Horace Binney. gium upon the character of Chief-Justice Tilghman, and traced the growth of Ameri can jurisprudence through a course of fifty years. His next judicial portrait — and it is a masterpiece — was that of Chief-Justice Marshal), painted with exquisite art in I835In 1849 Mr. Binney, in the presence of a meeting of the bar presided over by Mr. Justice Grier, of the Supreme Court of the United States, and Hon. George M. Dallas, but lately Vice-President, acting as Secretary, pronounced an impressive estimate of the services of that eminent lawyer Charles Chauncey. In 1852 he spoke in the same manner of his great rival but warm friend, John Sergeant. In 1858 he prepared and published an elaborate review of the judicial character of Bushrod Washington. During the next year, when he had attained the advanced age of seventy-nine years, he published a classic in legal biography, " The Leaders of the Old Bar of Philadelphia," a work which attracted the attention of Sir John Coleridge, who reviewed it in terms of admiration Within a few months after wards he wrote and published " An Inquiry into the Formation of Washington's Farewell Address," a remarkable specimen of analyti cal skill and historical information. The con clusion reached by him — and it is fortified by the most abundant proofs — is that while Washington supplied the fundamental thoughts, the political sentiments, the body and substance of the address, yet the honor of authorship, in the prevalent literary sense, belonged to Alexander Hamilton. As if in scorn of age, Mr. Binney threw himself with aggressive ardor into the con troversy which raged in 1861 over the power of the President to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act, and published a critical and trenchant review of the opinion of ChiefJustice Taney in the Merryman case. He arrayed himself with Joel Parker, of Massa chusetts, upon the side of the President, and waved his glittering blade over the heads of
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a host of distinguished adversaries, among whom was such a man as Benjamin Robbins Curtis, with a vigor born of the sincerity and depth of his convictions. Whatever view jurists may take of this controversy, — and there now appears to be but one from a Constitutional standpoint, — no one can with hold his admiration from this legal patriarch, contending almost single-handed in defence of the President, and casting his ancient but unrusted sword into the scale of a tottering government. • Such, then, was Mr. Binney, — as a law yer, accomplished and profound, never dis appointing and often surpassing expectation; as an advocate, eloquent, earnest, and selfpossessed, of fine figure, rich and melodi ous voice, graceful and animated in gesture, winning the confidence of courts by entire freedom from tricks and the low arts of cunning, disdaining strategy and artifice, and truckling to no prejudices: a man of intuitive judgment, a wise and safe coun sellor, an incorruptible trustee, a model citi zen, and an earnest Christian. Shadows there were upon this character, which without them would be more than human; but they are trifling, and serve but to give tone to the picture. He was cold, reserved, and unsym pathetic. He had no impulsive warmth or impetuous generosity of temperament. He viewed everything dispassionately and calmly, and sought nothing but the legal truth, by methods which seemed impersonal. Thus he became the more admirable as a lawyer, while less lovable and popular as a citize n . Here fair criticism must end. His exalted rank in the profession was won by merit and hard work; and the veneration in which he was held by all who knew him, and the reputation which his name enjoys, constitute a monument to his integrity and virtues, which will not per ish but endure. He died on the 1 2th of August, I875, aged ninety-five years seven months and eight days. Fortunate senex, tua rura manebunt.
