FOUNDING OF THE ACADEMY 9 
The more interesting question as to what scientific men were 
the chief promoters of the Academy movement is not easy of 
solution. Not only has the little coterie which is mentioned by 
Davis as having arranged the plan of incorporation passed away, 
but all the group of fifty incorporators. Of some of these men 
no published biographies exist, and for others we have only brief 
sketches and fragments of correspondence. Piecing together the 
scraps and shreds of information scattered through many volumes 
leads to no very satisfactory result. We may confidently believe 
that, as Davis informs us, Bache, Peirce, Henry, Davis and B. A. 
Gould were strongly imbued with the idea that some form of 
national scientific organization, created by and bearing at least 
a quasi-official relation to the Federal Government would be of 
importance both to American science and to the Government. 
It is more difficult to be assured as to others. The name of 
Louis Agassiz should probably be added to the list, although the 
idea seems tenable that his activities in behalf of the Academy 
were prompted chiefly by a desire to aid his scientific associates 
and friends. Marcou states that Agassiz ‘“‘ may be called one of 
the founders, but not the ‘ prime mover’ ”’ and intimates that he 
took part in the plans for incorporation mainly to satisfy Bache.” 
However this may be, he was sufficiently interested in the 
Academy to accept the position of foreign secretary, to which 
he was elected at the first meeting in 1863, and also to take an 
active part in shaping the constitution and by-laws.” 
Among those who have been mentioned as early promoters 
of the Academy is J. Peter Lesley. In a biographical sketch of 
his life read before the American Institute of Mining Engineers 
in 1903, Benjamin S. Lyman remarks: 
“ About 1862 he [Lesley] and several of his scientific friends earnestly dis- 
cussed the desirableness of forming a National Academy of Science, that should 
*Marcou, Jules. Life, letters and works of Louis Agassiz, vol. 2, 1895, p. 157. Many 
of Marcou’s statements are erroneous, as, for example, that Henry Wilson was Vice- 
President of the United States at the time of the incorporation of the Academy. They 
can hardly be accepted unless corroborated by other testimony. 
* See Ames, Mary Lesley, Life and letters of Peter and Susan Lesley, vol. 1, 1909, p. 
419, where there is an amusing account of the meeting for organization. 
