MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 779' 



could not but surmise that Mr. Jager was a free-thinker of 

 the German school, and had a negative quantity of reverence 

 for the Bible, equal at least to the superfluity of it in the- 

 Galitzins ; that this had rendered the residence of St. Peters- 

 burg inconvenient to him, and brought him to this country. 

 This may be mere conjuncture ; but I have invariably found 

 that a light estimate of the study of Greek and Latin and 

 an irreverent estimate of the Bible are inseparable compan- 

 ions. I see the same current of opinions in Professor Dung- 

 lison's two articles in the Southern Messenger, upon the 

 Smithsonian bequest. Of Dunglison, imported from Scot- 

 land by Jefferson, for his university of Virginia, this might 

 be expected ; but how this Professor Jager should have got 

 squeezed into the super-orthodox college at Princeton gives- 

 me pause. 



MAY 10, 1840. 



I observed to Mr. Gales that he had not yet published my 

 report on the Smithsonian bequest. He said the difficulty 

 was that it would occupy from twelve to fourteen columns of 

 the paper ; but it should be published as soon as possible. 



MAY 19, 1840. 



I rode to the Capitol, and stopped on my way at the office 

 of the National Intelligencer. Mr. Gales said he should 

 begin the publication of the Smithsonian report to-morrow. 



MAY 23, 1840. 



I called at the Intelligencer office, and asked of Mr. Gales- 

 half a dozen copies of this day's paper, containing my 

 speech on the 8th instant, and of the country paper of last 

 Tuesday, containing my last report on the Smithsonian be- 

 quest. Gales said he had already received comments on the 

 latter. I asked him from whom. He said he could not 

 tell me till I had seen them. 



APRIL 14, 1841. 



Mr. Poinsett called upon me, and now fully disclosed his 

 project, which is to place the investment and disposal of the 

 Smithsonian funds under the management of the American 

 [National] Institution for the Promotion of Literature and 

 Science. He concurs entirely in my views of confining the ap- 

 propriations to the annual interest, leaving the principal un- 

 impaired, and of making the first appropriations for the estab- 

 lishment of an astronomical observatory. But he did not ap- 

 prove of leaving the selection of the spot to the Secretary of 



