He selected an
able man as editor, William Coleman of Massachusetts, but he directed
the policy of the paper, dictating many of the editorials in the late
hours of night. This journal took its position at once as the most
respectable and brilliant in the country.
He also founded the Society for the Manumission of Slaves, securing as
honorary member the name of Lafayette--now a nobleman at large once
more. But all these duties weighed lightly. For the first time in his
life he felt himself at liberty to devote himself almost wholly to his
practice, and it was not long before he was making fifteen thousand
dollars a year. It was an immense income to make in that time, and he
could have doubled it had he been less erratic in the matter of fees.
Upon one occasion he was sent eight thousand dollars for winning a suit,
and returned seven. He invariably placed his own valuation upon a case,
and frequently refused large fees that would have been paid with
gratitude. If a case interested him and the man who asked his services
were poorer than himself, he would accept nothing.
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