2. By this act the President and Vice-President of the United States, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Navy, the Postmaster General, the Attorney General, and Chief Justice, the Commissioner of the Patent Office, and the Mayor of Washington—during the time they shall hold their respective offices, together with such other persons as they may elect honorary members—were constituted the establishment under the name of the Smithsonian Institution.
3. It is located at Washington, and is managed by a board of regents, composed of the Vice-President of the United States, the Chief Justice of the United States, the Mayor of Washington, three members of the Senate, and three members of the House of Representatives; together with six other persons. The board choose their own officers, and report their proceedings to Congress at each session thereof.
4. In order to carry out Mr. Smithson’s noble design of founding this institution, rooms have been prepared for the reception of all objects of art, natural history, plants, and geological and mineralogical specimens which now or hereafter may belong to the United States, and such as may hereafter be obtained. These are classified and arranged so as to facilitate their examination and study. A vast collection has already been obtained and deposited in the institution, and it is constantly increasing by donations, by the researches and industry of its professors, and by exchanges made with kindred institutions at home and abroad. These are open to the examination of the public, and offer an opportunity to students and others to extend their scientific knowledge. This, together with the reports of its professors, of experiments and new discoveries, make it indeed an institution “for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.”
CHAPTER LV.
REPORTS.
1. Congress being the law-making power of the government, it is evident that, to know precisely what laws it is important to enact, to change, or to repeal, they should be kept well informed of all that is done by government officials, and the precise condition of every branch of the public service. The President’s Messages are of the nature of reports made by the Chief Executive to the legislative body for its information and guidance. So it is enacted that the Secretaries of State, Treasury, War, Navy, Interior, and Postmaster General, together with the commissioners of the different bureaus, and boards attached to these departments, shall annually report to Congress. Heads of departments report directly to Congress. So do many of the commissioners who are at the head of bureaus. Boards report to the heads of departments to which they are attached.
2. In this way Congress is kept advised of whatever is done in every department, bureau, or board, to which any of the public business is entrusted. These reports not only furnish the law-making power with such information as it needs, but serve as a check to any official misconduct. The annual reports of the Secretaries of the Treasury, War, and Navy, together with that of the Postmaster General, are State papers which rank in importance next to the annual message of the President. To them the people look for a detailed account of the state and condition of those great departments over which these Secretaries preside, and which so materially affect the pecuniary and other great interests of the nation.
3. The foregoing remarks upon reports, throw light upon the movements of the machinery by which the government is operated, and show how officials are held responsible to the superior power.
In this connection we may notice another kind of reports, which come from another source. After each Congress has convened and organized, the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House appoint what are denominated the standing committees of each of these bodies.
When bills are presented to be passed into laws, or petitions are sent in, they are always referred to the appropriate committee, which examines them and reports to the body (of the Senate or House) their conclusions upon the merits or demerits, propriety or impropriety, of granting the petition, or of passing the bill under consideration.