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2. He was appointed assistant secretary of the navy in April, 1900, but in December, 1901, he resigned the position. He is a member of the Loyal Legion; of the New Hampshire and Maine Historical societies; of the Cosmos and University clubs, Washington, District of Columbia; of the Sons of the Revolution; and of the Harvard club of New York; and is one of the vice-presidents of the Navy League. He is one of the council of the Harvard law school alumni association. He is a member of the Republican party and has been accustomed to speak for it, in political campaigns, chiefly in New Hampshire. In 1877 he was a representative from Portsmouth, in the New Hampshire legislature.

He is a communicant of the Episcopal church. Fond of biography, he finds pleasure in all writers who hold the reader's attention closely; notably, in Hume, Locke, and Stuart Mill. He names particularly Mill's "Liberty" as a favorite book. He "means to let no day go by without a walk of two or three miles." He is a believer in out-of-door exercise. His was a family of lawyers, and he "took to the law quite as a matter of course." He says, "I have not striven for prizes, but have simply gone ahead and kept at work, and the usual results have followed. The chief advantage of college is the opportunity it gives to mingle with bright, able men. Make friends with men of brains and force." "Men rather than books." "Conversation and intellectual strife help a young man in life. Worship the truth, scorn the least deception. Acquire habits of order and system." To this latter acquisition he attaches much weight. "Find your happiness in making others happy. These are trite remarks. But go ahead and put these principles into practice (and don't talk about them), and you will be a happy man, for you will succeed in the best sense of the word."

Among his writings are: "Memoir of William Henry Young Hackett," 1878; "The Geneva Award Acts," 1882; "The Gavel and the Mace," 1900; "The Attitude of the Scholar Towards Men in Public Life"; Phi Beta Kappa Address, Hobart college, June, 1902; etc. He has resided in Washington, District of Columbia, since 1873, and has practised law.

On April 21, 1880, he married Ida, youngest daughter of the late Rear-Admiral Craven, United States navy. They had two sons living in 1905.