Dy the governor one of a commission of five to revise the school system of the city. I published a law-book (Nott on Mechanics' Liens) which made me one of the 'leading counsel' in that field of local law; and I fought my way at the bar to a position which, after the interlude of the Civil war, was the stepping stone to a seat on the bench of the Federal Court of Claims. In those ten years, too, came the greatest achievement of my life—I brought Abraham Lincoln to New York to deliver the Cooper Institute address—one of the remarkable addresses of the world—for in one hour it changed the course of political history and raised Mr. Lincoln in the estimation of his party from a successful stump speaker to a statesman, and made him president of the United States (see Nicolay and Hay's Life of Lincoln, vol. 2, p. 217, where the letter which brought Mr. Lincoln to New York is given)."
