of the Patent Office, and not to the relief of the other departments of the Government. I hope that the enlargement of the Patent Office building, which has been paid for by the patent fund, will not be used for the convenience and accommodation of other departments. What says the Secretary of the Interior? In his last annual report, after enumerating various bureaus of his Department which need additional accommodations, he says:

I therefore recommend that the two wings of the Patent Office be finished, and that they be appropriated to the accommodation of the Department of the Interior and the different offices thereto attached. They will thus be brought under one roof, the communication between the head of the Department and the different bureaus will by greatly facilitated, and the records of the Government safely lodged in a fireproof building.

I had hoped when I saw $216,468 taken from the patent fund for a beautiful palace that the models of the inventions and the inventors. and mechanics of the country would receive some benefit from it; but I see it is utterly hopeless, seeing this recommendation of the Secretary of the Interior, and the wreck that is taking place in the Patent Office of the models and inventions of the country.

The Senator from Mississippi and the Senator from Maryland have given me some information on the subject of the resolution. And now I would say to those gentlemen, both as Senators and Regents of the Institution, that I entertain not the least unkind feelings toward the Smithsonian Institution. On the contrary, I would be willing to do anything reasonable that is within my power to facilitate its great object and the benefits which the country expects to derive from it; but at the same time I am unwilling to bestow benefits on that Institution at the sacrifice of the old and greater interests of the patentees and the Patent Office. With these feelings, I think there was no impropriety in offering the resolution.

If the Smithsonian Institution is not to take charge of these curiosities, it seems to me that something should be done to relieve the Patent Office from its present embarrassing condition in relation to the exhibition of its models. I think the patent fund, the fund contributed by the mechanics and inventors of the country, ought to be used solely for the benefit of the Patent Office and not for any other department of the Government unconnected with that fund or its interests.

According to my promise I now move to lay the resolution on the table, although I shall vote against the motion and hope it will not prevail.

Mr. JEFFERSON DAVIS, of Mississippi. Will the Senator withdraw the motion?

Mr. I. P. WALKER. Certainly.

Mr. DAVIS. I shall consume but very little time. Having made as much explanation as I thought was due to the occasion in relation to

the supposition by the Senator from Wisconsin of a personal or offensive application of what I said, I have nothing more to say on that point.

The object of the Senator, as directed to the benefit of the inventors of the country by providing a proper room for the exhibition of the models of their inventions, is one in which I very cordially sympathize. The Committee on Public Buildings have already that subject somewhat under consideration. I know quite well that the models in the Patent Office are in such a confused condition as not to comply with the terms of the law. The great gallery intended for the exhibition of models is now occupied by the museum which has been referred to. The present building, however, was built by money drawn from the United States Treasury, and may be occupied for that purpose. The wing which is being added and built out of the patent fund is clearly a building which should be for the use of the Patent Office, and I hope it will not be transferred to any other use. I sympathize with the object of the Senator in giving proper accommodations to the models in the Patent Office, and reserving for the use of that office the building which is being erected out of the patent fund. So far we go together.

I take it for granted, from the object of the Smithsonian Institution and from the plan on which its operations have been commenced and will be conducted, that it will never want such a museum as that in the Patent Office; still less will it want the garden of plants which has been collected by the exploring expedition. I suppose it would cost the Institution not less than $10,000 a year to support such an establishment; and if it were transferred, Congress, I think, would be bound to endow the Institution with $10,000 a year additional. I think it is quite appropriate to keep these natural curiosities in the Patent Office. They may aid inventive genius. Vegetable growth and animal action are elements upon which mechanical invention rests. There would therefore seem to be something appropriate in lodging them in the Patent Office. If they are not to be kept there, let the Government provide a room elsewhere, get rid of them, destroy them, or give them to somebody that will take them. But let not the Government coerce a fund, of which it was the chosen trustee, which was granted by a foreigner for a special purpose, with the charge of keeping this collection.

Mr. GEORGE E. BADGER. I move to lay the resolution on the table. The motion was agreed to; and the resolution was ordered to lie on the table.

REPORT OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.

July 23, 1850-House.

Mr. H. W. HILLIARD requested the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. James Thompson] to waive his motion for the regular order of

business, so as to enable him (Mr. Hilliard) to present the annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. His object was simply to present the report, that it might be laid upon the table and printed.

Mr. JAMES THOMPSON, of Pennsylvania, insisted on the regular order of business.

The Speaker (Mr. HOWELL COBB) stated to the gentleman from Alabama [Mr. H. W. Hilliard] that the report could only be introduced by unanimous consent. The regular order of business was insisted upon, and objections were made in several quarters.

The report, therefore, was not presented.

July 25, 1850-House.

The Speaker (Mr. HOWELL COBB) laid before the House a communication from the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, transmitting the annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution-laid upon the table, and ordered to be printed.

July 29, 1850-Senate.

The President pro tempore (Mr. WILLIAM R. KING) laid before the Senate a letter of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, transmitting the annual report of the Board of Regents,

On motion by Mr. JEFFERSON DAVIS, of Mississippi,

Ordered, That it be referred to the Committee on Printing, with instructions to inquire into the expediency of printing 5,000 additional copies without the Appendix. July 30, 1850-Senate.

