for within three years after admission to the bar, he was offered and accepted a partner ship with Emory Washburn. Of this con nection, the turning stone in his profes sional life, Air. Hoar says: "Shortly after I was admitted to the Bar. good fortune brought me at once into the largest prac tice in the great County of Worcester, al though that Bar had always been, before and since, one of the ablest in the country. Judge Emory Washburn, afterward Gov ernor and Professor of Law at Harvard, and writer on jurisprudence, had the larg est practice in the Commonwealth, west of Boston, and I suppose with one exception, the largest in the Commonwealth out of Boston. He asked me to become his part ner in June, 1852. I had then got a con siderable clientage of my own. Early in 1853 he sailed for Europe, intending to re turn in the fall. I was left in charge of his business during his six months' absence, talking with the clients about cases in which he was already retained, and receiv ing their statements as to cases in which they desired to retain him on his return. Before he reached home he was nominated for Governor by the Whig Convention, to which office he was elected by the Legisla ture in the following January. So he had but a few weeks to attend to his law busi ness before entering upon the office of Governor. I kept on with it, I believe without losing a single client. That winter I had extraordinarily good fortune, due I think very largely to the kindly feeling of the juries toward so young a man attempt ing to undertake such great responsibili ties." It goes without saying that a young man of twenty-six or seven must have been re markably well endowed to take up the practice of such a man as Emory Washburn, and conduct it so satisfactorily as not to lose a single client. A partnership
with General Devens in 1856 and 1860 led to a beautiful and lifelong friendship which Senator Hoar commemorates in loving terms. (Vol. II., pp. 31-40). But to pass from speculation to Mr. Hoar's career at the Bar during the twenty years of his active practice. The reports show that he was not only well thought of by his brethren, but that he had a large and constantly increasing clientage. A careful examination of the Reports of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts shows that he appeared for one side or the other in many of the important cases on appeal from Worcester County.1 His state ment as to his future earnings and his ac tual practice are indeed fully justified. He seems always to have been in love with his profession—and his ambition was judicial, not political, although political po sition was repeatedly thrust upon him. At twenty-five he was nominated without his knowledge for the Legislature, and after serving his term refused reelection. He later served a term in the State Senate in 1857, having likewise been unexpectedly nominated. In both positions he played a leading role. "I suppose I may say with out arrogance that I was the leader of the Free Soil Party in each House when I was a member of it. In 1852 I prepared, with the help of Horace Gray, afterward Judge, who was not a member of the Legislature, the Practice Act of 1852, which abolished the common law system of pleading, and has been in principle that on which the Massachusetts courts have acted in civil cases ever since." He was twice nominated Mayor of Wor 'Thesc cases are to be found in the Massachu setts Reports from 6 Cush. (1850) to 108 Mass. (1871). Mr. Hoar appeared as counsel in 2 cases in 1850, i case in 1851, 3 cases in 1852, 9 in ^85.3. 7 in 1854, 17 in 1855, 7 in 1856, lo in 185/, 8 in 1858. 12 in 1859, 15 in 1860, ii in 1861, 14 in 1862, 3 in 186.}. 14 in 18Y>4. ii in 1865, 13 in 1866. 19 in 1867. 9 in 1868, 9 in 1869, 7 in 1870, 3 in 1871: making a total of 204 cases in twenty-two years.
