said that he could assert, without fear of contradiction, that in
those communications the President stated that it was believed to be a
foregone conclusion that a prime meridian was desirable; that that was
the basis on which the President acted in giving his invitation; that
how he came to that conclusion he does not state--whether or not the
proceedings at Rome had anything to do with it, but he thought that
they had a great influence on the mind of the President; that,
doubtless, his action was not determined solely by that, and,
therefore, that the Secretary of State first made a tentative
application to see whether a proposition for another Conference was
acceptable, and that he found all countries here represented answering
the circular in the affirmative; that they agreed with him that a
conference for this purpose was desirable.

He continued by saying that the Secretary of State then sent a second
invitation to the different nations to send Delegates, who were to
assemble here on the first of October, 1884, for the purpose of
establishing a prime meridian and a universal time. He added that it
seemed to him a great loss of time to go over the question whether a
prime meridian was or was not desirable; that the Delegates were sent
here for the purpose of agreeing upon a prime meridian. He then asked
why this Conference should lose time in discussing that question.

The resolution offered by the Delegate of the United States, Commander
SAMPSON, was then unanimously adopted as follows:

"_Resolved_, That it is the opinion of this Congress that it
is desirable to adopt a single prime meridian for all
nations in place of the multiplicity of initial meridians
which now exist."