528 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



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 institution ought to have the privilege of 

 franking them, arid not be, as now, subjected to the incon- 

 venience of calling upon the members of Congress to do 

 that job. 



A MEMBER. Who is the Secretary? 



Mr. MACE. I am told that Professor Henry is the Secre- 

 tary. 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 cannot extend it to a more meritorious case than the one 

 I have suggested. 



Mr. JONES, of Tennessee. I move to refer the bill and 

 amendment 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 no propriety in the 

 amendment proposed by the gentleman from Indiana, [Mr. 

 Mace.] 



The Smithsonian Institution is not part nor parcel of this 

 Government. It is a separate and distinct institution, quar- 

 tered, it is true, on the Treasury at the rate of thousands of 

 dollars per annum; and it should be kept, I think, as dis- 

 tinct as possible. There is no reason for giving this institu- 

 tion the peculiar privilege of franking its documents over 

 the country in preference to other institutions of learning 

 in any part of the United States. And if you commence 

 with this, where are you to stop? This is to be the entering 

 wedge here at the seat of Government. This is first to be 

 made the favorite institution for establishing the precedent 

 to confer the franking privilege on all the institutions, per- 

 haps, of the country. And I will say to the gentleman from 

 Indiana, [Mr. Mace,] that according to my understanding 

 and construction of the Post Office laws, the member of 

 Congress who franks a document weighing over two 

 ounces, published by the Smithsonian Institution, violates 

 the privilege conferred upon him under the laws of Con- 

 gress. 



Mr. MACE. Will the gentleman from Tennessee allow 

 me to explain ? 



Mr. JONES yielded the floor. 



Mr. MACE. I will state to the gentleman that the docu- 



