ASTRONOMY IN AMERICA. 77 



Two years later, President Adams urged on Congress the estab- 

 lishment of a national observatory as part of a wider scheme for the 

 advancement of knowledge. His remarks on the astronomical por- 

 tion of his scheme serve well to show the position of astronomy in 

 America half a century ago. " Connected with the establishment of 

 a university," he says, " or separate from it, might be undertaken the 

 erection of an astronomical observatory, with provision for the sup- 

 port of an astronomer to be in constant attendance on the phenomena 

 of the heavens, and for the periodical publication of his observations. 

 It is with no feeling of pride as an American that the remark may be 

 made that, on the comparatively small territorial surface of Europe, 

 there are existing more than one hundred and thirty of these lighthouses 

 of the skies, while throughout the whole American Hemisphere there 

 is not one. If we reflect for a moment upon the discoveries which in 

 the last four centuries have been made in the physical constitution of 

 the universe by means of these buildings, and of observers stationed in 

 them, shall we doubt of their usefulness to everv nation ? And while 

 scarcely a year passes over our heads without bringing some new as- 

 tronomical discovery to light, which we must fain receive at second- 

 hand from Europe, are we not cutting ourselves off from the means 

 of returning light for light, while we have neither observatory nor 

 observer upon our half of the globe " (!) " and the earth revolves in 

 perpetual darkness to our unsearching eyes ? " 



In March, 1826, a bill "to establish an observatory in the District 

 of Columbia" was brought before Congress and read the first and sec- 

 ond time, but the House journals show no further trace of it. This 

 bill was due to the recommendations of Mr. Adams, who did not 

 relax in his efforts to secure the erection of a national observatory, 

 though delays and disappointments occurred which might well have 

 exhausted his energy, seeing that the dates of his renewed and for a 

 while useless appeals were 1836, 1838, 1840, and 1842. 



Passing over many circumstances in the history of these transac- 

 tions, not as being without interest, but because space will not permit 

 of their being presented here, we may proceed to the time when the 

 actual erection of the buildings was commenced. This was in 1843. 

 or no less than thirty-three years after the plan for an observatory 

 was first proposed, so that fully one-half of the period which has 

 elapsed since Lambert, of Virginia, first called his countrymen's atten- 

 tion to the necessity of establishing a national observatory was lost 

 in discussions and delays. At the close of September, 1844, the new 

 building was ready for occupancy, and the instruments were adjusted. 



From 1844 to 1861 the Washington Observatory was under the 

 superintendence of Lieutenant Maury. In September," 1846, the first 

 volume of "Observations" was issued. Its value has been thus de- 

 scribed by an impartial and competent judge : " Besides a fair amount 

 of observations with the two transit instruments in the meridian and 



