16 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



Mr. Robbins, Mr. Choate, Mr. Marsh, Mr. Owen, and many others are 

 given in fall, and form an exceedingly interesting exhibit of the views 

 of men in political life as to the best means of increasing and diffusing 

 knowledge. This part also includes the history of the controversy in 

 relation to the management of the Institution arising from the resigna- 

 tion of Mr. Choate from the Board of Regents, and the speeches of Sen- 

 ators Pearce, Mason, Douglas, Badger, and Clayton, and of Representa- 

 tives English and Meacham, together with the reports of the Senate 

 Judiciary Committee, and of a special committee of the House. As 

 throwing light on much of Congressional action and to show the intense 

 interest Mr. John Quincy Adams felt in the bequest, copious extracts 

 are made from his diaries. 



The volume also contains the various plans proposed for the organiza- 

 tion of the Institution by scientific and literary men, including Mr. Rush, 

 Dr. Wayland, Dr. Cooper, Dr. Chapin, with the report of the committee 

 of organization of the Board of Regents ; the programme presented by 

 Professor Henry in December, 1847, and the opinions of this programme 

 expressed by Dr. Beck, Professor Silliman, Dr. Gray, • the American 

 Academy of Arts and Sciences, the presidents of Columbia, Williams, 

 Hamilton, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Georgetown, Amherst, Saint John's, 

 Brown, Bowdoin, Charleston, Hampdeu Sidney, Madison, William and 

 Mary, Cumberland, Alabama, Marietta, Tennessee, North Carolina, 

 Trinity, and many other colleges and societies. 



These articles will form parts of the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Col- 

 lections, and will not only be of interest to the Regents and those imme- 

 diately, connected with the management of the Institution, but to all who 

 wish to ascertain the views and acts of some of our most prominent in en 

 in relation to science for nearly half a century. The history of the 

 Institution will show what difficulties surrounded its organization, the 

 diversity of opinion as to its proper functions, the opposition to be over- 

 c >me, and the value of the wide and comprehensive plans of the Secre- 

 tary, Professor Henry, to whose clearness of conception, firmness of 

 purpose, and purity of character the success of the Institution is mainly 

 indebted. His views, though but little understood and appreciated at 

 first, have steadily gained the favor of the scientific and literary; world, 

 and are now universally recognized as the best adapted to accomplish 

 the great purpose of Smithson. 



Bulletins of the National Mii.seinit.— In the Secretary's Report for 1875 

 (page 14) it was stated that, during the past year another series of pub- 

 lications, which would form a part of the Miscellaneous Collections, had 

 been commenced under the above title. This series is intended to illustrate 

 the collections of natural history and ethnology belonging to the United 

 States, and constituting the stock of the National Museum, of which 

 the Smithsonian Institution is the custodian. These bulletins, prepared 

 at the request and mainly by the attaches of the institution, have been 



