The Columbian College received nearly one third of its original endowment from the government of the United States. Of the remainder perhaps one half was contributed by men like President Adams, whose sole interest in it was a patriotic one.

During Jackson's presidency all ideas of centralization, even in scientific matters, appear to have fallen into disfavor, and the Columbian Institute and the Columbian College were forced to abandon their hopes for governmental aid. The Institute languished and dropped out of existence, while the College, under the fostering care of a church organization (which finally dropped it in 1846), and through the beneficence of individuals, one of whom, a citizen of Washington, gave it property to the value of $200,000, has grown to be a university in name and scope, and is included among the thirteen "foundations comprising groups of related faculties, colleges, or schools," enumerated in the report of the Commissioner of Education for 1886-7. Although it has not since 1832 made any claims for government aid, nor assumed to be in any way a ward of the nation, its early history is significant, on account of its connection with the project for a National University, which has been for more than a century before the people. The government has since established in Washington City the National Deaf-Mute College, which it still maintains, and the Howard University, intended primarily for the freedman, but open to all.

The founders of the Columbian Institute and the Columbian University were building better than they knew, for they were not only advancing knowledge in their own day and generation, but they were educating public opinion for a great opportunity, which soon came in the form of a gift to the nation from beyond the sea, in the form of the Smithson bequest.

The story of the Smithsonian Institution is a remarkable one. Smithson was a graduate of the University of Oxford, a Fellow of the Royal Society, a chemist and mineralogist of

well recognized position. The friend and associate of many of the leading scientific men of England, he found it advisable, for reasons connected with his family history, to pass most of his life upon the Continent. A man of ample fortune, he associated with men of similar tastes, and died in 1829, leaving in trust to the United States property now amounting in value to nearly three quarters of a million of dollars, to establish at the national capital “an institution for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." No one has been able to explain why he did this. He had, so far as we know, no friend or correspondent in the United States, and had made known to no one his intention of establishing an institution of learning in the new world.'

It is more than probable, however, that he knew Barlow when American Minister in Paris, and that the Prospectus of the National Institution, or the treatise by Dupont de Nemours, may have attracted his attention. He was aware of the failure of the attempts to obtain national support at the start for scientific uses, and conceived the idea of founding, with his own means, an organization which should, he foresaw, grow into national importance. Any one who will take the pains to compare the criticisms and objections to Barlow's project, as set forth in Wirt's essay in "The Old Bachelor,"* with those which were urged in Congress and the public press in opposition to the acceptance of the Smithson bequest thirty years later, cannot fail to be greatly impressed by the similarity of tone and argument.

The Smithsonian Institution, with its dependencies and affiliations, corresponds perhaps more closely at the present time to Barlow's "National Institution " than any organiza

'The only suggestion which has ever been offered is that by Mr. W. J. Rhees, in his history of "James Smithson and his Bequest," in which he calls attention to the fact that in the library of Smithson was a copy of "Travels through North America," published in 1807, by Isaac Weld, Secretary of the Royal Society, in which he describes the city of Washington, and refers to it prophetically as likely some time to become the intellectual and political centre of one of the greatest nations of the world.

2

* The Old Bachelor, Baltimore: F. Lucas, jun. small 8°, pp. 1-235 page

171.

tion existing elsewhere in the world. The names of its three secretaries-Henry, the physicist (in office from 1846 to 1878); Baird, the naturalist (Assistant Secretary from 1850 to 1878; Secretary, 1878-1887); and Langley, the astronomer, suggest in a few words the main features of its history.

Recurring to Jefferson's Presidency, it should be noted that its most important scientific features were the inception of the system of scientific surveys of the public domain, and the organization of the Coast Survey. The first was most peculiarly Jefferson's own, and was the outcome of more than twenty years of earnest endeavor.

The apathy of the British government in colonial times in the matter of explorations of the American continent is inexplicable. Halley, the philosopher and mathematician, was in charge of a fruitless expedition in 1699; and Ellis, in 1746, explored Hudson's Bay under government auspices, searching for a northwest passage.

The first inland exploring expedition under government auspices seems to have been that of Governor Spotswood, of Virginia, who in 1724, accompanied by a party of young colonists, made an excursion to the summit of the Blue Ridge for the purpose of ascertaining what lay beyond.

