L E T T E R 



FROM THE 



HON. LEVI WOODBURY, 



UNITED STATES SENATE, DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL IN- 

 STITUTE. 



Senate Chamber, February 28, 1844. 

 Dear Sir: It will not be in my power, as requested by the committee of the 

 National Institute, to read a paper or deliver an address at the approacliing meet- 

 ing of the friends of science, with the members of tho National Institute. But 

 allow me to assure you that I do not decline from any want of interest in the sac- 

 coss of the Institute. I think such a Society as that is wanted at the seat of Go. 

 vemmcnt quite as much for purposes connected with the Government itself, as for 

 other objects beneficial to individuals, and to the great cause of science and let- 

 ters. 



It may be made a very appropriate agent in the execution of several important 

 public duties. Various articles of curiosity and interest here are public property, 

 and, being such, are to be taken care of. They are connected with our mines— our 

 Indian and foreign intercourse— our patents and copy-rights, and matters of natural 

 history and discovery. None can doubt, that some of these could be best preserved 

 and prove most useful in the custody of men of literary taste. The specimens of 

 lead, copper, iron, gold, and rocks, which have been collected in the public offices, 

 and many of which help to illustrate the value, no less than the character of our 

 soil in several portions of the public domain, can be well arranged and well kept 

 for public use, only by persons acquainted with the subjects of mineralogy and 

 geology, and separated, in a great degree, from tho pressure of official labor and 

 turmoils of parly strife. So, without the aid of such persons, the rare plants and 

 useful woods and grasses that cover our territory, as well as tho new animals, 

 with which our rivers, lakes, and wilderness abound, will, in many cases, both live 

 and perish in vain— even more vain than tho mammoth, whose bones at least 

 survive, or such other extinct animals as are partly known only in their fossil 

 remains. Nor can posterity do justice to us or the Indian races, who preceded us 

 in the enjoyment of our present rich inheritance, or appreciate in several respects 

 tiieir true character and condition, unless we collect and preserve their arms and 

 implements of hunting, their dresses and rude tools, and indeed every thing which 

 tends to illustrate the state of society which prevailed among them, and the pro- 

 gress of civilization since. Mementos like these are living fragments of tho past. 

 In such relics, as well as in rocks, plants, shells, animals, inventions and machinery, 

 over our vast country, carefully gathered together, and skilfully transmitted, we' 

 have portions of history embodied, beyond the power of misrepresentation, as if a 

 part of the past, while tho sands of timo were running, had become petrified in its 

 course, and thus been able to be handed down to latest generations, with increased 

 certainty and instruction. How superior a service is thus performed for posterity, 

 usefully illustiating many of the arts, habits, and changes of social life ! 



