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 all nations with which it has diplomatic
relations to send delegates to a Congress to assemble at
Washington to-day, to discuss the question I have indicated.
The invitation has been graciously received, and we are here
this morning to enter upon the agreeable duty assigned to us
by our respective governments.