Colonel, came at eleven, I walked with him to W. Elliott's on Capitol Hill, where, with a small transit instrument, they observed the passage of the sun over the meridian. Conversation about the erection of an observatory."
The beginning of the movement of John Quincy Adams for a national observatory may be dated with the foregoing entry in his diary. The study of astronomy was for many years a favorite avocation of this illustrious statesman. He often observed and recorded the phenomena of the heavens. He read the works of Newton, Schubert, Lalande, Biot and Lacroix. A report of Adams respecting the establishment of a national observatory has been pronounced by a competent judge "well worthy the perusal of every lover of the exalted science of astronomy, both for the richness of its information and the beauty of its eloquence." In 1823 he offered to give a thousand dollars towards the establishment of an observatory at Harvard University. Writing in 1838, he said that the "observation of the sun, moon and stars has been for a great portion of my life a pleasure of gratified curiosity, of ever-returning wonder, and of reverence for the Creator and mover of these unnumbered worlds." In 1843, notwithstanding his advanced age and the poor accommodations for traveling, he accepted the invitation of the Cincinnati Astronomical Society to lay the corner-stone of their new observatory. His oration on this occasion has been called an "outline of the history of astronomy." Such was his interest in this science, and in its advancement through public means, that the founding of a national observatory became one of the cherished projects of his later life.
In his first annual message to congress, dated December 6, 1825, President Adams recommended the establishment of an astronomical observatory, either as a part of a national university or as a separate institution; and also the providing for the "support of an astronomer, to be in constant attendance of observation upon the phenomena of the heavens, and for the periodical publication of his observations." Respecting the failure of the United States to do its part in the advancing of astronomical science, Adams wrote with his accustomed candor and vigor: "It is with no feeling of pride as an American, that the remark may be made, that, on the comparatively small territorial surface of Europe, there are existing upward of one hundred and thirty of these light-houses of the skies, while throughout the American hemisphere there is not one. If we reflect for a moment upon the discoveries, which in the last four centuries have been made in the physical constitution of the universe by means of these buildings and of observers stationed in them, shall we doubt of their usefulness to every nation? And while scarcely a year passes over our heads without bringing some new astronomical discovery to light, which we must fain receive at
