LETTER 
FROM THE 
HON. LEVI WOODBURY, 
UNITED STATES SENATE, DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL IN¬ 
STITUTE. 
Senate Chamber, February 28, 1844. 
Dear Sir: It will not be in my power, as requested by the committee of the 
National Institute, to read a paper or deliver an address at the approaching meet¬ 
ing of the friends of science, with the members of the National Institute. But 
allow me to assure you that I do not decline from any want of interest in the suc¬ 
cess of the Institute. I think such a Society as that is wanted at the seat of Go¬ 
vernment quite as much for purposes connected with the Government itself, as for 
other objects beneficial to individuals, and to the great cause of scienee and let¬ 
ters. 
It may be made a very appropriate agent in the execution of several important 
public duties. Various articles of curiosity and interest here are public property, 
and, being such, are to be taken care of. They are connected with our mines—our 
Indian and foreign intercourse—our patents and copy-rights, and matters of natural 
history and discovery. None can doubt, that some of these could be best preserved 
and prove most useful in the custody of men of literary taste. The specimens of 
lead, copper, iron, gold, and rocks, which have been collected in the public offices, 
and many of which help to illustrate the value, no less than the character of our 
soil in several portions of the public domain, can be well arranged and well kept 
for public use, only by persons acquainted with the subjects of mineralogy and 
geology, and separated, in a great degree, from the pressure of official labor and 
turmoils of party strife. So, without the aid of such persons, the rare plants and 
useful woods and grasses that cover our territory, as well as the new animals, 
with which our rivers, lakes, and wilderness abound, will, in many cases, both live 
and perish in vain—even more vain than the mammoth, whose bones at least 
survive, or such other extinct animals as are partly known only in their fossil 
remains. Nor can posterity do justice to us or the Indian races, who preceded us 
in the enjoyment of our present rich inheritance, or appreciate in several respects 
their true character and condition, unless we collect and preserve their arms and 
implements of hunting, their dresses and rude tools, and indeed every thing which 
tends to illustrate the state of society which prevailed among them, and the pro¬ 
gress of civilization since. Mementos like these are living fragments of the past. 
In such relics, as well as in rocks, plants, shells, animals, inventions and machinery, 
over our vast country, carefully gathered together, and skilfully transmitted, we 
have portions of history embodied, beyond the power of misrepresentation, as if a 
part of the past, while the sands of time were running, had become petrified in its 
course, and thus been able to be handed down to latest generations, with increased 
certainty and instruction. How superior a service is thus performed for posterity# 
usefully illustrating many of the arts, habits, and changes of social life ! 
