[211] 34 



and its officers, as by the city authorities, while its lower story might 

 furnish market stalls and stores that would rent for many thousand dol- 

 lars annually. 



The undersigned were also of opinion that, considering the advantages 

 of the City Hall site to the Smithsonian Institution, so far as regards its 

 usefulness in connexion with its library, its collections, and its lectures, 

 the institution might properly and prudently give for the materials of the 

 City Hall their full value — say fifteen thousand dollars. 



If these views be correct, the only remaining difficulty regards the 

 thirty-five thousand dollars necessary to make up to the city the full 

 sum of fifty thousand dollars. And this sum the undersigned believe it 

 to be just and expedient that Congress should appropriate, provided the 

 corporation will bind itself to furnish in their new building sufficient ac- 

 commodation for the United States circuit court, its officers and records ; 

 just, because the general government has already, for the sum of ten 

 thousand dollars only, (which it paid to the city twenty-five years ago,) had 

 the use of nearly half the City Hall for its courts throughout all that term of 

 years, and therefore ought now to furnish further means to procure the 

 accommodation necessary for that purpose ; and expedient, because the 

 present City Hall, which cannot, for very shame, be left without some 

 repair or finish much longer, will, from the necessity of the case, while it 

 stands, remain a permanent ground of claim on the government ; and be- 

 cause any repairs worth making on it at all would exceed the sum here pro- 

 posed to be appropriated. The cheapest thing that can be done with the 

 City Hall, both as regards the city and the government, is, the undersigned 

 believe, to get rid of it. And if on its site a building arise, reputable 

 even, to say nothing of architectural beauty, and commenced with funds 

 and upon a scale that insures its speedy com'pletion, it should count for 

 something, if only on the score of appearance and national reputation, 

 that a gloomy and meaningless and slovenly pile has been replaced by an 

 object that will strike pleasantly on the eye of the traveller as he ap- 

 proaches this metropolis. 



Governed by considerations such as these, the undersigned, in view of 

 the fact that whatever is done in this matter must be done at this session 

 of Congress, have decided, in discharge of the duty assigned them by 

 the board, to introduce into Congress without delay a bill of which the 

 following is a copy : 



AN ACT to authorize the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution to pui-chase, for the use of 

 said institution, of the corporation of the city of "Washington, the City Hall, and for other 



purposes. 



Be it enacted, <^c., That the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution 

 be, and they are hereby, authorized to purchase of the corporation of the 

 city of Washington all the right, title, and interest of the said corporation 

 in and to the City Hall of the said city ; subject, however, to the condi- 

 tions and provisions hereinafter specified ; Provided, That the corpora- 

 tion shall, on or before the tenth day of March next, enter into bond, 

 with sufficient sureties, to be approved by the Attorney General of the 

 United States, that they will erect on the Market Space, between 7th and 

 9th streets west, and between Pennsylvania avenue and B street north, a 

 suitable and commodious building, in. which there shall be included such 

 apartments as may be neceslary for the accommodation of the circuit 



