ICIARY ORGANIZED.

The plan for the Federal judiciary was perfected on the lines proposed
by Ellsworth, of Connecticut. The national judiciary consisted of a
supreme court, having a chief justice and five associate justices, who
were to hold two sessions annually at the seat of the Federal
government. Specified jurisdiction was given to the circuit and district
courts, and each State was made a district; the Territories of Maine and
Kentucky were provided for in the same manner, and the remaining
Territories were grouped into three circuits. When the matter in dispute
amounted to $2,000, an appeal could be taken from the lower courts to
the supreme court. The President was to appoint a marshal in each
district, possessing the general powers of a sheriff, and the interests
of the government were placed in the hands of a district attorney.

The first chief justice of the United States was John Jay, of New York,
while Edmund Randolph, of Virginia, was made attorney-general. The
associate judges were John Rutledge, of South Carolina; James Wilson, of
Pennsylvania; William Cushing, of Massachusetts; Robert H. Harrison, of
Maryland; and John Blair, of Virginia.

Vermont was admitted to the Union on March 4, 1791; Kentucky, June 1,
1792; and Tennessee exactly two years later. These three States were all
that were formed during the presidency of Washington.

[Illustration: BEN FRANKLIN MOULDING CANDLES IN HIS FATHER'S SHOP.]

Benjamin Franklin died in Philadelphia, April 17, 1790, at the age of
eighty-four years. Since he was one of the greatest of all Americans, he
is entitled to fitting notice. He was born in Boston in 1706, and was
the youngest of seventeen children. His father was a tallow chandler and
soap boiler, a trade which Benjamin detested. He was apprenticed to his
brother, who was a printer, and while a boy gave evidence of his
remarkable keenness and brilliant common sense. Rebelling against the
discipline of his brother, he ran away, tramping most of the distance
to Philadelphia. There he secured a situation and showed himself so
skillful and tasteful a printer that he never lacked for work. He
established a paper in Philadelphia in 1729, and began the publication
of _Poor Richard's Almanac_ in 1732, the year in which Washington was
born. The wit, homely philosophy, and keen penetration shown by Franklin
attracted wide attention and gave the almanac an enormous circulation,
which lasted as long as it was publ