But during all that time I kept a very zealous interest in political affairs.

I was Chairman of the County Committee for several years, made political speeches occasionally, presided at political meetings, always attended the caucus and was in full sympathy and constant communication with the Free Soil and Republican leaders.
The Worcester Bar in my time afforded a delightful companionship.
It was like a college class in the old days.

My best and most cordial friends were the men whom I was constantly encountering in the courts.

The leaders of the Bar when I was admitted to it,--Charles Allen, Emory Washburn, Pliny Merrick, Benjamin F.Thomas, Peter C.Bacon,--would have been great leaders at any Bar in the United States, or on any circuit in England.
Study at a law school is invaluable to the youth if he is to rise in his profession; but there is no law school like a court-house when such men are conducting trials.

The difficult art of cross-examination, the more difficult art of refraining from cross-examination, can only be learned by watching men who are skilled in the active conduct of trials.
The Supreme Court of Massachusetts at that day with Chief Justice Shaw at its head was without an equal in the country and not surpassed by the Supreme Court of the United States itself.