324 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



Representative in Congress ; and, finally, as Secretary of the Navy of 

 the United States, in the Cabinet of President Fillmore. In the later 

 years of his life he was Provost of "the University of Maryland, and 

 President of the Peabody Institute, founded by his friend, the late 

 illustrious George Peabody, in the city of Baltimore. To every sta- 

 tion which he occupied Mr. Kennedy brought brilliant accomplish- 

 ments, an active and earnest mind, a quick wit, a ready pen, an 

 eloquent voice, and great devotedness of purpose. No man of our 

 day has left a more enviable memory for the fidelity of his public 

 labors, or the purity of his private life. He died at Newport, 

 Rhode Island, on the 18th of August, 1870, universally respected and 

 lamented. 



William Chauvenet was born in 1820, at Milford, Pennsylvania; 

 but his early life was chiefly passed in Philadelphia, whither his pa- 

 rents removed while he was still very young. His father was a grocer, 

 and wished his son to succeed him in his business ; but he gave so 

 decided evidence of mathematical talent, while at school, that he was 

 sent to Yale College, where he was graduated with distinction in 1840. 

 After a short service under Professor Bache, in meteorological obser- 

 vations at Girard College Observatory, he became, in 1841, instructor 

 in Mathematics at the United States Naval Asylum in Philadelphia ; 

 and, on the foundation of the United States Naval Academy at An- 

 napolis in 1845, he was appointed one of its Directors, and was also 

 made Professor of Astronomy and Mathematics, and Director of the 

 Observatory. His connection with this Academy continued fourteen 

 years, during which his growing eminence as a mathematician, and his 

 ability and zeal as a teacher, contributed very strongly to give a high 

 character to the institution. In 1859, he was offered the professorship 

 of Astronomy and Mathematics at Washington University, St. Louis, 

 and also that of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy at Yale College, 

 which had previously sought him for her chair of Mathematics. 

 Though strongly attached to his alma mater, he chose St. Louis, in the 

 belief that it presented a wider opportunity of usefulness, and entered 

 on his new duties in the autumn of the same year. In 1862 r he was 

 appointed Chancellor of the University, — an indication of the com- 

 manding impression he had already made there in other ways than in 

 the line of his special studies. But, unfortunately for the University, 

 and deeply to the disappointment of all friends of higher education and 



