500 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



FREE POSTAGE. 

 January 24, 1854 House. 



Mr. CHARLES W. UPHAM, from the Committee on the Post-Office 

 and Post- Roads, reported the following bill: 



A bill granting the franking privilege to the Superintendent of the Coast Survey 

 and the assistant in charge of the office of said Coast Survev. 



Mr. DANIEL MACE. I move that the bill be so amended as to provide 

 for the grant of the franking privilege to the Secretary of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution in addition to the officers already named. 



Mr. E. B. OLDS. The proposition contemplates the giving of the 

 franking privilege to the Coast Survey. The Committee on the Post- 

 Office and Post- Roads have permitted it to be reported to the House 

 from the fact that we had seen no good reason why the head of that 

 Bureau for it is, in fact, a bureau should not have the franking priv- 

 ilege as well as the heads of the other bureaus. At the same time, 

 however, that I give my assent to the report of this resolution, I wish 

 to say that my own opinion, and I believe that such will be the opinion 

 of the committee, is against the franking privilege altogether; and 

 perhaps before the session is closed we shall propose a bill abolishing it. 



Mr. MACE. I think, sir, that I would myself be in favor of the abo- 

 lition of the franking privilege; but if it is to exist and appertain to 

 sundry officers of the Government and to members of Congress I see 

 no case more meritorious than that of the Secretary of the Smithsonian 

 Institution to which that privilege could be extended. That is an 

 institution for the diffusion of general knowledge throughout the 

 whole country. By various acts of Congress we vote to it numerous 

 public documents, which can not be distributed unless some member 

 of Congress will volunteer to go there and frank them. Such is the 

 practice, and I have myself, at the instance of Professor Henry, spent 

 days there in franking public documents for that Institution. 



The design has been to forward to our constituents throughout the 

 land documents for their information. The Secretary of that Institu- 

 tion ought to have the privilege of franking them, and not be, as now, 

 subjected to the inconvenience of calling upon the members of Con- 

 gress to do that job. 



A MEMBER. Who is the Secretary ? 



Mr. MACE. I am told that Professor Henry is the Secretary. I do 

 not propose to elaborate this question at all. It is a simple one. If 

 we are to extend this privilege at all, we can not extend it to a more 

 meritorious case than the one I have suggested. 



Mr. G. W. JONES, of Tennessee. I move to refer the bill and amend- 

 ment to the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, and that 

 they be printed. And I will say that whatever may be the propriety 

 of the bill as reported from the committee, I can see no justice and 



