2 COLUMBIAN INSTITUTE FOR THE 



was enthusiastic, gifts of books and specimens began to flow in, and 

 the prospects of the society looked very bright." 



In a discourse on the objects and importance of the Institution, 

 delivered January 5, 1841, its president, Mr. Poinsett, said that 

 the Smithson bequest " offered a favorable occasion for carrying into 

 effect all the important objects connected with a national institu- 

 tion, such as that just being organized in Washington, enabling the 

 Government to afford all necessary protection to the promotion of 

 science and the useful arts without the exercise of any doubtful 

 power." 



Under certain bills introduced in the Senate a month later, the 

 entire management of the Smithsonian fund was to be intrusted to 

 the National Institution, and provision was made for the establish- 

 ment of a national museum in terms very similar to those finally 

 incorporated in the fundamental act of the Smithsonian Institution. 

 In the previous five years of discussion relative to the bequest, as 

 stated by Dr. Goode, the idea of a national museum to be adminis- 

 tered in connection with the Smithsonian organization had been 

 suggested by no one. 



" The influence of this society," as Dr. Goode affirms " was strongly 

 and continuously present in Congress for the six years which fol- 

 lowed its organization, until the Smithsonian act was finally framed," 

 and " the master mind which not only prevailed in finally ingrafting 

 the development of the national musem upon the Smithsonian project, 

 but which directly or indirectly led to the formation of the various 

 features of organization which have become such characteristic ele- 

 ments in the Smithsonian plan," was evidently that of Joel R. Poin- 

 sett, of South Carolina, who was Secretary of War in the cabinet of 

 President Van Buren. Mr. Poinsett was the senior director of the 

 Institution under the first plan of organization, and its president, 

 under the amended constitution from 1841 to 1845. He had lived an 

 eventful life, his culture was broad and sympathetic, " and he was, 

 perhaps, better fitted than any of the public men of his time to ap- 

 preciate the necessity of organizing our public institutions on the 

 most liberal and comprehensive plan." Mr. Poinsett refused reelec- 

 tion in 1845, and " from this period the decline of the society's pros- 

 perity was marked. It is more probable, however, that Mr. Poinsett's 

 lack of interest was a result of the weakness of the society than that 

 the weakness resulted from his lack of interest." 



In April, 1844, a "meeting of the friends of science, including, 

 besides all the members and patrons of the National Institute, the 

 members of the American Philosophical Society and of the Associa- 

 tion of American Geologists and Naturalists, had been held in Wash- 

 ington. * * * It was a gala week for the National Institution. 

 The meeting was in every respect a success, and there was every 



