13 
founded in America, and that I would at least make the 
effort to obtain such an act of incorporation for the scientific 
men of the United States, I replied, that it seemed more 
fitting that some statesman of ripe scholarship should take 
the lead in securing such a measure, but that I felt confident 
I could prepare, introduce, and carry through Congress a 
measure so eminently calculated to advance the cause of 
science, and to reflect honor upon our country. I promptly 
assumed the responsibility, and with such aid and suggestions 
as I could obtain, I prepared, introduced, and by personal 
effort with members of both Houses of Congress, carried 
through this act of incorporation without even a division in 
either House. 
The suggestion was sometimes made that the nation is 
engaged in a fearful struggle for existence, and the moment 
was not well chosen to press such a measure. But I thought 
otherwise. I thought it just the fitting time to act. I wanted 
the savans of the old world, as they turn their eyes hither- 
ward, to see that amid the fire and blood of the most gigan- 
tic civil war in the annals of nations, the statesmen and peo- 
ple of the United States, in the calm confidence of assured 
power, are fostering the elevating, purifying, and consolidat- 
ing institutions of religion and benevolence, literature, art 
and science. I wanted the men of Europe, who profess to 
see in America the failure of republican institutions, to real- 
ize that the people of the United States, while eliminating 
from their system that ever-disturbing element of discord, be- 
queathed to them by the colonial and commercial policy of 
England, are cherishing the institutions that elevate man and 
ennoble nations. The land resounds with the tread of armies, 
its bright waters are crimsoned, and its fields reddened with 
al blood. Patriotism surely demands that we strive 
to make this now discordant, torn, and bleeding nation one 
2 
