Page:Samuel F. Batchelder - Bits of Harvard History (1924).pdf/300

 About the beginning of the war, Judge Parker was lecturing on the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, expressing himself very strongly against it. One of the students interrupted him by stating (what he thought to be) a very strong case of treasonable acts against the government, and asked him if he would not suspend the writ of habeas corpus in such a case. “No, sir,” said the judge, “I would not suspend the writ of habeas corpus, but I would suspend the corpus.”

In 1855 the University Professorship was again revived, by the exertions of Parsons, who carried the appointment of Emory Washburn, of Worcester, at that time just quitting the governorship of Massachusetts. This chair Washburn held till 1876, although its name was changed to the Bussey Professorship, in consequence of large additions to its foundation by Benjamin Bussey, of Roxbury. Washburn had been a student at the school in the old “one-man-corporation” days of Asahel Stearns, and had built up an enviable practice in the heart of the Commonwealth. His success, single-mindedness, and high integrity had won for him a notable degree of public confidence. He was promoted from the bar to the bench. He was elected successively to both branches of the legislature. He was actually nominated for the governorship (the last successful candidate of the old Whig party) during an absence in Europe, and—incredible as it sounds to-day—without his own knowledge.