John Quincy Adams,the Smithsonian Bequest and the Founding of the U.S. Naval Observatory

Elias Loomis , The recent progress of astronomy; especially in the United States (3rd edn, New York, 1856), 202–92.

On the West Point Observatory see Bartlett William H. C. , “Account of the observatory and instruments of the United States Military Academy at West Point, with observations of the comet of 1843”, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society , n.s., ix (1846), 191–203.

On the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory see Jones B. Z. , Lighthouse of the skies: The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, background and history 1846–1965 (Washington, D.C., 1965), and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Centennial papers in Journal for the history of astronomy , xxi (special issue of February 1990), 107–53.

Dupree Hunter A. , Science in the federal government: A history of policies and activities to 1940 (Cambridge, Mass., 1957), 62.

To place these events in the broader early history of the institution, see Dick Steven J. , “How the U.S. Naval Observatory began, 1830–65”, Sky & telescope , lx (1980), 466–71, reprinted with corrections and notes in Sky with ocean joined: Proceedings of the sesquicentennial symposia of the U.S. Naval Observatory, ed. by Dick Steven J. Leroy Doggett (Washington, 1983), 166–81. Also Nourse J. E. , Memoir of the founding and progress of the U.S. Naval Observatory (Washington, 1873), and Weber Gustavus A. , The Naval Observatory: Its history, activities and organization (Baltimore, 1926).

On Adams's proposals see Flagg Samuel Bemis , John Quincy Adams and the union (New York, 1970), especially chap. 23, “Lighthouses of the skies, 1825–46”; also Jones B. Z. , op. cit. (ref. 3), 8–33. The issue was not hostility toward science or astronomy, but a much broader partisan hatred of Adams stemming from his narrow defeat of Andrew Jackson in the election of 1824.

Paullin Charles O. , “Early movements for a national observatory, 1802–42”, Records of the Columbia Historical Society , xxv (1923), 36–56, and Musto David F. , “A survey of the American observatory movement, 1800–1850”, Vistas in astronomy , ix (1968), 87–92.

The work of the French Depôt during the eighteenth century is discussed briefly in Konvitz Josef W. , Cartography in France 1660–1848: Science, engineering and statecraft (Chicago, 1987), 63–81. Its work during the nineteenth century is discussed in more detail in Winterhalter A. G. , The International Astrophotographic Congress and a visit to certain European observatories and other institutions (Washington, 1889), 108–20, also published as Appendix I to Washington observations for 1885 (Washington, 1891). Goldsborough specifically mentions that his proposal for a Depot was “sustained by the examples and experience of the French, Spanish, and it is believed, British Navies”. The proposal is printed in full in Dick Steven J. , “Louis M. Goldsborough's proposal to establish a Depot of Charts and Instruments in the U.S. Navy: Text and comments”, Rittenhouse: Journal of the American scientific instrument enterprise , iv (1990), 79–86. The Spanish and British counterparts were the Observatorio de la Armada (founded 1753 at Cadiz), and the British Hydrographic Office (1795). The comparative institutional history in different countries of astronomical and hydrographic activity related to navigation is a subject in need of further study.

On Gilliss see Gould B. A. , Biographical notice of James Melville Gilliss (Cambridge, Mass., 1867), reprinted in Biographical memoirs of the National Academy of Science , i (1877), 135–79. For the star catalogue see Gilliss J. M. , Astronomical observations made at the Naval Observatory, Washington, under orders of the Honorable Secretary of the Navy, dated August 13, 1838 (Washington, 1846).

Gilliss J. M. , Report of the Secretary of the Navy, communicating A report of the plan and construction of the Depot of Charts and Instruments, with a description of the instruments , 28th Congress, 2d Session, Senate Document 114, read and referred to the Committee on Naval Affairs, 18 February 1845, 66. Late in his tenure Gilliss was authorized to purchase a sidereal and mean time clock from Parkinson & Frodsham, and a meridian circle from Ertel & Son, additional evidence of the increasing importance the Navy assigned to astronomical observations.

Gilliss to Board of Navy Commissioners (hereafter BONC), 24 September 1841, National Archives of the United States, Record Group 45, Naval Records Collection, Entry 228, argues briefly for “the propriety of erecting a suitable building for the Depot of Charts and Instruments”. BONC to Secretary of the Navy, 30 November 1841, in Report of the Secretary of the Navy , 4 December 1841, 373, endorses the proposal. The Secretary of the Navy's recommendation is in his Report , 367.

