WORK IN PROGRESS.

The board of trustees at their last annual meeting, in June, 1888, directed the building committee to erect a building for use as a phys. ical laboratory, similar in dimensions and style to the chemical laboratory, and to thoroughly furnish the same with the best apparatus to be procured, with an annex for a gymnasium, and to erect two additional dwelling-houses on a plan similar to those constructed the previous year. These buildings were soon put under contract and are now com. pleted. The dwellings are already in use, and the physical laboratory and gymnasium are nearly ready to receive the furniture and apparatus designed for them.

At a recent meeting of the board of trustees the following resolu tion was adopted:

"Be it resolved, That the newly-erected chemical laboratory building be known and designated as Tuomey Hall, and the physical laboratory be known and designated as Barnard Hall, in recognition of the very distinguished services rendered by Michael Tuomey and F. A. P. Barnard as professors in this University."

The board also made a handsome appropriation to increase the library, which is being judiciously expended under the wise and practical supervision of President Clayton. With the increase thus provided for the library will soon contain more than ten thousand volumes, exclusive of pamphlets and other unbound matter.

It is the purpose of the board still further to enlarge the capabilities of this University, and to furnish all the means and appliances needful to place it in the first rank of educational institutions in the South.

In concluding this review of the University of Alabama from its first session, in 1831, to the beginning of the year 1889, embracing a period of nearly three score years, the writer may adopt the language of the committee of trustees in closing their last report to the General Assembly of Alabama: "The friends of the University, and all advocates of the higher education in the State, will rejoice at the evidence herein given of the recent rapid but substantial growth of this venerable institution of learning, which, commencing its life almost with the birth of the State, and after passing literally through the fire, and encoun tering many dangers and disasters, is at last on the high road to great prosperity and usefulness. Esto perpetua.""

CHAPTER XXXIII.

PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA, BY HON. JAMES E. SAUNDERS.

Origin of the University of Alabama-Recollections of Presidents Woods, Manly, and Garland-Sketch of the Life of Professor Barnard-His Early Years-Elected Professor of Mathematics-Controversy with Governor Collier-His Eminent Services-Called to the University of Mississippi-Elected President of Columbia College-Tribute by Whittier to President Barnard.

[The following sketch was prepared by the Hon. James E. Saunders, of Courtland, Ala., by request of the Commissioner of Education.

This gentleman was born in Brunswick County, Va., May 7, 1806, but while still a child his father moved to Williamson County, Tenn., and afterwards to Lawrence County, Ala. He completed his education at the University of Georgia, then under the presidency of Dr. Moses Waddel, in whose celebrated school at Willington, in South Carolina, so many young men of that State and of Georgia were educated.

After his graduation, Colonel Saunders entered upon the study of law. He began the practice in North Alabama in 1826, and soon attained a leading position as a jurist and advocate.

In 1840 he was elected to the lower house of the General Assembly of the State, and was the acknowledged leader of his party in that body. He was a ready speaker, strong in debate, graceful in manner, eloquent in speech, and these attributes, together with his services as chairman of the judiciary committee, gave him great distinction throughout the State.

Upon the election of his friend, Mr. Polk, to the Presidency, he was made collector of customs at Mobile.

Colonel Saunders was a patron of education.

He was a trustee of

La Grange College during nearly the whole period of its existence. He was also a member of the board of trustees of the University of Alabama for some years, and contributed to the change which brought Dr. Manly into the presidency of that institution.

For a number of years Colonel Saunders has retired from the active duties of life. He now resides upon his plantation, devoting himself to literature and agriculture. He is fond of writing and has made many contributions to the history of the State, with whose affairs he has been for so many years intimately acquainted. Though now eighty-four years of age, he is still in vigorous health, dispenses a generous hospi 879-No. 3—9

tality, is keenly alive to all that concerns his country and his friends, and awaits, with the faith of a Christian, the summons that will translate him to a higher existence. He is older than his State, and one of the few remaining landmarks of its early settlement and civilization.]

