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it is manifest that the books procured by means of the journal, and transferred to the book interest, would be so much paid to that side of the account, and ought properly to be credited to the other. The fallacy of Mr. Jewett's illustration consists again in begging the question, that all the money in the first instance was given for the purchase of books. We, however, object to the application of business transactions between parties of diverse pecuniary interests as illustrations of the questions under consideration.

The argument of Mr. Jewett, "that the taking charge of the museum of the exploring expedition, or the not taking charge of it, does not vary the amount which, under the compromise, would be given to the active operations, unless it can be shown that for every saving which the Regents can, without injury to the active operations, effect for the library and museum, by refusing to accept donations to them, they are bound to bestow a positive equivalent upon the active operations," is based upon an incorrect statement of the case.

1st. The saving to the Institution was not made by refusing to accept a donation to its museum, which would advance the increase or diffusion of knowledge among men, but by Congress relieving it from a part of a burden imposed upon it by its own act. The museum of the exploring expedition has not "been packed up in boxes," but is exhibited at the expense of Congress, in the Patent Office, instead of at the expense of the Smithsonian fund, in the building of the Institution.

2d. The amount of the income which was to be allowed to the library and museum by the compromise was in part in consideration of the fact that the collections of the exploring expedition were to be supported out of this appropriation.

The question may therefore again be asked, as it was in the secretary's last report, "whether it is advisable, in the present state of the funds, and the wants of the active operations, to expend any considerable portion of the income in the immediate duplication of a miscellaneous collection of objects of natural history, particularly when it is highly probable that Congress will make appropriations for the increase of its own museum.

The fallacy which enters into these statements, and pervades the whole reasoning upon them, is the one to which we have before alluded, namely, that the compromise should be considered in a business point of view as rights guarantied to parties, instead of the best probable means prior to experience for producing a desired result.

The remarks of Professor Jewett as to the "promise made by the secretary to all persons in this country, that the results of their labors. shall be presented to the world through the Smithsonian publications," do not appear to have any bearing on the questions referred to the committee, and a simple reference to page 11 of the secretary's report for 1852, will be sufficient to show that they were made in a different connexion from that in which Mr. Jewett would place them.

It may, however, be proper to notice the direct contradiction which is given to the report of the secretary in the assertion that "the library has not been favored with complete sets of the transactions of many of the oldest societies, in exchange, nor indeed of any of the oldest." This contradiction is founded on the use of the word oldest. The secRep. 141-11

retary might have used the word older, or he might insist that Mr. Jewett should use the words very oldest, without changing at all the truth intended to be conveyed. The Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Philosophical Society of Manchester, the Royal Irish Academy, and a number of others which might be named, are at least among the older societies, though they may not be entitled to the designation of very oldest.

The answer to the statement that "the publications we have received were not sent solely in consequence of anticipated returns, but were drawn out by gifts not only of our own publications, but of other valuable works," it may be sufficient to say that whatever books may have been obtained in this way, they are the product of the exchanges, a part of the active operations, and it is to these operations the Institution owes all the reputation it has yet obtained. Without their influence in making the Institution known, it is reasonable to conclude that scarcely a book would, up to this time, have been received from abroad, as a donation to the librară.

In answer to Mr. Jewett's question, whether if the Regents had felt entirely sure that the active operations would not prove chimerical. they would have cast out library and collections entirely, I say no, they would have had no power to have done this under the act of Congress; but had all the Regents clearly foreseen at the beginning the results which have been produced by the active operations, while they would have made provision for the library and museum, they would have hesitated to pass any resolution which might be construed to tie up forever the distribution of the income in a particular manner. In proof of this assertion, I beg leave to present a letter from Hon. Gideon Hawley, who, previous to the introduction of the proposition relative to the active operations, favored a general library, and who has no idea of the present condition of affairs.

Copy of a letter from Hon. Gideon Hawley, to Professor Joseph Henry.

ALBANY, January 25, 1854.

