i 



Doc. No. 11. '* 



Mr de Wallenstein, then attached. to the Russian legation in this coun- 

 try • a report from Major Kearney, of the topographical engineers; and 

 extracts from a memoir of Mr. Francis Baily, respecting a new method 

 of determining the longitude ; all of which contain precious information, 

 both of facts and of encouragement to the application of a strenuous and 

 persevering eflfort, on the part of the Government of the United States, to 

 contribute their effective aid, by this establishment, to the progress of 

 physical and mathematical science. When the opportunity lor this is 

 afforded by the munificence of a foreigner, without needing the taxation 

 of a dollar upon the people, I cannot forego the hope that this opportu- 

 nity will not be lost, believing that, of all the physical sciences, there is 

 none for the cultivation of which brighter rewards of future discovery 

 are reserved for the ingenuity and industry of man, than practical as- 



tronomy. . , , . • » 



There is appended to the same Congressional document a memorial 

 to Congress, from William Allen, president of Bowdoin College, and 

 sundry other distinguished citizens of the State of Maine, praying for the 

 establishment, at the charge of the nation, of an astronomical observa- 

 tory in the town of Brunswick, in that State; and a memorial of Mr. 

 Hassler, recommending two observatories— one in Maine and one in 

 Louisiana. The memorial from Maine urges with great force and ele- 

 gance some of the general considerations pointing to the usefulness and 

 importance of an astronomical observatory in the western hemisphere. 

 But it is doubtful, at least, whether any application of the Smithsonian 

 bequest can, in fulfilment of the testator's will, be located otherwise than 

 in the city of Washington ; and if hereafter Congress should ever oe dis- 

 posed lo appropriate any portion of the national funds to these elevated 

 purposes, observatories may be erected in Maine, or Louisiana, or both, 

 which may be auxiliary to tiie labors of the Smithsonian institution at 

 Washington, without in any manner interfering with its pursuits. 



If the President should approve and give the weight of his recommend- 

 ations to those suggestions, I have no doubt they will receive tne sanc- 

 tion of Congress at their next session. As 1 propose the appropriation ior 

 seven successive years of all the income from the fund to this special object, 

 there will be ample time for considering the best manner of appropria- 

 ting the same income afterwards to permanent establishments for tncreas- 

 ins and diffusing knowledge among men. Nothing could be more easy 

 than to dispose of a fund ten times as large, without encroaching upon 

 the proper sphere of any school, college, university, or academy. JNot 

 so easy will it be secure, as from a rattlesnake's fang, the fund and its in- 

 come, forever, from being wasted and dilapidated in bounties to teed the 

 hunger or fatten the leaden idleness of mountebank projectors, and shal- 

 low and worthless pretenders to science. r i i 



Since I began this letter, I have conferred with Mr. Bancroft, the col- 

 lector of the customs at Boston, concerning its object, who has promised 

 to communicate his views of the subject to the President. 1 may, per- 

 haps, after consultation with others, again address you m relation to it 

 before my departure for Washington. 



J a,„, very respectfully, sir, your "bedient servant,^^^ ^^^.^^^ 



John Forsyth, Esq., 

 Secretary of State of the United States, Washington. 



