Reply to the "Statement of the trustees" of the Dudley Observatory

Preface

The length of the present Reply may, in many cases, prevent those from reading it, who have read the attack to which it is an answer. Yet it has been impossible to unite brevity with a complete refutation of the diverse calumnies that have been heaped upon me with such ingenious method and adroit complication. The time which has elapsed during its preparation has occasioned deep regret ; but it is no matter of surprise to those who are aware that my regular duties have gone forward meanwhile, and, until the present month, without interruption.

The manuscript of this book was nearly complete, and a considerable portion of it was in type, when, on the 3d of January, I was driven from my dwelling by a hired band of rioters, acting without form or pretence of law, — a mere brute force, which left me no other choice than a passive endurance of the high-handed outrage, or an employment of similar agencies for protection in my position. The confusion into which my papers, books and affairs were thrown, the many and serious domestic and personal embarrassments connected with this sudden expulsion in the midst of an inclement season, and the many means of annoyance since devised and attempted by Mr. Olcott, have combined to delay the volume about a month, and have entailed the necessity of re-writing some portions of it.

No other apology for its lateness will be deemed necessary when I have mentioned that during the whole period, — from my removal to the Observatory in February, 1858, until my forcible expulsion by Mr. Olcott's marauding party during the present month, — the independent official work upon which my subsistence depends was regularly prosecuted, although more than enough to consume all the working hours of a man who consults the laws of health ; that the Astronomical Journal, under my charge, has been kept up, though unfortunatety at greater intervals between the successive numbers than would have been the case had my means and strength been otherwise unimpaired; that I have maintained all the duties entailed by an extensive and laborious correspondence at home and abroad; that the Observatory work, of itself enough to exhaust one's own energies, has been industriously and conscientiously prosecuted, and performed, too, amid constant interruptions from the necessity of acting, personally or by

IV PREFACE.

deputy, as exhibitor of the establishment during the whole period, — this service demanding for many months the whole time of one person during the hours of daylight. To all this I must add that, openly since May 22, and covertly prior to that time, no effort of Messrs. Olcott and Armsby has been spared to annoy and persecute me ; — the public press teeming with calumnies and invective, instigated by them, leveled not only at me, but at every man who has had the spirit or the justice to take ground publicly in my defence, and accompanied by the ceaseless endeavor to excite obloquy and popular odium against every public work in the guidance of which any of my supporters have any part. It has been in the midst of the ceaseless labors, the physical exhaustion, and the unparalleled annoyances here indicated, that this Reply has been prf » ]i 1.

Let no man say this is a private and personal quarrel ; lat the

matter is one with which he has no concern. If I am " crushed" in this controversy, it will be because I am not heard in my own defence. If I am crushed, then any man in the community may to-morrow be overwhelmed and borne down by a similar torrent of falsehood and undeserved obloquy. Hodie mihi, eras tibi. This "quarrel," fastened upon me, concerns every good man, every man who has a character to lose. It will be seen to concern the intellectual progress of our country ; to concern every scientific establishment in the land.

I know not what may be the next movement of my malignant and untiring persecutors. Since I was driven from the Observatory, they have not hesitated to publish and circulate the false charge that the buildings were found in a state of disorder, and the costly instrument exposed to the weather and already seriously damaged. They have actually commenced a legal prosecution upon the false pretence that the property of the institution had suffered damage while in my keeping ; an accusation which I am fortunately able to prove as totally and maliciously false as any one of those related in the present volume. New engines of calumny and torture will doubtless be found by my assailants. But I think myself entitled, after the full expositions of these pages, to call upon my fellow-citizens for protection against new assaults, of the savage nature of those to which I have already been subjected. God knows I have borne enough at the hands of these wicked men, whose characters will be sufficiently evident from the following pages. By issuing their so-called * Statement ' in unprecedented numbers, and by giving it a circulation almost unequaled in extent, their command of money has enabled them to imprint their slanders and misrepresentations on the very history of the times. It is of course impossible for me to publish this, my defence, in such an edition, or to disseminate it over such a field. But I can and will place it upon record, that my Accusers may stand exposed in their true colors to all who read it in this and future years, and that all their calumnies, now and hereafter, may meet with never-failing disbelief.

