42 The Smithsonian Institution 



presided at a meeting for the purpose of connecting the or- 

 ganization of the National Institution with that of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution. 



" Mr. Preston," wrote John Quincy Adams, " has introduced 

 into the Senate a bill for combining these two institutions, 

 and now stated to the meeting his views on the subject, em- 

 bracing an appropriation of $20,000 and the occupation by 

 law of a large portion of the Patent Office building, for the 

 preservation and arrangement of the objects of curiosity col- 

 lected by the exploring expedition under Lieutenant Wilkes, 

 now daily expected home ; and he called on me to say how 

 far my purposes may be concurrent with these suggestions. 



" I said I had the warmest disposition to favor them, and 

 thought there was but one difficulty in the way, which might 

 perhaps be surmounted. I had believed that the whole bur- 

 den and the whole honor of the Smithsonian Institution should 

 be exclusively confined to itself, and not entangled or com- 

 mingled with any national establishment requiring appropria- 

 tions of public money. I exposed the principles upon which 

 all my movements relating to the Smithsonian bequest have 

 been founded, as well as the bills which at four successive 

 Congresses I have reported, first, for obtaining the money, 

 and then for disposing of the fund. 



" At the motion of Mr. Walker, of Mississippi, the Presi- 

 dent, Mr. Poinsett, was authorized to appoint a committee of 

 five members of the Institute, to confer with Mr. Preston and 

 me upon the means of connecting the Smithsonian Institution 

 with the National Institute." 



Nothing resulted from these deliberations. 



On June 13, at a stated meeting of the National Insti- 

 tution, Senator Preston was present, and delivered, as the 

 records relate, " an eloquent speech, in which he descanted 

 at length on the history and labor of the Institution, what 

 it had done, and what it proposed to do, its capacity to be 

 eminently useful to the country and Congress, the advan- 



