has a place in my own library, next to my wife, my library has been the solace of my greatest pleasure & devoted attachment. The year 1793 was another era in my life, I removed from Poughkeepsie to the city of New York, with which I had become well acquainted, & I wanted to get rid of the incumbrance of a dull law partner at P, but though I had been in practice nine years, I had acquired very little property. My furniture & library were very scanty, & I had not $500 extra in the world. But I owed nothing, & came to the City with good character & with a scolar's reputation. My newspaper writings, & speeches in the as sembly had given me some notoriety. I do not believe any human being ever lived with more pure and perfect domestic repose & simplicity & happiness than I did for those nine years. I was appointed professor of law in Colum bia College late in 1793 & this drove me to deeper legal researches. I read that year in the original Bynkersheek Quinctillion & Ciceros rhetorical works, besides reports & digests, & began the compilation of law lec tures. I read a course in 1794 & 5 to about 40 gentlemen of the first rank in the City. They were very well received, but I have long since discovered them to have been slight & trashy productions. I wanted Ju dicial labors to teach me precision. I dropped the course after one term, & soon became considerably involved in business, but was never fond of, nor much distin guished in the contentions of the bar. I had commenced in 1786 to be a zeal ous Federalist & read everything on poli tics. I got the Federalist almost by heart, and became intimate with Hamilton. I entered with ardor into the federal politics against France in 1793, & my hostility to the French democracy, & to French power beat with strong pulsation down to the bat tle of Waterloo, now you know my politics. I had excellent health owing to the love of simple diet, & to all kinds of tem
perance, & never read late nights. I rambled daily with my wife on foot over the hills, we were never asunder. In 1795 we made a voyage through the lakes George & Champlain. In 1797 we run over the 4 New England States. As I was born and nour ished in boyish days among the highlands East of the Hudson, I have always loved rural & wild scenery, & the sight of moun tains & hills, & woods & streams always en chanted me, and do still. This is owing in part to early associations, & it is one secret of my uniform health & chirfulness. In 1796 I began my career of official life. It came upon me entirely unsolicited & un expected. In Feby 1796 Governor Jay wrote me a letter stating that the office of Master in Chancery was vacant, & wished to know confidentially whether I would accept. I wrote a very respectful but very laconic answer. It was " That I was content to accept of the office if appointed." The same day I received the appointment, & was astonished to learn that there were 16 pro fessed applicants all disappointed. This office gave me the monopoly of the business of that office, for there was but one other master in N York. The office kept me very busy in petty details and outdoor concerns, but was profitable. In March 1797 I was appointed Recorder of N. York. This was done at Albany, & without my knowledge that the office was even vacant or expected to be. The first I heard of it was the appointed announced in the papers. This was very gratifying to me, because it was a judicial office. I thought that it would relieve me from the drudgery of practice & gave me a way of displaying what I knew; & of being useful entirely to my taste. I pursued my studies with increased appetite & enlarged my law library very much. But I was en cumbered with office business, for the gov ernor allowed me to retain the other office also, & with these joint duties & counsel business in the Sup Court, I made a great deal of money that year. In Feby 1798 I
