2 74 Memorial of George Broivn Goode. 



a governmental affair, the precursor of subsequent entomological com- 

 missions, and of our Department of Economic Entomology.' 



The interest of Washington in the founding of a national university, 

 as manifested in the provisions of his last will and testament, are familiar 

 to all, and I have been interested to learn that his thoughts were earnestly' 

 fixed upon this great project during all the years of the Revolutionary 

 war. It is an inspiring thought that, during the long and doubtful strug- 

 gle for independence, the leader of the American arms was looking forward 

 to the return of peace, in anticipation of an opportunity to found in a 

 central part of the rising empire an institution for the completing of the 

 education of youths from all parts thereof, where they might at the same 

 time be enabled to free themselves in a proper degree from local preju- 

 dices and jealousies. 



Samuel Blodget, in his Economica, relates the histor}' of the beginning 

 of a national university. 



As the most minute circumstances ai-e sometimes interesting for their relation to 

 great events [he wrote] , we relate the first we ever heard of a national university : 

 it was in the camp at Cambridge, in October 1775, when major William Blodget 

 went to the quarters of general Washington, to complain of the ruinous state of the 

 colleges, from the .conduct of the militia quartered therein. The writer of this being 

 in company with his friend and relation, and hearing general Greene join in lament- 

 ing the then ruinous state of the eldest seminary of Massachusetts, observed, merely 

 to console the company q/friejids, that to make amends for these injuries, after otir 

 war, he hoped, we should erect a noble national university, at which the youth of all 

 the world might be proud to receive instruction. What was thus pleasantly said, 

 Washington immediately replied to, with that inimitably expressive and truly 

 interesting look for which he was sometimes so remarkable : " Young man you are a 

 p7^ophet! inspired to speak what I feel confident ivill one day be realized. ' ' He then 

 detailed to the company his impressions, that all North America would one day become 

 united; he said, that a colonel Byrd,= of Virginia, he believed, was the first man who 

 had pointed out the best central seat [for the capital city] , near to the present spot, 

 or about the falls of the Potomack. General Washington further said, that a Mr. 

 Evans 3 had expressed the same opinion, with many other gentlemen, who from a 



' Before the organization of the Department of Agriculture, another step in eco- 

 nomic entomology was taken by the General Government in the publication of an 

 official document on isilk worms : 



1828. I Mease, James. | 20th Congress, | i8th Session | [Doc. No. 226] Ho. of 



Reps. I Silk-worms. | | Letter | from | James Mease, | transmitting a treatise 



on the rearing of silk-worms, | by Mr. De Hozze, of Munich, | with plates, etc., etc. 



I I February 2, 1828. — Read and referred to the Committee on Agriculture. 



I I Washington: | Printed by Gales and Seaton | 1828. | 8°. pp. 1-108. 



^Probably the third William Byrd [1728-1777], the son of the author of Westover 

 Papers. He was colonel of the Second Virginia Regiment in 1756, and perhaps was 

 in camp with Washington on the present site of the capital, when he became so deeply 

 impressed with the eligibility of the site for a national cit}'. 



3 Perhaps Lewis Evans, the geographer, who in 1749 jjublished a map of the central 

 colonies, including Virginia. Professor Winsor tells me that there are copies of this 

 map in the possession of Harvard University, in the liljrary of the Pennsylvania 

 Historical Society, and one in the Faden collection in the Library of Congress. 

 Professor Josiah D. Whitney says that the legend on it, "All great storms begin to 

 leeward," is, so far as he knows, the first expression of that scientific opinion. 



