292 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1891. 



aud inspired by hopeful patriotism, brought him many sympathizers. 

 Among- these the Hon. Levi Woodbury, who had been a member of the 

 same Cabinet ^yith Mr. Poinsett, and subsequently was in the Senate, 

 Senator W. 0. Preston, one of the directors of the Institute, Senator 

 11. J. Walker, of Mississippi, Senator S. P. Linn, of Missouri, correspond- 

 ing members, appear to have been especially friendly to the plans of Mr, 

 Poinsett, and on various occasions promoted the interests of the National 

 Institution on the tioor of the Senate from 1841 to 1846. 



In June, 1842, Mr. Poinsett was again in Washington, and on the 

 11th presided at a meeting at the home of Mr. Francis Markoe for the 

 purpose of connecting the organizations of the National Institution 

 with that of the Smithsonian Institution. 



'^Mr. Preston," wrote John Quincy Adams, ''has introduced into the 

 Senate a bill for combining these two institutions, and now stated to 

 the meeting his views on the subject, embracing an appropriation of 

 $20,000 and the occupation by law of n large portion of the Patent 

 Office building for the preservation and arrangement of the objects of 

 curiosity collected by the exploring expedition under Lieut. Wilkes, 

 now daily exx)ected homej and he called on me to say how far my pur- 

 poses 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 Avay, which might perhaps be sur- 

 mounted. I had believed that the whole burden and the whole honor of 

 the Smithsonian Institution should be exclusively confined to itself, and 

 not entangled or commingled with any national establishment requir- 

 ing 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 president, Mr. 

 Poinsett, was authorized to appoint a comniittee of five members of the 

 Institute, to confer with Mr. Preston and me upon the means of con- 

 necting the Smithsonian Institution with the National Institute." 



Nothing seems to have resulted from these deliberations. 



On the 13th of June, at a stated meeting of the National Institution, 

 Senator Preston was present, and delivered, as the records inform us, 

 " an eloquent speech, in which he descanted at length on the history 

 and labor of the Institution, what it had done, and what it proposed 

 to do, its capacity to be eminently useful to the country and Congress, 

 the advantage of uniting the Smithsonian Institution with it, etc., and 

 appealed to Congress and to the liberal citizens of the United States to 

 come forward in aid of a glorious cause and in the accomplishment of 

 the great national objects which the Institution has in view," * etc. 



* Proceedings of the National Institution (3il Bulletin, 1845) vol. i, p. 236. A copy- 

 was requested for publication (?. v., p. 241) but I can not learn that it was ever put 

 iu type. 



