THE NATIONAL INSTITUTION* 
113 
1841 .] 
ries, amusements, and even the secrets of the private life of that people, for nearly 
two thousand years before Christ; and all by the study of rude pictures, toilsome 
researches among tombs, and hieroglyphics on monuments and sarcophagi! 
Would it not then be a most laudable employment for Americans to gather and 
interpret the memorials of their own continent’s history; and is it not most fitting 
that a National Institution like ours, growing up at the Seat of Government, should, 
speedily after its formation, devote itself to the Aborigines who are so rapidly fall, 
ing before the march of corruption and civilization ? As yet, literally, nothing has 
been done by us; we have been guessing and groping in the dark, whilst all the 
European Governments have been at work with liberal expenditure of money, in 
this interesting branch of learning, and, having almost exhausted the Old World, 
are now looking to the New for more triumphs of industry, research and science. 
Let them not snatch this field from us, to our shame and discomfiture ! 
Mr. Stevens (if I remember correctly) seems to think that individual efforts, 
unaided by our Government , cannot alone be successful in these inquiries; let us 
then take up the thread where he was forced by circumstances to drop it, and allow 
me to assure you of my sincere wish to cooperate with you in your efforts, acting 
either under your judicious advice, or by the orders of our Government itself should 
you be so fortunate as to enlist it in your behalf. 
I trust the day is not distant, when at least some of the relics of Copan and 
Palenque, or authentic copies of them, will be found within your walls, and that my 
countrymen will thus have the opportunity of seeing with their own eyes what 
Stevens has so graphically described, and Catherwood so beautifully drawn. The 
Present can make no more gracious bequest to the Future than the memorials of the 
Past, especially when those memorials embalm the history of a people who perhaps 
perished, by the inscrutable will of an all-wise Providence, to make room for the 
advance of a more extended civilization and freedom, which we are permitted to 
enjoy. 
Your most obedient servant and friend, BRANTZ MAYER. 
The following communication was read: 
Columbian Institute, July 17, 1841. 
Whereas the charter of the Columbian Institute, for the promotion of arts and 
sciences, expired on the 20th day of May, 1838; and whereas a new society has 
been formed by voluntary association, by the name of the National Institution for 
the Promotion of Science; and whereas the said National Institution has, by a 
resolution passed on the 12th day of July, 1841, invited the members of the Colum¬ 
bian Institute to become members of the said Institution, and to deposit with it 
the effects, books and papers of said Institute: 
Resolved , That the said invitation be, and the same is hereby accepted. 
Resolved , That a copy of this Resolution be communicated to the said Institu- 
tlon ’ ASBURY DICKINS, 
Secretary of the Columbian Institute , 
