ice
at 12 o'clock. Upon assembling in the Diplomatic Hall, he called the
Conference to order, and spoke as follows:

GENTLEMEN: It gives me pleasure, in the name of the
President of the United States, to welcome you to this
Congress, where most of the nations of the earth are
represented. You have met to discuss and consider the
important question of a prime meridian for all nations. It
will rest with you to give a definite result to the
preparatory labors of other scientific associations and
special congresses, and thus make those labors available.

Wishing you all success in your important deliberations, and
not doubting that you will reach a conclusion satisfactory
to the civilized world, I, before leaving you, take the
liberty to nominate, for the purpose of a temporary
organization, Count Lewenhaupt.

It will afford this Department pleasure to do all in its
power to promote the convenience of the Congress and to
facilitate its proceedings.

By the unanimous voice of the Conference the Delegate of Sweden, Count
LEWENHAUPT, took the chair, and said that, for the purpose of
proceeding to a permanent organization, it was necessary to elect a
President, and that he had the honor to propose for that office the
chairman of the delegation of the United States of America, Admiral C.
R. P. Rodgers.

The Conference agreed unanimously to the proposition thus made,
whereupon Admiral RODGERS took the chair as President of the
Conference, and made the following address:

GENTLEMEN: I beg you to receive my thanks for the high honor
you have conferred upon me in calling me, as the chairman of
the delegation from the United States, to preside at this
Congress. To it have come from widely-separated portions of
the globe, delegates renowned in diplomacy and science,
seeking to create a new accord among the nations by agreeing
upon a meridian proper to be employed as a common zero of
longitude and standard of time reckoning throughout the
world. Happy shall we be, if, throwing aside national
preferences and inclinations, we seek only the common good
of mankind, and gain for science and for commerce a prime
meridian acceptable to all countries, and secured with the
least possible inconvenience.

Having this object at heart, the Government of the United
States has invited a