FOUNDING OF THE ACADEMY 7. 
however, appear in the first list of officers of the Academy, nor 
of the members of the Council. 
While, as has been seen, many of the statements in Admiral 
Davis’ letters regarding the initial steps in the formation of the 
Academy are substantiated by other records, the most important 
one has yet to be considered. This is his claim that the practical 
plan for bringing the organization into existence was his own, 
though “ amplified and improved,” as he remarks, by the sug- 
gestions of others. 
It is not to be supposed that Davis intended to claim having 
originated the idea of a national scientific association or academy. 
This thought, as Goode has shown,” was in the minds of Wash- 
ington, Jefferson, Barlow, and other early American statesmen 
and publicists, and led to practical results of large importance 
through the activities of Franklin, John Adams and Poinsett. 
Bache dwelt on the need of a national scientific organization 
in his address as retiring President of the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science, at Albany, in 1851, on which 
occasion he said: 
“ But first a few observations on the ordinary modes of promoting science; in 
connexion with which, I would throw out for your consideration some reasons 
which induce me to believe that an institution of science, supplementary to 
existing ones, is much needed in our country, to guide public action in reference 
to scientific matters. .... 
“Tt is, I believe, a common mistake to associate the idea of academical insti- 
tutions with monarchial institutions. We show in this, as in many other things, 
the prejudice of our descent. We have among us the two extremes of exaggerated 
nationality and of excessive imitation; let us modify each by the other, and be 
wise. A national institute is not necessary to Great Britain, with her rich and 
powerful universities. Republican France has cherished her Institute, seeking 
rather to extend than to curtail its proportions. ... . Nor does the idea of a 
necessary connexion between centralization and an institution strike me as a valid 
one. Suppose an institute of which the members belong in turn to each of our 
widely scattered states, working at their places of residence and reporting their 
results; meeting only at particular times, and for special purposes; engaged in 
researches self-directed, or desired by the body, called for by Congress or by the 
* Goode, G. Brown, The Origin of the National Scientific and Educational Institutions of 
the United States. Ann. Rep. Amer. Hist. Assoc. for 1889, pp. 53-161. 1890. 
