wish every gentleman in the House would read it, for it would receive on all sides a warm and generous support.

I desire to submit a few remarks in regard to our building. We were authorized by Congress to expend $240,000 in its erection; but, in view of the wide field of knowledge to be cultivated, the Regents resolved to save a part of this sum and add it to the principal. Keeping in view the great interests to be provided for, it was resolved to erect a building of proportions sufficiently ample to meet the requirements of the act of Congress, and of a style which should not offend the eye. This has been effected, a contract has been entered into, and a plan of expenditure agreed upon, which, while the building is gradually constructed, will carry out the plan to full completion, and at the end of five years from the time of its commencement. So far from having expended the sum appropriated by Congress for the purpose, we shall have, after erecting the structure, providing for its warming and ventilation, and the inclosure of the grounds, $140,000 to return to the principal sum. In the meanwhile we are carrying on the operations of the institution, stimulating original researches, publishing contribu tions to science, and gradually increasing our library. At the same time we pay our debts as we go on. This is, of course, accomplished by using the interest on the $240,000 for the building and the annually accruing interest on the principal fund for meeting the regular expenses of the institution.

The transactions of the present year are highly interesting, and will soon be published in a volume which will compare well with similar publications in Europe.

With the building, so far as it has gone, all paid for and every debt discharged, we shall have at the end of the year $10,000 more than we received from Congress.

Is there any necessity for a standing committee of this House? How is the Board of Regents composed? The act of Congress declares that it shall be constituted of the Vice-President of the United States, the Chief Justice of the United States, the Mayor of the city of Washington, three members of the Senate, three members of the House of Representatives, together with six other persons not members of Congress. Each House of Congress, it will be perceived, has three members of the Board of Regents; and it is required by law that the board shall submit to Congress at each session a report of the operations, expenditures, and condition of the institution.

At the last session, I presented a full report according to

law, which I now have before me; it was printed and circulated. Another report is about to be presented, embracing the report of the building committee, a paper containing some three hundred pages, full of useful information, which I should be happy to see printed. Is it then necessary to appoint a committee? Is it proper? Is it becoming? A committee of this House appointed "to superintend the affairs of the Smithsonian Institution!" This committee will bring under its supervision the Vice-President of the United States, the Chief Justice, three Senators, three Representatives, and six citizens at large, selected because of their character and attainments. May I most respectfully ask, who will superintend the affairs of that committee of five? Where is the necessity for thus complicating the machinery of an institution which ought to be left to enjoy the repose which science loves?

I hope, sir, that this institution, so important to this country and to mankind, will not be launched on the ever-heaving sea of politics. If that should happen, we should soon lose sight of land; storms and shipwreck would await us, and the hopes which crowned our noble enterprise in its commencement would perish with us.

I thank the House for the attention with which they have heard these remarks; it evinces the interest which they feel in an institution which claims their protection.

Mr. Hilliard concluded by moving to lay the proposed rule on the table.

Mr. ANDREW JOHNSON said he thought he understood the agreement between the gentleman from Alabama and the gentleman from Pennsylvania to be, that this subject should be postponed to a day certain.

Mr. C. J. INGERSOLL. My suggestion was, that the consideration of the subject be postponed to any given day which the gentleman from Alabama might name.

Mr. HILLIARD. I have no choice at all, sir.

Mr. INGERSOLL indicating his wish that the gentleman from Alabama should name the day.

Mr. HILLIARD said he would move, if agreeable to the House, that it be postponed to this day twelve months.

Mr. ANDREW JOHNSON addressed the chair, and inquired if that motion was not debatable?

The SPEAKER replied in the affirmative.

Mr. C. J. INGERSOLL suggested to Mr. Hilliard that his understanding was that it should be postponed to some day not distant, when the House could reach and dispose of it. Mr. HILLIARD said he would withdraw the motion, as he

preferred the gentleman from Pennsylvania should make his own motion.

The SPEAKER said the gentleman from Pennsylvania had not the floor to make the motion. The gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. A. Johnson] had taken the floor.

Mr. HILLIARD then remarked that he had been reminded that his pledge was to move a postponement to a day within a reasonable period, and said he would modify his motion so as to name the 3d day of January next.

The SPEAKER said the motion could not be altered without the consent of the gentleman from Tennessee, who had the floor.

Mr. HILLIARD appealed to the gentleman from Tennessee to permit the modification to be made.

Mr. JOHNSON had no objection, provided it did not deprive him of the floor.

The motion was accordingly modified by Mr. Hilliard so as to postpone to the 3d day of January.

