FIFTY-FIRST CONGRESS, 1889-1891. 152% 
While Professor Henry’s services were of such value in that important system 
which renders safe to the mariner our entire coast, not less in value were other 
experiments and labors undertaken for the good of the country. His daily notebook 
is filled with records of researches for the benefit of the Government. Now he is 
engaged in investigations in regard to the ventilation of the Capitol; now in regard 
to the lighting of it. It would seem as if almost every question of scientific impor- 
tance coming before Congress sooner or later found its way to him. During the war 
three nights in every week were given to the consideration of Government matters 
and the protection of the Government from fraud. For all this gratuitous work he 
might have asked the pay of an expert, and so have made a great fortune. 
The undersigned, therefore, respectfully petitions that Congress will, in considera- 
tion of said services, allow her and her sisters, Helen L. and Caroline Henry, the 
heirs at law of Joseph Henry, such a sum as in its judgment will compensate to some 
extent the extraordinary services of their father. 
Very respectfully, Mary A. Henry, 
Administratrix of the estate of Joseph Henry, deceased. 
1406 M Srreer, March 28, 1890. 
Dear Mr. SENATOR SHERMAN: I am going to leave my papers at your house, with 
the hope that I may see you again about the matter in which you took so kind an 
interest. 
When at my father’s death an appropriation of $10,000 was made by Congress for 
the unrequited time given by my father to the Light-House Service, while we felt 
most truly the kindness of our father’s friends, we wished very much we could 
decline it. It could not stand as a compensation for our father’s great services, and 
yet it took away their character of a free gift. We would have liked to have them 
(the services) remain a free gift, but we had to take the award or we would have 
had no home, and a very charming home it has given us; and: always associated in 
our minds with its pleasantness is the thought of the kindness that procured it for us. 
When at Professor Baird’s death a sum of $25,000 was awarded for his services in 
the Fish Commission, my father and Professor Baird were placed side by side before 
Congress, in a discussion relative to the propriety of making this appropriation; the 
one award was founded upon the other, and it troubled me that the services of the 
one should thus be estimated at $25,000, while the other stood at $10,000. 
I was very glad Professor Baird should have the $25,000. I think his important 
services deserve such a reward; but if his services were great, much more extended 
were my father’s, and it made me feel badly to think they should stand forever there 
on the records of Congress as worth so much less. I am sure this feeling was not 
one of petty jealousy, but a right desire that my father’s work should be properly 
appreciated. 
Many times since then, in some emergency, have I wished that Congress were con- 
scious of how much my father did; and if now, out of the great saving effected for the 
Government since his death, through the experiments which were a bequest to the 
country, Congress should see fit to grant us something more, I would be very glad, 
both on my father’s account and ours. I would not wish to stand in an attitude of 
poverty before Congress. I would wish the value of my father’s services alone to be 
considered. An individual would wish in some way to make a return for a great 
indebtedness; and the indebtedness in this case is very great. It would seem Con- 
gress would wish to testify appreciation of it. It would be, therefore, not on any 
need on our part, but upon the value of the services I would found a claim. 
While I say this, it would be difficult to put into words how pleasant it would be to 
have a little more. We are perfectly comfortable, and, if I may say so, we are ingen- 
ious in making our income go far. Still, I can not say how pleasant it would be to 
feel a little freer—not to have to think so closely as to feel sometimes not quite gener- 
