Founding of the Institution 39 



Smithsonian funds under the management of the American 

 Institution for the Promotion of Literature and Science [evi- 

 dently meaning the National Institution]. He concurs entirely 

 in my views of confining the appropriations to the annual 

 interest, leaving the principal unimpaired, and of making the 

 first appropriations for the establishment of an astronomical 

 observatory. . . . He said he had at present no other occu- 

 pation on hand, and would be willing to devote two years en- 

 tirely to organizing this establishment and getting it into full 

 operation." "I know not," added the aged statesman, "that 

 it could be accomplished more effectively, and think I must 

 acquiesce in this arrangement and endeavor to carry it through. 

 The chief obstacle, however, will now be to extricate the 

 funds from the fangs of the State of Arkansas. Mr. Poinsett 

 thought that they paid the interest upon the bonds punctu- 

 ally; but the law requires that the interest should, when paid, 

 be immediately reinvested in State stocks, and I struggled 

 in vain at the last session of Congress to obtain a repeal of 

 that law. Mr. Poinsett said he was now going in a very few 

 days to South Carolina, but should soon return here ... to 

 preside over the National Institution for the Promotion of 

 Science ; and, as he expressed a wish that the Smithsonian 

 fund might be connected with that Institution and placed un- 

 der its management, I requested him to take the bill reported 

 to the House with my report of 5th March, 1840, and prepare 

 any amendment to it which would carry out his views, and 

 send it to me before the approaching session of Congress ; 

 which he said would do." 1 



1 Extracts from the memoirs of John his advocacy of the project. (See remarks, 



Quincy Adams, Rhees, " The Smithsonian In- March 8, 1841, Proceedings of the National In- 



stitution: Documents relative to its Origin j^w//0, page 69, and letter, February 7, 1842, 



and History," pages 769, 774, 779, 780. Proceedings of the National Ins tittttion, page 



Mr. Poinsett was not only the first to pub- 157.) Dr. Peter S. Duponceau, president of 



licly suggest the union of the Smithsonian with the American Philosophical Society, in a letter 



the National Institution, but was constant in to the institution in November, 1840, re- 