DEAR SIR: I received a few days since the seventh annual report of the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, (for 1852,) and have read it with a deeper interest and more pleasure than any previous report or any other document proceeding from the same source. It affords more satisfactory evidence than I ever thought I should live to see, that the Institution is now fulfilling and will finally accomplish the great and beneficial ends for which it was founded. There is now a moral certainty that the original resolution of the Regents as to the cost of their buildings and the amount of interest to be converted into principal, will be faithfully carried out and finally consummated according to its spirit if not to its exact letter. After the completion of a commodious edifice and supplying it with a suitable outfit, the principal of the original bequest will remain intact with $150,000 of interest added to it, a consummation which, although desired by all, was expected by few. It has often been referred to in our legislative debates here, in terms of the highest commendation, and it is generally viewed as an achievement very extraordinary, in these times, when the final reality in expenditures for

public works so commonly and so greatly exceed their preliminary estimates, being often double and sometimes treble their amount.

If the $150,000 of interest to be converted into principal can be invested in the same manner as the original bequest, it will place the Institution on a foundation which cannot be improved while the union of the States shall endure.

I have found nothing in the various reports of the Institution more gratifying than the evidence they afford, (especially the last one,) that the plan of what is properly called "active operations," as laid down in your original programme, has already succeeded for the past and present, and promises a degree of success for the future beyond my most sanguine expectations. The success of that plan will satisfy the first and most important branch of the great trust confided to the Institution, "increase of knowledge," while the admirable system of exchanges, with other measures now in equally successful operation, will satisfy the other branch of the trust-"diffusion of knowledge among men."

When I became connected with the Institution as one of the Regents, I had no doubt of its final success; but I never expected to live long enough to witness such results as may now be referred to, not in future promise, but in present reality.

My only regret is, that my individual co-operation in producing such results has been so inefficient; I can only plead in extenuation of the delinquency my remote residence from Washington and my advanced age-greater, I believe than that of any other Regent.

I shall never cease to feel a deep interest in the Institution, and to rejoice in its prosperity, which I hope and trust will be perpetual, an ever enduring monument to the memory of its founder, and to fidelity in the executors of his will.

With great respect, your friend and obedient servant,

GIDEON HAWLEY.

The next criticism of Mr. Jewett is, on that part of the secretary's report in which he states that "the active operations are now considered by the great majority of intelligent persons who have studied the subject, as the only direct means of realizing the intentions of the donor."

The secretary has presented the exposition of the will of Smithson as given in the programme, and the plan of active operations which is based upon it to several thousand intelligent persons, and out of all the number he recollects scarcely a single one who has not approved of the propositions of this plan. The Regents have decided that these propositions are not at variance with the law of Congress; and if they were, intelligent public opinion in this country has great power to induce Congress to amend its laws, and on this ground the secretary would be justifiable in presenting such views in his reports.

The secretary has never argued that Smithson intended to establish something like a Royal Society here. He merely incidentally stated that Smithson at one time intended to bequeath his money to the Royal Society for carrying on scientific researches and publications; and it does by no means follow that, because he saw fit to change the trustee of his legacy, that he thereby designed to change the object for which

it was originally intended, particularly, when we critically examine the words of the will. The argument based upon this however, on either side, is of very little importance.

The comments on the secretary's remarks relative to the importance of the active operations, and that they should be made the paramount interest of the Institution, are entirely based on the postulate and sophisms we have before expressed, and do not appear to me to require a minute analysis.

If the committee, however, are not satisfied as to this point, I beg leave to refer them to the report itself, beginning on p. 11 and ending at the second paragraph on p. 12; and if, to the concluding remarks of this extract, the policy imputed can properly be applied, namely, that the "end will sanctify the means," the secretary will only say that he failed clearly to express his meaning. The vindication intended in the report is the vindication of the judgment in the choice of laudable means to effect a desirable end, and not that of sanctioning an immoral act which may possibly result in a temporary good.

