294 .}fnuor!a/ of George Ih'o-cC/i Goodc. 



(3) A nautical survey of the shoals and soundings of the coast, of which the trig- 

 onometrical survey of the coast itself, and the ascertained position of the light-houses, " 

 and other distinguishable objects, would be the basis ; and which would therefore 

 depend but little on any astronomical observations made on board the vessels 

 employed on that part of the work. 



This circular letter was submitted to thirteen scientific men, and in 

 response thirteen plans were received at the Treasury Department. A 

 commission, composed of the experts from whom answers had been 

 received, was formed. They met at Professor Patterson's, in Philadelphia, 

 and the plan which they finally selected was then proposed by Ferdinand 

 Rudolph Hassler, at that time, and for several years thereafter, professor 

 in the Military Academy at West Point. 



Nothing was done to secure definitely the execution of this plan until 

 181 1, when Hassler was sent to Europe to procure the necessary instru- 

 ments and standards of measure for the proposed work. He was detained 

 as an alien in lyondou during the entire war with England, and until 

 18 15, when he rettirned to the United States, having, as a matter of 

 course, far exceeded the limits of his appropriation, with a large claim 

 against the Government for indemnification." 



I have been unable to ascertain the exact date of the appointment of 

 Hassler as the Superintendent of the Coast Survej^, although it was 

 thoroughly understood at the time of the acceptance of his plan in 1807 

 that it was to be carried out under his direction. 



It was not until August, 18 16, that the contract was signed with the 

 Government which authorized Hassler to proceed wuth his work. In 

 181 7 a beginning was made in the bay and harbor of New York, but 

 Congress failed to provide for its continuance, and it was soon suspended, 

 and in 18 18, before the Superintendent had the opportunity to publish a 

 report upon the results of his last 3-ear's labor. Congress, on the plea 

 ' ' that the little progress hitherto made in the work had caused general 

 dissatisfaction," ordered its discontinuance by repealing the law under 

 which the Superintendent had been appointed, and providing that no one 

 should be employed in the survey of the coast except officers of the Army 

 and Navy. This was practically a discontinuance of the work, because 

 there was no one in America but Hassler who was capable of directing it. 



'An interesting reminiscence of his career in this period is contained in the diary 

 of John Quincy Adams for July, 1815, where there is described an interview by him- 

 self, with Mr. Gallatin, at that time United States minister in London, in which the 

 latter spoke of Hassler, who had just left them. 



' ' That is a man of very great merit. He was sent by the Government to Europe 

 to procure the instruments for the general survey of our coast, but he has outrun his 

 time and his funds, and his instrinnents cost eight hundred pounds sterling more than 

 was aj^propriated for them; and he is embarrassed now about getting back to America. 

 I have engaged Messrs. Baring to advance the money for the instruments, and he is 

 to go for his own expenses upon his own credit. He has procured an excellent 

 set of instruments." Adams's Memoirs, III, p. 248. 



The circiilars elicited by Hassler's plan are printed in the Transactions of the 

 American Philosophical Society for 1812, II. 



