to the confirmation of the senate, a "person of competent learning and skill, to be called the National Astronomer," who was to have charge of the observatory. The bill was never voted upon. The war with England at this time occupied the attention of congress to the exclusion of less pressing matters. Moreover, Lambert, who was diligent in promoting his project, was not in Washington for the larger part of the years 1813 and 1814.
From 1815 to 1824, Lambert pursued his hobby with the assiduity of an enthusiast. Finally his perseverance was rewarded by the passage of a joint resolution of congress on March 3, 1821, directing the president to cause the work of ascertaining the longitude of the Capitol to be undertaken. On April 10, President Monroe ordered Lambert to make the necessary "observations by lunar occultations of fixed stars, solar eclipses, or any other approved method adapted to ascertaining the longitude of the Capitol." In order to have his whole time for his new task, Lambert resigned a clerkship in the War Department. He had, however, no positive assurance that he would be paid for his astronomical work.
Lambert now established a temporary observatory. From the War Department he obtained the loan of some of the instruments which Hassler had procured in Europe for the Coast Survey. Among those that he obtained were a transit instrument, a circle of reflection, an astronomical clock and a chronometer. Rooms for their use and safe-keeping were assigned in the south wing of the Capitol. To be near his work, Lambert moved to the vicinity of the Capitol. He employed William Elliot, then well known in Washington as a teacher of mathematics, as an observer. In order to make accurate transit observations, he established near the Capitol a north-and-south line, by means of concentric circles. Its direction from the transit instrument in the south wing was ascertained with great exactness. The time-pieces were carefully tested and rated.
Lambert made frequent observations during the summer of 1821. From these he deduced new values for the latitude and longitude of the Capitol. On November 8, he made an elaborate report of his work to the president. He also made two supplemental reports, one in March, 1822, and the other in December, 1823. In his report of 1821 he called the attention of the government to the need of a permanent astronomical observatory, in order to ascertain with accuracy the right ascension, declination, latitude and longitude of the moon, planets and stars, and to compute a nautical almanac. The movement of Lambert for a national observatory seems to have come to an end in 1824. The transit instrument may have been occasionally used on Capitol Hill subsequent to this time. John Quincy Adams has the following entry in his diary for November 19, 1825: "Roberdeau,
