16 COLUMBIAN INSTITUTE FOR THE 



the assistance of the chemical philosopher. It is chemistry which explains the 

 phenomena of vegetation, the growth, the maturation, and the death of plants ; 

 and to chemistry we must have recourse to remedy the diseases to which they 

 are subject. * * * 



On taking a retrospect of the importance of this association, I cannot refrain 

 from indulging the pleasing hope, that the members of our national govern- 

 ment, to whom has been confided the guardianship of the District of Columbia, 

 will extend their fostering care to this establishment, and, if no constitutional 

 restrictions forbid it, that a part of the public ground, reserved for national 

 purposes, may be vested in the Columbian Institute for the promotion of arts 

 and sciences, for the purpose of carrying into effect the leading objects of the 

 association; * * * I would also, with due deference, suggest, that a small 

 pecuniary aid would enable the Institute, at an earlier period, to extend its 

 benefits to all parts of the United States. * * * 



In no nation has their [our countrymen's] industry been surpassed ; the 

 earth, cultivated by their care, teems yearly with new productions; the proud 

 oak falls at their feet to receive from them a new being; hemp and flax are 

 divested of their bark to furnish clothing; the metals are moulded by their 

 hands ; the fleece intended for their use is woven and dyed of various colours ; 

 and the golden harvest and rich attire of their verdant lawns, attest their 

 industry, their opulence, and increasing importance. 



The confines of the patent office, of our city, bear ample testimony of the 

 genius which prevails in all parts of our country. To what are we to attribute 

 this grand spectacle, or what has infused so much strength and activity into 

 the mind, but our republican institutions? We have the superlative happiness 

 to live in tranquillity, under an inestimable form of government ; here, plenty 

 smiles, and an honorable field is open to the talents and enterprise of every 

 class of citizens. Where genius and talents are respected, rewarded and pro- 

 moted, the arts and sciences will flourish, and the wealth and power of the 

 nation increase. 



A few other expressions of the time, all of them brief but adding 

 something to the remarks of Dr. Cutbush, are important to cite in 

 this connection. Asbury Dickins, secretary of the society, in a letter 

 to Dr. William Darlington on December 16, 1819, said, among other 

 things, that 



The subject to which your letter relates [a herbarium] is one that the Insti- 

 tute has very much at heart ; and the collection which you propose, as well as 

 an extensive botanic garden, are among the establishments which enter into 

 its plans. * * * Our desire is to make the Institute a national body. Its 

 plans, therefore, though too extensive for our own present scientific or pecu- 

 niary means, by embracing every department of human knowledge will afford 

 scope for the formation of a fabric which the genius of our countrymen will 

 find a pleasant and honorable task to rear, and which will be worthy of the 

 high destinies of the American nation. 



"VV. B. Bryan in his recently published "A History of the National 

 Capital," (vol. 2, p. 30) quoting in part from the National Intelli- 

 gencer for January 1, 1820, states, 



The thought of the founders as to its scope may be inferred from a contem- 

 porary account of the purposes of the Institute, which were not alone to 

 establish a botanic garden, but " when its funds will authorize the important 

 undertaking, the erection of a building for a national museum and library." 



