860 PROPOSED APPLICATIONS OF SMITHSON'S BEQUEST. 



meridian may be established, not only for our own country, 

 but for the western continent. To this all our national sur- 

 veys, our charts, &c., may be referred. Astronomical 

 observations might be made, for which our position and 

 climate offer peculiar advantages. There is now no observ- 

 atory worth naming in this part of the world. Let, then, 

 the American Government now build one, and it will not 

 only be an honor to the nation, but it will be a powerful 

 reason for giving permanency to the present seat of Gov- 

 ernment. 



It may not be thought best to employ any artificial means 

 for stimulants to rivalship, and to seek for literary honors. 

 Congress will always have the right of visitation, and they 

 can, if they please, direct the committee whom they may 

 appoint to attend the stated examinations of the various 

 classes, to award medals, or some other mark of distinction, 

 to those scholars who shall give the best proof of profi- 

 ciency, or the ablest essays on appointed subjects. But it 

 should be remembered that the community at large consti- 

 tute, in fact, the most efiicient board of overseers, and that 

 that institution will be the most honored and frequented, 

 which sends forth the best prepared and the most faithful 

 agents to meet the wants of their country. 



I have the honor, sir, to be yours, with sentiments of 

 great respect and esteem, 



S. Chapin. 



To MaPvTin Van Buren, 



President of the United States. 



Letter from Horatio Hubbdl. 



Philadelphia, September 20, 1838. 

 To the President of the United States : 



Dear Sir : I had the honor sometime past to address you 

 a letter upon the subject of a volunteer navy, which subject 

 I shall, at some future day, resume, and show how it can be 

 eftected by means of a steam navy, (if no other way,) which 

 will supercede among civilized nations, every other, in the 

 course of the next thirty years. I now, however, address 

 you upon a subject of more importance than a navy — I mean 

 upon the subject of education — as that subject arises out of 

 a consideration of the Smithsonian legacy, as it is called. 

 As to that legacy, the first thing that I beg of you, sir, is to 

 guard it sacredly from those cormorants w^ho stand ready 



