The Committee on Alleged Abstraction of Books from the Library of the House was a select committee of the United States House of Representatives

United States House of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

 that existed from February 14-28, 1861.

The committee was charged with investigating rumors that several members of the House of Representatives from several states that had seceded from the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 had taken books from the House Library for personal use, or, alternatively, to help start a congressional library for the Confederate States of America

Confederate States of America

The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...

. The allegations were first made public by the New York Times in an article published February 13, 1861, that accused Members of Congress of taking "some of the most valuable volumes in the collection.

The select committee's investigation determined those rumors to be in error, finding that the supposed missing books had instead not been properly credited back to the representatives' accounts after being returned.

Members

Members	Party	State
Roger A. Pryor Roger Atkinson Pryor Roger Atkinson Pryor was both an American politician and a Confederate politician serving as a congressman on both sides. He was also a jurist, serving in the New York Supreme Court, a lawyer, and newspaper editor... , Chairman	Democratic Democratic Party (United States) The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...	Virginia
Horace Maynard Horace Maynard Horace Maynard was an American educator, attorney, politician and diplomat active primarily in the second half of the 19th century...	Independent	Tennessee
Thomas M. Edwards Thomas M. Edwards Thomas McKey Edwards was a U.S. Representative from New Hampshire.Born in Keene, New Hampshire, Edwards was tutored privately. He was graduated from Dartmouth College, Hanover, in 1813. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1817, commencing practice in Keene, New Hampshire...	Republican Republican Party (United States) The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...	New Hampshire