FORTY-FOURTH CONGRESS.

SENATE, April 13, 1876.

Annual report of the Smithsonian Institution for 1875, laid before the Senate.

Mr. HAMLIN moved that extra copies be printed.

April 20, 1876.-Mr. ANTHONY, from the Committee on Printing, reported the following resolution, which was agreed to:

Resolved, (by the Senate, the House of Representatives concurring,) That 10,500 copies of the report of the Smithsonian Institution, for the year 1875, be printed; 1,000 copies of which shall be for the use of the Senate, 2,000 copies for the use of the House of Representatives, and 7,500 copies for the use of the Smithsonian Institution: Provided, That the aggregate number of pages shall not exceed 450, and that there shall be no illustrations, except those furnished by the Smithsonian Institution.

January 26, 1877.-The PRESIDENT pro tempore 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; which was referred to the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds.

February 6, 1877.-Mr. 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 name 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 carliest 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. 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.

The Secretary read as follows.

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 men," 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 this 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 Exhibition, 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 Professor 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 time-honored 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 ap propriation 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 instalment, 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 the Smithsonian Institution.

Mr. 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. 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 car-loads of articles that have been given to us by foreign governments. Thirty-two or thirty-three out of the forty nationalities abroad have given us their entire exhibits at the Centennial Exhibition. Their money value is scarcely computable, but if it were to be computed it exceeds our own, as large as our exhibits were there and as creditable to the country. Our own, I believe, in money value have been computed at $400,000. These foreign exhibits are computed, at least in money value, at

the sum of $600,000, but in historical and scientific interest they perhaps surpass anything that has been assembled in any national museum on the globe.

I shall, therefore, hope to receive favorable consideration of the report of the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds at an early day if in the meantime we do not receive a bill from the House on the subject.

Mr. STEVENSON. I now move, Mr. President, that this memorial be referred to the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds. Allow me to add a single word. I hope that speedy action will be had by both the Senate and the committee. I hope this building will be put on the Smithsonian grounds. There is ample room on that square with out the cost of additional ground. Professor Henry assures me that with the erection of the contemplated building on the plan of General Meigs, with the articles now on exhibition in the Smithsonian Institution, with those just donated, we shall have the nucleus of a National Museum which in a few years will equal any in the world.

Mr. SARGENT. Accompanying this memorial is a list of the various articles contributed by different powers, by different exhibitors, and by States of the Union, and I think that if Senators will take the pains to examine that list they will find that articles, rare in their character, of great interest in a scientific point of view and of intrinsic value, have been given to the Government of the United States. To properly display these objects will be to furnish education of the most valuable character to all of our people (and there are millions of them who come here) who visit this capital.

I wish to add my earnest desire that the committee will promptly report a measure that will enable us to open this great educational institution to the people of the United States, to utilize this vast and valuable collection which has been given to us, to show that we receive them from these powers in good faith, and are disposed to show that we properly appreciate the riches which they have placed within our hands.

I move that the list with the memorial be printed, and that they both go to the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds.

The motion was agreed to.

February 14, 1877.-Mr. MORRILL, from the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, reported a bill (S. No. 1252) for the erection of a fire-proof building for the National Museum; which was read by its title.