SKETCH OF DAVID AMES WELLS. 833 



fully operated was built at his expense and worked under his direction 

 in the office of the " Republican." Having, however, a taste for scien- 

 tific pursuits, and being now in the possession of some means through 

 the sale of his interest in the above invention, he quitted the pursuit of 

 journalism, and in 1849 entered the Lawrence Scientific School of Har- 

 vard University, becoming also at the same time a special pupil of Pro- 

 fessor Agassiz, who had then recently arrived in this country. Graduat- 

 ing in the first class that completed a course of study in the Scientific 

 School in 1851-'52, he immediately received the a^jpointment of assist- 

 ant professor in this institution and also that of lecturer on physics and 

 chemistry in Groton Academy, Massachusetts. During his residence 

 in Cambridge, Mr. AVells, in association with George Eliss (late United 

 States District Attorney for New York), commenced in 1849 the pub- 

 lication of an annual report on the progress of science and the useful 

 arts, which, under the name of the " Annual of Scientific Discovery," 

 was continued for many years. 



Between 18.57 and 1863, Mr. Wells was engaged in the preparation 

 of a series of scientific school-books, which at one time attained a 

 very extensive circulation, two of the series having been translated 

 by missionaries into the Chinese language, while a third — an ele- 

 mentary treatise on chemistry — was adopted as a text-book at West 

 Point. 



Mr. Wells, however, first came prominently into public life in 

 1864, while residing in Troy, New York, through the publication in 

 that year of an essay on the resources and debt-paying ability of 

 the United States, bearing the title of "Our Burden and Strensfth." 

 This essay was first read at a literary and social club in Troy, then 

 published privately, then reprinted and circulated by the Loyal Publi- 

 cation Society of New York, and, receiving at the same time the ap- 

 proval of the Federal Government, it became one of the most noted 

 publications of the war period. It was reprinted in England and 

 translated into French and German, and had a circulation which is be- 

 lieved to have been in excess of two hundred thousand copies. Coming 

 at a period when the nation was beginning to be alarmed at the pro- 

 spective magnitude of the public debt, and apprehensive of an impend- 

 ing crushing burden of taxation, its publication and circulation proved 

 a most effective agency for restoring public confidence and maintain- 

 ing the credit of the Federal Government. 



The perusal of this pamphlet made a great impression upon Presi- 

 dent Lincoln, and in January, 186."), he sent for Mr. Wells to come to 

 Washington and confer with him and Mr. Fessenden, then Secretary 

 of the Treasury, on the best methods of dealing, after the termination 

 of the war, then evidently at hand, with the enormous debt and bur- 

 den of taxation that the war had entailed upon the nation. The result 

 of this conference was the passage by Congress of a bill, in March, 1865, 

 creating a commission of three persons for the purpose of inquiring 

 VOL. xxxir. — 53 



