gress. The cost would be insignificant, and the value of the collection would increase in all future time. No place is so suitable for its permanent deposit as the city of Washington, and no guardianship so appropriate as that of the government of the United States.

Your committee recommend to the Board that the subject of the purchase of Mr. Stanley's Indian gallery be brought respectfully to the attention of Congress, as a measure eminently deserving a favorable consideration in its bearings upon the history of the aboriginal tribes of America, and as a monument of deep and lasting interest to the people of the United States.

The report was accepted, and laid on the table for the present.

The Secretary stated that Mr. Putnam having resigned the agency of the Smithsonian publications in New York,[Messrs. D. Appleton & Co. had been appointed his successors.

The Secretary announced that since the last meeting of the Board the death of Dr. ROBERT HARE, of Philadelphia, had occurred, who was one of the principal benefactors of the Institution, and its first honorary member.

Professor Bache gave an account of the life, character, and scientific researches of Dr. Hare, and offered the following resolutions:

Resolved, That the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution have learned with deep regret the decease of one of the earliest and most venerated honorary members of the establishment, Robert Hare, M.D., of Philadelphia, late professor of chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania.

Resolved, That the activity and power of mind of Dr. Hare, shown through a long and successful career of physical research, the great fertility of invention, the happy adaptations to matters of practical life, and the successful grappling with questions of high theory in physical science, have placed him among the first in his country of the great contributors to knowledge, clarum et venerabile nomen.

Resolved, That while we deplore the loss of this great and good man, who has done so much to keep alive the flame of science in our country in past days, we especially mourn the generous patron of our Institution, the sympathizing friend of the youth of some of us, and the warm-hearted colleague of our manhood.

Resolved, That we offer to the bereaved family of Dr. Hare our sincere condolence in the loss which they have sustained by his death. The resolutions were adopted.

The report of the Secretary for 1857 was then accepted.

Professor Felton, in behalf of the special committee to whom the following communication of Professor Henry of March 16, 1857, together with accompanying documents, &c., were referred, presented a report.

COMMUNICATION FROM PROF. HENRY, SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, RELATIVE TO A PUBLICATION BY PROF. MORSE.

GENTLEMEN: In the discharge of the important and responsible duties which devolve upon me as Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, I have found myself exposed, like other men in public positions, to unprovoked attack and injurious misrepresentation. Many instances of this, it may be remembered, occurred about two years ago, during the discussions relative to the organic policy of the Institution; but, though very unjust, they were suffered to pass unnoticed, and generally made, I presume, no lasting impression on the public mind.

During the same controversy, however, there was one attack made upon me of such a nature, so elaborately prepared and widely circulated, by my opponents, that, though I have not yet publicly noticed it, I have from the first thought it my duty not to allow it to go unanswered. I allude to an article in a periodical entitled "Shaffner's Telegraph Companion," from the pen of Prof. S. F. B. Morse, the celebrated inventor of the American electro-magnetic telegraph. In this, not my scientific reputation merely, but my moral character was pointedly assailed; indeed, nothing less was attempted than to prove that in the testimony which I had given in a case where I was at most but a reluctant witness, I had consciously and wilfully deviated from the truth, and this, too, from unworthy and dishonorable motives.

Such a charge, coming from such a quarter, appeared to me then, as it appears now, of too grave a character and too serious a consequence to be withheld from the notice of the Board of Regents. I, therefore, presented the matter unofficially to the Chancellor of the Institution, Chief Justice Taney, and was advised by him to allow the matter to rest until the then existing excitement with respect to the organization of the Institution should subside, and that in the meantime the materials for a refutation of the charge might be collected and prepared, to be brought forward at the proper time, if I should think it

necessary.

The article of Mr. Morse was published in 1855, but at the session of the Board in 1856 I was not prepared to present the case properly

4

to your consideration, and I now (1857) embrace the first opportunity of bringing the subject officially to your notice, and asking from you an investigation into the justice of the charges alleged against me. And this I do most earnestly, with the desire that when we shall all have passed from this stage of being, no imputation of having attempted to evade in silence so grave a charge shall rest on me, nor on you, of having continued to devolve upon me duties of the highest responsibility, after that was known to some of you individually, which, if true, should render me entirely unworthy of your confidence. Duty to the Board of Regents, as well as regard to my own memory, to my family, and to the truth of history, demands that I should lay this matter before you, and place in your hands the documents necessary to establish the veracity of my testimony, so falsely impeached, and the integrity of my motives, so wantonly assailed.

My life, as is known to you, has been principally devoted to science, and my investigations in different branches of physics have given me some reputation in the line of original discovery. I have sought, however, no patent for inventions, and solicited no remuneration for my labors, but have freely given their results to the world, expecting only, in return, to enjoy the consciousness of having added, by my investigations, to the sum of human knowledge, and to receive the credit to which they might justly entitle me.

