Founding of the Institution 45 



All of these resolutions and reports were issued in the 

 form of circulars, 1 but the appeals " to the liberality and 

 public spirit of our countrymen " were without avail. Con- 

 sequently a special meeting of the board of management was 

 held December 23, 1843, at the office of the Secretary of 

 State. That the society was regarded at that time as one of 

 national importance is shown by the presence at the meet- 

 ing of Mr. Abel P. Upshur, Secretary of State, who took an 

 active part in the proceedings ; the Honorable John Quincy 

 Adams, who presided ; Senator Levi Woodbury, late Secre- 

 tary of the Treasury, who agreed to represent the meeting 

 in Congress; the Honorable Joseph R. Ingersoll, who acted as 

 secretary, and who wrote out in his preamble to the minutes 

 of the meeting a forcible statement of the needs of the so- 

 ciety ; the Honorable Charles J. Ingersoll, Senator Robert 

 J. Walker, besides the Honorable Peter Force, Colonel John 

 J. Abert, Colonel Joseph G. Totten, Lieutenant Matthew F. 

 Maury, and the officers of the society. 



The issue of this meeting was the decision " to memorialize 

 Congress on the subject of the condition and wants of the 

 Institute." The memorial was presented in due course, and 

 in June, 1844, Senator Choate, of Massachusetts, presented 

 a report upon the character and uses of the Institute, recom- 

 mending that its property should be vested in the United 

 States and an appropriation made for its benefit. 



In the mean time, on the occasion of the first annual meet- 

 ing of the National Institute under its new name and in its 

 capacity as a corporation, in April, 1 844, the meeting of the 

 friends of science, including, besides all the members and 

 patrons of the National Institute, the members of the Ameri- 

 can Philosophical Society and of the Association of American 

 Geologists and Naturalists (the predecessor of the American 



1 October 15, 1842, and February 24, 1843. 



