the present Smithsonian Institution for the diffusion of useful knowledge. We of to-day laugh at Judge Woodward's system of universal science, but old John Adams thought it worthy of kindly acknowledgment, and Madison gave some heed to it. In terminology it was no worse than Jeremy Bentham's systems, and Bentham revolutionized English institutions. Jefferson, too, in the same draft of an ordinance in which we planted the seed of perpetual freedom for the Northwest Territory, gave to the proposed States such names as Metropotamia, Polypotamia, and Michigania. So Judge Woodward, when he found, or made a way to devise a plan for an institution for higher education, named it the Catholepistemiad or University of Michigania, called its professorships didaxia, and divided the subjects of instruction according to his epistemic system. The two instructors of the new-fledged college (Father Richard, a Catholic, and John Monteith, a Presbyterian) divided between them the multitude of didaxia, and taught the boys the rudiments of learning without reference to the barbarous terminology. However, they never could get beyond that broad principle which Judge Woodward then and there laid down; that it is the duty of the State to furnish higher education, non-sectarian in character and so inexpensive as to be within the reach practically of all the people. Developing along those lines, Michigan University has become not only one of the great institutious of learning in this country, but it is a pattern of other State Universities from the lakes to the Pacific. All honor to our epistemic philosopher for his ideas if not for his names for those ideas. Little further remains to be told., His court was a mockery of justice, he, himself was a quarrelsome old man, so slovenly that when he sailed to Mackinac and Green Bay, to hold court, he took for baggage a single clean shirt, which he put on while in port, relapsing into grime when the steamer sailed. He never married; nor was he ever known to be attentive to woman, save once. She was a widow, and it was his custom to send his carriage to her door as a notice that she was expected to prepare for a drive. One day, on finding her unprepared for the honor he proposed to confer, he sent his carriage to the stable and walked to his room, thus easily plucking from his threadbare surtout the dart that cupid had not strength enough to send into his heart. After a service of nineteen years on the Michigan bench, he saw the judicial system changed largely to be rid of him. Resigning, he returned to Washington and again delved into philosophy. In spite of his constant land speculations and his most frugal habits of life, he was always a poor man, and after spending a year out of office, fortune once more smiled upon him. In 1824, he was appointed judge for the district of Florida, between the Swanee and the Apalachicola Rivers territory then lately ceded by Spain. From Tallahassee on March 17, 1826, he sent to Jefferson a package of orange seeds, together with "A Diagnosis of the Chrestomatic system of Jeremy Bentham of London, by the author of the Epistemic system," a most elaborate scheme beautifully copied by one Robert W. Williams. On July 12, 1827, he died, leaving no known relative. NOTE.-Extended correspondence subsequent to the preparation of the above paper reveals the facts that Judge Woodward was a son of John Woodward, of Philadelphia ; that John Woodward, a brother of the judge, died in New York City, leaving a will under which Howard University set up a claim, on the ground, I believe, that a bequest was made for the education of colored people. The contention of the University was not sustained. A sister of Judge Woodward, Maria, married Adrial Pease, and their son, Augustus Pease, died a bachelor in Springfield, N. J., about 1870. C. M. THE UNITED STATES CAPITOL IN 1800. BY GLENN BROWN. (Read before the Society April 2, 1900.) About two months ago Mr. W. B. Bryan asked me if I could inform him in which rooms of the Capitol the Houses of Congress held their first session in this city. Having prepared a history of the Capitol Building, I was supposed to know. While my notes gave a fairly clear chain showing the evolution of the design and construction of the building they gave nothing definite as to location of the rooms in which the Houses of Congress first held their meetings. ton. It seems hardly necessary to state that the portion of the Capitol erected in 1800 was designed by Dr. Wm. ThornThe competition instituted July 15, 1792, produced no plan which was satisfactory to the commissioners, so a second opportunity was given to those wishing to compete and Hallet and Thornton were apparently the only competitors. The plan of Thornton immediately captivated President Washington, Secretary of State Jefferson and the commissioners of the District, because of the convenient arrangement of its rooms and the grandeur of its design. The work was awarded to Thornton April 5, 1793. His competitive plan was modified in scale so as to reduce the cost and Hallet, who was appointed superintendent, because Thornton would not engage to devote his entire time to this work, attempted to introduce radical changes in both the design and plan, and for this reason was discharged by Washington, and Thornton was again put in charge of the building as one of the commissioners of the District, when he made new drawings throwing out |