Nalio)ial Sciciilific and E'hicalional Iiislili{tio)is. 297 



separation will disappear, their interests will be identified, and their luiion cemented 

 by new and indissoluble ties. ' ' To provide for the other, the higher education should 

 be placed among the objects of public care; "a jiublic institution can alone supply 

 those sciences which, though rarely called for, are yet necessary to complete the 

 circle, all the parts of which contribute to the improvement of the country and 

 some of them to its preservation." A national university and a national system of 

 internal improvement were an essential part, and indeed the realization and fruit, of 

 the republican theories which Mr. Jefferson and his associates put in practice as their 

 ideal of government. ' 



Madison's Admiuistratioii, which began in 1809, thotigh friendly to 

 science, was not characterized by any reniarkaljle advances (except that 

 the Coast Survey was actually organized for work under Hassler, after 

 his return from Europe, in 1816). The war of 18 12 and the tnisettled 

 state of public affairs were not propitious to the growth of learned 

 institutions. 



Monroe became Chief Magistrate in 18 17. He, like Madison, was a 

 friend and follower of Jefferson, and in the atmo.sphere of national pros- 

 perit}' .scientific work began to pro.sper, and there was a great accession 

 of poptilar interest, and State geological surveys began to come into 

 existence. Schoolcraft and Long led Government expeditions into the 

 West; the American Geological Society and the American Journal of 

 Science w^ere founded. 



The city of Washington began to have intellectual interests, and 

 public-spirited men organized the Cokimbian Institute and the Colum- 

 bian University. 



Monroe was not actually acquainted with .science, but was in hearty 

 sympathy with it. When he visited New York, in 1S17, he vLsited the 

 New York Instittition, and was received as an honorary member of the 

 Literary and Philosophical Society, and in his reply to the address of 

 Governor Clinton, its president, he remarked that "the honor, glory, 

 and pro-sperity of the country were intimately connected with its literature 

 and science, and that the promotion of knowledge would always be an 

 object of his attention and solicitude. ' ' 



'Adams's Life of Gallatin, pp. 349, 350. Henry Adams in this admirable biog- 

 raphy has shown that Gallatin was one of Jeffer.son's strongest supporters in plans 

 for the public enlightenment, and that he had an ambition of his own for the edu- 

 cation of all citizens, withoiit distinction of classes. 



I had another favorite object in view [Gallatin writes], in which I have failed. 

 My wi.sh was to devote what ma}^ remain of life to the establishment, in this immense 

 and fa.st-growing citj^ [New York], of a general .system of rational and practical 

 education fitted for all and gratuitously opened to all. For it appeared to me 

 impossible to preserve our democratic institutions and the right of universal suffrage 

 uide.ss we could rai.se the standard oi general education and the mind of the laboring 

 classes nearer to a level with those born under more favorable circumstances. I 

 became accordingly the president of the council of a new university, originally 

 established on the most liberal principles. But finding that the object was no longer 

 the same, that a certain portion of the clergy had obtained the control, and that 

 their object, though laudable, was special and quite distinct from mine, I resigned 

 at the end of one year rather than to struggle, probably in vain, for what was nearly 

 unattainable. Life of Gallatin, p. 64S. 



