884 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



to a resolution of the House of August 8, 1882, relative to the printing 

 of the report of the board on behalf of the United States Executive 

 Departments at the International Exhibition of 1876. 

 Referred to Committee on Printing. 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 



Washington, January 13, 1883. 



SIR: A resolution was passed on the 8th day of August, 1882, by the House of Rep- 

 resentatives, to the following effect: 



"Resolved, That the Clerk of the House be directed to transmit to the Director of the 

 Smithsonian Institution the reports of the boards on behalf of the United States 

 Executive Departments as represented at the International Exhibition at Philadel- 

 phia in 1876, for preservation in the National Museum, and that Prof. Spencer F. Baird 

 be requested to report to the House of Representatives as to the propriety and cost of 

 the publication of said reports and accompanying illustrations." 



In accordance therewith, the aforesaid report of the boards on the United States 

 Executive Departments at the International Exhibition of 1876 was placed in my 

 hands by the Clerk of the House of Representatives for the purpose in question. 



The report was originally submitted to Congress by the President of the United 

 States 011 February 9, 1877, and referred to the House Committe on Public Buildings 

 and Grounds and ordered to be printed. (House Journal, 1876-77, p. 110. ) 



On February 10, 1877, the reference was changed from the Committee on Public 

 Buildings and Grounds to the House Committee on Printing. (House Journal, 

 1876-77, p. 411.) 



On March 1, 1877, a resolution was introduced in the House directing the printing 

 of the report. This resolution was referred to the Committee on Printing. (House 

 Journal, 1876-77, p. 583. ) 



The session closed without action upon the subject. 



The report was resubmitted to Congress by the President of the United States in his 

 annual message of December 3, 1877. (House Journal, 1877-78, p. 24.) 



On December 10, 1877, so much of the message as related to the report was referred 

 to the Committee on Printing. (House Journal, 1877-78, p. 82.) 



No action was ever taken after this last reference until the reception of the 

 memorial of the chairman of the board at the last session of Congress (first session 

 Forty-seventh Congress). 



[Memorial of Col. S. C. Lyford, U. S. A., late chairman of the board on United States Executive 

 Departments at the International Exhibition, 1876.] 



Tfie honorable the House of Representatives: 



Your memorialist, late chairman of the board on United States Executive Depart- 

 ments at the International Exhibition, 1876, respectfully represents that the report 

 of said board on the participation of the several Executive Departments of the Gov- 

 ernment in said exhibition was transmitted by the President of the United States to 

 the House of Representatives on February 9, 1877, and the message of the President 

 being read, it was 



"Ordered, That the said message and accompanying documents be referred to the 

 Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, and printed. " (Journal H. R., 1876-77, 

 p. 410.) 



That subsequently, at the same session, to wit, March 1, 1877, a resolution to 

 print extra copies of said report was introduced in the House, and referred to the 

 Committee on Printing. 



That the transmission of said report and the introduction of said resolution was 

 during a period of great political excitement in the House, growing out of the doubt- 

 ful results of the late Presidential election, and the institution of the Electoral Com- 



