556 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



ought not to omit mentioning a circumstance to which the United States owe the 

 legacy of Smithson, which I happen accidentally to know, and which is much to the 

 point in reference to the controversy concerning the management of the Smithsonian 

 Institution. Smithson had already made his will, and had left his fortune to the 

 Royal Society of London, when certain scientific papers were offered to that learned 

 body for publication. Notwithstanding his efforts to have them published in their 

 Transactions they were refused, upon which he changed his will and made hi.s 

 bequest to the United States. It would be easy to collect in London more minute 

 information upon this occurrence, and should it appear desirable I think I can put 

 the committee in the way of learning all the circumstances. Nothing seems to indi- 

 cate more plainly what were the testator's views respecting the best means of pro- 

 moting science than this fact. 



I will not deny the great importance of libraries; and no one has felt more keenly 

 the want of an extensive scientific library than I have since I have been in the United 

 States; but, after all, libraries are only tools of a secondary value to those who are 

 really endowed by nature with the power of making original researches and thus 

 increasing knowledge among men. And though the absence or deficiencies of libra- 

 ries is nowhere so deeply felt as in America, the application of the funds of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution to the formation of a library beyond the requirements of the daily 

 progress of science would only be, in my humble opinion, a perversion of the real 

 object of the trust, inasmuch as it would tend to secure facilities only to the compara- 

 tively small number of American students who may have the time and the means to 

 visit Washington whenever they need to consult a library. Such an application of 

 the funds would, indeed, lessen the ability of the Institution to accomplish its great 

 object, which is declared by its founder to be to increase and diffuse knowledge among 

 men, to the full extent to which they may be spent unduly to increase the library. 

 Moreover, American students have a just claim upon their own country for such local 

 facilities as the accumulation of books affords. 



If I am allowed to state, in conclusion, my personal impression respecting the 

 management of the Institution thus far, I would only express my concurrence with 

 the plan of active operations adopted by the Regents, which has led to the publica- 

 tion of a series of volumes equal in scientific value to any productions of the same 

 kind issued by learned societies anywhere. The distribution of the Smithsonian 

 contributions to knowledge has already carried the name of the Institution to all parts 

 of the civilized world, and conveyed with them such evidence of the intellectual 

 activity of America as challenges everywhere admiration; a result which could hardly 

 be obtained by applying a large part of the resources of the Institution to other 

 purposes. 



Mr. Chairman, with the following letter from Prof. Benjamin Peirce 

 1 shall yield the floor, satisfied to submit the question whether the 

 Smithsonian Institution is being properly managed to the judgment 

 of Congress and the scientific world: 



Of all men none can be more sensible of the value of the great storehouses of the 

 wisdom of past ages than they who are obliged to resort to them in the development 

 of their own researches. The knowledge which has already been given to the world, 

 and which is accumulated in the library, stimulates and invigorates the mind for 

 original thought and supplies important materials for investigation. It is to the 

 author what the collection of models in the Patent Office is to the inventor; but, 

 nevertheless, the increase of knowledge depends chiefly upon the native vigor of 

 intellect, and its diffusion is performed by the press. To the strong mind the col- 

 lections of the Vatican are a golden opportunity, richer than the mineral harvest 

 of California; but not richer than the hills and streams, which abound within every 