Mallory Francis , born on 12 December 1807, was a Congressman from Virginia in the 25th Congress, 26th Congress, and 27th Congress (28 December 1840 to 3 March 1843). His interest in the Gilliss proposal probably derived from his having served as a midshipman in the U.S. Navy from 1822 to 1828. He graduated from medical school at the University of Pennsylvania in 1831, and after practising in Norfolk pursued agricultural interests. He died on 26 March 1860. Biographical directory of the American Congress, 1774–1971 , 1330–1.

Gilliss , op. cit. (ref. 10), 65.

Depot of Charts, &c, report number 449 to accompany bill H. R. 303, 27th Congress, 2d session March 15, 1842. The first draft of this report, in Gilliss's hand, is in RG 45, E 228, 1 March 1842.

Journal of the House of Representatives , 27th Congress, 2d session, 15 March 1842, 542. The Journal indicates that John Quincy Adams was on the House floor at the time.

Gilliss , op. cit. (ref. 10), 65.

Preston Campbell William , born on 27 December 1794, served as Senator from South Carolina from 26 November 1833 to his resignation on 29 November 1842. He studied law at the University of Edinburgh, practised in Virginia and South Carolina, and was president of South Carolina College from 1845 to 1851. He died in 1860, the same year as Congressman Mallory.

Gilliss , op. cit. (ref. 10), 66. Comet Encke has the shortest known period of any comet, 3.3 years. Discovered in 1786 by Pierre Méchain, it is named after J. F. Encke, who first established its periodic nature in 1819. On the 1842 return it reached perihelion on 13 April. Since it was 5.5 magnitude and had no tail, it is not a case of the Senator having been impressed with the sight of the comet, but with the fact that Gilliss had seen it in the nation's capital. I have found no observations published by Gilliss. But Sears Cook Walker and E. O. Kendall observed it in great detail at the Philadelphia High School between 27 March and 11 April, “Observations of Encke's Comet, at the High School Observatory, Philadelphia, March and April, 1842, with the Fraunhofer Equatorial, by Walker Sears C. Kendall Otis E. . Read May 20, 1842”, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society , viii (1843), 311–14. Their results were also reported in three other journals.

U.S. Senate journal , 27th Congress, 2d Session, 23 June 1842, 417.

Wilkes to BONC, 15 June 1842, Wilkes papers, Library of Congress, Box 1, folder 1.

BONC to Gilliss, 22 June 1842 and Gilliss to BONC, 25 June 1842, National Archives, RG 45. Gilliss further describes the house on Pennsylvania Avenue as belonging to the late Hon. John Forsyth. Further evidence indicates it was at 2222–2224 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Gilliss to Wilkes, 2 July 1842; Gilliss to BONC, 12 July 1842. On Maury's orders see Leigh Frances Williams , Matthew Fontaine Maury, scientist of the sea (New Brunswick, 1963), 142–3 and 518.

BONC to Gilliss, 13 July 1842.

U.S. Senate journal , 27th Congress, 2d session, 29 July 1842, 514.

Gilliss , op. cit. (ref. 10), 65.

Gould , op. cit. (ref. 9), 24. House journal, 27th Congress, 2d session, 1194, 1201 and 1475 indicates that on 29 July 1842 the Secretary of the Senate informed the House that S 285 had passed the Senate; on 2 August it was read a first and second time in the House; and on 31 August it was read a third time “and passed in the affirmative”. The bill was approved and signed by President John Tyler on the same day, ibid. , 1478, 1482. See Congressional globe , 27 August 1842, 960, 978 for more details, indicating initial opposition to the bill from Cave Johnson Spring and others. The final law, with the same wording as the House and Senate bills, is found in The public statutes at large of the United States of America (Boston, 1846), v, 572, ch. 277.

Gould , op. cit. (ref. 9), 20, who cites Quincy's Memoir of the life of J. Q. Adams. For more on Adams's proposals for a national observatory see Bemis , op. cit. (ref. 6).

On the origins of the Smithsonian see, for example, Dupree Hunter A. , Science in the federal government (Cambridge, Mass., 1957), chap. 4, “The fulfillment of Smithson's will, 1829–1861”; and Goode G. B. , The Smithsonian Institution, 1846–1896: The history of its first half-century (Washington, D. C., 1897). On the National Institute see Gregory Sally Kohlstedt , “A step toward scientific self-identity in the United States: The failure of the National Institute, 1844”, Isis , lxii (1971), 339–62.

Bemis , op. cit. (ref. 6), 505.

Ibid. , 511. Poinsett was thus a constituent of Senator Preston.

