Mr. SHER AN. There is really no difficult question involved in this appropriation. There is no doubt about our powar to appropriate money for the support of hospitals in the DistCol. The only question is, whether thisis a proper application. I will state to the Senfrom Maine that it is no objection to me that this is a private corporation, a private charity. On the other han my observation of these charities has always been in favor of those managed by private charitable persons. Public hospitals, poor houses, asy ums of various kinds, are very apt to be mismanaged. I would much rather give money to these Sisters of Charity who have devoted their lives by a religious vow to disbursing money for such a purpose honestly and fairly, than I would trust paid officers at from $600 to $2,000 a year to dole out charity upon a salary., We have several securities for the proper management of this fund that we have not in ordinary charities. The character of the ladies concerned, the fact that they are persons who by their religious vows have been set apart in a measure, and devote their whole lives to charitable and religious purposes, is sufficient always to give some kind of assurance that the money will be honestly bestowed. Sometimes it is objected that persons of a particular reli gious creed will misa)ply the money merely for their own church an their own people. We have guarded against anything like that in the act of appropriation and in the grant of money by irovnling that there shall be no distinction made in the application of the money eitheron account of creed or color. Then the fact that)rivate contributions of equal amount have to e contributed is also another security. That to which charitable persons are willing to give their money we ought to contribute something to. These ladies inform me that they have arrangements made by which they get 800,000, part of it on credit, but most of it in gratuities, outside of this appropriation, and that their lans and estimates contemplated the expend iture 0f$00,000. I therefore, in pursuance of an intimation in the ComFinance, provided in this amendment that the money shall only be paid by the Government as an equal amount s uill be did from private sources. It may be that these adies may be deceived in regard to"the amount that they will ct from private sources; but they assure me that they have made a contract with a well known contractor of this city, and other persons, providing for an expenditure of $60,000, to bederived from other sources, and that this $80,000 will enable them to complete their building. It was also objected that there was no lan made, that this mone might be waste on some idle or illusory pIhn; but it is sufficient to say that a plan has been prepared by the architect of the Capitol extension, a man entirely competent for the business, that it is certainly a very beautiful one, and contemplates an expenditure of $00,000. Before the money which we appro iriate is paid, the plan is to be submitted to the present architect of the Capitol, Mr. Clark. This amendment provides hat the plan shall be submitted to the architect and approved by him; and that he shall certify that it is adapted to the purpose, and that the building will cost more than $60,000. Under these circumstances, it seems to me we cannot do better than to vote this money to this charity. These ladies have been in the successful management of this charity for now 7 ears. My impression is that it origi nated in Providence, RhdIsland, by a small gratuity given to these ladies to establish a charity in the city of Washington, and it has been added to, little by little, as these ladies could get money from private sources; and up to this time the Government of the U.S. has never paid one dollar except for actual pay for persons sent there by the government to be supported and cared for. The best way in which the officer charged with the expenditure of the money appropriated for the support of trausientpaupers could expend it was by sending those transient paupers to the care of these ladies. There is no law requiring the ComrPubBldg and Grounds to send transient paupers to the Providence hospital; but that institution has been selected by the officer merely because it is deemed best to send them there. The appropriation for that object does not require that the 60 transient paupers for whom the Government pay 5 shall be sent to any particular hospital. They may be sent to any other hospital; but the ComrPubBldg has found that he can make better arrangements with these ladies than with any other institution. Up to this time the U.S. have never aid one dollar to this charity except to pay tesimple allowance for actual services rendered to persons sent there and taken up by those in charge of your grounds, such as drunken persons, the" in the most filthy and detestable condition. They are taken there, cleansed, taken care of, fed, clothed, and relieved at an expense thatto the extent of 60 patients is paid by the U.S. Government; all the rest is paid for by these ladies with such contributions as they can gather from their church and charitable persons. It seems to me if there ever was a case appealing to the mercy and to the charitable sentiment of Congress, this is the one. Indeed, I would much prefer that the Sisters would come here and plead their cause themselves rather than have me to do it for them. I am sure that if the Senate could see these Sisters and hear their story and see their anxiety for this little appropriation to enable them to complete a cherished object of their life, they would not hesitate about making the appropriation. It is not money for them. My friendfrom Maine seems to think that because they are incorporated here, it is some way or other for their benefit. Notatall. Theyarepersonsbelonging to a well known religious order; they devote their lives to purposes of this kind; they expend their whole time in what one would suppose to be most distateful employment; and they have it at heart to build up this charity and make it a permanent and cons icuous charity in the DistCol. because they are incorporated as a mere private institution, because this is a mere private charity, that is no reason why we should not vote them the mone. I would rather vote them the $30,000 turn to give $10,000 every year to lfiuild and extend the wall around any asylum ere. I am disposed, therefore, to give them this appropriation, and if the Senfrom Maine finds another case under similar circumstances where private individuals are willin to contribute an equal amount for an equal y chari table purposc, I am willing to vote money to them, although I do not think that because one appropriation is asked for others ought to be.