William Chauvenet is chiefly known to the present generation as a mathematician and theoretical astronomer and as an author of mathematical text books of the highest order of excellence. None but those who saw and understood the beginning of the United States Naval Academy will ever fully know how great a part he bore in raising the calling of the United States naval officer to a place of distinction among the eminent professions in America.
In the days before Professor Chauvenet came into connection with the naval service, it was the general opinion in the navy that, as the proper place for a midshipman to prepare himself for his profession was on board a man-of-war in active service, so it was also the best place in which to begin his education, and it was held that he could not be sent to sea at too early an age if he was to be thoroughly imbued with a taste for the service. Many of the midshipmen were appointed as mere boys who had received but little schooling, and after passing five years or more at sea, with or without instruction, as the case might be, were allowed a period of eight months' study at a school on shore to prepare themselves for examination for promotion.
The naval schools at the three principal navy yards had, in 1839, been concentrated in Philadelphia at a home for veteran seamen called the Naval Asylum, and it was to this school that William Chauvenet was introduced in 1842, at the age of 22 years, to teach mathematics and the theory and art of navigation in a basement room with apparatus consisting of a worn-out circle of reflexion and a small portable blackboard. In his History of the Naval Academy, Park Benjamin has severely arraigned those who were responsible for the neglect of the systematic education of the younger officers of the navy in the first half of the last century, and has given so 'forceful a portrayal of the baneful effects upon the service of the conduct of the captains of the forties who had risen into positions of control out of circumstances in which adequate training and education were lacking, that we are struck with the change that has been wrought in the naval service of the present day and find an incentive to examine into the agencies by which enlightenment has been spread in the naval service and high ideals implanted in the minds of those who become officers of the navy.
Fine influences had been exercised upon the life of young Chauvenet before he came to work for the navy, notably by Dr. Samuel Jones, under whom he received his preparatory education in a private school of high repute in Philadelphia, and by Professor Alexander Dallas Bache, then President of Girard College, under whom he was a scientific assistant in terrestrial magnetic observations during the period immediately following his graduation from Yale College. These men practically led him up to the standard and manner of life he afterwards lived and the work he did, and developed the traits and humanities that had been transmitted to him by his parents.
His father, William Marc Chauvenet, was born in Narbonne, France, in 1790, and, being left an orphan while yet a boy, was educated by two older brothers who possessed considerable wealth and were then residing in Italy. As secretary to one of these brothers, who had become a commissary-in-chief in Napoleon's army in Italy, Mr. Chauvenet lived in that country during a part of his youth and early manhood, and there found the means and time to cultivate a natural taste for music and literature. At the downfall of Napoleon, Mr. Chauvenet came to America as a partner in a silk importing and manufacturing company, and lived first in Boston and afterwards in New York; but this enterprise failed, and he removed to a farm at Milford, Pike county, Pennsylvania, thinking from early association with one of his brothers, who was a somewhat noted agriculturist near Milan, that he would like a similar occupation. Before his financial failure, he had married Miss Mary B. Kerr, of Boston; and it was during their residence at Milford that their son, William Chauvenet, was born on the 24th of May, 1820. While Professor Chauvenet was yet an infant, his father removed from Milford to Philadelphia and resumed mercantile pursuits. In the latter years of his life he was a teacher of the French language at the Naval Academy, and Professor Coffin, of the Navy, with whom he was associated at Annapolis, says: "He was endeared to those about him by a refined taste, the amenities of social life, the singular gentleness and purity of his character, and the consistency and earnestness, without obtrusiveness, of the religious faith for which he was noted."
To his father Professor Chauvenet owed his fondness for music and literature, and from his mother he appears to have inherited the logical exactness and methodical reasoning powers which are the basis of mathematical ability. She was noted for her excellent sound judgment which, combined with tact and efficiency and a kindly and unselfish disposition, rendered her much esteemed and beloved as a neighbor and a friend.
