after September 1st, 1858, we shall be happy to attend to any business in the various branches of the profession which you may be pleased to entrust to us. Very Truly Yours, JOSEPH H. CHOATE, WILLIAM H. L. BARNES.” The new office opened on September 1, and Joseph writes his sister (September 6): "DEAR LIZZIE, "I can hardly convey to you an idea of the delightful sensation arising from being my own master here in my own office. Over the other side of the way I undoubtedly enjoyed great advantages for some time, but toward the end the kind of villenage to which I was necessarily subject grew very irksome. I now begin to realize the experience of our fathers after their great and famous declaration of independence." To his mother he writes, September 13: "You will be glad to know that this firm of ours feels greatly encouraged by its first week's experience & business. We have done something already, at any rate enough to pay our first quarter's rent. Mr. Barnes is all that can be desired as you will all say when you come to know him, and I mean you shall soon do so. ***” The firm was still prospering a month later when he wrote to his sister: "DEAR LIZZIE, "The firm of Choate & Barnes continues to flourish in a small way; that is to say, after the manner of all beginners. In process of time we shall doubtless gather an excellent business. I want you all to know and like my partner, who upon closer acquaintance develops gloriously. We have been living together for about a month in Ninth Street, and like Codling & Short who took such good care of little Nell and her grandfather, 'we are partners in everything.' In fact Codling & Short is between ourselves only another name for Choate & Barnes. We are not busy all the time, but believe that we are making money faster than we have ever done before, and so we are content to bide our time. * J. H. C." It had gone on into the new year when he wrote to his mother (January 4, 1859): "On Thursday night my friend Mr. Butler retired from the Bar at a dinner at the Astor House given him by his old partners, Mr. Evarts & Southmayd. Nobody had ever heard before of a lawyer making a fortune and retiring at the age of 40, and certainly the dinner was as unique as the occasion. Sixteen of us sat down at six o'clock and when I tell you that we sat till one in the morning you can imagine that we had a good time." He was still the senior member of Choate & Barnes when he wrote her, on January 25: "Yesterday was my birthday which I celebrated by going to Quaker Meeting to hear Lucretia Mott, who is, you know, a chief speaker among the friends. She certainly held forth in a very modest and powerful manner, and remembering where we were, it was quite pleasant to hear her. We were also exhorted by a venerable sister named Katy Brown who has reached the advanced age of 95 years. Time had treated her vocal organs in a most shocking manner, but as it was clearly a manifestation of the spirit, we were of course spell-bound. I kept on my hat during a considerable part of the services, and as it was a new one, was not ashamed when among the Quakers to do as they do. ***” "Dear Carrie," he wrote to his sister, on March 7: "You will be interested to know that your friend Mr. Hopper has bought a new house. And where do you think? In Forty-Third Street between Broadway and Sixth Avenue, which is just above the Croton Reservoir. His friends will bid him a last farewell before the 1st of May, which is the time appointed for him to take the young Hopper and his mother and flee into that far country." Still the firm of Choate & Barnes held on, but the shadow of dissolution now falls on it, as he discloses to his mother on March 21: "I dined yesterday with Mr. Hopper and took tea with Mrs. Evarts. My fates seem to be inevitably leading me back to No. 2 Hanover Street, or at any rate they will not keep quiet while I am anywhere else. Mr. E. is again urging a connection upon the basis of a fair share in the present business and a sure prospect of the regular succession. An established law office in New York is like a mercantile establishment anywhere offering a sure reward to any one who gets into it. Besides Messrs. E. & S.'s office is almost by general consent the best one in the city, and its prospects are wonderfully good. Under all the circumstances you must not be surprised to hear of my having determined upon a speedy change in business. My only embarrassment arises from the absence of Mr. Barnes (in Europe) who however writes me that he will speedily return. I wish that Father would give me his advice in the matter.' 66 MY DEAR Father: "62 Wall St. "New York, March 25, 1859 "The fact is that I haven't gone so far as to talk about terms with Mr. E. except that we start upon the understanding that those shall be satisfactory to both of us. In short I should be perfectly content to leave all that to Mr. E. & Mr. S. who will not attempt a hard bargain. They desire a connexion, more on their own account than on mine, and will expect to pay for it. The least that they will offer will probably be better than the best I can expect from my present arrangement for some time to come, while the ultimate gain is unquestionable. As they both say, it is not probable that either of them will continue in full practice ten years longer. The part of the business they would like me to undertake is that which best suits my tastes and capacities. "Our business has been good for new beginners, but the sources of it are few and, I think, precarious and I have the satisfaction of knowing that in case of my desertion Mr. Barnes will retain it all, as it comes chiefly from common friends, upon whom however he has a more intimate hold than I. My chief hesitation arises from the fact that Mr. B. will be sadly disappointed and because he particularly needs some sedate partner like myself. (There, I guess you never expected to hear me boast of sedateness to the father of three such other sons. But strange as it may appear, I have got quite a name for that quality, which illustrates the rule that a man never gets credit for all that belongs to him until he quits his own country.) Mr. B. certainly does need somebody to act as a balance, or a drag on his extraordinary motive power. But he has a brother in Albany who is just about to commence practising law here, who will serve well in that capacity. "On the whole, then, I have pretty nearly concluded, unless you can present some strong argument against it, to enter upon the way to fortune which seems now to open before me. With much love I am ever yours J. H. C." “*** He writes to his mother, still from the office of Choate & Barnes, on May 3: "*** Great regret is felt here at the death of Nicholas Hill in Albany by far the greatest lawyer in the State. He actually worked himself to death. He never did anything but work." But on August 1 he dates from the office of Evarts, Southmayd & Choate a letter in which he says to her: "*** I never feel my loneliness here in New York so much as on returning from home in summer time. There is nobody here, and very little to do, so that I have a fine chance to relapse into the blues and homesickness. Fragments of other letters follow: "DEAR MOTHER, J. H. C." "New York, 3 October 1859. "Yesterday I travelled to Jersey City to hear Henry Brown my classmate. Dr. Bellows pronounces him to |