13840 CONGRESSIONAL “PROCEEDINGS. 
he was appointed. Also, whether either of said commissioners, or the attorney, has 
any interest in real estate in the neighborhood of said proposed park; and whether 
the Attorney-General has caused the titles to said land to be examined.”’ 
By reference to the United States Statutes at Large (vol. 25, p. 808), it will be 
found that in order to establish the zoological park referred to in the resolution a 
commission was constituted, composed of three persons, namely, the Secretary of 
the Interior, the president of the Board of Commissioners of the District of Colum- 
bia, and the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and which was to be known 
and designated as ‘‘The commission for the establishment of a zoological park.’’ 
It will therefore be seen that the commission thus established has no relation to 
the Department of the Interior, and that the Secretary of the Interior is merely ex 
officio president of an independent board established by statute. 
This board, in pursuance of the authority given it, proceeded personally on several 
occasions during the last summer to examine the country along Rock Creek described 
in the law, made appraisements, prepared a map of all that region they deemed best 
for the park, and filed the same; whereupon, by force of the statute named, all of 
the tracts therein contained were condemned to the use of the United States for the 
purposes expressed, but subject to the payment of just compensation, to be deter- 
mined by the said commission and approved by the President of the United States, 
provided that such compensation was accepted by the owner or owners of the sey- 
eral parcels of land. Such just compensation was determined upon by the commis- 
sion and submitted to the President of the United States, who approved the same, 
and compensation was accepted by the owners of most of the land described in the 
map. A few, however, refused to accept the amount assessed; whereupon, under 
the provisions of the law, the commission, being unable to purchase the same by 
agreement within thirty days after the filing of the map and consequent condemna- 
tion, made application to the supreme court of the District of Columbia, by petition, 
for an assessment of the value, in accordance with the statute, of such land yet 
unpurchased. Thereupon the court became authorized and required, without delay, 
to notify the owners and occupants of such land and to ascertain and assess the value 
thereof, by appointing three commissioners to appraise the value or values thereof, 
and to return the appraisement to the court. These are the commissioners about 
whom the resolution of the Senate makes inquiry. “ 
The court proceeded under the law and appointed as commissioners to appraise 
the values of the several tracts, the owners whereof would not agree to sell, Messrs. 
Henry A. Willard, B. D. Carpenter, and E. E. White. Mr. Willard declined to act, | 
and on the 18th of February Mr. Samuel E. Wheatley was appointed in his place. 
The commissioners appointed by the court dre the officers of the court, and their 
compensation will be such as the court may determine to pay them. The Secretary 
of the Interior as president of the commission, or the commission itself, has nothing 
to do therewith, as plainly appears from the statute and as is known from the com- 
mon practice in such cases. The services of these commissioners appointed to 
appraise this land are under the direction of the court, and what they have per- 
formed appears in the records of the court, which are not within the control of the 
Secretary of the Interior. 
The Secretary of the Interior is not informed whether an attorney has been 
appointed as legal adviser to said commissioners, but inasmuch as these officers of 
the court can at any time apply for direction or advice to the court itself, it is highly 
improbable that any attorney has been appointed for them. It is believed that no 
such attorney has been appointed, and consequently that no salary is to be paid him. 
Whether either of the commissioners appointed as above mentioned, or their 
attorney, if their be such, has any interest in real estate in the neighborhood of 
such proposed park the Secretary of the Interior is unable to inform the Senate; but 
