56 The Smithsonian Institution 



Rufus Choate, of Massachusetts, and George P. Marsh, of 

 Vermont, were instrumental in giving prominence to the 

 library project, upon which so much of the fund was expended 

 during the first few years — a feature which, though at the 

 time almost perilous, undoubtedly had great effect not only 

 upon the development of the National Library, but of the re- 

 lationship of the Smithsonian Institution to other institutions 

 of learning at home and abroad. To Mr. Choate and to 

 Benjamin Tappan was due in large degree the defeat of the 

 aspirations of the National Institute toward the control of 

 the Smithsonian fund, and to Senator Asher Robbins, of 

 Rhode Island, the defeat of Mr. Adams's plan for an obser- 

 vatory, to which at the time he opposed, with considerable 

 prospect of success, a counter-project for a great postgraduate 

 university. 



Richard Rush, of Pennsylvania, not only rendered material 

 service in securing the legacy, but was the first to propose 

 a staff of scholarly investigators resident in the national 

 capital, who, by their researches, publications, and lectures, 

 should aid in keeping the United States in touch with the 

 scientific progress of the rest of the world ; and a press for 

 publishing the communications of learned societies and of 

 individuals eminent in science and letters in every part of 

 the world. Most significant, however, was his conception 

 of a permanent national organization, under the wing of the 

 government and indirectly under its control, which should be 

 a center of intellectual activity, and not only maintain its own 

 staff of learned men, but cooperate with and stimulate the 

 scientific and educational work of the government — a plan, as 

 has already been indicated, quite in contrast with that in the 

 mind of Mr. Adams. 



Robert Dale Owen, of Indiana, was the first to bring into 

 harmonious and generally acceptable form the various plans 



