During his long term of "service" in Congress few things interested Mr. Adams more than the proper disposition of the Smithsonian fund. James Smithson, of London, England, had bequeathed several hundred thousand dollars to the Government of the United States for the purpose of founding at Washington City an institution for the increase and spread of knowledge among men. About the close of 1835, President Jackson laid the matter before Congress, where a question at once arose as to the propriety and power of Congress to receive such a bequest. The message of the President referring to the subject was placed in charge of a committee, of which Mr. Adams was appointed chairman. In January, 1836, Mr. Adams made a report strongly favoring the acceptance of the bequest, and declaring the power of Congress to do so.

In accordance with the views of the report a bill was passed in both Houses authorizing the President to prosecute the rights of the United States to the bequest in the Chancery Court of England. In the summer of 1838, it was announced in this country that Mr. Rush had been successful, and had already received over half a million of dollars from the Smithson bequest. Mr. Adams at once visited the President. and put his views before him. He suggested to him the establishment of an Astronomical Observatory, with a salary for an astronomer and assistant, for nightly observations and periodical publications; annual courses of lectures upon natural, moral, and political sciences; with no jobbing, no sinecure, no monkish stalls for lazy idlers. And told him how he lamented his inability to tell him what heart solicitude he had on the

whole subject. Mr. Adams wrote of this interview: "Mr. Van Buren received all this with complacency and apparent concurrence of opinion, seemed favorably disposed to my views, and willing to do right, and asked me to name any person whom I thought might be usefully consulted.'

Mr. Van Buren subsequently requested his written opinion as to the Smithsonian Institute, which he gave at considerable length; but soon seeing that the President little heeded his recommendations, he vented to his feelings in these bitter words :

"The subject weighs deeply upon my mind. The private interests and sordid passions into which that fund has already fallen fill me with anxiety and apprehensions that it will be squandered upon cormorants, or wasted in electioneering bribery. Almost all the heads of Department are indifferent to its application according to the testator's bequest; distinguished Senators open or disguised enemies to the establishment of the institution in any form. The utter prostration of public spirit in the Senate, proved by the selfish project to apply it to the establishment of a university; the investment of the whole fund, more than half a million of dollars, in Arkansas and Michigan State stocks; the mean trick of filching ten thousand dollars, last winter, to pay for the charges of procuring it, are all so utterly discouraging that I despair of effecting anything for the honor of the country, or even to accomplish the purpose of the bequest, the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men. It is hard to toil through life for a great purpose, with a conviction that it will be in vain; but possibly seed now sown may bring forth some good fruits. In my report, in January, 1836, I laid down all the general principles on which the fund should have been accepted and administered. I was then wholly successful. My bill passed without opposition, and under its provisions the money was procured and deposited in the treasury in gold. If I can not prevent the disgrace of the country by the failure of the testator's intention, I can leave a record to future times of what I have done, and what I would have done, to accomplish the great design, if executed well."

Somewhat over half a million of dollars, the whole amount of Mr. Smithson's bequest, had been deposited in gold in the treasury, but greatly to the chagrin of Mr. Adams this fund was invested in bonds of the States of Arkansas, Illinois, and Michigan, and as he believed for political effect. As chairman of the select committee on the Smithson fund, Mr. Adams made another report early in March, 1840, in which he strongly opposed the plan of establishing a school or university or appropriating any of the magnificent bequest to any of the ordinary purposes of education. He did not believe that the education of youth had for its object the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men, as meant by the testator; and every step towards appropriating the money to such objects he unceasingly resisted. At this time the Senate invited a conference on the subject, and the House designated Mr. Adams and the other members of his select committee. But the Senate was taken up with the scheme for a school, and the conference was of no consequence in settling the important question.

In 1842 and 1844, Mr. Adams as chairman of the House special committee on the bequest made two more elaborate reports accompanied by bills providing for the execution of the will of Mr. Smithson. The States holding the money had, neglected to pay the interest, and the last bill drawn up by Mr. Adams provided that Congress should assume the principal and interest as a loan to the Government at six per cent, payable half-yearly, and that this interest only should ever be used in carrying out the purposes of the benevolent Englishman. Still Mr. Adams's National Observatory project was in the way, and

nothing was done until the summer of 1846. In August of that year the President signed a bill for which Mr. Adams had voted, and which, to a great extent, was in harmony with the plan he had labored so long and hard to put into operation.

Mr. Adams's heart was in this grand purpose of James Smithson to benefit his race. He had always desired the establishment of a national observatory, and during his Presidency had made such steps in that direction as he could; and now in this splendid gift to the country he hoped to see the accomplishment of his long-cherished wish. He deemed it an extraordinary mark of confidence in the ability and honor of the American Government, as well as faith in its permanency and peculiar and superior fitness for diffusing the blessings of knowledge among men, that the generous citizen of a proud monarchy had chosen it to carry out a noble purpose. He thought Congress owed it to its own honor, to that of the testator, and to the honor of the millions of intelligent people it represented, to be able to put the bequest in a way to become an actual source of light and knowledge to the world in all time to come. Whether Mr. Adams's hope or the purpose of James Smithson has been realized is not, perhaps, clear to many of the people of this country. The Smithsonian Institute is one of the "sights" of the Capital City, but as to its being a great diffuser of knowledge among men there may arise a question. Whether the bequeather, or the untiring advocate of. applying the bequest to permanent noble purposes could now look with approval on the work is equally a matter of uncertainty. However all this may be, Mr. Adams's

long struggle in behalf of the right use of the fund, must forever place his name at the head of the zealous advocates, champions indeed, of astronomical science on this Continent. The National Observatory owes its existence to him; and in truth, to what other source is the early history of other observatories and astronomy itself in this country so much indebted, as to the wide and universal genius of John Quincy Adams?

Soon after Mr. Adams's return to Quincy in July, 1836, the authorities of Boston invited him to deliver an address on the life and character of James Madison, a task which he undertook. This was no easy matter for Mr. Adams, as he had in many respects disagreed with President Madison. While he believed his course a great improvement on that of Mr. Jefferson, he considered all his acts in reference to the "Alien and Sedition Laws" erroneous. Mr. Adams was never able to entertain a favorable opinion either of the views or character of Thomas Jefferson, and had he been called to deliver a eulogy on him, would have declined. He said of Mr. Jefferson: "His success through a long life, and especially from his entrance upon the office of Secretary of State under Washington until he reached the President's Chair, seems to my imperfect vision, a slur upon the moral government of the world."

At the Federal Street Theater, Boston, September 27, 1836, Mr. Adams, delivered his eulogy. on James Madison. It was printed in pamphlet form and had a wide circulation at the time. This effort was a severe test of Mr. Adams's strength to speak in public at set periods, and he thought so reminded him of