It was at the earnest solicitation of Dr. Samuel Jones that the elder Chauvenet consented to send his son to Yale College instead of launching him into a mercantile career. Two years before he commenced his mission at the Naval Asylum school, through which he was destined to afford so striking an instance of the far-reaching effect of high character and successful teaching, he had completed a college course which characterized him as a scholar of distinction; and when he came to teach the midshipmen, although he was younger than many of his pupils, he awakened in them a studious interest, which impressed him from the outset with the benefits and possibilities of providing a more extended course of education for them. Researches have brought to light accounts of many attempts made prior to this time, to bring about the establishment of a Naval School. Able articles on the subject of naval education appear in the public journals and magazines of the first half of the nineteenth century, and the records of Congress contain accounts of abortive efforts to create such an institution by the direct action of the national legislature. The great difficulty that lay in the way of such action by Congress, at the beginning of Professor Chauvenet's career, was the fact that a large and increasing minority of the House of Representatives voted annually against the appropriations for the Military Academy at West Point and even those who voted for these appropriations were not willing to augment the responsibilities of the government by creating another similar institution.
Realizing, on the one hand, the insufficiency of the single term of eight months which the midshipmen were permitted to spend at the Naval Asylum in order to fit themselves in mathematical studies for examination for promotion and imbued with the idea of establishing a school in which all the subjects conceived to be indispensable to the education of naval officers should be taught under competent instructors, but recognizing, on the other hand, the futility of accomplishing the creation of such an institution by legislative action, Chauvenet conceived the plan of founding the Naval Academy as a growth rather than a creation. He pointed out to each successive Secretary of the Navy "that the same power exercised by him in sending midshipmen to the Asylum for one year and in sending one professor there to teach them, might be exercised in retaining them there two or more years and in sending not only more naval professors—who were of course entirely under his orders—but also any other officers of the service who might be willing to engage in instruction."
This plan was practical because it involved no new expense, and, in urging its feasibility upon the Navy Department, Professor Chauvenet was joined by some of his frineds who understood his aims. He has written: "I must in this connection especially refer to Professor A. D. Bache who, as a graduate of West Point, was able to give me important advice in relation to a military system of education and who, moreover, had by direct inspection made himself acquainted with all the details of the most important institutions of learning in Europe. He contributed in a very large degree, by personal interviews with the Secretaries, to excite that interest in the subject of naval education at the Department without which nothing could be accomplished.
But to place midshipmen at a naval school before going to sea was too radical a change to be at once adopted. A two years' course, subsequent to sea service, was all that was formally sanctioned by Secretary Henshaw, but only to be revoked by one of his successors. The precedent, however, was established, and early in 1845 these views were effectively pressed upon the new Secretary, the Honorable George Bancroft, whose own profound scholarship and personal familiarity with educational methods enabled him to appreciate the want of the service and to devise a way in which it might be supplied; and the Asylum at Philadelphia being needed for veteran seamen for whom it was intended, the naval school was removed to Fort Severn, at Annapolis, Maryland. A board of officers entered only so far into the views of its youngest member, that a plan was adopted of two years' instruction at the school, a service at sea of two or three years, and a final course of two years at the school. But even this advance was rescinded by a new Secretary of the Navy within a year; and the old term of eight months was restored, but with great improvements in the course in mathematics, seamanship, and gunnery.
Undiscouraged by these failures, Chauvenet still persisted; but it was not until 1851 that a four years' course before sea service was adopted, and the Naval Academy in its present form was commenced. And yet it was an imperfect development of his plans. It fell far short of the ideal for which he had been so long laboring. This required a much higher standard of admission and a more extended course; and, beyond this, that the chief instructors should be of a recognized ability and attainments in their several departments, and that the graduates should be brought back as assistant instructors so that they might have opportunities for further studies; and moreover that the Academy, by its appliances, means, and aids for professional studies, should offer inducements to graduates to resort to it for further prosecution of any of the subjects which enter into their profession. In his own department of mathematics and astronomy, he provided for a realization of his views by the erection in the grounds of the Naval Academy of an astronomical observatory in which he personally installed the instruments, and then used them in precise observations with remarkable skill and ingenuity. His Spherical Astronomy contains a systematic presentation of the theories and refined practice developed by him in the observatory at Annapolis. This book he had in manuscript when he left the Naval Academy in 1859, and one of the strong inducements which led him to go elsewhere to complete his career was the expectation of assistance in publishing it from Washington University at St. Louis. The first appearance of it added a world-wide reputation to what had already been achieved by his Trigonometry and the mathematical papers that he repeatedly presented to the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Academy of Sciences. If any one would see a specimen of his work in Applied Mechanics, let him read the "Theory of the Ribbed Arch" in Woodward's History of the St. Louis Bridge, where the analytical work is given almost exactly as it came from his hails. His second volume on Practical Astronomy evinces the same completeness and thoroughness of analysis as the first. It discusses, in an elaborate and exhaustive manner, all the best instruments used for astronomical observations, whether in the higher observatories, or in the more modest work in the field or at sea. An appropriate chapter on the method of least squares is added, in which the subject is treated with rare perspicuity. Each chapter is a monograph by itself, but treated in unison with the rest, and with a noted symmetry.