Mr. HANNIBAL HAMLIN, from the Committee on Printing, reported in favor of printing the report of the Smithsonian Institution, with 5,000 additional copies without the Appendix, 500 of which are for the use of the Smithsonian Institution.

Agreed to.

January 9, 1851-Senate.

Mr. JEFFERSON DAVIS, of Mississippi, submitted resolution:

Resolved, That the Committee on Printing be instructed to inquire into the propriety of printing three thousand extra copies of the Appendix to the report of the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, one thousand of which to be for the benefit of the Smithsonian Institution.

Mr. DAVIS. Mr. President, when I made the motion to print extra copies of the report of the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution I was not acquainted with the value of the Appendix. It contains valuable statistical and other information respecting the libraries of the United States, and it is believed that it would be valuable and desirable to the country at large.

Agreed to.

March 1, 1851-Senate.

The President of the Senate (Mr. HoWELL COBB) laid before the body a letter from the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, com

municating the annual report of the Board of Regents of said Institution-ordered to lie on the table.

On motion by Mr. J. A. PEARCE that it be printed, and that 2,000 extra copies thereof be printed, the motion was referred to the Committee on Printing.

March 7, 1851—Senate.

On motion by Mr. SOLON BORLAND, the report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution was ordered to be printed.

Mr. BORLAND. I now move that 3,000 extra copies of that report be printed.

Mr. J. W. BRADBURY. I hope we will let the matter of printing documents lie over until we meet for the transaction of ordinary legislative business, and not undertake enterprises of this kind at thistime.

Mr. JEFFERSON DAVIS, of Mississippi. I can not see how the printing of a report made to Congress can properly be termed an enterprise. Mr. R. B. RHETT. Who is to print it? Mr. DAVIS. The public printer.

Mr. RHETT. He says he can not do it.

Mr. BORLAND. That is the old contractor. This goes to the new contractor.

Mr. DAVIS. I was surprised to hear the few remarks which were made on this question. Surely Senators forget that the United States have accepted the bequest made by a foreigner to found an institution at Washington, and that Congress have organized a Board of Regents and given them the charge of the fund so left to the United States for the benefit of mankind; and this is the report of the board so constituted by Congress. If there be anything more than another which we should circulate freely throughout the United States, it is the knowledge of the manner in which we discharge this holy trust which we have taken upon ourselves. The report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution is made to Congress by authority as high as the report of any committee of Congress. If it be said that you ought not to print extra copies of this, to that I would reply that a report made by a committee of Congress is for the action of Congress, and it would be questionable whether the Senate should print extra copies of a report of one of its committees; but it is clear that if you have authority to print for circulation and distribution at all, it belongs to such a document as this, relating to a trust fund bequeathed to the United States, taken charge of by the United States, and which we are now administering through a Board of Regents. As to the value of the information I will express no opinion.

Mr. RHETT. I would ask my friend from Mississippi why the Smithsonian Institution itself does not print its own proceedings?

Mr. DAVIS, of Mississippi. I said, I think, that this was a report to Congress. The Smithsonian Institution does print its contributions to

knowledge, and does attend to their diffusion among men. This, however, is not a contribution to human knowledge, but is a report to Congress of the manner in which the Board of Regents executed the trust confided to them.

Mr. J. A. PEARCE. I beg leave simply to add that the law organizing the Smithsonian Institution compels the Board of Regents to make this annual report to Congress.

Mr. J. M. MASON. I move to amend the motion so as to provide that 1,000 copies shall be printed for the Institution.

Mr. MOSES NORRIS. Is this the report of a committee?

Mr. BORLAND. It is the report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution; the question of printing it was referred to the Committee on Printing; the committee were in favor of the proposition, but could not make a report. It has been ordered to be printed; and the proposition now is to print 3,000 extra copies.

Mr. NORRIS. Does it come from the Committee on Printing?
Mr. BORLAND. It does.

The amendment was agreed to.

September 30, 1850.

INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES.

Civil and diplomatic act for 1851.

For carrying into effect the international exchanges of books, authorized by the act of June 26, 1848, entitled "An act to regulate the exchanges of certain documents and other publications of Congress,” $2,000.

(Stat., IX, 524.)

February 27, 1851.

Resolved, etc., That the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House of Representatives be, and they hereby are, directed to distribute, by mail or otherwise, the works now being published by authority of Congress, known as the works of Alexander Hamilton, in the manner following, to wit: to the Smithsonian Institution, one copy; to the Joint Committee on the Library for the purpose of international exchange, twelve copies.

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SEC. 3. And be it further resolved, That the works of the late John Adams, published and being published, for which the Congress of the United States have subscribed, be distributed in the same manner as is herein provided for the distribution of the works of the late Alexander Hamilton, except the five copies to Mrs. Eliza Hamilton.

(Stat., IX, 646.)

March 3, 1851.

Civil and diplomatic act for 1852.

* * twenty-five copies for inter* two copies to the Smithsonian Insti

Of the Annals of Congress national exchanges

tution.

(Stat., IX, 599.)

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