FURTHER EVIDENCE of PRIESTLEY'S SYMPATHY for the AMERICAN REVOLUTION* TENNEY L. DAVIS Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
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T ITS meeting of January 30,1782, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences elected a number of new members who had previously been nominated a t the meeting of August 22, 1781. The names of the nominators are not recorded. George Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, Leonard Euler, Richard Price, and Joseph Priestley were elected Foreign Honorary Members, aU of them distinguished men of science, and the two, last-named, men who had made themselves conspicuous in England by their vigorous defense of the cause of the American colonies. George Washington was already a Fellow of the Academy; it was seven years later, in 1789, that he took on the duties of first president of the United States. At the meeting of January 30, 1782, Loammi Baldwin of Woburn, Hon. Owen Biddle, Esq., of Philadelphia, Hon. Arthnr Lee, Esq., of Virginia, His Excellency William Livingston, Esq., Governor of New Jersey, David Rittenhouse, Esq., of Philadelphia, His Excellency Jonathan Trumbull, Esq., Governor of Connecticut, and Hon. Meshech Weare, Esq., of New Hampshire, were also elected Fellows.
The Reverend Joseph Willard, a t that time corresponding secretary of the Academy, presumably notified these men of their election. In due time he received a reply from Joseph Priestley, as follows:
Revd Sir I am truly sensible of the honour that has been done me by being elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sdences, and should have acknowledged i t sooner, but that, being a t a distance from London, I have not known of proper opportunities of conveying my letter: My friend Mr. Vaughan going to America very soon makes i t easy for me t o do now what ought to have been done a long time ago. I rejoice that, after so noble and successful a struggle for your liberties, you are now, in time of peace, attending t o matters of science: - I hope you will have the same success in your exertions in this way. As you are so obliging as t o inquire after my Observations on air &c I shall beg t o have the honour of presenting my f i e n~ on that subject t o the Academy, and hope that Mr. Vaughan will take care of their conveyance.
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*Published with the kind permission of the Council of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Read before the Division of History of Chemistry a t the 85th meeting of the A. C. S. a t Washington, D. C..March 27-30, 1933.
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I am still engaged in the same pursuits, and two papers of mine on that subject are published in the Philosophical Transactions. I have the honour to be, with great respect, Revd Sir, Your obedient humble servant J. Priestley. Birmingham 23 June 1785.
The second paragraph of the letter is a frank expression, in Priestley's characteristic manner, of his attitude toward the American Revolution.
The minutes of the Academy's meeting of January 25, 1786, record the receipt of the five volumes and state that it was voted "that the thanks of the Academy be presented to the Revd Joseph Priestley, LL.D., F.R.S., for his valuable donation of five volumes containing experiments and observations on different kinds of air." Three of these volumes the writer has seen in the library of the Academy in its building on Newbuty Street, Boston.
