288 REPORT OF NATIONAL MU8EUM, 1891. 



Although the society elected its officers annually, Mr. Poinsett told 

 Mr. xVdams soon after his election that he sliould for two years come 

 to Washington to preside over the National Institution for the Promo- 

 tion of Science. He was in fact reelected to the presidency at every 

 annual meeting until that of 1845, when, having d(icliued candidacy, 

 Senator Levi Woodbury was chosen president and Mr. Poinsett was 

 unanimously elected an honorary member of the Institution. 



From this period the decline of the society's prosijerity Avas maiked. 

 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. 



Perhaps, however, if Mr. Poinsett had been a resident of Washington 

 rather than of South (Carolina during the four years of his presidency, 

 the result would have been different. 



That Mr. Poinsett, as early as 1838, was thinking seriously about the 

 disposition of the Smithsonian bequest is evident from an entry in the 

 diary of John Quincy Adams, under date of December 8.* Mr. Adams 

 was evidently suspicious, and believed that Mr. Poinsett did not give 

 him his entire confidence. In April, 1839, lu^ talked to him again, and 

 in 1811 he wrote again in his diary : ''April 17. Mr. Poinsett called upon 

 me and now fully disclosed his project, which is to place the investment 

 and disposal of the Smithsonian funds under the management of the 

 American Institution for the Promotion of Literature and Science, f 

 * * * He said that he had at present no other occupation on hand, 

 and would be willing to devote two years entirely to organizing the 

 establishment and getting it into full operation." 



''I know not," continued the aged statesman, "that it could be 

 accomplished more effectively, and think I must acquiesce in this 

 arrangement and endeavor to carry it through." 



Since the bills of Messrs. Linn and Preston had been already for two 

 months before the Senate, it seems strange that Mr. Adams should have 

 looked upon Mr. Poinsett's communication as a revelation — still more 

 so wlieii it is rememljcred how clearly he had expressed himself in his 

 "Discourse" in January. | 



* "Extracts from the Memoirs of John Quincy Adams": Rhees, Documents, etc., 

 p. 769. 



t Evidently meaning the National Institution. 



t Mr. Poinsett was not only the first to ])ublicly suggest the union of the Smith- 

 sonian with the National Institution, but was constant in his advocacy of the proj- 

 ect. (See remarks, March S, 1841, Proc. Nat. Inst., i, p. 69, and letter, February 7, 

 1812, Proc. Nat. Inst., i, p. 1.57.) Dr. Peter S. Dupoiiceau, president of the Ameri- 

 can Philosophical Society in a letter to the institution in November, 1840, remarked: 

 "(Congress can not find a better opportunity to execute the will of that beneficent 

 testator than by laying hold of your institution and making it its own." (Proc, p. 

 12.) The Hon. Virgil Maxey, Charge d'Aft'aires at Belgium, wrote in December, 

 1840, that in his opinion no better use could be made of the beiiuest than " to place 

 it under th" direction of a society organized for the proper carrying into effect views 