PREFACE. V

My only object in life is, and has been, to serve my country and the world, by devoting whatever abilities my Maker has given me, to the study and pursuance of one of the noblest subjects of human research. With a character heretofore unimpeached, and a course of conduct which shrinks from no investigation, I solemnly claim, upon every principle of justice and humanity, that, should I disregard future slanders, my silence shall not be misconstrued ; and that my life shall not hereafter be spent in the wretched labor of defending myself against new attacks of these men, who, without one excuse for their malice, are determined upon my ruin, and who insist upon making the public a party to the sacrifice.

BENJ. APTHORP GOULD, Jr.

Albany, 1859, January 27.

Contents

.PART I. GENERAL REPLY.

I. Preliminary, 1

II. Mr. Olcott and his coadjutors in these attacks, 9

Appendix

A. First Letter of the Scientific Council, 1856, Aug. 8, .... 351

B. Mrs. Dudley's letter, read at the Inauguration, 351

C. Mrs. Dudley's letter to the Council, 1858, June 9, . . . . 352

D. Reply of the Council to Mrs. Dudley, 352

E. Reply of the Majority to the charge of garbling, 354

F. Letter from Mr. Gavit, 1858, Oct. 2, 354

G. Letter from Mr. Spencer, 1858, Nov. 2 355

H. Address to Donors and Friends of the Observatory, 1859, Jan. 5, 357

Chapter I. Preliminary

Throughout the series of violent and almost unparalleled attacks of which I have for several months been the object, and in the course of which my moral, intellectual and social character have been assailed with a bitterness and persistence such as are rarely seen, it has been my endeavor to preserve a becoming silence, until a period should arrive when no man of spirit could doubt that it was my duty to present my own story to the public. In the mean time taste, judgement, and inclination have alike prompted me to remain silent. Priceless as his good name is to one who neither has nor seeks other posses . sions, I could not enter the lists to rebut such charges, and coming from such accusers, as those published by Mr. Olcott in July. The event proved this faith and this judgement to have been correct, — and the very enormity of the attack tended to render it harmless. The quick sympathy of my colleagues, Professors Henry, Bache and Peirce was aroused ; and— though their sense of duty led them to investigate the charges against me with the fearless impartiality, which I courted, — the simple examination of the case excited their indignation to such an extent that the fulfilment of their duties as judges rendered them at once champions and defenders. The citizens of Albany, in a crowded public meeting, expressed their sympathy, their confidence, and their regard, in words and resolves, the memory of which has sustained and supported me, and for which I may not attempt to speak my gratitude.

Strange as it may seem, the reaction was greater than the action, and I soon became conscious that the assault had but added to the number of my friends and supporters.

Seven weeks later, on the 21st day of August, appeared a pamphlet entitled, " The Dudley Observatory and the Scientific

Council — Statement of the Trustees." It is a book of 173 pages, — mostly drawn up, and entirely revised and prepared for the press, by the cunning hand of a sharp lawyer. It is a laborious effort to take from me all that an honest man most values on earth, all that renders life worth possessing, all that might keep my memory fragrant when I live no longer.

Though springing from the same source as the first attack its character is totally different. It bears to it the same relation that the stiletto bears to the bludgeon. It is a skilfully fashioned weapon, wrought with cunning art, to accomplish by ingenious legerdemain what could not be attained by manly prowess. Had it been prepared by an unscrupulous trickster, ready to sacrifice not only another's good name, but even his own, for gain, its character would not have been very different from what it is. It was not written by the man who penned the first attack, but by his agent. What his pen could not prepare, his purse has procured ; — namely, an impeachment of my character and course, capable of finding credence with honest, sincere men.

