THIRTY-THIRD CONGRESS, 1853-55. 629 



Mr. JAMES MEACHAM, of Vermont, said : 



Mr. Chairman : It was not my intention to offer any re- 

 marks during this session with reference to the Smithsonian 

 Institution. After mature deliberation and consultation 

 with judicious friends of learning, I came to the conclusion 

 that the affairs of that establishment required investigation. 

 I proposed the matter to this House. They sustained the 

 proposition, and appointed a special committee of inquiry. 

 To them I hoped the matter would be left till their report 

 should be presented. I believed, sir, that in the hands of a 

 select committee of this House, the interests of literature 

 and science connected with the Smithsonian Institution 

 would be safe. 



But the unexpected course of the gentleman from Indi- 

 ana, [Mr. English,] in stepping forward to eulogize the 

 institution before it had been attacked here, seems to re- 

 quire me briefly to explain and defend my position. For 

 such explanation and defence, I may, in the main, rely on 

 the able and important report presented by the select com- 

 mittee, which, for that purpose, I propose, in substance, to 

 insert in my speech, confining my own remarks to some 

 topics not alluded to by the committee. 



The gentleman from Indiana, and some others, seem dis- 

 posed to view this investigation as indicating deliberate 

 hostility ; as intended to give " to the disappointed and dis- 

 satisfied an opportunity of assailing the institution at the 

 public expense;" as manifesting disrespect to the distin- 

 guished and honored gentlemen concerned in conducting 

 its affairs, particularly by clothing this committee with 

 power to send for persons and papers. Sir, I do not yield 

 to the honorable gentlemen in my sincere attachment to the 

 cause of knowledge, whether in the form of literature or of 

 science. But the very devotion which I feel, leads me to 

 wish to keep its fountains clean. I would not willingly lend 

 myself to the aid of wanton and wicked assaults, nor is it to 

 be supposed that this committee would be less scrupulous; 

 but I believe that " the disappointed and dissatisfied" may 

 sometimes deserve, or need, protection and redrew. I would 

 not be wanting in respect for men in exalted positions ; but 

 I know that under the authority of the purest and most ele- 

 vated, abuses may arise, and require investigation, though 

 not the imputation of individual blame. I am not the first 

 member of the Board of Regents who has believed that the 

 institution had departed from the course marked out for it 

 by Congress. One who had a large share in shaping its 

 -charter, Within the first three years of its history declared 



