12 COLUMBIAN INSTITUTE FOR THE 



it is a subject of regret that although so few members are necessary to form a 

 quorum, there has very seldom been a regular monthly meeting. Whenever 

 there has been such meeting the propositions have been few ; and all those 

 adopted appear on the minutes of the committee, which are part of the records 

 of the Institute. The committee have only to report, what must be a subject 

 of concern to every zealous member of the Institute, that no probability appears 

 of any efficient measures being adopted to further the objects of the Institute 

 while such apathy exists among the individual members; and unless some 

 remedy be devised, by an alteration of the constitution, or some radical reform 

 of the existing regulations of the Institute. 



With a view to correct these conditions a " Constitutional ordi- 

 nance for the government of the Columbian Institute," 1 designed 

 to create a more specific interest among the members in the work of 

 the society and apparently, though without definition, enlarging its 

 scope, was passed on the 11th of October, 1820. The provisions 

 directly relating to this subject were contained in three paragraphs, 

 as follows: 



The Institute shall consist of five classes, viz : of mathematical sciences, 

 physical sciences, moral and political sciences, general literature and the fine 

 arts. 



The members composing each class shall, specially, charge themselves with 

 the investigation of the objects embraced therein, and communicate to the 

 Institute, from time to time, the results of their inquiries ; but every member 

 of the Institute shall have the right of making such communications as he may 

 deem proper, on any object of art or science. 



Resident members shall, as soon as may be after their admission, indicate 

 the class to which they wish to belong. The like indication shall be made by 

 those who are now members on or before the first Saturday in 1821. 



On May 8, 1820, the use of five acres of land was granted by Con- 

 gress for a botanical garden, and four years later, on May 26, 1824, 

 the area of this grant was extended. 



To Dr. Cutbush, the first president of the Institute, we are in- 

 debted for the only comprehensive explanation of the objects of the 

 society as announced in the constitution (of which he is said to have 

 been the author), and of the advantages which the community may 

 derive therefrom, embodied in an eloquent discourse delivered in 

 Congress Hall before a large audience on the evening of January 11, 

 1817. His remarks were in part as follows: 



Thus, gentlemen, you are presented with an ample field for the exercise of 

 your talents and industry ; difficulties, I am sensible, will occur, but were there 

 no difficulties to encounter, less would be the space for the expansion of your 

 genius. It is true, that in the infantile state of our city, we cannot boast of 

 the possession of many, whose avocations have permitted them to devote their 

 time to th*e cultivation of the sciences ; but we can, with confidence, assert, that 

 there are many, very many, who possess industry and an ardent desire to pro- 

 mote the objects of the Institute ; whose minds, when allured to the contempla- 

 tion of those objects, aided by a botanical garden, a mineralogical cabinet, a 



1 Printed in full in the appendix. 