Mr. ANDREW JOHNSON then proceeded in his remarks. He said the gentleman who had just closed his remarks had seen no propriety or necessity for the appointment of this committee. He seemed to think it would be humiliating and detracting somewhat from the dignity of these individuals who were called "Regents," he believed, in the act establishing the Smithsonian Institution-to have their proceedings come under the supervision of a committee of this House. Now, his (Mr. Johnson's) conceptions about dignity and position in this country were perhaps different from those of the gentleman from Alabama. According to his notions of government, this body occupied the highest and most elevated position. In this Democratic Government it was held that the people are sovereign, the source of all power; this body stands next to the people, next to the sovereignty, and instead of detracting from their dignity, he thought it was assigning them their true position. He knew there were some who were really fascinated by that word "Regent," and the fondness of such things was increasing in our country.

He thought the gentleman from Alabama had demonstrated clearly to this House, in his opposition to the creation of this committee, the necessity of its creation. If all was done well, everything regularly transacted, if the money was judiciously expended, in the name of common reason would it injure or affect their proceedings to be supervised by a committee appointed by this body? Why, the very disposition to shrink from the supervision of a committee

appointed by the popular branch of the Government ought to carry conviction to the mind of this House of the necessity of its creation.

He was no prophet, but when the bill was before the House for the establishment of the Smithsonian Institution, he had predicted what had already become a matter of fact -that this institution would be an incubus upon the Treasury, that it would be a perpetual source of expenditure. The clause in Mr. Smithson's will "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men " read well, it was true. And the gentleman from Alabama undertook also to prove how great financiers the Board of Regents were, and said, after all the improvements are done, they would have over $100,000 left. And how was this done? Why, they had taken $242,000, supposed to be the interest which had accumulated on this fund, and put that upon interest-having bought Treasury notes, he supposed, on which they were drawing interest; and by this means they had saved an immense sum. Did not every member know, who had paid attention to the discussion of this subject when the bill passed placing $500,000 at the discretion of the Board of Regents, that not a dollar of it was there? They first placed a certain amount in the Treasury that did not exist there, and then calculated interest on this fictitious amount, and then interest on the interest; which is the way in which they are to carry on their extensive works.

Mr. HILLIARD. Is the gentleman charging that upon the Board or this House?

Mr. JOHNSON. Charging what?

Mr. HILLIARD. Why, that a fictitious amount was placed in the Treasury.

Mr. JOHNSON. I was going on to prove the position that this institution would be an incubus upon the Treasury.

Mr. HILLIARD. But does the gentleman charge the putting this fictitious_sum in the Treasury, &c., on the Board or on Congress. I wish him to answer on that point.

Mr. JOHNSON. On Congress. The bill of last session placed $500,000 in the Treasury which was not there in reality. It is true the Government received it; but they acted as a faithful trustee, and loaned it out, and not a cent has ever been returned. In this state of the case, Mr. Johnson denied that the Government was justly bound to refund the money, and that very few of their constituencies would sanction it. It would have been much better if she had never consented to act as trustee of it; for, notwithstanding their flourishing with "Regents," &c., and talking of

such a sum as in the Treasury, it was not there, and the expenses of this institution came out of the Treasury, which was already heavily taxed and burdened with debt to carry on the war. He insisted, now that they had commenced operations, that reports of their proceedings should be regularly laid before a committee of this House, who would thus have supervision over them, and be a check upon them. Such a restraint was needed in all Government establishments, and there was no reason in this case why this institution should be excepted.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, December 22, 1847.

In pursuance of the act establishing the Smithsonian Institution

The SPEAKER reappointed Mr. H. W. Hilliard, of Alabama, a Regent of the said institution; and appointed Mr. Geo. P. Marsh, of Vermont, and Mr. Robert McClelland, of Michigan, to the Board of Regents on the part of the House, in the place of Mr. Hough and Mr. Owen, whose terms have expired.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, January 5, 1848.

The SPEAKER laid before the House a report from the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, showing the operations, expenditures, and condition of that institution for the past year.

Mr. HOUSTON, of Delaware, moved to lay the report on the table, and that it be printed.

Mr. JOHNSON, of Tennessee, called for a division of the question, so as to take the question separately on each branch of the motion.

The question was divided accordingly, and the report was ordered to be laid on the table. The question then recurring on the motion to print

Mr. JOHNSON, of Tennessee, opposed the printing at present. The House saw, in the proposition to print this cumbrous document, a beginning of what had been anticipated by some who were opposed to this institution. Here was a long report, accompanied by many documents, and this House was called upon to print them; and he expected they would have a proposition soon to print an extra number. It was true the law establishing this institution provides that the Regents should make a report to the House; but before this report was printed, before an order to print was made, the Committee on the Smithsonian Institution ought to be established, and ought to report to the House the pro