An amusing piece of good fortune happened to me at the beginning
of my service. I was placed, as I said, on the Committee
on the Revision of the Laws. My law practice had been in
the interior of the Commonwealth. So I had little knowledge
of United States jurisprudence. I determined in order to
fit myself for my new duties to make a careful study of the
statutes and law administered in the United States Courts.
I took with me to Washington a complete set of the Reports
of the Supreme Court of the United States and purchased Abbott's
Digest of those decisions, then just published. The first
evening after I got settled I spent in reading the opinions
of the Supreme Court. I took the Digest beginning with the
letter A, reading the abstracts, and then reading the cases
referred to. I got as far as Adm and read the cases relating
to admiralty practice. The next morning the Speaker announced
his Committees and the House adjourned. After the adjournment,
Judge Poland, Chairman of the Committee on the Revision of
the Laws, called the Committee together and laid before them
a letter he had just received from Mr.
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