The remarks of Mr. Jewett with regard to the accumulation of a great library are very specious, but they are those of a collector ambitious to draw materials from various places to heap them up in one. Will the autographs referred to be lost to the world by being deposited in Harvard University instead of being given to the Smithsonian Institution? Is it not an object of the latter to render available all the scattered libraries of the country, and will the private libraries of which he speaks be of no value unless the Smithsonian fund is expended in providing accommodations for them? It is true the Institution might, if it had sufficient means, erect buildings in anticipation of great donations of this kind, but it may well be doubted, and is doubted, whether a large expenditure in this way would be the best policy "to increase and diffuse knowledge among men."

Though the secretary's remarks on the tendency of the library and museum to a "statical condition" may not apply to the exclusion of all objects, as might be inferred from Mr. Jewett's strictures, yet they do apply to caution in procuring them. With a given size of building and a given amount of income to support the collections, there is much need of care in the selection of articles. Only such should be accepted as gifts as shall not entail upon the Institution a perpetual obligation to support other than objects of high intrinsic value. If the Institution now has shelf room for 100,000 volumes, this space has cost at least $100,000, and, in my humble opinion, it should not be filled up with books to be found in almost every library in the country. For this reason I have, repeatedly, advocated an application to Congress for the repeal of that portion of the Smithsonian charter which relates to copyright books.

Whether the fancy sketch which Mr. Jewett gives of what the library might have become under his own direction "without the active operations," would have been realized, cannot now with certainty be ascertained. I think, however, there is some probability hat the result would not have been so favorable as he supposes. The division of the money among the different objects enumerated in the law would have scarcely given any one of them a pre-eminence:

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a library, a museum, a gallery of art, with lectures and a chemical department, each with a principal officer and a corps of men under him, as advocated by Mr. Jewett, would give a small dividend. to each from the sum of $30,000 a year, particularly if $50,000 more than was originally appropriated for the building had been required to finish it with fire-proof materials. The number of volumes procured would have been far short of 200,000 unless the proportional results were much more favorable than those which have been exhibited in collecting the books of the present library of the Smithsonian Institution.

The secretary makes no objection to a great central library of reference and research for this country, but contends that it ought not to be supported out of the small bequest of a foreigner, intended for the good of mankind, and that the money can be appropriated for purposes much more in accordance with his will.

The convention of librarians to which Mr. Jewett refers does not say that this great national library of reference and research ought to be supported at the expense of the Smithsonian Institution, and I am certain that a resolution expressing such an opinion would have been opposed. As a proof of this, as well as an illustration of Mr. Jewett's method of citing authorities in his favor, I beg leave to present to the committee the resolutions which were adopted, together with the editorial comments of "Norton's Literary Gazette," which is recognized as the organ of librarians in this country, and is certainly a good expression of unbiassed "intelligent public opinion" on this subject.

Mr. Folsom, librarian of the Athenæum, Boston, offered the following resolutions, which were adopted unanimously :

"Resolved, That the establishment of a great central library of reference and research, while it is demanded by the condition of the United States as to general civilization and intellectual advancement, is especially interesting to this convention, from the bearing it would have upon libraries throughout the country.

"Resolved, That we deem such an establishment as being eminently worthy of support from the national treasury, and that in no way can the government better promote the progress of learning through the whole country than by placing a central national library under the administration of the Smithsonian Institution."

From Norton's Literary Gazette, November 15, 1853:

"It may perhaps be suggested that the Smithsonian Institution is already appointed to be the nucleus of such a library, but if we are correctly informed, this is by no means the case. At any rate, its present funds are quite too small for such an object, and must be specially increased by Congress, if a national library is to be supported by the Institution. Moreover, according to the construction which has been justly given to the will of Smithson, a library will not accomplish the object which he specified with anything like the efficiency of the other means of advancing and diffusing knowledge among men, which are now in operation in this excellent Institution. The Smithsonian has one sphere, and a national library would have another. We trust that the friends of neither will seek to have them combined.

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