22 EEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



already been completed, will depend upon the price of materials and 

 of labor. The Institution may in time be able to finish this work with- 

 out encroaching on its present capital, provided the Secretary of the 

 Treasury shall recognize the inadequacy of the payments of interest 

 which for three years were made in the depreciated currency of the 

 time. If this allowance be not made, and no assistance be received 

 from Congress, then, in order to secure the building and its contents 

 from injury by the weather, the Institution will be obliged to sacrifice 

 a portion of its extra fund, and to the extent of this forever diminish 

 its power to "increase and diffuse knowledge among men." 



I have always been opposed to asking appropriations from Congress 

 for the maintenance of the Institution, believing that the government 

 is called upon to do nothing further in its behalf than carefully to guard 

 the original bequest, and see that it is faithfully applied in an efficient 

 manner to the purposes intended by the donor. But the government, 

 after having voluntarily accepted the trust, is bound in good faith to 

 carry out the intentions of the testator, and to make up for any en- 

 croachments upon the funds which may have resulted from improvi- 

 dent or defective legislation. From abundant experience of at least 

 the last fifteen years, it has been shown that the cost and maintenance 

 of a building of the character which has been erected, so far from 

 being necessary to the most efficient realization of the intentions of 

 the founder, have been a constant source of extraneous expense, and 

 have absorbed a large amount of money which ought to have been 

 added to the active capital; and the question may now be asked 

 with propriety, whether, since this building was erected by its 

 own agents, in conformity with a law of Congress, an appropriation 

 should not be made to restore it in fire-proof materials, and to devote 

 it in whole or in part to purposes of the government. A single wing 

 of the edifice is sufficient to carry on all the essential operations of 

 the Institution, and the whole remaining part of the building might 

 be applied to the national collections, which have been greatly en- 

 riched at the expense of the Institution, to the accommodation of the 

 Army Medical Museum, or to the uses of the Agricultural Department. 



Publications. — During the past year the general operations of the 

 Institution have been continued with unabated energy, although, 

 on account of the increased cost of paper and printing, the number 

 of copies of publications distributed has not been so great as in some 

 previous years. The papers, however, which have been printed are 

 stereotyped, and all our domestic institutions will be supplied as soon 

 as a reduction of prices or an increase of the income of the Institu- 



