768 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 



my report; wished me at leisure to name any persons who 

 I thought might be usefully consulted ; appeared very favor- 

 ably disposed to the establishment of an observatory, and 

 willing to do right. 



I urged upon him the deep responsibility of the nation to 

 the world and to all posterity worthily to fulfil the great 

 object of the testator, I only lament my inability to com- 

 municate half the solicitude with which my heart is on this 

 subject full, and the sluggishness with which I shall fail 

 properly to pursue it. If I can but remember to write upon 

 it to L. Cass, and T. Aspinwall, and to converse upon it 

 with Edward Everett and the Winthrops. 



November 29, 1838. 



I paid a morning visit to President Martin Van Buren, 

 whom I found alone in his cabinet, the east chamber of the 

 presidential house. Half an hour's conversation with him — 

 chiefly on the disposal of the Smithsonian bequest. I re- 

 ferred to my conversation with him before my departure 

 hence last summer, to the letter I received afterwards from 

 the Secretary of State, Forsyth, and to my two letters to 

 him in answer to it. He had not seen my letters, but had 

 on his table copies of them, and of a report from Mr. Rush, 

 and of a letter from President Wayland, of Brown Univer- 

 sity of Providence ; all which, he said, had been sent to hira 

 this morning from the Department of State, and none of 

 which he had yet read. With regard to the disposal of the 

 fund he would leave it entirely to Congress to make provi- 

 sion for it. 



I recurred to some of the remarks in my letters to Mr. 

 Forsyth recommending the establishment of an astronomi- 

 cal observator3\ He said he had found this idea of an 

 observatory favorably received by all to whom he had men- 

 tioned it. He spoke in high commendation of Mr. Rush 

 for his ability in obtaining the money from the court of 

 chancery, and said that he had recommended his appoint- 

 ment. 



Evening visit from Mr. Woodbury, the Secretary of the 

 Treasury. He invited me to dine with him next Saturday, 

 with the President and some of the foreign Ministers. I ac- 

 cepted the invitation. But the dining of the President with 

 the heads of Departments and foreign Ministers is a novelty 

 introduced hy Mr. Van Buren, and of which I believe there 

 is no example by any of his predecessors. 



Mr. Woodbury spoke about the disposal of the funds of 

 the Smithsonian bequest, and gratified me much by the 



