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174 EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT OP 



By the law incorporating this Institution, " all objects of art and of 

 foreign and curious research, and all objects of natural history, plants, 

 and geological and mineralogical specimens belonging to or hereafter 

 to belong to the United States, which may be in the city of Washing- 

 ton, in whosesoever custody the same may be, shall be delivered to 

 such persons as may be authorized by the Board of Regents to receive 

 them." 



This law evidently gives to the Smithsonian Institution the museum 

 in the Patent Office, the conservatory of plants, and all specimens of 

 nature and art to be found in the several offices and departments of the 

 government. The act, however, cannot be construed as rendering it 

 obligatorv on the Regents to take charge of these articles, if, in their 

 opinion, it is not for the best interests of the Institution that they should 

 do so. Though one of the reasons urged upon the Regents for the im- 

 mediate erection of so large a building was the necessity of providing 

 accommodation for this museum, I have been, from the first, of the 

 opinion that it is inexpedient to accept it. 



This museum was collected at the expense of the government, and 

 should be preserved as a memento of the science and energy of our 

 navy, and as a means of illustrating and verifying the magnificent 

 volumes which comprise the history of that expedition. If the Regents 

 accept this museum, it must be merged in the Smithsonian collections. 

 It could not be the intention of Congress that an Institution founded by 

 the liberality of a foreigner, and to which he has affixed his own name, 

 should be charged with the keeping of a separate museum, the property 

 of the United States. Besides this, the extensive museum of the Patent 

 Office would immediately fill the space allotted for collections of this 

 kind in the Smithsonian edifice, and in a short time another appropria- 

 tion would be required for the erection of another building. Moreover, 

 all the objects of interest of this collection have been described and 

 figured in the volumes of the expedition, and the small portion of our 

 funds which can be devoted to a museum may be better employed in 

 collecting new objects, such as have not yet been studied, than in pre- 

 serving those from which the harvest of discovery has already been fully 

 gathered. 



The answer made to some of these objections has usually been, that 

 the government would grant an annual appropriation for the support of 

 the museum of the Exploring Expedition. But this would be equally 

 objectionable ; since it would annually bring the Institution before Con- 

 gress as a supplicant for government patronage, and ultimately subject 

 it to political influence and control. 



After an experience of three years, I am fully convinced that the true 

 policy of the Institution is to ask nothing from Congress except the safe- 

 keeping of its funds, to mingle its operations as little as possible with 

 those of the general government, and to adhere in all cases to its own 

 distinct organization, while it co-operates with other institutions in the 

 way of promoting knowledge ; and on the other hand, that it is desira- 

 ble that Congress should place as few restrictions on the Institution as 

 possible, consistent with a judicious expenditure of the income, and that 

 this be judged of by a proper estimate of the results produced. 



