PROMOTION OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 29 



merit a Botanical, Horticultural and Agricultural Garden ; and that he ask for 

 a small appropriation for carrying the same into effect, under the direction of 

 the Columbian Institute. 



A proposition entertained in 1821 was to solicit subscriptions from 

 the citizens of Washington, at the rate of one dollar per capita, for 

 enclosing and cultivating the botanic garden, and a committee was 

 appointed to carry it into effect, but the scheme was evidently aban- 

 doned without actual trial. 



The Institute made its last appeal to Congress at the end of the 

 calendar year 1836 or the beginning of 1837. First Street had just 

 been cut through, and the society had also been deprived of the 

 land to the eastward of that street, which had been covered into 

 Capitol Square. There remained the length of two blocks, from 

 First to Third Streets, the exact location and area of the present 

 Botanic Garden, but the charter of the Institute was to expire in 

 1838, and its meetings ceased in 1837. The continuance of the 

 society, however, was desired by some of the members, and the memo- 

 rial to Congress at this time had that in view, but whether the 

 further maintenance of the garden was also in mind, the writer has 

 not been able to ascertain. The chief object of the memorial was 

 to secure funds for the erection of a building at the southwest cor- 

 ner of Pennsylvania Avenue and Third Street, northwest, for its 

 collections, library and meetings; and the use of that site for this 

 purpose had been granted, under certain conditions, by the President 

 of the United States. 



No copy of this petition has been found, but it is known to have 

 requested of Congress the reimbursement of the sum, estimated at 

 $1,500, expended on the garden in draining, fencing, planting shrubs 

 and trees, and constructing gravel walks. It was also stated to be 

 the intention of the society to use the money in erecting a building 

 where the Institute could hold its meetings and where exhibitions 

 could be given of the works of American artists in sculpture and 

 painting. 



The memorial was presented in the House of Representatives on 

 January 9, 1837, was referred to the Committee on Public Buildings, 

 and was described in unprinted records of the House " as praying 

 compensation for expenses incurred in cultivating and ornamenting 

 a certain piece of ground, heretofore granted for the use of the 

 Institute and recently resumed by the enlargement of the Capitol 

 grounds." On February 14, the committee made a favorable report, 

 " accompanied by a bill (No. 934), for the relief of the said Institute, 

 which bill by leave reported was read the first and second time and 

 committed to a committee o*f the whole House tomorrow." What, if 



