358 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



is doubtless the result of our free institutions, giving untrammeled 

 scope and powerful motive to the energies of the individual man no 

 longer making the citizen subservient to the power and glory of the 

 Government, but using the latter as a mere instrument to protect the 

 rights and promote the welfare, improvement, and happiness of the 

 former. The olden philosophers considered it a prostitution of the 

 sacred character of science to direct it, in any degree, to the material 

 interests of man. In modern times the sentiment is justly reversed, 

 and that philosophy which does not contribute to the useful pursuits 

 of life is considered of comparatively little value. In this age, and in 

 this country, the new application of philosophy is exhibiting its most 

 glorious results, and giving promise in the future of still more won- 

 derful improvements. Doubtless it was this tendency of our institu- 

 tions, and the effect not obscurely marked out in the amazing energy 

 and inventive power of our people, which induced the wise and benev- 

 olent Smithson to select this Government as the agent for accomplish- 

 ing 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 enlightened spirit into all its departments. We have 

 already seen some such result. Some operations of an important 

 scientific character have of late been undertaken by the direct appli- 

 cation of the national power. 



First in importance among these has been the establishment in this 

 city of the Observatory, connected with the hydrographical depart- 

 ment 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 unimportant con- 

 cern, 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, foundries, and workshops 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 classi- 

 fication is probably founded upon the similarity 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 sep- 

 arate bureau of hydrography, placing the astronomical and bydro- 

 graphical operations of the Government 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 

 efficiently conducted by Lieut. M. F. Maury. 



