His interests were broad and varied. He was foremost in prison reform and in the direction of various benevolent institutions. He was an enthusiastic antiquary, especially in New England town history, and was vice-president of the Massachusetts Historical Society. He was a copious writer for the press, and was in constant demand as a speaker. His public spirit was unflagging and direct. Governor Bullock tells of seeing him, during war-time, marching as a private in the “home guard” at a military funeral. When Bullock expressed his surprise at the humble part taken by a former chief executive, Washburn, at that time considerably over sixty years old, replied quite simply, “Oh, yes, I have done this often, sometimes at night. I like to help along when I can.”[1]
Washburn had an enormous capacity for work. He seemed to have mastered the art of living without sleep. From an early morning hour till far into the night he was to be found at the school in his “private” office. Never was there a more delicious misnomer, for he was deluged with an unending stream of callers—friends, strangers, students, politicians, and clients. Despite them all, however, and the demands of his teaching and practice, he managed to produce a number of professional works of the highest excellence, notably those on
- ↑ American Antiquarian Society Proceedings, Mar. 20, 1877, p. 13.
