Nalio>ial Scictitific and J-'.diicaiiotuil Iiislitiiliu)is. 319 



To this period Ijcloiigs also the promotion of experinients with the 

 electric telegraph by our Government. The line from Washington to 

 Baltimore was erected by means of an appropriation of $30,000, the pas- 

 sage of which was warmly urged In- the President, who fifteen years 

 later wrote the following letter, full of historical reminiscences: 



Sherwood Forest, September /, iS^S. 

 To his Honor tlie mayor, and to the Honorable the Common Council of the City oj 



Neza York : 



OexTlEmen : In consequence of my absence from this place, I did not receive 

 until to-day your polite invitation to be present at the festivities of to-day, and the 

 municipal dinner to be given to Cyrus W. Field, Esq., and others at the Metropoli- 

 tan Hotel to-morrow, in commemoration of the laj'ing of the "Atlantic Cable." 

 To be present, therefore, at the time appointed is a thing impossible. All that I can 

 do is to express my cordial concurrence with you in according all praise to tlujse 

 through whose indomitable energy this great work has l)een accomplished. 



When, in 1843, ^ modest and retired gentleman, the favored child of .science, 

 called upon me at the executive mansion, to obtain from me some assurance of mj' 

 cooperation with him in procuring from Congress a small appropriation to enable 

 him to test his great invention; and when at an after-day I had the .satisfaction of 

 ]:)lacing my signature in approval of the act making an appropriation of |;3o,cxk) to 

 enable him to connect Washington with Baltimore l)y his telegraph wire; and when 

 at a .still later day I had the pleasure, from the ba.sement of the Capitol, to exchange 

 greetings with the Chief-Justice of the United States, who was at the Baltimore end 

 of the line, I confess that it had not entered my mind that not only was lightning 

 to become the messenger of thought over continents of dry lands, but that the same 

 all pervading agent was to de.scend into the depths of the ocean, far Ijclow tin- habi- 

 tations of living things, and over tho.se fathomless depths to convey, almost in the 

 twinkling of an eye, tidings from nation to nation, and continent to continent. To 

 the great inventor of this, the greatest invention, is due the laurel wreath that can 

 never wither, and to those that have given it a halntation and a home in the waters 

 of the great deep all prai.se is due. 



With .sentiments of high consideration, I have the honor to Ije, most res])ecU"ully 

 and truly yours, etc., 



John Tvi,i-;r. 



Pre.sident Polk .served from 1845 to 1849. During this ])eri<)d was 

 organized the Smithsonian Institution, which, though it bears the name 

 of a private citizen and a foreigner, has been for nearl>' half a centur>- 

 one of the ]n-incipal rallying points of the .scientific workers of America. 

 It has also been intimately connected with very man\- of the most impor- 

 tant scientific undertakings oi the Government. 



Many wi.se and enlightened scholars have given to the vSmith.sonian 

 Institution the best years of their lives, and some of the most eminent 

 .scientific nu-n of our country have passed their entire lifetime in work 

 for its .success. Its publications, six luuidred and seventy in nund)er, 

 which when combined make up over one luuidred dignified \-olumes, are 

 to be found in every important library in the \vorld, and some of them, 

 it is ' " *n .say, on the working table of every scientific investigator in 

 A'ho can read luiglish. 