The language which I have used is strong; but could the naked truth be placed, in all its simplicity, before those who have read this savage attack, I believe that no power on earth could restrain the storm of indignation which it would arouse. Only after the lapse of an entire month did the atrocity of its policy dawn upon me. Its strength is in its boldness and enormity. What reasonable man will believe, amid such an avalanche of accusations, that all of them are destitute of truth ? The very fact of a denial of all would operate to the disadvantage of the defendant. Among such a multitude of missiles, some at least must take effect. And what reasonable man would suppose for an instant that nine apparently responsible persons could be found, who would venture publicly to bring or sanction such grave and flagrant charges, when each and every charge was not merely false, but susceptible of full and entire refutation. Against this difficulty it is my lot to contend ; and in addition to all these, there is yet another obstacle, perhaps a greater one, — that few will be found, the constitution of whose mind permits them readily to believe that an attack of such violence, whether warranted or not, has not been incurred by some serious mis-step ; or, in short, that a con. test can exist, for which the aggressor has not some provocation-

The " Statement of- the Trustees 11 has placed me in the position of defendant in such a case as I have described. And in order that the destruction of my character may be complete, and the impeachment penetrate to recesses where no vindication could reach ; the huge edition of twenty-five thousand copies has been printed and distributed throughout the land. All the lists of editors, of bankers, of collegiate and academic professors, of clergymen, of physicians,, of literary and scientific societies, have been conned over for addresses, to which copies of this book might be sent. And — that all reply or vindication by friends, or honest men acquainted with the truth, may so far as possible be cut off, — a simultaneous attack is organized upon the friends who defended me before ; and writers are employed to traduce and to denounce through the public press those gentlemen who have honored and comforted me with their approbation, and with public expression of their sympathy.

In now breaking through the long-continued silence which I have preserved hitherto, my purpose is two-fold : first, to present as concisely as possible, an account of my connection with the Dudley Observatory, and of the quarrel fastened upon me by Mr. Olcott; and secondly, to reply to the "Statement" of the Nine Trustees, both in general and in detail. In this latter process, it will of course be necessary for me to confute the trivial as well as the serious allegations of my accusers, and thus to expend time, strength and space upon the discussion of matters entirely foreign to the main points, and which seem indeed to have been introduced only for the purpose of complication and confusion. But the disadvantages, which would arise from leaving a single charge or imputation unexamined, appear likely to be under the circumstances so much greater than those which will spring from giving time and place to comparatively unimportant, or even absurdly insignificant matters, that there seems little room for hesitation.

My connection with the Dudley Observatory began on the 3d day of September, 1855, on which day, the Board of Trustees elected, or professed to elect, a " Scientific Council," consisting of Professors Henry, Bache, Peirce and myself.

My relations as a member of the Scientific Council were declared severed on the 26th June, 1858, by a resolution which was passed by a majority of nine to four, two of the Trustees being absent from the meeting. But the majority have never, in terms, repealed the vote ratifying the compact by which the Observatory was placed in my charge.

A conditional promise of Prof. Bache, to aid incidentally through the loan of an instrument, and through an observer from the Coast Survey, and promises by Prof. Peirce and myself, to aid with our best efforts and counsel, preceded our official connection with the Observatory by about ten days.

In the same month, September, 1855, I embarked for Europe in behalf of the Observatory, returning Dec. 30, and since that time have rendered such gratuitous personal aid to the institution as my abilities and attainments permitted, the whole being, up to June, 1858, at the request, and with the express approval of Mr. Olcott. During this entire period, I have never, directly or indirectly, received or asked any remuneration for my services, all of which were cheerfully given without recompense, direct or indirect. During the first two and a third years I estimate the time devoted to the Observatory as averaging about three and a half hours daily. During the last ten months the time given has averaged about six and a half hours. Not even my traveling expenses have been refunded, except a portion of those incurred during my voyage to Europe. The amount of actual money outlays incurred by me in behalf of the Observatory is between five and six thousand dollars.

