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It is a remarkable fact in our annals that, just in the 
midst of difficulties which would have overwhelmed less 
resolute men, the Thirty-seventh Congress of the United 
States, with an elevated policy worthy of the great nation 
which they represented, took occasion to bring the scientific 
men around them in council on scientific matters, by creating 
the National Academy of Sciences. Such has been the 
way in which the public mind has been stirred before in the 
annals of other countries, leading to the organization of 
great systems of education, science, art, and literature, to be 
encouraged and perfected when more peaceful and prosper- 
ous times recurred. The Bill (marked A) to Incorporate 
the National Academy of Sciences, was passed in the 
Senate of the United States in February, in the House of - 
Representatives in March, signed by the President on the 
4th of March, and, as if to render it more acceptable to the 
men of science of the country, without opposition, from the 
time when unanimous consent was asked and obtained by 
Mr. Wilson, in the Senate, to bring in the bill, to the 
signature by the President. 
In pursuance of the provisions of that Act, the members 
of the National Academy met in New York on the 22d of 
April, 1863, and completed their organization, renewing by 
their loyal oath their obligations to serve their country and 
its constituted authorities to the best of their abilities and 
knowledge, on such subjects as were embraced in their 
hale? and upon which they might be consulted, and 
adopting a Constitution and Laws which they supposed 
would enable them to carry on successfully the plans of 
Congress as sketched in the charter. 
Providing for the full and deliberate consideration and 
arrangement of their laws by a Committee selected for 
their capability in such a task, the Academy adopted the 
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