Editing Thomas Brackett Reed (section)

==Early life and education==
[[File:Thomas B. Reed Birthplace, Portland, ME.jpg|thumb|A postcard of Reed's birthplace in [[Portland, Maine]]]]
Thomas Brackett Reed was born on October 18, 1839, in a small two-story tenement on Hancock Street in [[Portland, Maine]].{{sfn|Robinson|1930|pp=1–19}} His parents, Matilda Prince (née Mitchell) and Thomas Brackett Reed Sr., were natives of Maine who traced their American ancestry to the ''[[Arbella]]'' and ''[[Mayflower]]'', respectively.{{sfn|Robinson|1930|pp=1–19}} The Reed family were not wealthy; Thomas Sr. was captain of a fishing boat before becoming a watchman in a Portland sugar warehouse.{{sfn|Robinson|1930|pp=1–19}}

Reed attended public schools, including the [[Portland High School (Maine)|Portland Boys' School]], and was an avid student and reader. He showed interest in public affairs from an early age, attending [[Neal Dow]]'s trial for involvement in the [[Portland Rum Riot]] in 1855.{{sfn|Robinson|1930|pp=1–19}} He was also an avid member of the Congregational Church as a young man. Members of his congregation raised funds to provide him a college education with intent that he become a minister, but he left the church and returned the donations.{{sfn|Robinson|1930|pp=1–19}}

===Bowdoin College (1856–1860)===
After graduating high school, Reed entered [[Bowdoin College]] in 1856 and undertook a mandatory course centered on Christian theology, Latin, Greek, and mathematics. Bowdoin was noted for its required courses in English composition and oratory and had already produced [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]], President of the United States [[Franklin Pierce]], and [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]].{{sfn|Robinson|1930|pp=1–19}} The faculty consisted of ten men, led by president [[Leonard Woods (college president)|Leonard Woods]] and including [[Charles Carroll Everett]], [[Thomas Cogswell Upham|Thomas C. Upham]], [[Alpheus Spring Packard Sr.|Alpheus Packard]], and [[William Smyth (professor)|William Smyth]]. Reed's professor of rhetoric and oratory, [[Joshua Chamberlain]], later distinguished himself at the [[Battle of Gettysburg]] and served as [[Governor of Maine]] during Reed's term in the state legislature.{{sfn|Robinson|1930|pp=1–19}}

At Bowdoin, Reed gained a personal reputation for his ability to recite [[Joseph Butler]]'s ''[[Analogy of Religion|Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed]]'' from memory.{{sfn|Robinson|1930|pp=1–19}} He was a member of the [[Rowing (sport)|rowing crew]], [[chess club]], [[Psi Upsilon]] fraternity, and an editor of the annual yearbook. He debated as a member of the Peucinian Society and was an avid reader of [[Thomas Carlyle|Carlyle]], [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]], [[William Makepeace Thackeray|Thackeray]], [[Thomas Babington Macaulay|Macaulay]], and [[Charles Reade]], among other less popular authors.{{sfn|Robinson|1930|pp=1–19}}

Reed kept a small, close group of friends, including Samuel Fessenden, the son of U.S. Senator [[William Pitt Fessenden]], who provided Reed a loan to complete his education.{{sfn|Robinson|1930|pp=1–19}} Samuel Fessenden was an avid abolitionist who participated in [[Bleeding Kansas|the civil conflict in Kansas]] and, one year after graduation, died at the [[Second Battle of Bull Run]]. His death had a profound impact on Reed, who memorialized Fessenden as "the quiet associate of the studious hours ... sublimated in the crucible of death from all imperfections, clothed upon with all his virtues and radiant with all the possibilities of a generous youth."{{sfn|Robinson|1930|p=12}}

===Legal and U.S. Navy career (1860–1865)===
As a senior, Reed reversed a previously mediocre academic record to lead his class; he finished fifth in the graduating class of 1860 and was elected to [[Phi Beta Kappa]].{{sfn|Robinson|1930|pp=1–19}} Abandoning any interest in ministry, he spent the next years doing odd jobs and studying law. He taught school in Portland for a year before moving to [[California]] in 1861. He was admitted to the bar in [[San Jose, California|San Jose]] on September 8, 1863, after an examination by eminent California attorney [[William T. Wallace]].{{sfn|Robinson|1930|pp=1–19}} While in San Jose, he delivered pro-Union speeches and signed a letter from sixteen members of the bar endorsing judge Samuel Bell McKee for re-election to the bench, citing McKee's determination to "uphold the Administration in its present efforts to suppress the rebellion and sustain the Constitution and laws of the United States."{{Sfn|Grant|2011|p=15}} However, he soon returned to Portland, deciding "nature never intended any man to live [in California], only to [[California Gold Rush|dig gold]] and get himself out of it, and to shudder in dreams ever afterwards."{{sfn|Robinson|1930|p=18}}

On his return to Maine, Reed joined the law offices of Howard and Strout as a clerk. He joined the United States Navy in April 1864, winning an appointment as acting assistant paymaster on the recommendation of Senator Fessenden. He served in that role, primarily on the gunboat [[USS Sibyl (1863)|USS ''Sibyl'']] on the [[Mississippi River|Mississippi]] and [[Tennessee River|Tennessee]] rivers, until honorably discharged in late 1865.{{sfn|Robinson|1930|pp=1–19}} When a Reed supporter later pointed out his opponents boasted of their war records, he retorted, "Tell them I kept a grocery on a gunboat down in Louisiana in wartime."{{sfn|Robinson|1930|p=19}}