Having contributed in a preponderating degree to the origin of the Naval Academy, Professor Chauvenet became the guiding spirit in its development and organization. His eminence lent dignity and reputation to the institution, and his sound judgment and profound appreciation of all branches of instruction caused his opinions to bear a controlling weight in the counsels of the academic staff. He would not relinquish his mission in the naval service in 1855 when he was offered the professorship of mathematics in Yale College, but continued, until he had completed a term of sixteen years, to hold aloft the brightest lantern that shone upon the road along which passed the procession of educational advancement in the Navy. In this long period of service a large number of officers came in successive classes under his instruction and passed out into the world to hand down a traditional reverence of this great man which was instilled into them by his intellectual abilities, his thorough knowledge of the subjects of instruction, his wide range of attainments, and his just appreciation of merit.
In the more limited circle of his intimate friends and in his family, the inner life of this man revealed itself in his warmth of heart, his affectionate interest, and his judicious counsels. In 1842, soon after coming to the Asylum school in Philadelphia, he married Miss Catherine Hemple of that city, who bore him two daughters and five sons. He was devoted to his children, and even in his most laborious days, he found time in their childhood to join in their sports and contribute to their amusements, and in after years to guide their reading and studies and direct their tastes. No portrayal of his private life could be adequate without a reference to his social and religious, qualities and to his attainments as a musician. His presence was always much sought in the refined social circles in the communities in which he lived. His power of musical entertainment was fully supplemented by the wide range of literary subjects in which he was at home. In his youth he had become an expert performer on the piano, and, even up to the time of his leaving college, the strongest of all his tastes was for music; and he pursued the study of it with the idea of making it his profession. He was exceedingly fond of classical music, and his residence was the frequent scene of musical soirees which he attended with dignity and grace. With his parents, he was a reader of the writings and a believer in the doctrines of Swedenborg. In his inaugural address at St. Louis, he says: "All education must have reference to man's destiny as an immortal being. If there is no future life, if all man's future hopes and aspirations are bounded by the finite horizon of his material existence, there is nothing left us but to enjoy the greatest amount of physical and intellectual happiness possible; and the only education desirable is that which teaches us the condition and limitation of human enjoyment." "If man is immortal, the education which he receives here must be but the first step of an indefinite progress. We are not to think of him as becoming immortal after death, but as immortal here and now."
Again in 1859 there came to him the tender of a professorship in Yale College—this time in astronomy and natural philosophy; and in the same year, he was elected to the chair of mathematics in Washington University in St. Louis. He felt obliged in the interests of his family to make a choice between these two positions, and to leave the field to which he had devoted so much of his life, for at the Naval Academy he had not the means of providing for the education of his children, who were advancing to an age at which they required higher and better schools than the neighborhood afforded. The West seemed to offer a good opportunity for the future of his sons, so he chose St. Louis as the field of his future labors and entered with characteristic energy into his new duties. In 1862, upon the death of Chancellor Hoyt, he was chosen as Chancellor of Washington University, and he continued assiduously to work and teach there until 1869 when his health failed so completely that he resigned his position and went from place to place in the hope of regaining strength, but it was too late. He died in St. Paul, Minnesota, on the 13th day of December, 1870, in the fifty-first year of his age, leaving a record of achievement which has given him a notable distinction among the scholars of America who have wielded an important influence for the advancement of the national welfare.