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FIFTIETH CONGRESS, 1887-1889. 1265 
and the coming reunion of Union and ex-Confederate officers on the 
field of Chickamauga may be cited as noteworthy instances of the 
development of this sentiment. 
Constant efforts are making to determine and to indicate by appro- 
priate monuments the relative positions of the different troops on these 
battlefields, and it is safe to assert that the provision by the Govern- 
ment of facilities for the exhibition in the proposed museum of accurate 
relief plans of the great battles of the civil war will be universally 
_ regarded as not only a wise act, but as an important and necessary 
step for the preservation of the facts of our military. history, which 
must possess ever-increasing interest as the years roll on. 
It is a well-known fact that during the present century no nation in 
the world has contributed more to the remarkable development in fire- 
arms that has taken place than the United States. In European capi- 
tals great pains are taken to preserve and publicly exhibit collections 
of small arms showing the progress of invention in this field of effort. 
It is a singular fact that at the present time no similar collections exist 
at the capital city of the United States. The statements furnished by 
the Secretary of War and Secretary of the Navy show that the Goy- 
ernment is already in possession of specimens of the firearms in use in 
ancient and modern times which would furnish the nucleus of a most 
valuable and extensive collection if brought together in a museum 
building here. 
The establishment of a military and naval museum may subserve 
the important purpose of the formation of special exhibits of mate- 
rials and specimens belonging to the Army and Navy for temporary 
use in such industrial and historical expositions as may be organized 
in the large cities of the country fromtime to time. When suchexpo- 
sitions are organized, the Army and Navy of the United States are 
always called upon to furnish collections, which are regarded with 
great interest by the citizens of the country. Hitherto when thus 
called upon the Secretaries of War and Navy have been required to 
detail officers to prepare the necessary collections, and when the expo- 
sitions have been closed it has been necessary to allow the collections 
to be disposed of without regard to their possible future utilization on 
similar occasions. 
With a properly organized and equipped national museum there will 
be at all times stores and materials which can be loaned for the occa- 
sion and returned to the national museum when the several exhibitions 
shall have terminated. The Congress has at different times appropri- 
ated considerable sums of money for the preparation of these exhibits 
which should have continued to exist, but for which there has been 
no proper storehouse. The large and highly interesting contributions 
of the National Government to the Centennial Exposition at Philadel- 
phia, to the New Orleans Exposition, and to the recent exposition at 
H. Doc. 732 80 
