prematurely formed. Another
result of the peculiar political education which I have described, was the
fairness with which he judged of the characters and motives of men who
were not of his party. I saw much, very much of him while he was a member
of Congress, when political animosities were at their fiercest, and I must
say that I never knew a party man who had less party rancor, or who was
more ready to acknowledge in his political opponents the good qualities
which they really possessed.

After taking his degree he read law in the office of Josiah Ogden Hoffman,
an eminent member of the New York bar, much esteemed in social life, whose
house was the resort of the best company in New York. His first public
address, a Fourth of July oration, was delivered when he was eighteen
years of age. It was printed, but no copy of it is now to be found. In due
season he was admitted to the bar, and opened an office for the practice
of law in New York. A letter from Dr. Moore, formerly President of
Columbia College, relates that Verplanck and himself took an office
together on the east side of Pearl street, opposite to Hanover square.
"Little business as I had then," proceeds the Doctor, "he seemed to have
still less. Indeed I am not aware that he had, or cared to have, any legal
business whatever. He spent much of his time out of the office and was not
very studious when within, but it was evident that he read or had read
elsewhere to good purpose, for though I read more Greek than law and
thought myself studious, I had occasion to discover more than once that he
was a better Grecian than I, and could enlighten my ignorance." From other
sources I learn that in his legal studies he delighted in the reports of
law cases in Norman French, that he was fond of old French literature, and
read Rabelais in the perplexing French of the original. It is mentioned in
some accounts of his life that he was elected in 1811 to the New York
House of Assembly by a party called the malcontents, but I have not had
the means of verifying this account, nor am I able to discover what were
the objects for which the party called malcontents was formed. In this
year an incident occurred of more importance to him than his election to
the Assembly.

On the 8th of August, 1811, the Annual Commencement of Columbia College
was held in Trinity Church. Among those who were to receive the degree of
Bachelor of Arts was a young man named Stevenson, who had compose