282 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1891. 



l);ut ill the discussion that the iiitcntiou of the testator was the estab 

 lisliiiig' of a university. 



In this direction, too, was the tendency of the advice of those "per- 

 sons versed in Kcienee and in matters iehitiuj>' to public education," to 

 whom in July, 1838, the Secretary of State addressed letters, asking 

 advice as to the most advantageous mode of apjjlying the proceeds of 

 the bequest.* 



Of these, three favored a school of high grade. President Wayland, 

 an institution which should occupy " the space between the close of a 

 collegiate education aiul a professional school; Di. ( hooper, '< an insti- 

 tution of the character of a university;" President Chai)iu, "an insti- 

 tution for liberal and professional purposes and for the promotion of 

 original investigations — to carry through a range of studies much 

 above those of tlie ordinary collegiate couise." 



Horatio Hubbell, of Philadelphia, also in a letter to President Van 

 Buren urged a university on the German ])lan,with numerous i)rofessor- 

 shii)s, chietiy scientific, and l*rof. Dungieson, of the University of Vir- 

 ginia, in two very favorable letters in the " Southern Literary Messen- 

 ger" (under the signature "J," Vol. V, 1838, p. 828, Vol. vi, 1840, p. 25)^ 

 proposed the foundation of "a central school of natural science," to be 

 supplemented in time by a botanical garden, an observatory, a zoolog- 

 ical institute, or anah)gous means (including, doubtless, in his mind, 

 museum collections), for i)rosecnting in a proper way tlie great sciences 

 of astronomy and general physiology — " a school where natural philos- 

 ophy, chemistry, geology, mineralogy, i)hilosophy, and all other sciences 

 (iould effectually be taught — a school which, so far from clashing Avitli 

 others, would aid them — which, although it migiit be helped by a gift 

 of funds from the nation, could nevertheless go into operation without 

 them — which under a wise management could be speedily brought to 

 yield results of the utmost practical importance, and fulfill to the very 

 letter the wishes of the testator." t 



Mr. Rush objected to a school of any kind, and proposed a plan which 

 more nearly than any other of the early ones corresponded with that 

 which was finally adopted. In a sliadowy way he outlined a system of 

 scientific correspondence, of lectureships, of general cooperation with 

 the scientific ettbrts of the Grovernment, of a liberal system of ])ublica- 

 tion, and even of collections of geological, zoological, botanical, ethno- 

 logical, and economical objects. 



The fifth response was from the venerable Senator and ex-President, 

 Jolin (^uiucy Adams, who, from 1835, when he was appointed chairman 



'"These are the names of the persons thus addressed: 



The Hon. John Quiuoy Adams, Senator and ex-President; Thomas Cooper, m. n., 

 Cohimbia, S. C; Hon. Richard Rush, Sydenham, near Phihidelphia, Pa.; Prof. 

 Francis Wayland, President of Brown University, Providence, R. I.; Hon. Albert 

 Gallatin, Rev. Stephen Olin, Phelau Lindsley, and others. 



t Southern Literary Messenger, I. c, and also Khees, "Documents," etc., pp. 864-890. 



