574 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



diency, in order to avoid all embarrassment in future, to have each 

 division of the Institution placed under its proper and distinctive 

 head. Let the Secretary have charge of the active operations, preside 

 over the scientific researches, and direct the publications. Let the 

 librarian have charge of the library and museum. If the two depart- 

 ments are thus separated and placed under the control of well-devised 

 and clearly defined regulations, never interfering with each other, but 

 working freely and harmoniously in their respective spheres, each 

 principal responsible only for his own province, and subject alike to a 

 common head, whether the Secretary of the Interior or a Board of 

 Regents, the Institution would, we think, be found to work most aus- 

 piciously and produce the best and greatest results. 



Mr. WILLIAM H. WITTE, of Pennsylvania, from the select com- 

 mittee, made a report: 



The select committee to whom was referred the letter of the Hon. 

 Rufus Choate, resigning the office of Regent of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, also the resolution thereon to inquire whether the 

 Smithsonian Institution has been managed and its funds expended 

 in accordance with the law establishing it, and whether any addi- 

 tional legislation be necessary to carry out the design of its founders, 

 report: 



[Mr. Nath. G. Taylor, of Tennessee, concurring; and Mr. Richard 

 C. Puryear, of North Carolina, and Mr. Daniel Wells, of Wisconsin, 

 although not dissenting from all the views, preferred not to sign 

 either this report or the report made by Mr. Upham alone.] 



That the} r have made a patient examination of the Institution, and 

 hate concluded that there is no just cause of complaint against the 

 Regents or the Secretary in regard to the construction of the act of 

 Congress establishing the Institution, and the plan of organization 

 adopted by the Regents, or the manner in which its affairs have been 

 administered. The subjects included in the resolution may be appro- 

 priately arranged under the following heads: 



1. The proper construction of the act of Congress establishing the 

 Institution. 



2. The plan of organizing and administering the affairs of the Insti- 

 tution adopted by the Regents in pursuance of the law. 



3. The question whether any new legislation is necessary. 



4. The administration of this plan by the Regents and Secretary. 

 Of these the committee will treat in the order in which they are 



stated : 



1. The proper construction of the act of Congress. 



The question whether the bequest of Mr. Smithson should be 

 applied chiefly to the formation of a great national library, or to 

 researches for the increase of knowledge and the publication and cir- 

 culation of their results for its diffusion among men, divided the 



