296 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



carried out the wishes of the testator by creating the Smithsonian 

 Institution. To analyze the legislation during this period, to de- 

 scribe the many extraordinary schemes proposed, to merely name 

 the Congressmen who were active in the prolonged discussion, 

 would occupy more space than can be given to this entire article. 

 Presidents Van Buren, Harrison, Tyler, and Polk came and went, 

 each urging Congress to action, but the legislators suffered from 

 the " embarrassment of riches " in a new sense. Among the plans 

 prominently brought forward and considered at length were the 

 following : Senator John Quincy Adams advocated an astronom- 

 ical observatory ; Senator Asher Robbins, of Rhode Island, fa- 

 vored the establishment of a National University ; Senator Ben- 

 jamin Tappan, of Ohio, proposed a botanical garden and an agri- 

 cultural farm ; Senator Rufus Choate, of Massachusetts, urged a 

 grand library ; Robert Dale Owen, of Indiana, preferred a normal 

 school with lectureships on scientific subjects ; Mr. Isaac H. 

 Morse, of Louisiana, wanted the prizes awarded for the best writ- 

 ten essay on ten subjects ; and some legislators, wise in their own 

 conceit, opposed every plan suggested. Mr. George W. Jones, of 

 Tennessee, proposed that the whole fund be returned to any heirs 

 at law or next of kin of James Smithson ; and a similar disposi- 

 tion of the fund was advocated by Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, 

 and Mr. A. D. Sims, of South Carolina. It is interesting, in the 

 light of later national events, to note the names of some of those 

 who took part in these discussions : we find side by side the names 

 of Jefferson Davis and Hannibal Hamlin, Andrew Johnson and 

 Alexander H. Stephens, Howell Cobb and Stephen A. Douglas. 



Meanwhile memorials from persons and institutions outside 

 of Congress poured in, urging expedition, advocating particular 

 bills and suggesting new plans. At least two societies of citizens 

 sought to gain control of the magnificent fund which Congress 

 was so slow in appropriating ; the Agricultural Society of the 

 United States, formed in the District of Columbia, memorialized 

 Congress to apply the Smithsonian fund to its objects ; and the 

 National Institution for the Promotion of Science, organized in 

 1840 by representative men in Washington, sought union with or 

 control of the embryonic establishment bearing Sniithson's name. 

 Dr. G. Brown Goode, in his Genesis of the United States National 

 Museum (Report of the United States National Museum, 1891), 

 points out that the President of this National Institution, Joel R. 

 Poinsett, of South Carolina (Secretary of the Navy in 1840), de- 

 serves credit for introducing the feature of a national museum 

 into the scheme for the Smithsonian Institution. Indeed, the or- 

 ganization of the Smithsonian Institution finally adopted bears 

 marked resemblance to that of the National Institution both as 

 regards the cast of officers and the objects of the establishment. 



