770 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUIKCY ADAMS. . 



Smithsonian bequest; which were, at my motion, all ordered 

 to be printed, and referred to a select committee of nine 

 members. 



JANUARY 4, 1839. 



Met at half-past ten this morning, at the chamber of the 

 Committee of Manufactures, the select committee on the 

 Smithsonian bequest. Present, Adams, F. 0. J. Smith, of 

 Maine, Charles Ogle, of Pennsylvania, Charles Shepard, of 

 North Carolina, John P. Kennedy, of Maryland, and .lames 

 Garland of Virginia; absent, Orrin Holt, of Connecticut, 

 Waddy Thompson, of South Carolina, and William II. 

 Hunter, of Ohio. I had yesterday personally notified all 

 the members to attend this meeting, except Hunter, who 

 was not in the House. Holt told me that he was engaged 

 on the great land committee; and Thompson promised t< 

 come, but forgot it. The references to the committee were 

 the two messages of the President with documents 10 and 

 11 of the present session ; a memorial from Charles Lewis 

 Fleischmann, a Bavarian, but now a citizen of the United 

 States, and attached to the Patent Office, who purposes the 

 establishment of an agricultural institution and farm school, 

 at the cost of about three hundred thousand dollars: a me- 

 morial of Walter R. Johnson, praying for the establishment 

 of an institution for prosecuting experiments in certain physi- 

 cal sciences; and a petition from Samuel Martin, of Camp- 

 bell's Station, Tennessee, who, with much other matter prays 

 that the Smithsonian fund may be applied to the instruc- 

 tion of females. I submitted also to the committee a printed 

 paper, signed " Franklin," proposing the establishment of 

 professorships and various courses .of lectures. I read the 

 two messages of the President and the circular of 18th July, 

 1838, from John Forsyth, Secretary of State, asking for 

 opinions concerning the disposal of the fund, and stated the 

 substance of my two letters in answer to Mr. Forsyth. I 

 read also the act of 1st July, 1836, accepting the bequest 

 and pledging the faith of the United States to its application 

 conformably to the direction of the testator. 



There was some desultory conversation, and Mr. Garland 

 moved an adjournment till next Tuesday at ten o'clock, for 

 a fuller meeting of the committee : which was agreed to. 



JANUARY 5, 1839. 



I rode to the Capitol shortly before the meeting of the 

 House, to make arrangements for keeping minutes of the 

 proceedings of the Smithsonian Bequest Committee a work 