The work done by me prior to January, 1858, consisted in planning and procuring instruments, abroad aad at home ; in obtaining books for the library ; in devising plans by which the building might be adapted for their use, the apparatus and instruments erected, the rooms equipped, and the like. Also in giving constant advice to Messrs. Olcott and Armsby, and directions to a subordinate delegated for the purpose of residing at or near the Observatory, and of preventing, as far as possible, any mistakes or blunders in the work proposed.

Prior to December, 1857, I know of no complaint against me by any one connected with the institution ; and I am aware of no open and responsible charge previous to May 22d, 1858. But I had for a long time had cause for complaint against one Trustee. Dr. Armsby, whose constant interference with my plans, and whose foolish and lavish expenditure of money had occasioned me much annoyance and anxiety ; and had led to earnest, though friendly appeals on my part, in behalf of the interests of the Observatory.

It was, of course, my desire to make these appeals, — or protests, as they might in fact be called, — with as much delicacy as was possible; for, apart from the fact that questions of finance were entirely out of my province, the constant zeal of Dr. Armsby and his apparent disinterestedness had been such as to entitle him to the highest consideration. It is true that my judgement was greatly at fault in the estimate of his character; that his meddlesomeness was mistaken for disinterestedness, and his love of apparent importance mistaken for devotion to a noble cause. But men of more knowledge of the world than I possess would not improbably have fallen into the same error.

Only one cause of dissatisfaction existed, to my knowledge, in the mind of any Trustee previous to the year 1858 ; and this was, that while Mr. Olcott had insisted upon my appointing Dr. Peters as my assistant, I had declined to do this, after his conduct had put my association with him entirely out of the question.

Upon a proposition of Mr. Olcott, made on the 19th of December, 1857, a formal compact was made between the Trustees and the Scientific Council. By this compact the Council were confirmed in their position ; and in addition to this I was installed in charge of the Observatory, subject only to the Scientific Council. The Council, on their part, undertook to carry on the operations of the Observatory without making any demands upon the funds of the institution for the personal services of the Director and his assistants, until Mrs. Dudley's endowment of $50,000 should be restored, which it was stated had been encroached upon to such an extent that two years' interest might be ^required to make the principal good.

Thus I became Director. On the 9th of February I presented myself to assume personal occupation, but the premises not being ready, I delayed the removal of my residence from , Cambridge to Albany, until Feb. 20, at the instance of Mr. Olcott.

On the 2d of March, a meeting of Trustees was held, at which Mr. Olcott was elected President, and an Executive Committee consisting of nine, and from which those Trustees were excluded, who it was thought could not be relied on to support Mr. Olcott, was appointed and clothed with full power.

On the 4th of June, 1858, Mr. Olcott obtained from the Trustees a resolution declaring that a " Want of Harmony" existed between me and " the members of the Board." The phraseology employed and the circumstances of the case refer this "want of harmony" (as will be hereafter shown), not to my relations with the Board, or with all its members ; but at least in its origin, with certain members, namely : Dr. James H. Armsby, Mr. John N. Wilder and Mr. Robert H. Pruyn, who carried their personal grievances on account of some alleged, but in fact unreal, want of courtesy towards them on the part of some 'of my assistants, to the Executive Committee and to the Board.

This resolution was officially communicated to the Scientific Council, who, in reply, asked for information, and promised to assemble soon at Albany. On their arrival, however, Mr. Olcott refused to allow any intercourse between them and the Board.

On the 25th of June, two days before they arrived in Albany, Mr. Olcott convened the Board of Trustees, and read before them a Manifesto against me, which was adopted by a majority, consisting of nine, and was forthwith published to the world through the daily press. It was a bold and venomous attack upon my character, and as false as it was bold. . On the basis of this document he also procured from the majority of the Board a resolution that the " arrangement contemplated " by their vote of the 4th "involved [my] immediate withdrawal •" and another resolution to the effect that they would no longer recognize me as a member of the Scientific Council.

