d glory; and leave to us the pleasant
employment of commenting upon their motives, of devising means to
shelter the African slaver from their search, and of squandering
millions to support, on a pestilential coast, a squadron of the
stripes and stars, with instructions sooner to scuttle their ships
than to molest the pirate slaver who shall make his flagstaff the
herald of a lie!"

In July, 1843, the Cincinnati Astronomical Society earnestly solicited
Mr. Adams to lay the corner-stone of their Observatory. No invitation
could have been more coincident with the prevailing interest of his
heart, and he immediately accepted it, notwithstanding his advanced age,
and the great distance which the performance of the duty required him to
travel. Some of his constituents having questioned the propriety of this
acceptance, and expressed doubts whether the duties it imposed were
compatible with his other public obligations, Mr. Adams, in an address
to them, at Dedham, on the 4th of July, took occasion to state that the
encouragement of the arts and sciences, and of all good literature, is
expressly enjoined by the constitution of Massachusetts. The patronage
and encouragement of them is therefore one of the most sacred duties of
the people of that state, and enjoined upon them and their children as a
part of their duty to God. "The voices of your forefathers, founders of
your social compact, calling from their graves, command you to this
duty; and I deem it, as your representative, a tacit and standing
instruction from you to perform, as far as may be my ability, that part
of your constitutional duty for you. It is in this sense that, in
accepting the earnest invitation from a respectable and learned society,
in a far distant state and city of the Union, to unite with them in the
act of erecting an edifice for the observation of the heavens, and
thereby encouraging the science of astronomy, I am fulfilling an
obligation of duty to you, and in your service." The nature of this duty
he thus illustrates:

"From the Ptolemies of Egypt and Alexander of Macedon, from Julius
Caesar to the Arabian Caliphs Haroun al Raschid, Almamon, and
Almansor, from Alphonso of Castile to Nicholas, the present Emperor
of all the Russias,--who, at the expense of one million of rubles,
has erected at Pulkova the most perfect and best-appointed
observatory in the world,--royal and imperial power has never be