lly, and for
mental training he did not overvalue it. Farley commenced the practice
of his profession at New Ipswich, N. H., and that town elected him once
or twice to the Legislature of the State. Wishing for a wider field,
he came to Groton. It was a day of small fees, and a good deal of the
litigation grew out of the intemperate habits of the farmers.

In New Hampshire fees were even more moderate than in Massachusetts.
If Farley had estimated his talents at their full value and had taken
an office in Boston or New York, he could have gratified his love for
money without disturbing his relations to his neighbors. In minor ways
he was acquisitive and consequently there came to be a public sentiment
which excluded him from public employments. His political course was
not more erratic than that of many others, but his change of position
was ascribed to policy and not to principle. In 1840 he was a Whig, in
1850 he was a Free-soiler, and in 1855 he was a Republican. In the
autumn of the year 1855 he was elected a member of the State Convention
of the Republican Party.

A day or two before the meeting of the convention I was passing by his
premises where he was engaged apparently in examining a buggy which his
man had been putting in order. The conversation turned upon politics,
and I soon discovered that he wished for a nomination to the
Legislature, and without admitting the fact, his remarks showed that he
comprehended the nature of the obstacles in his way. At last he said:
"When I began I thought the main thing was to get money; and I have got
it; and it is very convenient to have it, but it isn't just what I
thought it was when I began."

He went to the convention, took a cold which developed into a fever,
and in a week he died.

[* When I became Secretary of the Treasury, in 1869, I appointed Hubbard
to a minor office in the revenue service in the State of Kentucky,
where he then lived.]

VI
GROTON IN 1835--(Continued)

There were two other lawyers in town, Caleb Butler, the postmaster, and
Bradford Russell. Mr. Butler never appeared in court. He gave advice
in small matters, wrote deeds and wills, surveyed lands, and served his
neighbors in fiduciary ways. For many years he was a member, and a
useful member, of the Board of Commissioners for the County of
Middlesex. That body laid out highways, superintended the public
buildings, and in a word did what no other authority in the county or
St