From 1835 to 1841, I read Locke, Say's Political Economy, Smith's
Wealth of Nations, Plutarch, Josephus, Herodotus, Lingard, Hume and
Smollett, Cicero, Demosthenes, Homer, Pope, Byron, Shakespeare,
Boswell's Johnson, Junius, The Tattler, The Rambler, the English
Reviews, French from text-books without a teacher and Rhetoric (Blair's
full edition). Much of Blair's Rhetoric I studied carefully and with
great benefit. Some of my papers of those days were written and re-
written four times. On the law side I read a few text-books:
Blackstone, Story on the Constitution, The Federalist, De Lohme on the
British Constitution, and some other works, probably, which I do not at
once recall. If I gained some knowledge of the law as practised in the
country, that knowledge was gained from an acquaintance with the
lawyers and from my opportunities as Clerk of the Insolvency Court.
In the year 1836, July 4, an Act was passed by Congress, granting to
a class of widows of soldiers of the War of the Revolution, a pension
for a term of five years. The towns of Groton, Pepperell and Shirley
had supplied a large number of soldiers, and there were many widows who
were entitled to the benefits of the Act. My acquaintance as clerk was
already large, and my studies with Russell had given me the faculty of
preparing ordinary papers, and I at once commenced canvassing for the
business.
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