THE BEGINNINGS OF AMERICAN ASTEONOMY. 



By Edward S. Holden. 



It is impossible, even in tlie briefest sketch, not to emphasize the 

 debt of American science and learning- to the intelligent interest and 

 patronage of our early Presidents — Washington, John Adams, Jeffer- 

 son, Madison, Monroe, John Quincy Adams. The powerful impetus 

 given by them and through them has shaped the liberal policy of our 

 governments, National and State, toward education and toward science. 

 Sir Lyon Playfair, in his address to the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science (1885) has recognized this influence in the 

 truest and most graceful way. He said: "In the United Kingdoui we 

 are just beginning to understand the wisdom of Washington's Farewell 

 Address to his countrymen (1796) when he said: 'Promote then, as an 

 object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion 

 of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives 

 force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be 

 enlightened.' " 



Until the Eevolution (1776) American science was but English science 

 transplanted, and it looked to the Eoyal Society of London as its cen- 

 sor and patron. Winthrop, Franklin, and Eittenhouse were, more or 

 less, English astronomers. Franklin was the sturdiest American of 

 the three. As early as 1743 he suggested the formation of the Ameri- 

 can Philosophical Society of Philadelphia. John Adams founded the 

 American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Boston in 1780. These 

 two societies, together with Harvard College (founded in 1636), Yale 

 College (1701), the University of Virginia (founded by Jefferson in 

 1825), and the United States Military Academy at West Point (1801), 

 were the chief foci from which the light of learning spread. Other 

 colleges were formed or forming all over the Eastern and Middle States 

 during the early years of the century. 



The leading school of pure science was the Military Academy at 

 West Point, and it continued to hold this place until the civil war of 

 1861. From its corps of professors and students it gave two chiefs to 

 the United States Coast Survey; and the Army, particularly the Corps 

 of Engineers, provided many observers to that scientific establishment, 



1 Printed in Science, June 18, 1897. 



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