REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 31 



Library of Congress, but, owing to the absorption of public attention 

 by the Mexican war, no appropriation was made for the purpose. 

 Mr. Catlin made no further efforts at the time, but exhibited his 

 pictures in Europe, where, on account of an unfortunate speculation 

 into which he was led in London, claims were brought against them 

 which he had not the means to satisfy. At this crisis, fortunately, Mr. 

 Joseph Harrison, of Philadelphia, a gentleman of wealth and patriot- 

 ism, desiring to save the collection for our country, advanced the means 

 for paying off the claims against the pictures and shipped them to Phil- 

 adelphia, where they have since remained unredeemed. Mr. Catlin , 

 however, retained possession of the cartoons, and has since enriched 

 them with a large number of illustrations of the ethnology of South 

 America. Whatever may be thought of these paintings from an 

 artistic point of view, they are certainly of great value as faithful 

 representations of the person, features, manners, customs, implements, 

 superstitions, festivals, and everything which relates to the ethno- 

 logical characteristics of the primitive inhabitants of our country. We 

 think that there is a general public sentiment in favor of granting 

 the moderate appropriation asked for by Mr. Catlin, and we trust that 

 Congress will not fail at the next session to act in accordance with this 

 feeling. It is the only general collection of the kind in existence, and 

 any one who has given thought to the subject cannot but sympathize 

 with Mr. Catlin, who, in his old age and after a life of hard labor and 

 the devotion of all that he possessed in the world to its formation, is 

 now anxious to obtain the means to redeem the portion of his collection 

 retained as security for the payment of claims against him, for the 

 means to enable him to finish the sketches that are still incomplete, 

 and to secure the whole from dispersion through their purchase by the 

 Government. 



Eespectfully submitted. 



JOSEPH HENRY. 



Washington, January, 1872. 



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