I was a member of the Committee on the Library for several
years. For two or three years I was its acting Chairman
during the summer, and in that capacity had to approve the
accounts of the Congressional Library, and the National Botanic
Garden.
To that Committee were referred applications for the erection
of monuments and statues and similar works throughout the
country, including the District of Columbia, and the purchase
of works for art for the Government. They used to have a
regular appropriation of fifteen thousand dollars annually,
to be expended at their discretion, for works of art. That
appropriation was stopped some years ago.
My service on that Committee brought me into very delightful
relations with Mr. Sherman and Mr. Evarts. I introduced and
got through a bill for a monument and statue to Lafayette
and, as acting Chairman of the Library Committee was, with
the Secretary of War and the Architect of the Capitol, a member
of the Commission who selected the artists and contracted
for the statue and monument. A resolution to build the monument
passed the Continental Congress, but was not carried into
effect by reason of the poverty of the Confederacy in that
day.
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