The Council asked a meeting with the Board, which, despite the earnest solicitation of several Trustees, was refused by Mr. Olcott, who also had from the beginning of his presidency denied me all access to the Board, and (except on one occasion) to the Executive Committee. He also refused to convene the Board, to lay before them terms of conciliation offered officially to the Trustees by the Scientific Council. He also refused to offer any evidence to sustain the allegations of his Manifesto. The Council then proceeded to an investigation, with such means as they had at their command ; and, having found sufficient evidence to prove every charge false or frivolous, they offered to the Board, in the form of preambles and resolutions, their Protest against the proceeding ; and, finally, they resolved to take personal charge of the institution, each of the three alternately for a month. This was July 2.

Upon this Mr. Olcott, who had previously refused to convene the Board, called a meeting July 3, unknown to the Council, and procured from the majority a resolution to dissolve all connection with the Scientific Council.

The Council then resolved to stand upon their rights, under the compact which the Board had formally ratified Jan. 19, — as a course indispensable to the care and preservation of the Observatory and instruments, and as due to the interests intrusted to them, and to the pledges which they had given to the donors.

One thing alone remained — publicly to expose the falsehood and baseness of Mr. Olcott's attack upon me ; and having found my course deserving of their approval, to justify and defend it. This they did, fully and triumphantly, in their pamphlet entitled "Defence of Dr. Gould" published on the 10th of July.

Upon the appearance of this pamphlet a large number of the leading gentlemen of Albany published through the daily press, a call for a meeting of citizens opposed to the high-handed and oppressive action of Mr. Olcott and his majority. The meeting was held at the City Hall, and numerously attended. It was addressed by several citizens, and by Professors Bache and Henry. Resolutions, strongly and indignantly condemning the course of the Board, were passed with entire unanimity, and a committee appointed to prepare an address to the public. This Address was published soon after, and has been widely circulated ; and a familiarity with the circumstances enabled its signers to cover the whole ground so thoroughly as to leave nothing farther needed as the case then stood. This Reply will abundantly furnish the evidence of its entire correctness.

Thus matters rested until August 2*7, on which day appeared the volume of the majority — nine names being subscribed to it. This Second Attack of Mr. Olcott (for he, as I shall show, is the responsible person) is still more bold, more venomous, and more false than the first attack of June 26 ; and it is far more adroitly contrived and more plausibly constructed. It is a volume of massive and well-cemented falsification, resting only upon a foundation of false testimony fabricated especially for the purpose, and intended principally to injure me and incidentally the other members of the Scientific Council.

To this second attack of Mr. Olcott, taken also in connection with the former, I am now called on to reply j and it will be my endeavor to meet it with a full and complete exposure.

Meantime, acting under the advice of eminent counsel, and relying upon the tribunals of justice to give full protection to my rights and those of the Scientific Council under the compact of December, — feeling the heavy responsibility before the scientific world, which has been laid upon me, — it is my purpose and hope, with the blessing of Providence, to save the Dudley Observatory, if possible, from becoming a mockery and a re. proach ; to render it capable of fulfilling what astronomy demands of it, what its munificent founder intended, what its donors desired, and what the Scientific Council pledged themselves that it should become.*

* Since this was written, I have been driven from the Observatory by a gang of men hired by Mr. Olcott.

Chapter II

MR. OLCOTT AND HIS COADJUTORS IN THESE ATTACKS.

Of the fourteen members who now compose the Board of Trustees, the signatures of nine are affixed to the pamphlet, and have been also appended to a published card, denying solemnly that any of the extracts given by them from letters of mine have been falsified or perverted. These are Messrs.

James H. Armsby, Alden March,

Ira Harris, Samuel H. Ransom,

Robert H. Pruyn, Isaac W. Vosburgh,

John F. Rathbone.

Of these gentlemen I must necessarily say a few words, endeavoring however to use that moderation which is due to myself, if not to them, and confining myself rigorously to such statements concerning them as are strictly requisite for defence.