Nothing else was done in colonial days, although it would appear that Jefferson, and doubtless others as well as he, had in mind the importance of exploring the great Northwest. In the recently published life of Matthew Fontaine Maury, the story is told of his grandfather, the Rev. James Maury, an Episcopal clergyman and instructor of youth, in Walker Parish, Albemarle County, Virginia, who numbered among his pupils three boys who afterward became Presidents of the United States, and five signers of the Declaration of Independence. He was a quiet thinker—a serene old man who gave the week to contemplative thought and to his school, and Sunday to the service of the sanctuary. In 1756 he was already dazzled by the rising glory of the new country. He was intensely interested in the great Northwest. The Missouri was a myth at that time. Cox

had ascended the Wissisippi to the falls of St. Anthony. and regret the extence of such a stream, but all Beyond wa itrouded in mysay.

saut the api dengan pancing with tremting inger and dage me to the nag sé the Fura American toathens-' see, there must be aar ma far timenet, nomcans are here, and beyond them there mr bean is creant the rat mer on this side of the cham": aut by a procese of reng based on payucal geography, he pointed out to kua guzia Trama rin ang hen, the existence of the Ese of the ma a very n Le Verrar sit the place of Neptune in the firmament, and patient time a grat wigs way to the West would some day be opened in

It would appear that Jefferson never forgot the sugges tion of his venerable teacher. While Minister of the United States in Paris in 1785, he became acquainted with John Ledyard, of Connecticut, a man of genius, of some science, and of fearless courage and enterprise, who had accompanied Captain Cook on his voyage to the Pacific. "I suggested to him," writes Jefferson, "the enterprise of exploring the western part of our continent by passing through St. Petersburg to Kamtschatka, and procuring a passage thence in some of the Russian vessels to Nootka Sound, whence he might make his way across the continent to the United States.' He proceeded to within two hundred miles of Kamtchatka, and was there obliged to take up his winter quarters, and when preparing in the spring to resume his journey, he was arrested by an officer of the Empress of Russia, and carried back in a close carriage to Poland. "Thus," says Jefferson, "failed the first attempt to explore the western part of our northern continent."

In a letter to Bishop Madison, dated Paris, July 19, 1788, Jefferson tells the story of Ledyard's failure, and of his departure on an expedition up the Nile. "He promises me," continues Jefferson, "if he escapes through his journey, he will go to Kentucky, and endeavor to penetrate westerly to the South Sea." Ledyard died in Africa.

"Life of Matthew Fontaine Maury," by Mrs. D. F. M. Corbin, London, 1888, p. 6.

The proposed expedition of Ledyard, though undertaken at the instance of the American Minister in Paris, can scarcely be regarded as a governmental effort. It is of interest, however, as leading up to the second attempt, which also was inspired and placed on foot by Jefferson.

"In 1792," writes Jefferson, "I proposed to the American Philosophical Society, that we should set on foot a subscription to engage some competent person to explore those regions in the opposite direction, that is, by ascending the Missouri, crossing the Stony Mountains, and descending the nearest river to the Pacific.'

"Captain Meriwether Lewis, being then stationed at Charlottesville on the recruiting service, warmly solicited me to obtain for him the execution of that object. I told him that it was proposed that the person engaged should be attended by a single companion only, to avoid exciting alarm among the Indians. This did not deter him; but Mr. André Michaux, a professed botanist, author of the 'Flora Boreali-Americana,' and of the 'Histoire des Chênes de l'Amérique,' offering his services, they were accepted. He received his instructions, and when he had reached Kentucky in the prosecution of his journey, he was overtaken by an order from the Minister of France, then at Philadelphia, to relinquish the expedition, and to pursue elsewhere the botanical inquiries on which he was employed by the government, and thus failed the second attempt to explore that region."'

1 Jefferson does not mention in this connection the well-known fact that he himself became personally responsible for raising the sum of one thousand guineas from private sources, to secure the sending out of this expedition.

'The late Dr. Asa Gray, in a letter written to me shortly before his death, remarks: "I have reason to think that Michaux suggested to Jefferson the expedition which the latter was active in sending over to the Pacific. I wonder if he put off Michaux for the sake of having it in American hands."

I think it is sufficiently evident from what has been written, that the project had been considered by Jefferson long before Michaux came into America. A statement parallel to that of Jefferson is found in the brief biography of Michaux prefixed by Prof. C. S. Sargent to his reprint of the Journal of Andre Michaux, published in the " Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society," vol. xxvi., No. 129, page 4: "The French Government was anxious