376 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1891. 



IV. 



MEMORIAL OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE. 



To the honomhle the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America: 



The memorial and petition of the '' National Institute for the Promotion of Science 

 and the Arts," respectfully represent: 



That its members have been induced, by a high sense of the duty to the body whose 

 interests they represent, as well as to the great objects which it was the design of its 

 creation to promote, to submit to the consideration of your honorable bodies a state- 

 ment of the origin and progress, of the past and present condition, and of the wants 

 and exigencies of the Institute. 



The Congress of the Union, after a full investigation of the subject, after duly 

 estimating the value and importance of the design of its founders, and the means which 

 it contemplated to employ in the accomplishment of those ends, deemed them so far 

 entitled to its countenance and favor as to grant to the Institute a charter of incor- 

 poration. Some pecuniary aid incidentally followed, and it was made the custodian 

 of much valuable property belonging to the Government. This chaiter, whose date 

 is recent, naturally afforded the hope of national protection, thus Inspiring every- 

 where confidence the moment it was seen, by the acts of Government, that confidence 

 was felt at home. 



Under these auspices the National Institute began its career. Many of the most 

 distinguished and illustrious individuals in the nation afforded it their aid and en- 

 couragement. 



Its active members were chiefly composed of officers of Government and citizens 

 of Washington, who, occupied in their own private concerns, neither men of wealth 

 nor mere scholars, proposed to give a portion of their leisure to promote objects in 

 which they had no other or ulterior motives and interest than such as were common 

 to the nation, and, perhaps, to the whole human family. 



These individuals have so far advanced with a success which they could little have 

 anticipated, and they now approach the legislature of the Union, and the nation at 

 large, with the fruits of their labors in their hands, spreading before those whose in- 

 terests they have undertaken to advance the results which in so brief a space of time 

 they have accomplished, asking that their deeds should be examiued and compared 

 with their promises ; and if they have performed their duty faithfully, and discharged 

 the trusts confided to them honorably, zealously, and successfully, that they may be 

 encouraged by the only reward they have ever sought, viz., the means of enlarging 

 and giving additional efficiency to their patriotic efforts and purposes. They appear 

 before your honorable bodies to render an account of their stewardship, and they 

 solicit an examination of their proceedings. 



In urging this matter upon Congress, it is not the design of your memorialists to 

 present a formal argument to establish either the constitutional authority of your 

 honorable bodies to confer upon the National Institute that pecuniary aid which 

 they so urgently need, or the expediency of so a|»i}lying any portion of the public 

 patronage. They believe that Congress is fully competent to the ascertainment and 

 decision of all questions of this character. While, therefore, your memorialists iib- 

 stain from entering into any discussion of conititutional questions, submitting, with 

 the most respectful deference, to the judgment of your honorable bodies, they feel 

 that they are in no manner trenching- upon this ground in exhibiting fully and dis- 

 tinctly those facts and circumstances which will furnish the general data iipou which 

 Congress is to decide. 



The National Institute is composed of private individuals, with no other bond of 

 connection than their common labors as trustees of certain property for the public 

 and the Government — a common feeling of interest in promoting scientific and useful 

 information, and the bond of union bestowed upon them by Congress in their charter 



