

650 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



Mr. MEACHAM. In the nomination of Regents of the 

 Smithsonian Institution made by the Speaker this morning, 

 I find that my name stands in the list. I feel grateful to 

 you, Mr. Speaker, for the honor thus conferred upon me; 

 but I beg of you to erase my name, and appoint some other 

 member of this House. I have two or three reasons for 

 making this request. In the first place, I have enjoyed the 

 honor and borne the burden of that position for a period of 

 four years, and I think it better that the duty should circu- 

 late among different members of the body, and that it should 

 not remain stationary. I have another reason for asking to 

 be excused. You, sir, have already placed me in a position 

 on a committee of this House which demands all my atten- 

 tion. I will not conceal that I ha\v another reason, which 

 I shall take another time to explain. It is, that I cannot 

 approve the present course of that institution, if it have any 

 course, and is not merely standing still and marking time 

 the mere mockery of motion. It is not producing that im- 

 pression upon the country and people which it ought to 

 make. I cannot consent, and will not consent, to follow an 

 institution whose leader is smitten with chronic monomania 

 on a single subject an institution whose line of march, as I 

 believe, runs athwart the line of law by which it holds its 

 existence. I, therefore, beg of you to accept my thanks and 

 resignation. 



There being no objection, Mr. Meacham's resignation was 

 accepted. 



The SPEAKER appointed Hon. Benjamin Stanton,of Ohio, 

 as Regent. 



May 23, 1856. Report of Smithsonian Institution, for 

 1855, presented. 



Mr. ENGLISH moved that 10,000 extra copies be printed. 



August 9, 1856. The following resolution was adopted : 



Resolved, That 10,000 copies of the report of the Smithsonian Institution 

 for the year 1855 be printed 7,500 for the use of members of the House, 

 and 2,500 for the institution. 



February 18, 1857. Report for 1856 presented, and or- 

 dered to be printed. 



March 3, 1857. The following resolution was adopted : 



Resolved, That there be printed of the report of the Regents of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution for 1856, 10,000 copies 7,500 for the use of members of 

 the House, and 2,500 for the use of the institution. 



December 14, 1857. The SPEAKER appointed as Regents 

 of the Smithsonian Institution Wm. H. English of Indiana, 

 Benjamin Stanton of Ohio, and Lucius J. Gartrell of Georgia*. 



