RUFUS CHOATE

THE 'HE student of legal biography, who may, perhaps, by reading this sketch of Rufus Choate, be inspired to seek a more complete history of the famous lawyer's life, will be dazzled in all probability by his great intellectual powers, but it must never be forgotten that he seems to have been conscious of them himself, in a measure, at least in his youth, and that he regarded his genius only as containing the possibilities of becoming learned. Thus he avoided that Charybdis of self-confidence, which has wrecked so many promising young men, who really possessed genius, but believed the fruitage of their career would ripen spontaneously.

Rufus Choate was born at Ipswich, Massachusetts, on the first day of October, 1799. He pursued his studies at home until he arrived at the age of fifteen, when he was sent to the Academy at Hampton, New Hampshire. The next year he entered Dartmouth College, and after he was graduated, he remained for another year as tutor. Then he attended the Law School at Cambridge University, completing the full course. He then entered the office of William Wirt, Attorney General of the United States. He was admitted to practice in 1823, establishing himself at Danvers where he remained five years. During this period, he married Miss Helen Olcott, a lady of remarkable grace and accomplishments.

In 1828, he removed to the old town of Salem, and was elected to Congress. He served through the term,

was re-elected, but at the close of the first session, resigned and settled in Boston.

While at Dartmouth, he was not compelled to teach to meet his expenses, which seems to have been, in the majority of instances, the fate of great men. He alludes to this exemption in a letter dated December 5, 1815, written to his brother, in which he gives an account of his expenses, and further says: "Only about ten or twelve of my class remain. The rest have taken schools. How thankful I ought to be that I am not obliged to resort to this for assistance. We who remain have a chance to improve in the languages particularly."

At the earliest age, he possessed a remarkable passion for reading; by the time he arrived at the age of six, he had devoured the "Pilgrim's Progress," and at ten, had read every book that the village library contained. He was a student and an omnivorous reader all his life. "In his journal, Mr. Choate describes his studies; tells how the early hour was employed. He had a few minutes with favorite authors, English, Greek, Latin, French, often a lesson from each, and then the genius of law beckoned him away. It was a rule with him to read at least one page of some law book daily. All this to keep the simple elements of the law fresh in his mind; a purpose from which not even the delights of travel, of new scenes and associations could wholly divert him."

In a letter giving advice to one of his law students, Richard S. Storrs, Jr., Mr. Choate says: "As immediately preparatory to the study of the law, I should follow the usual suggestion to review thoroughly, English history, constitutional history, in Hallam particularly, and American constitutional and civil history in Pitkin and Story, Rutherford's Institutes, and the very best course of moral philosophy you can find, will be very valuable introductory consolidating matter. Aristotle's Politics, and all of Edmund Burke's works, and all of Cicero's works would

form an admirable course of reading, a library of eloquence and reason,' to form the sentiments and polish the tastes, and fertilize and enlarge the mind of a young man aspiring to be a lawyer and statesman. Cicero and Burke I would know by heart; both superlatively great, the latter the greatest, living in a later age, belonging to the mod-. ern mind and genius, though the former had more power over an audience, both knew everything. I would read every day one page at least, more if you can, in some fine English writer, solely for elegant style and expression. William Pinkney said to a friend of mine, 'he never read a fine sentence in any author without committing it to memory.' The result was decidedly the most splendid and most powerful English spoken style I have ever heard."

Mr. Choate believed in that discipline and study which makes strong and intellectual men; no better example of his definition of the idea can be found than in his own character. In one of his addresses he thus spoke of this benefit of labor and privation in the formation of great characters: "It has been said that there never was a great character, never a truly strong, masculine, commanding character, which was not made so by successive struggles with great difficulties. Such is the general rule of the moral world, undoubtedly, all history, all biography, verify and illustrate it." His greatness as an orator, in a measure at least, consisted in using "the happiest word, the aptest literary illustration, the exact detail, the precise rhetorical instrument the case

demanded."

Professor Parsons says of him: "With all his variety and intensity of labor, there was nothing he cultivated with more care than words. Pitt thought verbal study important when he went twice through Bailey's Dictionary, carefully considering every word. So also did Choate when he formed the habit of reading the Dictionary by the page, and when he said to a student, 'You want a dic