He enjoyed a few books, the classics in the originals, but he seldom
indulged in a quotation. Byron as a poet, and Locke as a logician he
commended to me--the latter, Locke on the Human Understanding, with
great earnestness. Under his advice I read it carefully, and for
mental training he did not overvalue it. Farley commenced the practice
of his profession at New Ipswich, N. H., and that town elected him once
or twice to the Legislature of the State. Wishing for a wider field,
he came to Groton. It was a day of small fees, and a good deal of the
litigation grew out of the intemperate habits of the farmers.
In New Hampshire fees were even more moderate than in Massachusetts.
If Farley had estimated his talents at their full value and had taken
an office in Boston or New York, he could have gratified his love for
money without disturbing his relations to his neighbors. In minor ways
he was acquisitive and consequently there came to be a public sentiment
which excluded him from public employments. His political course was
not more erratic than that of many others, but his change of position
was ascribed to policy and not to principle. In 1840 he was a Whig, in
1850 he was a Free-soiler, and in 1855 he was a Republican. In the
autumn of the year 1855 he was elected a member of the State Convention
of the Republican Party.
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