794 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 



W. W. Seaton took the chair of the meeting, a vote of 

 thanks was passed for the discourse, with the request of a 

 copy for publication, and the meeting was dissolved. 



JANUARY 28, 1845. 



The House had been some time in session when I took 

 my seat. A bill from the Senate to establish the Smith- 

 sonian Institution had been received, read, and referred to 

 the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union. 



FEBRUARY 10, 1845. 



Robert Dale Owen had introduced a substitute for the 

 bill from the Senate to dispose of the Smithsonian bequest. 

 Without reading, it was ordered to be printed, and referred 

 to the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union. 



MARCH 3, 1845. 



Owen and Burke made desperate attempts to force down 

 a swindling Smithsonian bill, which I barely succeeded in 

 defeating. 



APRIL 4, 1845. 



I find it impossible to carry out the resolution formed 

 during the session of Congress, to devote the recess to sub- 

 jects of public interest which I was then compelled to over- 

 look. I have, indeed, disposed of two of them for the 

 present; but the rescinding of the gag-rule, the Jackson 

 fable of the Erving Treaty with Spain, the Smithsonian be- 

 quest, the controversy between Massachusetts and South 

 Carolina, the new States of Texas, Iowa, and Florida, the 

 Territories of Nebraska and Oregon, and the errors of the 

 sixth census all subjects which I did intend thoroughly to 

 sift before the next session of Congress, they are slipping 

 through my hands. 



APRIL 11, 1845. 



Mr. George Bancroft, now Secretary of the Navy, called 

 on me this morning, and again in the evening, and I had 

 two long conversations with him, on subjects connected 

 with the Navy Department, the Observatory, the magnetic 

 apparatus and observations, the Smithsonian bequest, and 

 the National Institute, and finally upon Mr. Lewis' catop- 

 trical light-house lamps and the Patent Office. He asked 

 for advice with regard to the Observatory, and the magnetic 

 observations, which are suspended. 



My advice was : 1. To build a dwelling-house adjoining 

 the Observatory. 2. To order immediately the resumption 



