TWENTY-NINTH CONGRESS, 1845-47. 395 



in the future of still more wonderful improvements. Doubt- 

 less, it was this tendency of our institutions, and the efiect 

 not obscurely marked out in the amazing energy and inven- 

 tive power of our people, which induced the %vise and 

 benevolent Smithson to select this Government as the agent 

 for accomplishing his will. It is not difficult to discover 

 that this condition of the people, the result of our peculiar 

 political institutions, will reflect back its influence upon the 

 government, and infuse a portion of its energetic and en- 

 lightened spirit into all its departments. We have already 

 seen some such result. Some operations of an imj^ortant 

 scientific character have of late been undertaken by the 

 direct application of the national power. 



First in importance among these, has been the establish- 

 ment in this city of the Observatory, connected with the 

 hydrographical department of that nondescript fire-and- 

 water bureau of ordnance and hydrography. I believe this 

 interesting establishment has grown up gradually from the 

 very necessity of the case, and without any direct authority 

 looking immediately to such a result. And, in the estima- 

 tion of some, it seems still to be considered a very unim- 

 portant concern ; for I have seen a bill lately reported in 

 the Senate, proposing to detach the establishment from the 

 bureau of ordnance, and connect it with that of yards 

 and docks, thus bringing the erection of ship-houses, foun- 

 dries, and work-shops, into juxtaposition and intimate rela- 

 tion with the most delicate and difficult observations of the 

 heavenly bodies, and the most intricate calculations of 

 astronomy. This classification is probably founded upon 

 the similiarity supposed to exist between the wheels of a 

 steam engine and the rings of Saturn, or the bands of a 

 lathe and the belts of Jupiter. The Naval Committee of 

 the House, however, have not had the penetration to see 

 these very recondite points of connection, and they have 

 proposed to erect a separate bureau of hydrography, placing 

 the astronomical and hydrographical operations of the Gov- 

 ernment upon the most permanent, useful, and independent 

 basis. If there be any branch of the public service worthy 

 of this advantage, it is that which is now so well and effi- 

 ciently conducted by Lieutenant M. F. Maury. 



Heretofore, our astronomical knowledge has been chiefly 

 derived from foreign nations. We have used the English 

 nautical almanac, and our vessels have been guided upon 

 the broad ocean by observations and tables prepared by our 

 rivals and adversaries in all commercial enterprise. We 

 have contributed nothing whatever to this branch of science, 



