TWENTY-SIXTH CONGRESS, 1839-41. 209 



resolutions, disapproving of the application of any part of 

 the Smithsonian funds to the establishment of an astronom- 

 ical observatory, arid urging the application of them to the 

 foundation of a university or institution of learning. 



At a meeting of the committee on the part of the House, 

 on the 13th of February, 1839, the above resolutions, which 

 had been submitted to the joint committee on the 6th, were 

 unanimously adopted by the members present at the meet- 

 ing. 



As it was thus ascertained that the views of the chairman 

 of the Senate's committee could neither obtain the assent 

 of the committee on the part of the House, nor be conform- 

 able to theirs, it was agreed that the chairman of the Sen- 

 ate's committee should prepare a bill which he would wish 

 to have reported, and that the committee on the part of the 

 House should also cause to be prepared a bill presenting 

 the principles upon which they had agreed, and that both 

 the bills should be reported together to both Houses of 

 Congress for consideration. The two bills were accordingly 

 reported to both Houses : to this House on the 16th of 

 February, 1839, where they were twice read, and referred 

 to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the 

 Union. They are numbered 1160 and 1161, among the 

 bills of the House of the last session ; but from the lateness 

 of the time when they were reported, and the pressure of 

 other indispensable or more urgent business, they were not 

 taken up for consideration in the Committee of the Whole, 

 and remained without further action of the House upon 

 either of them at the close of the session. 



The bill prepared by the chairman of the joint committee 

 on the part of the Senate was taken up in that body on the 

 25th of February, and after full debate, by a vote of 20 to 

 15, laid on the table. On the 19th and 20th of February, 

 the Senator who had been the chairman of the joint com- 

 mittee introduced in the Senate a resolution to authorize 

 the mayor and city council of the city of Washington to 

 prepare a plan of an institution, to be called the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, and to report the same to the Senate at 

 the next session ; which resolution was, on the 1st of March, 

 1839, laid on the table. 



The bill prepared by direction of the joint committee on 

 the part of the House, and reported to both Houses, was 

 never acted upon by the Senate. The bill referred to this 

 committee was nearly a transcript from it, and embraces 

 the principles deemed by the committee of the House, 

 which at the last session reported the bill, of primary im- 



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