from their host, they separated--"prepared," as the old general expressed
it, "at the first tap of the shrouded drum, to move and join their
beloved Washington, and the rest of their beloved comrades, who fought
and bled at their sides." A scene like this must have been profitable
for a young man to witness, as being likely to give him a stronger sense
than most of us can attain of the value of that Union which these old
heroes had risked so much to consolidate--of that common country which
they had sacrificed everything to create; and patriotism must have been
communicated from their hearts to his, with somewhat of the warmth and
freshness of a new-born sentiment. No youth was ever more fortunate than
Franklin Pierce, through the whole of his early life, in this most
desirable species of moral education.

Having chosen the law as a profession, Franklin became a student in the
office of Judge Woodbury, of Portsmouth. Allusion has already been made
to the friendship between General Benjamin Pierce and Peter Woodbury, the
father of the judge. The early progress of Levi Woodbury towards
eminence had been facilitated by the powerful influence of his father's
friend. It was a worthy and honorable kind of patronage, and bestowed
only as the great abilities of the recipient vindicated his claim to it.
Few young men have met with such early success in life, or have deserved
it so eminently, as did Judge Woodbury. At the age of twenty-seven, he
was appointed to the bench of the Supreme Court of the state, on the
earnest recommendation of old General Pierce. The opponents of the
measure ridiculed him as the "baby judge;" but his conduct in that high
office showed the prescient judgment of the friend who had known him from
a child, and had seen in his young manhood already the wisdom of ripened
age. It was some years afterwards when Franklin Pierce entered the
office of Judge Woodbury as a student. In the interval, the judge had
been elected governor, and, after a term of office that thoroughly tested