SENATORSHIP AT ALBANY- 1864 -1865 101 



a jury in a horse case. Although pressed with business 

 I did not flinch, but accepted the position, discharged its 

 duties, and learned more of legal procedure and of human 

 nature in six hours than I had ever before learned in six 

 months. Ever afterward I advised my students to get 

 themselves drawn upon a petit jury. I had read some 

 Blackstone and some Kent and had heard a few law lec- 

 tures, but my knowledge was purely theoretical: 

 in constitutional law it was derived from reading scat- 

 tered essays in the "Federalist," with extracts here 

 and there from Story. Of the State charitable and 

 penal institutions I knew nothing. Regarding colleges 

 I was fairly well informed, but as to the practical 

 working of our system of public instruction I had 

 only the knowledge gained while a scholar in a public 

 school. 



There was also another disadvantage. I knew nothing 

 of the public men of the State. Having lived outside of 

 the Commonwealth, first, as a student at Yale, then during 

 nearly three years abroad, and then nearly six years as a 

 professor in another State, I knew only one of my col- 

 leagues, and of him I had only the knowledge that came 

 from an introduction and five minutes' conversation ten 

 years before. It was no better as regarded my acquain- 

 tance with the State officers ; so far as I now remember, I 

 had never seen one of them, except at a distance, the 

 governor, Mr. Horatio Seymour. 



On the evening after our arrival the Republican ma- 

 jority of the Senate met in caucus, partly to become ac- 

 quainted, partly to discuss appointments to committees, 

 and partly to decide on a policy regarding State aid to 

 the prosecution of the war for the Union. I found my- 

 self the youngest member of this body, and, indeed, of 

 the entire Senate, but soon made the acquaintance of my 

 colleagues and gained some friendships which have been 

 among the best things life has brought me. 



Foremost in the State Senate, at that period, was 

 Charles James Folger, its president. He had served in 



