For fitting up new halls required for the Government collections,

$10,000;

To complete the heating apparatus of the National Museum, $2,500. (Stat., XVIII, Part 3, 387.)

REGENTS TO HAVE USE OF LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

March 2, 1875-Senate.

The Vice-President (Mr. HENRY WILSON) laid before the Senate a bill extending the privileges of the Library of Congress to the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution:

Be it enacted, etc., That the Joint Committee of both Houses of Congress on the Library be authorized to extend the use of the books in the Library of Congress to the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution resident in Washington, on the same conditions and restrictions as members of Congress are allowed to use the Library.

Passed.

March 2, 1875-House.

Mr. G. F. HOAR introduced a bill extending the privileges of the Library of Congress to the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Passed.

March 3, 1875.

Be it enacted, etc., That the Joint Committee of both Houses of Congress on the Library be authorized to extend the use of the books in the Library of Congress to the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution resident in Washington, on the same conditions and restrictions as members of Congress are allowed to use the Library. (Stat., XVIII, Part 3, 512.)

FORTY-FOURTH CONGRESS, 1875–1877.

August 3, 1876.

Restoration of the original Declaration of Independence.

Resolved, etc., That a commission, consisting of the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and the Librarian of Congress, be empowered to have resort to such means as will most effectually restore the writing of the original manuscript of the Declaration of Independence, with the signatures appended thereto, now in the United States Patent Office; and that the exper se attending the same be defrayed out of the contingent fund of the Interior Department.

(Stat., XIX, 216.)

INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES.

August 15, 1876.

Legislative, executive, and judicial act for 1877.

Library of Congress: For expenses of exchanging public documents for the publications of foreign governments, $1,000. (Stat., XIX, 147.)

March 3, 1877.

Legislative, executive, and judicial act for 1878.

Library of Congress: For expenses of exchanging public documents for the publications of foreign governments, $1,000. (Stat., XIX, 298.)

August 15, 1876.

INDIAN STATISTICS AND HISTORY.

Indian service act for 1877.

For continuing the collection of statistics and historical data respecting the Indians of the United States, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, $3,500: Provided, That when sufficient matter to make a volume of statistics and historical data is prepared it shall be submitted to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs and referred by him to the Regents of the Smithsonian Institute [Institution], and published on their written approval.

(Stat., XIX, 197.)

NATIONAL MUSEUM BUILDING.

January 26, 1877-Senate.

The President pro tempore (Mr. THOMAS W. FERRY) presented a resolution of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, adopted at a meeting held January 24, 1877, asking an appropriation by Congress for the erection of a suitable building in connection with the present edifice for the accommodation of additional collections. Referred to the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds. February 2, 1877-House.

The Speaker (Mr. MICHAEL C. KERR) laid before the House a preamble and resolution from the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution relative to additional room for the collections of the Institution.

Referred to the Committee on Appropriations.

February 6, 1877-Senate.

Mr. J. J. STEVENSON. I desire to present a memorial from the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, which I desire to have read. It will be found to refer to a subject in which the entire country must, I am sure, feel a very deep interest.

It is known to the Senate that the Smithsonian Institution was represented at the late Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia. At the close of that exposition a number of the foreign powers there represented and who contributed to that grand national display, at its close generously donated to the Smithsonian Institution most of their articles. and products there exhibited. A list of the articles donated and the names of the donors accompany this memorial. Among these gifts will be found an exquisite pair of vases valued at some $17,000.

The motive which prompted these donations to the Smithsonian Institution was unquestionably one of amity and respect entertained by the foreign powers donating them for the Government of the United States. But unquestionably these donors expected that this Government would through the agency of the Smithsonian Institution keep these articles thus donated on public exhibition, and in this way the respective products of each country would become known to the people of our entire country.

The articles donated are valuable, rare, varied, and occupy much space. They are all, I believe, now stored in Philadelphia, for the reason that the Smithsonian Institution has no building in which they can be either exhibited or safely preserved. They must remain, therefore, in boxes, subject to injury and to decay, unless Congress shall take some immediate action toward the erection of a building in all respects suitable for their exhibition and preservation. The capacity of such a building is estimated by competent architects to be four times as large as the Smithsonian building. A plan of such a structure has been already drawn by General Meigs. Its estimated cost will not exceed $200,000.

The Regents of the Institution by this memorial ask Congress to make at once the necessary appropriation. If it be promptly done, a beautiful and capacious building can be put up and finished by the assembling of Congress in December next. Of course, this memorial should go first to the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds. The prompt erection of the proposed building is a public necessity which I hope will commend itself to the judgment of that committee, and I trust they will at the earliest moment make a report. I submit that the honor and good faith of our country seems to demand and require prompt and liberal action by Congress. That is all I have now to suggest.

Mr. ROSCOE CONKLING. What is the worth of these articles?

Mr. STEVENSON. It is stated in the memorial that the estimated value is a million dollars. I ask that the memorial be now read.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled:

The undersigned, Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, beg leave respectfully to lay before you a question which has suddenly arisen, and which can be solved only by your authority.