I commenced my scientific career about the year 1828, with a series of experiments in electricity, which were continued at intervals up to the period of my being honored by election to the office of Secretary of this Institution. The object of my researches was the advancement of science, without any special or immediate reference to its application to the wants of life or useful purposes in the arts. It is true, nevertheless, that some of my earlier investigations had an important bearing on the electro-magnetic telegraph, and brought the science to that point of development at which it was immediately applicable to Mr. Morse's particular invention.

In 1831 I published a brief account of these researches, in which I drew attention to the fact of their applicability to the telegraph; and in 1832, and subsequently, exhibited experiments illustrative of the application of the electro-magnet to the transmission of power to a distance, for producing telegraphic and other effects. The results I had published were communicated to Mr. Morse, by his scientific assistant, Dr. Gale, as will be shown on the evidence of the latter; and the facts which I had discovered were promptly applied in rendering effective the operation of his machine.

In the latter part of 1837 I became personally acquainted with Mr. Morse, and at that time, and afterwards, freely gave him information in regard to the scientific principles which had been the subject of my investigations. After his return from Europe, in 1839, our intercourse was renewed, and continued uninterrupted till 1845. In that year, Mr. Vail, a partner and assistant of Mr. Morse, published a work purporting to be a history of the Telegraph, in which I conceived manifest injustice was done me. I complained of this to a mutual friend, and subsequently received an assurance from Mr. Morse that if another edition were published, all just ground of complaint should be removed. A new emission of the work, however, shortly afterwards appeared, without change in this respect, or further reference to my labors. Still I made no public complaint, and set up no claims on account of the telegraph. I was content that my published researches should remain as material for the history of science, and be pronounced upon, according to their true value, by the scientific world.

After this, a series of controversies and lawsuits having, arisen between rival claimants for telegraphic patents, I was repeatedly appealed to, to act as expert and witness in such cases. This I uniformly declined to do, not wishing to be in any manner involved in these litigations, but was finally compelled, under legal process, to return to Boston from Maine, whither I had gone on a visit, and to give evidence on the subject. My testimony was given with the statement that I was not a willing witness, and that I labored under the disadvantage of not having access to my notes and papers, which were in Washington. That testimony, however, I now reaffirm to be true in every essential particular. It was unimpeached before the court, and exercised an influence on the final decision of the question at issue.

I was called upon on that occasion to state, not only what I had published, but what I had done, and what I had shown to others in regard to the telegraph. It was my wish, in every statement, to render Mr. Morse full and scrupulous justice. While I was constrained, therefore, to state that he had made no discoveries in science, I distinctly declared that he was entitled to the merit of combining and applying the discoveries of others, in the invention of the best practical form of the magnetic telegraph. My testimony tended to establish the fact that, though not entitled to the exclusive use of the electro-magnet for telegraphic purposes, he was entitled to his particular machine, register, alphabet, &c. As this, however, did not meet the full requirements of Mr. Morse's comprehensive claim, I could not but be aware that, while

aiming to depose nothing but truth and the whole truth, and while so doing being obliged to speak of my own discoveries, and to allude to the omissions in Mr. Vail's book, I might expose myself to the possible, and, as it has proved, the actual, danger of having my motives misconstrued and my testimony misrepresented. But I can truly aver, in accordance with the statement of the counsel, Mr. Chase, (now governor of Ohio,) that I had no desire to arrogate to myself undue merit, or to detract from the just claims of Mr. Morse.

I have the honor to be your obedient servant,

TO THE BOARD OF REGENTS.

JOSEPH HENRY.

The Chancellor, Chief Justice Taney, corroborated Prof. Henry's statement as to his advising a delay in noticing the publication referred to until the public mind should be more settled in regard to the policy of the Institution, and the discussions which had arisen in Congress in reference to it should be ended.

He stated that it would be seen by the report of the decision of the Supreme Court, in the case in which Professor Henry was a witness, that, in the opinion of the court, Professor Morse had produced no testimony that could invalidate the testimony of Professor Henry, or impair in any degree its weight, and gave full credit to it in the udgment it pronounced.

REPORT OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS ON THE COMMUNICATION OF PROFESSOR HENRY.

Professor HENRY laid before the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution a communication relative to an article in Shaffner's Telegraph Companion, bearing the signature of SAMUEL F. B. Morse, the inventor of the American electro-magnetic telegraph. In this article serious charges are brought against Professor Henry, bearing upon his scientific reputation and his moral character. The whole matter having been referred to a committee of the Board, with instructions to report on the same, the committee have attended to the duty assigned to them, and now submit the following brief report, with resolutions accompanying it.

The committee have carefully examined the documents relating to the subject, and especially the article to which the communication of Professor Henry refers. This article occupies over ninety pages, filling an entire number of Shaffner's Journal, and purports to be "a defence