strong.] 10 [Jan. 5, 



the family of an aunt in Providence, Rhode Island, 

 about three months. During the summer and autumn 

 of that year, the yellow fever prevailed in Philadelphia. 

 In November he came to Philadelphia to make it his 

 permanent home, still undecided what employment he 

 would select, but fitted in an unusual degree to enter 

 upon any line of life, and to make for himself a place 

 and a name. No thought of rest or of self-indulgence 

 after his four years of intense application, diverted him 

 from an earnest purpose to do what he could. He 

 had been turned away from the profession for which 

 he had a decided preference, and to which all his read- 

 ing that was not scholastic had been directed. He felt 

 no special attraction to any other, and the uncertainty 

 of success in the legal profession, of which he had 

 heard much, made him hesitate to select that. Without 

 much reflection, therefore, he turned his attention to 

 mercantile life, and requested Dr. David Jackson, his 

 guardian, to apply to Cunningham and Nesbit, a firm 

 of large shipping merchants in this city, to receive him 

 into their counting house as an apprentice. Fortu- 

 nately for himself, fortunately for the bar, and fortu- 

 nately for the country, the counting-room was full, and 

 the merchants had no place for him. It was then he 

 made choice of the legal profession, and at his instance 

 Dr. Jackson requested Mr. Jared Ingersoll to receive 

 him into his office as a student of law. Mr. Ingersoll 

 consented, and thus the work of life was determined. 

 So narrowly did he escape a calling, to which he was 



