memoirs of john quincy adams. 787 



April 5, 1842. 



In the House, I notified all the members of the Committee 

 on the Smithsonian bequest, excepting Mr. Bowne, who is 

 absent, to attend a meeting to-morrow morning; and I gave 

 to Mr. Underwood to read the five additional sections, 

 which complete my plan for the establishment of the insti- 

 tution and the provision of a fund for the erection and per- 

 petual support of an astronomical observatory upon a scale 

 equal to that of any one upon earth. Ue doubted the 

 expediency of including them in the present bill, for fear 

 of alarming the House, but cordially approved of my whole 

 plan. 



April 6, 1842. 



Committee on the Smithsonian bequest. Present, Adams, 

 Underwood, Truman Smith, Benjamin Kandall, and C. J. 

 Ingersoll ; absent, Habersham, Houston, Bowne, and Hun- 

 ter. I was authorized to present to the House the draft of 

 the bill which I liad prepared, together with the five addi- 

 tional sections, with one other, to dispose of the surplus 

 income from the principal fund, beyond the thirty thousand 

 dollars a year for ten years from the 1st of September, 

 1838, appropriated by the bill, and with the bill a report. 



April 12, 1842. 



When the select committees were called, I asked leave 

 to report from the Committee on the Smithsonian bequest 

 a bill ; but the bill itself was at my house. C. J. Ingersoll 

 had presented to the House and referred to the committee 

 a claim of Richard Rush for extra services in recovering 

 the money, and the Speaker said he had additional docu- 

 ments to present relating to that claim. I moved that the 

 committee should be discharged from the further considera- 

 tion of the claim, and that it be referred to the Committee of 

 Claims; which, with faint opposition from C. J. Ingersoll, 

 was carried. 



June 11, 1842. 



The meeting last evening at Mr. Markoe's was for the 

 purpose of conferring upon the project of connecting the 

 organization of the National Institute for the Promotion ot 

 Science, with that of the Smithsonian Institution. Mr. 

 Poinsett is president of the former, and presided at the 

 meeting. Mr. Preston has introduced into the Senate a 

 bill for combining together these two institutions, and now 

 stated to the meeting his views on the subject, embracing 



