Few men spent more hours in the twenty-four in assiduous labor.

He would take no active part in any matter--would engage in the discussion of no topic--and would not commit himself on any question--until he had sounded it to its nether depths, and explored all its ramifications, all its bearings and influences, and had thoroughly become master of the subject.

To gain this information no toil was too great, no application too severe.

It was in this manner that he was enabled to overwhelm with surprise his cotemporaries in Congress, by the profundity of his knowledge.

No subject could be started, no question discussed, on which he was not perfectly at home.