When Madison became President, he sought to honor L’Enfant by offering him the professorship of engineering at West Point, but again the artistic foreigner declined to accept anything at the hands of the people who, he felt, had failed to appreciate the supreme effort of his genius. His final years he spent as a pensioner at the manor houses of the Digges family in Maryland. He died in the home of Dudley Digges in 1824, and was buried in the garden of the Chellum Castle Manor near Bladensburg, where to-day his grave is marked only by a cedar tree. Inasmuch as the great projects of L’Enfant are receiving to this day the attention of the Government, it would not be inappropriate, in the centennial year of Washington’s existence, to give his remains fitting and affectionate sepulture in the city he designed. The Commissioners, at a meeting held in Georgetown, September 8, 1791, decided to call the Federal district, “Territory of Columbia,” and the Federal city, the “City of Washington.” At this same meeting the method of designating the streets by letters and numbers was adopted. The name of the city has remained unchanged, but the name of the territory was afterwards changed by Congress to the “District of Columbia.” For a short time after the city was plotted, Washington enjoyed its first real-estate boom, although that word was not then known. The lots sold more readily abroad than at home, and for a time brought extravagant prices in London. However, comparatively few seem to have been disposed of, and the meagre return from sales was most unfortunate because the money was badly needed to pay for the first public buildings. Finally, the President made a personal appeal to Maryland, which lent $100,000, not, however, without first securing the personal bond of the Commissioners. The Capitol was planned by Dr. William Thornton, an Englishman, who seems to have been a man of some natural talent, but unskilled in architecture. Stephen L. Hallett, a professional house-builder, also submitted specifications for the building, and there is good reason to suppose that Thornton’s plans, as finally accepted, were considerably affected by Hallett’s more practical drawings. When the corner-stone of the Capitol was ready to be laid, great preparations were made for the event. Companies of militia and artillery were called out, and civic societies, public officials and many distinguished citizens were invited. With appropriate ceremonies of the military and of the Masonic order, the President deposited in the corner-stone, together with corn, wine, and oil, a silver plate bearing this inscription, which the Commissioners first ordered to be read aloud: