[30] from home, and of separation from friends and relatives to whom he was strongly attached, yet there was in his nature a certain restlessness and fondness for new scenes and places, which had something to do with his final choice of a profession.
He entered college in 1831, becoming a member of the class which graduated in 1834. After a little more than a year of college life, his health again became impaired, and his lungs appeared so much affected that he obtained leave of absence, and passed the winter in Mobile and New Orleans. At Cambridge he was a general favorite, and formed many intimate friendships which lasted through life. His popularity with his friends and acquaintances arose not only from the sterling qualities of his character, his warm-heartedness, and the general kindness of his disposition, but from his cheerfulness when in society, and the high spirits which seemed natural to him, although he was subject at intervals to very great depression. He was always animated in conversation, speaking in a rather loud tone. He sang a song acceptably, for he had a musical taste, though his voice was not melodious; and in convivial moments his spirits would rise as easily without artificial stimulants, as if the glasses, which he would quietly fill with water and then toss off, really contained the champagne he was supposed to be drinking. It seemed as if the mere presence of his friends was a sufficient stimulus to enable him to drive off that depression which many find it difficult to overcome without some excitement more potent than water.
In the latter part of the Senior year, in consequence of some disturbances which occurred in College, several members of his class were punished by expulsion or otherwise. This treatment was felt by their classmates to be unjust. A pamphlet of considerable ability, written under the authority of the class by one of their number, in which the character and conduct of the Faculty were rather severely handled, only added to the excitement, as it placed the government in the unpleasant dilemma of either suffering under its imputations in silence, or so far forgetting its dignity as to answer an attack made by