Rhees William J. , The Smithsonian Institution: Documents relative to its origin and history (Washington, D.C., 1879), 26th Congress, 1830–41, “Proceedings in the Senate”, 238–42. The bills were introduced on 17 February 1841.

Ibid. , 27th Congress, 1841–43, “Proceedings in the Senate”, 247. The bill (S 224) was introduced on 11 April 1842, and was identical to the bill (S 259) of 1841.

Ibid. , 27th Congress, 1841–43, “Proceedings in the House of Representatives”, 249–60. The bill (HR 386) was introduced on 12 April 1842 and specified “That the sum of thirty thousand dollars, part of the accruing interest on the same Smithsonian fund, be, and the same is hereby, appropriated towards the erection and establishment, at the city of Washington, of an astronomical observatory, adapted to the most effective and continual observations of the phenomena of the heavens; to be provided with the necessary, best, and most perfect instruments and books, for the periodical publication of the said observations, and for the annual composition and publication of a nautical almanac”.

Gilliss , op. cit. (ref. 10), 2.

The names of those whom Gilliss consulted make an interesting commentary on the state of astronomy in America at the time. In Washington, he met with Hassler F. R. , in his last years as Superintendent of the Coast Survey, and a veteran of astronomical observation for survey purposes. In Philadelphia Gilliss visited Bache A. D. , who in this year had resumed a professorship at the University of Pennsylvania after working on the reorganization of public schools in Philadelphia, and was on his way to succeeding Hassler in 1843. In Philadelphia he also found Sears Cook Walker, head of the Philadelphia High School Observatory, and Patterson R. M. , Director of the U.S. Mint, a founder of the Franklin Institute and active member of the American Philosophical Society. In New York he visited at West Point Military Academy Bartlett W. H. C. , Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy, who had made a trip to European observatories in 1840 to consult about plans for the West Point Observatory. In some ways this observatory could be seen as the Army analogue to the proposed Naval Observatory, and Gilliss undoubtedly listened with special interest to Bartlett , who may also have helped Plan Gilliss for his own trip to Europe. In Boston Gilliss found Bond William C. , Director of the Harvard College Observatory since 1839, and his 17-year-old son Bond Phillips George , a future Director of that Observatory. Here also was Paine R. T. , who prepared the astronomical contents for the American Almanac, and was the Chief Engineer for the trigonometric survey of Massachusetts, a task that included much astronomical work.

In travelling abroad to purchase his instruments, Gilliss was following in the footsteps of Elias Loomis William Bartlett Mitchel O. M. , who went to Europe in 1837, 1840 and 1842, respectively, to purchase instruments for the Hudson, West Point and Cincinnati Observatories. Like the Philadelphia High School Observatory (which had ordered its instruments from Europe without sending a representative abroad), Gilliss made most of his purchases from the Munich firms of Merz & Mahler, and Ertel & Son. Gilliss's diary from this trip is still extant.

Gilliss , op. cit. (ref. 10), 66.

On Maury's appointment see Williams , op. cit. (ref. 22).

Rhees , op. cit. (ref. 31), 28th Congress , 1843–45, “Proceedings in the House of Representatives”, 293–302. The bill (HR 418) was introduced on 7 June 1844, and is found in full on pp. 299–301.

Astronomical Observations made under the direction of M. F. Maury … during the year 1845 at the U.S. Naval Observatory, Washington (Washington, D.C., 1846). Maury's staff is discussed in Marc Rothenberg , “Observers and theoreticians: Astronomy at the Naval Observatory, 1845–1861”, in Dick Doggett (eds), op. cit. (ref. 5), 29–43. See also Marc Rothenberg , “The educational and intellectual background of American astronomers, 1825–1875” (Ph.D. dissertation, Bryn Mawr College, 1974).

Howe DeWolfe M. A. , The life and letters of George Bancroft (Port Washington, N.Y.), 277–8.

Rhees , op. cit. (ref. 31), 29th Congress, 1845–47, “Proceedings in the House of Representatives”, 442–3. The bill establishing the Smithsonian Institution passed the Senate on 10 August 1846.

Quincy John Adams , “An oration delivered before the Cincinnati Astronomical Society on the occasion of laying the corner stone of an astronomical observatory on the 10th of November, 1843” (Cincinnati, 1843), reprinted in Aspects of astronomy in America in the nineteenth century , ed. by Cohen Bernard I. (New York, 1980).

On the relation of the National Institute to the AAAS, and the founding of the latter, see Gregory Sally Kohlstedt , The formation of the American scientific community: The American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1848–1860 (Urbana, 1976), especially pp. 87–88.