In the year 1846, on the organization of the Smithsonian Institution "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among man," Congress, to the great relief of the Patent Office and other public buildings, devolved upon the Regents of that Institution the custody of “all objects of art and of foreign and curious research, and all objects of natural history, plants, and geological and mineralogical specimens belonging or hereafter to belong to the United States, which may be in the city of Washington." In accordance with the enactment the Institution has received and carefully preserved all the specimens which have been brought together from more than fifty public exploring expeditions, and has added specimens collected by itself or obtained from foreign museums by exchange, till its present edifice in the beginning of 1876 had become full to overflowing.

By an act bearing date July 31, 1876, additional duties were laid upon the Smithsonian Institution as custodian, and $4,500 were appropriated "for repairing and fitting up the so-called Armory building on the Mall, between Sixth and Seventh streets, and to enable the Smithsonian Institution to store therein and to take care of specimens of the extensive series of the ores of the precious metals, marbles, building stones, coals, and numerous objects of natural history now on exhibition in Philadelphia, including other objects of practical and economical value presented by various foreign governments to the National Museum."

As a fruit of this act of the General Government, the Smithsonian Institution finds itself the custodian of enormous collections that had been displayed at the Centennial Exposition, and on closing of that exhibition had been presented to the United States. These donations are made by individuals among our own citizens, by foreign exhibitors, and by several of the States of the Union; and there is scarcely a power in the civilized world in any region of the globe which has not taken part in the contributions, and some of them with the largest generosity. Men of science most competent to pass judgment pronounce them to be of immense value, and are of opinion that, including the gift from States of the Union and the exhibits of the United States, they could not have been brought together by purchase for less than a million of dollars.

That the magnitude and value of the donations from foreign governments may be manifest, we annex to this memorial a list of the more important of them, as prepared by Prof. S. F. Baird, who represented the Smithsonian Institution at Philadelphia. Their adequate exhibition requires an additional building which shall afford at least four times the space furnished by the present edifice of the Institution.

The Government of the United States is now in possession of the materials of a museum exhibiting the natural products of our own country associated with those of foreign nations which would rival in magnitude, value, and interest the most celebrated museums of the Old World.

The immediate practical question is, Shall these precious materials be for the most part packed away in boxes, liable to injury and decay, or shall they be exhibited? It was the act of Congress which ordered the acceptance in trust of these noble gifts to the United States. The receiving of them implies that they will be taken care of in a manner corresponding to the just expectations of those who gave them; and one of the prevailing motives of the donors was that the productions of their several lands might continue to be exhibited. The intrinsic value of the donations is moreover enhanced by the circumstances under which they were made. They came to us in the one hundredth year of our life as a nation, in token of the desire of the governments of the world to manifest their interest in our destiny. This consideration becomes the more pleasing when we bring to mind that these gifts have been received, not exclusively from the great nations of Europe from which we are sprung, or from the empire and republics on our own continent beyond the line, but that they come to us from the oldest abode of civilization on the Nile, from the timehonored empires and kingdoms of the remotest eastern Asia, and from the principal

states which are rising into intellectual and industrial and political greatness in the farthest isles and continent; from states which are younger than ourselves and bring their contributions as a congratulatory offering to their elder brother.

We have deemed it our duty to lay these facts and reflections before both Houses of Congress and to represent to them that, if they, in their wisdom, think that this unequaled accumulation of natural specimens and works interesting to science, the evidence of the good will to us that exists among men, should be placed where it can be seen and studied by the people of our own land and by travelers from abroad, it will be necessary to make an appropriation for the immediate erection of a spacious building. Careful inquiries have been instituted to ascertain the smallest sum which would be adequate to that purpose; and the plan of a convenient structure has been made by General Meigs, the Quartermaster-General, United States Army. We beg leave further to represent that to accomplish the purpose there would be need of an appropriation of $250,000. This amount is required not as a first installment, to be followed by others, but as sufficient entirely to complete the edifice.

Should this appropriation be made at an early day the building could be ready for the reception of articles before the next session of Congress.

WASHINGTON, February 5, 1877.

M. R. WAITE,

T. W. FERRY,
H. HAMLIN,
J. W. STEVENSON,

A. A. SARGENT,
HIESTER CLYMER,

BENJ. H. HILL,

GEO. W. MCCRARY,

PETER PARKER,

ASA GRAY,

GEO. BANCROFT,

Regents of Smithsonian Institution.

Mr. J. S. MORRILL. I desire to say to the Senate that the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds have already had the subject before them and would have made a report before this time, but we understood that the same subject was before a committee of the House, where it was being favorably considered. As I have stated in years past, it has seemed to be a necessity that we should provide for a National Museum. It has been the opinion of the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds on the part of the Senate, I believe unanimously, for some years, that we ought to take all of the squares next east of the public grounds, throughout the length and breadth on the north and south range of one square, taking one square in depth and the whole length, for the purpose of a National Museum and Congressional Library; and evidently this matter should be provided for at once. The National Armory, I understand, is already filled from basement to top.

Mr. A. A. SARGENT. With boxes without any opportunity for display.

Mr. MORRILL. With boxes without any opportunity of displaying their contents; and there are at this time, as I am informed, at least fifty carloads of articles that have been given to us by foreign gov