8109. STANDARD (Measures), English.—
The cogent reason which will decide
the fate of whatever you report is, that England
has lately adopted the reference of its measures
to the pendulum. It is the mercantile part of
our community which will have most to do in
this innovation; it is that which having command
of all the presses can make the loudest
outcry, and you know their identification with
English regulations, practices, and prejudices.
It is from this identification alone you can hope
to be permitted to adopt even the English reference
to a pendulum. But the English proposition
goes only to say what proportion their
measures bear to the second pendulum of their
own latitude, and not at all to change their
unit, or to reduce into any simple order the
chaos of their weights and measures. That
would be innovation, and innovation there is
heresy and treason.—
To John Quincy Adams. Washington ed. vii, 89.
(M.
1817)
