Founding of the Institution 47 



at the prosperity which, by the untiring exertion and fervid 

 zeal of its executive officers, it has attained. I believe it 

 eminently deserving of the fostering care and liberal patron- 

 age of the Congress of the United States, and could antici- 

 pate no happier close to my public life than to contribute, by 

 my voice and by my vote, to record the sanction of the 

 nation's munificence to sustain the National Institute devoted 

 to the cause of science." 



The Honorable Richard Rush, in a paper on " The Smith- 

 sonian Bequest," submitted to this meeting, urged that the 

 Smithsonian fund should be " engrafted upon the National 

 Institute," and submitted an elaborate argument in favor of 

 his proposal. 



It was a gala week for the Institute. The meeting was in 

 every respect a success, and there was reason to believe that 

 Congress would share in the general enthusiasm, take the so- 

 ciety under its patronage, and even give it the control of the 

 Smithson fund. 



In the circular of invitation, dated March 5, 1843, tne b- 

 jects of the meeting as a means of strengthening the position 

 of the society had been boldly stated, and the committee did 

 not hesitate to say that " should the meeting prove as suc- 

 cessful as the hopes of the managers in relation to it are ar- 

 dent, they will expect hereafter to welcome all who may visit 

 the association in apartments peculiar to itself, stored with 

 the objects of its honest pride and worthy of its distinguished 

 visitors." Such a paper, signed by such influential names as 

 those of John C. Spencer, Secretary of the Treasury ; Rob- 

 ert J. Walker, William C. Rives, Rufus Choate, of the Senate; 

 Joseph R. Ingersoll and William C. Preston, of the House of 

 Representatives ; Alexander D. Bache, Superintendent of the 

 Coast Survey; and Abbott Lawrence, of Boston, was surely 

 a powerful campaign document. None the less weighty was 