The University of Alabama was founded upon an endowment granted by the United States in the act admitting Alabama into the Union; it consisted of a principality of public land amounting to seventy-two sections. Under the care of a number of trustees, among whom may be found the names of Governors Pickens and Murphy, and George W. Owen, Henry Hitchcock, Jack Shackleford, John McKinley, Thomas Fearn, Arthur F. Hopkins, and David Moore, these lands were carefully selected and sold at auction; but to foil land speculators they fixed the hign limit of seventeen dollars per acre, and required one-fourth of the price to be paid in cash and the balance in instalments. The consummation of these sales and the erection of the college buildings required a long time, and the University was not opened for students until 1831. It has continued with success, varying with the political and commercial causes which have affected its prosperity, until the present time. The benefits conferred by the University upon the people of Alabama and the surrounding States are beyond computation; some idea may be formed by consulting a biographical catalogue of its alumni, compiled with great care and labor by Professors Wyman and McCorvey, and published in 1878. There about one thousand alumni are recorded. Of members of Congress from this and other States there are quite a number; of judges and lawyers a very long list, and a still longer one of educators. These have filled the academies and colleges and universities of the South.

Rev. Alva Woods was the first president of the University of Alabama. He was born in Shoreham, Vt., was graduated at Harvard University in 1817, and was ordained a minister of the Baptist Church in 1821. From 1824 to 1828 he was professor of mathematics and natural philos ophy in Brown University. From 1828 to 1831 he was president of Transylvania University, Kentucky. In 1831 he was elected president of the University of Alabama, which office he resigned in December, 1837. I never heard a doubt expressed by any competent judge as to President Woods' scholarship; yet the institution steadily declined under his supervision. He seemed to lack the faculty of governing young men. There were tumults amongst the students and discontents amongst the friends of the institution, which led to the resignation of every member of the Faculty and its complete reorganization. Having been in a position to know well the history of these difficulties, I am satisfied that they had their root in the fact of the scarcity of acad emies where pupils could be prepared for, and some laxity in suffering their admission into the University before they were fully prepared.

Dr. Woods returned to Providence, R. I., where he lived for many years before his death.

The Rev. Basil Manly, D. D., was the next president of the University. He was born in Pittsborough, N. C., January 29, 1798, graduated at South Carolina College in 1821, and was second president of the University of Alabama, from 1837 to 1855. He died in Greenville, S. C., December, 1868, in the seventy-first year of his age.

Dr. Mauly was a good general scholar; but he had not been selected on account of his scholarship to resuscitate the University, but for other high qualities in a president; and the board of trustees were not disappointed in their choice. As it was not my privilege to know him long, I take the liberty of here inserting an estimate of him from Hon. J. L. M. Curry, our late minister to Spain: "Dr. Manly was a rare combination of masculine virtues and feminine graces. In him were blended extraordinary courage, firmness, candor, moderation, equanimity, meekness, sympathy, tenderness, and love. In social intercourse he had few superiors. With the educated and illiterate he was equally at home, winning and charming old and young, rich and poor, with his intelligence, tact, and marvellous adaptedness to his surroundings. His politeness, springing from Christian principle, was perfect."

Landon Cabell Garland, LL. D., was the third president of the University of Alabama. He was born in Nelson County, Va., March 21, 1810; graduated at Hampden Sidney College, Virginia, in 1829; was professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at Washington College, Lexington, Va., in 1830. The reputation that he carried out with him from his alma mater must have been high, for he was called back in 1837, to its presidency, to succeed the celebrated Dr. Olin, when he was only twenty-seven years of age.

He was called to the University of Alabama in 1848, and served as professor of physics and astronomy until 1855, when he succeeded Dr. Manly as president of the institution, continuing in this office until the burning of the University in 1865. His reputation, not only as a profound scientist, but as an orator of much eloquence, had preceded him to Alabama. Dr. Wardsworth, a competent judge, who had been one of his pupils at Randolph-Macon, had pronounced him the most eloquent speaker he had ever heard. His habits were very simple.

He was elected to the chair of physics and astronomy in the University of Mississippi in 1866, and continued therein until Vanderbilt University was founded and its business opened, in September, 1875. He then was elected chancellor of this great institution. He has continued ever since to perform the duties of this responsible station most satisfactorily to the board of trustees and the public, and is still blessed with unusual good health and strength for one of his age. Ordinarily an ordained minister is chosen to preside over a denominational University. Dr. Garland is not one; yet his baccalaureate addresses, and what he calls his "lay sermous," are masterpieces in style, and have