1774 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 
in connection with this institution, and why should not the Joint — 
Committee on the Library of the two Houses of Congress have con- 
trol and be the active managers of the Library? You would then 
surround it with great dignity. You would attract to it the respect 
and the regard of the people of the country. 
Now, we have no power over it. The mere fact that the rules and 
regulations shall be made with the approval of the Library Committee 
of the two Houses amounts to nothing, and the whole scheme is simply 
a divesting of all power on the part of Congress. It is done upon the 
idea that there is something in the Constitution of the United States 
which forbids the creation of an officer, even if he be an employee of 
Congress, except by the nomination of the President. Yet this plan 
is open to the objection that neither does the Constitution authorize 
the Librarian by statute to appoint officers or employees any more 
than you could do so by resolution of Congress. 
The Constitution says Congress may vest the power in the head of 
a department. You do not make this a department, and yet you pro- 
vide that these two officers shall create the offices and appoint all the 
officers who are necessary for the management of this building and 
the conduct of the Library. So, in every point of view, whether it 
be upon constitutional objection or in respect of the dignity which 
should attach to this great institution, or as a matter of policy by 
which we would attract to it the affections of the great masses of the 
people—the literary men, the scholars of the country—from every 
point of view it is objectionable to put this great institution under the * 
entire control and management of two men, whom I would select for 
those offices by joint resolution of Congress, but whom I would sur- 
round with the support of the scientific and literary men of the 
United States. ¥" 
I think the scheme is an objectionable one. There should be a 
regent appointed from every State. Every man who attains national 
eminence should participate in the honor and distinction of being con- 
nected with this great national institution, which could easily be done 
after the manner in which associations—library associations—are con- 
ducted in England, and the committee of the two Houses should be 
the operating and managing trustees, to whom all matters should be 
referred. 
I desire to express my dissent from the provisions of the bill in 
regard to that matter. 
