VOL. V.
No. ID.
BOSTON.
OCTOBER, 1893
HORACE B1NNEY. By HAMPTON L. CARSON.
FEW names stand higher among the lead ers of the American Bar in the olden days than that of Horace Binney. Twenty years ago I had a conversation with him when he was in his ninety-third year, and never shall I forget the impression made upon me by the legal veteran. His form, though bent by years, was tall and command ing; his head, covered by a black velvet cap, was large and massive; his eye was bright and intelligent; his voice deep and melo dious; his enunciation distinct, and his dic tion precise and orderly. His memory seemed but slightly clouded, as he glided easily from topic to topic without hesitation or confusion. Some hours after my visit I made a few notes, and from these I produce the following extracts : — Of the study of the law he said : " It is a noble study, and worthy of the most ardent devotion. You will find the road to success a hard one to travel; harder than in my day, for methods have changed and competitors are more numerous. But do not suffer your self to become discouraged. For more than eight years after my admission to the Bar I could not afford to stir my porridge with a silver spoon." Speaking of statesmen, he remarked : " Alex ander Hamilton was the greatest man this country ever produced. He did more than any man of his day to give us a government; and Chief-Justice Marshall, in expounding the Constitution, applied Hamilton's princi ples and borrowed his language Read Hamilton's report, as Secretary of the Trea56
sury, upon the Funding Scheme, and then read Marshall's opinion in McCullough v. The State of Maryland." He spoke of Washington and John Adams and the Federalist party. " After all," said he, " it was the most honest party we have ever had." He enjoyed flowers as well as books, and invited me to look at his garden, which was visible from the library window. I watched him frequently during the remaining three years of his life, as he descended the steps of his residence on fine days, to take the air in his carriage, but never spoke to him again. Few, if any, of the passers on the busy street recognized in the feeble old man the renowned advocate who had vanquished Daniel Webster in the famous controversy arising under the will of Stephen Girard. But of this hereafter. He was born in Philadelphia on the 4th of January, 1780, and was old enough to have remembered the appearance of some of the statesmen who framed the Constitution of the United States, as they met in Federal Convention in Independence Hall of the his toric State House.. He was of English and Scotch descent, his grandfather having been a shipmaster and merchant of Boston, of English extraction, and his father a surgeon in the Continental army, who was transferred from the Massachusetts to the Pennsylvania line, and settled in Pennsylvania, where, in 1777, he married Mary Woodrow, the daugh ter of a gentleman of Scotch ancestry. It was from his mother that he inherited a
