MEMORIAL 



NATIONAL INSTITUTE 



To tke Honorable 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 tlie great objects which it was the 

 design of its creation to promote, to submit to the consideration of your honorable 

 bodies, a statement 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 incorporation. Some pecuniary aid incidtntally followed, and it was 

 made the custodier of much valuable properly belonging to the Government. This 

 charter, 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 Go- 

 vernment, 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 ofBcers of Government and citi- 

 zens 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 liuman family. 



These individuals havo, 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 llicir hands, spreading before those 

 whose interests they have undertaken to advance, the results which in so brief a 

 space of time they have accomplished, asking that their deeds sliould be examined 

 and compared with their promises, and if they have performed their duty faithfully, 

 and discharged the trusts confided to thein honorablj', zealously, and successfully, 

 that they may be encouraged by the only reward tliey have ever sought, viz : the 

 means of enlarging and giving additional efficiency to their patriotic efforts and 

 purposes. They appear before your honorable bodit-s to render an account of their 

 elewardship, and they solicit an examination of their |)roceedings. 



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

 present a iornial argument to establish, ovihur 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 applying any portion of the public 

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

 and decision of all questions of this character. Wliilo, therefore, your memorialists 

 abstain from entering into any discussion of constitutional questions, submitting, 

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

 ieel that they arc, in no manner, trenching upon this ground, in exhibiting fully 

 and distinctly, those facts and circuinstunuus which will furnish the general datai 

 upon which Congrocs is to decide. 



