788 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 



an appropriation of twenty thousand dollars, and the occu- 

 pation by law of a large portion of the Patent Office build- 

 ing for tiie preservation and arrangement of the objects of 

 cm-iosity collected by the exploring expedition under Lieu- 

 tenant Wilkes, now daily expected home; and he called on 

 me to say how far my purposes may be concurrent with these 

 suggestions. 



I said I had the warmest disposition to favor them, and 

 thought there was but one difficulty in the way, which 

 might perhaps be surmounted. I had believed that the 

 wh^le burden and the whole honor of the Smithsonian 

 Institution should be exclusively confined to itself, and not 

 entangled or commingled with any national establishment 

 requiring appropriations of public money. I exposed the 

 principles upon which all my movements relating to the 

 Smithsonian bequest have been founded, as well as the bills 

 which at four successive Congresses I have reported — first 

 for obtaining the money, and then for disposing of the 

 fund. 



At the motion of Mr. Walker, of Mississippi, the presi- 

 dent, Poinsett, was authorized to appoint a committee of five 

 members of the Institute, to confer with Mr. Preston and 

 me upon the means of connecting the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion with the National Institute. 



June 20, 1842. 



In the House, immediately after the reading of the jour- 

 nal, I offi^red a resolution calling upon the Secretar}' of the 

 Treasury to report to the House as soon as may be practi- 

 cable, after the Ist of July now impending, the amount 

 paid or credited to the several States of the Union from the 

 proceeds of the sales of the public lands; the amount re- 

 tained in payment of interest or principal of debts due 

 from the States to the United States; and the amount: due 

 from the indebted States to the United States. My resolu- 

 tion was received and adopted without opposition and with- 

 out remark. 



March 10, 1843. 



In the unceasing mill-clapper talk of Mr. Hassler last 

 evening, he asked me to introduce him to the new Secretary 

 of the "Treasury, John C. Spencer — which I agreed to do, 

 and appointed this day at one o'clock to go with him to the 

 Department for that purpose. He came, and we went ac- 

 cordingly. I introduced him, and almost immediately left 

 them together; but not without perceiving the seeds of a 