The first two of this list are those with whom alone I was well acquainted prior to January last. The one was Yice President, the other Secretary, of the Board of Trustees, and although, as I now learn, without authority formally conferred by the Board, (for the Board was not accustomed to hold meetings) these two exercised unquestioned control in all the affairs of the Observatory. With them, and them only, rested the full and supreme authority; and until the close of the year 1857, all the members of the Scientific Council supposed them to be dejure as well as de facto the Executive Committee, and spoke of them as such. Of all the letters quoted in the " Statement," as addressed " to the Trustees," or written "by the Trustees," every one was written to or by one of these two persons. No one of the other seven knew, as I am convinced, what was doing or done, unless accidentally. No one of them, when he authorized his signature to be appended, could have had the means of knowing whether the assertions for which he pledged his word were true or not. Although the means of ascertaining their falsity was at hand, and the proofs to a large extent since given to the public, not one of the signatures has been withdrawn. Two of the seven, 2

Messrs. John F. Rathbone and Ira Harris, have been elected during the present year, the former in January, the latter in June. Yet they also certify by their signatures to the " Statement." From the time, of my first connection with the Observatory in September, 1855, until January last, there was not one of the majority, excepting Messrs. Olcott and Armsby, with whom I had more than a very casual acquaintance ; and there were not more than two others whom I knew by sight. I had once or twice met Judge Harris, but he was not a Trustee. No meeting of the Board was held during this entire interval, (at least so I was informed by the Secretary,) certainly none for the transaction of any important business ; and to the best of my knowledge, no Trustee other than Messrs. Olcott and Armsby took any care, exercised any supervision or control, or had any personal knowledge of the affairs of the institution.

Mr. Olcott who so constantly throughout the book speaks of himself as President, was not President until March, 1858, when General Stephen Van Rensselaer, — who had generously given a tract of about eight acres of land, mostly within the city limits, who had been President of the Board since its incorporation, and whose sense of honor and decorum had been so shocked at the course of Messrs. Olcott and Armsby, that he would no longer consent to give the implied sanction afforded by his name, — abandoned all connection with the Board, by resigning his Presidency and his Trusteeship together. The Presidency was instantly filled by the election of Mr. Olcott : but the resignation as Trustee was not accepted until some three months later, when it was taken from the files, and the vacancy in the Board filled by the choice of Judge Harris, who is not a donor.

For two years, while the Observatory was in progress, my relations with Mr. Olcott and with Dr. Armsby were most cordial. In my frequent visits to Albany upon business of the Observatory, my time was chiefly passed in their society. Faith in the sincerity of their devotion to the lofty aim which they professed to have in view, rendered them objects of my sincere attachment and led to an under-estimate of such failings as a continuance of the intimacy revealed. The one great fault which would have rendered all other manifestations suspicious, that one great undermining hollowness which cancels and eliminates all seeming virtues, Want of Honesty or Truthfulness, was unsuspected till the last ; and their other predominant traits, though seen and recognized, were venial and trivial compared with the truthfulness and disinterestedness by which I thought their every action guided.

Mr. Olcott I regarded as a generous man, determined to signalize himself and contribute to the elevation of his city by promoting the establishment of literary and scientific institutions, which should advance the intellectual progress of America, ennobling and exalting all who might feel their influence. Dr. Armsby I considered as a man, the disinterestedness and earnestness of whose heart would far more than atone for the weakness of his head, and the deficiencies of his education. A true, honest, and totally unselfish man, such as I supposed him to be, is too rare and priceless to be discarded for incapacity of judgement, or extravagance of schemes ; and I thought that his wild exuberance of crude suggestions might be guided into useful channels. The oft-repeated declarations and promises by which Messrs. Olcott and Armsby enlisted the aid and co-operation of the Scientific Council, and the apparent truthfulness and unselfishness which seemed to govern their actions, produced a great effect, and we devoted ourselves with heart and hand to the noble end which we believed them to have in view. We knew nothing of their antecedents, but supposed them men of unsullied reputations. No friends gave us hints of the past, or warnings for the future. We trusted implicitly, and have found ourselves terribly deceived. The event may not be creditable to our judgement, still I will freely confess that bitter as has been the experience, and severe the ordeal, I would rather trust again to such assurances in behalf of such a cause, and be again deceived, than suffer it to fail for want of aid which I could give.