Judge Parker was always distinguished for the energy of his character, and the promptitude of his business habits. It was a rule of his office that no business letter should remain on the table unanswered over a single return of mail. He had great facility in the dispatch of business, and with his untiring industry and application, and the admirable system adopted and enforced in his law-office, the amount of business was as large as it was various and diversified in character. It was not only as a lawyer, however, that Judge Parker became known to the public. He was called into the political arena. In the fall of 1833, he was elected a democratic member of the State legislature, and was placed on the committee on ways and means, and in other prominent situations, during the ensuing session. In the subsequent year, being then twenty-seven years old, he was elected by the legislature a Regent of the University; younger than any one ever before, or since that time, made a member of that distinguished body.
At twenty-nine, he was elected without opposition to Congress, from the counties of Broome and Delaware, then forming a congressional district. During his term he acted upon important committees, and addressed the House upon many important subjects, amongst which were the Mississippi election case, the Public Lands, and the Cilley Duel, preserved in the columns of the "Congressional Globe." All his speeches were of a high order, and upon the former subject, which was of a very intricate kind, his effort called out the praises of both parties, as most masterly, and shedding the clearest light upon it.
In 1839, he was nominated as senator in the Third Senatorial District of this State. Great excitement prevailed; as a successor to Nathaniel P. Tallmadge, in the Senate of the United States, was to be chosen at the ensuing legislature. About fifty thousand votes were cast. In consequence of the
