests of intense excitement, negligence and decay would soon creep in. It 

 therefore seems to me iirom the beginning that accessions to science, incidentally 

 made, like the collections of the exploring expedition, should be deposited for arrange- 

 ment, preservation, and exhibition with such a society as the National Institute, 

 the Government retaining the property while the Institute has the use of it, or rather 

 while the Institution makes it useful to the public. Without some such arrange- 

 ment the Government will find that its valuable specimens will be lost or molder 

 away in forgotten boxes, or become a mere mass of rubbish. 



I am persuaded that Mr. Tappan, upon such explanations as you aud other gentle- 

 men in Washington can give him. will perceive the injustice of his remarks. He has 

 an earnest love of science and literal learning of all sorts, and without some obvious 

 misconception cannot fail to sympathize and cooperate with gentlemen who with 

 such singleness of purpose and such broad iutelligeuce as yourself aud others of our 

 fi'iends of the Institute have at heart the same objects with himself. 



I am, my dear sir, your obedient servant, 



Wm. C. Preston. 



Frances Markoe, jr., es«i. 



)- Springwells (near Detroit), Ma;/ IS, 1843. 



Col. J. J. Abert: 



Dear Sir: I have read with much interest, but not without some pain, the pam- 

 phlet you had the goodness to send me. I regret that anything should have occurred 

 unpleasant to you, and especially in any matter in whicli the Library Committee 

 should have participated. I do not remember the day wheu '"the remarks" of your- 

 self and Mr. Markt)e were submitted in the Seuate by ^Ir. Walker and referred; but 

 my impression is that by reason of accident or delay in some of the officers of the 



