2
The Green Bag
Such were the topics discussed during the Judge's boyhood years. His grand
studied at Worcester Academy and at
father, on an adjacent farm, upheld with vigor the principles of a lifelong Jacksonian Democrat; his father was a Whig and later a member of the Free Soil party. His father believed in inter nal improvements and stood as an oppo nent of slavery and of the intemperance
here three years.
of his time, and as a boy had broken in pieces a stone jug rather than be forced to buy New England rum for some of his associates. In 1848 his
townsmen chose him their advocate in the legislature to forward there a pros pective railway line favorable to the interests of the town, and again in 1851,
during which time Mr. Bishop voted on twenty-six ballots for the election of Charles Sumner, and against Robert C. Winthrop, both Senatorial candidates
for the seat left vacant by Webster. This election has been termed by Von Holst “a boundary mark in the history of the United States.”2 The contro
Phillips Academy, Andover, remaining
Here he met such
men as Edwards A. Park and Professor Phelps, and came under the instruction and guidance of Samuel Taylor, known to the boys of that day as “Uncle Sam," a man perhaps never excelled as principal of a preparatory school and well worthy to rank with the great masters of Rugby and Eton. Dr. Taylor made a strong and lasting impression upon the plastic mind of his pupil. At Andover, as he often said, he learned the real meaning of the term “scholarship,” but more than this he studied under one who molded character and developed man hood. "It was at Andover,” he re marked, “that I determined what kind
of a man I would be." A line marked by him in a favorite book of the period, Horace Mann's Essay to Young Men‘ shows
his ideal.
It reads,
“If you
cannot live with perfect honesty then
lasted three months and of the many persons who of right may claim the
starvation becomes more honorable than any martyrdom of fire." He worked his way through the school, graduating in 1854, but was pre
deciding ballot Mr. Bishop was one. He
vented from entering Harvard College,
often alluded to his vote for Mr. Sumner
as he had intended, partly through ill health and partly from lack of means. Instead, he began at once the study of law, first with Brooks & Ball, then con tinuing with Peleg W. Chandler, a stanch old gentleman of the elder school whose friendship and counsel
versy in the Massachusetts legislature
on every roll-call. Medfield is an historic town; the spoil of King Philip in 1675; the town nearest to Boston which that daring chieftain burned during the bloody war bearing
his name.
Judge Bishop's early years
were spent upon the farm, through the meadows of which the river Charles at first winds tranquilly enough, then later foams and rushes between two rocky barriers, “The Narrows," until it again
becomes quiescent in the placid water farther down. “Here he grew up a farmer's boy with all that that implies."
proved most helpful, and in 1857 he graduated from the Harvard Law School, and while there assisted Professor Par sons in preparing the third edition of the latter's work on Contracts. While with Mr. Chandler he acted as law re
porter for the Boston Daily Advertiser. In 1857 he married Mary Helen Bullard,
He attended the schools of the town and then went to Holliston, and later ' History of the United States, vol. 4. pp. 42, 43.
' This lecture is entitled. "A few thoughts for a oung man," and was delivered before the Boston ercantile Library Association in 1849.
