broke out he was a Union Democrat, always speaking in defense of the integrity of the Union and insisting that the rebellion must be put down at all hazards. He was in frequent consultation with President Lincoln and members of the Cabinet, who often sought his legal advice and generally acted upon it. When the crew of the rebel priva teer "Jefferson Davis " were convicted and sentenced to be hanged as pirates in 1861, Judge Daly met the President and his Cabinet and urged that they be pardoned and exchanged as prisoners of war. He reasoned that as a question of law there was no difference between the Southern soldier fighting the Union soldiers on land and the Southern privateer capturing our ships afloat. His arguments were so impres sive that the President asked him to put them in the form of a letter, which he did, publishing it. Three days afterwards the President adopted his views and the prisoners were exchanged. A few evenings after the seizure of Mason and Slidell, Judge Daly was dining with Chief Justice Chase, when the question of the right to take them from a British vessel was discussed. The Judge was the only Democrat present, except Montgomery Blair. The feeling was universal at that time that the two rebel ambassadors ought not to be given up. Judge Daly's opinion was asked by the Chief Justice, and he promptly answered : " I think we shall have to surrender them. Their seizure would be perfectly justifiable by the Eng lish law, but not by our own; I think that our cases are against us." The Judge prom ised to hunt up the authorities, and he did so the next morning, finding a decision of Chief Justice Marshall that was flatly against holding the prisoners. He referred Sec retary Seward to this, and that evening he saw William M, Evarts and told him his views. Mr. Evarts did not agree with him, but Mr. Seward evidently did, for four days afterwards he published a letter
consenting to the return of Mason and Slidell to the protection of the British flag. What might have happened had this deci sion of Judge Daly's, made in the face of strong opposition, not been accepted it is not pleasant to reflect, now that the pas sions engendered by the war have passed away. At that time Sidney Bartlett, the eminent Boston lawyer, was the only per son in Washington who agreed with Judge Daly on this important question of inter national law. Chief Justice Daly was always a welcome visitant of his Century Club, whereof he was one of the founders. When its president, the gifted and honored scholar, Julian C. Verplank, died, to the Chief Justice was given the pleasant, if mournful, duty of preparing a eulogistic address. The Club, recognizing its eloquence, duly published it, and the pamphlet remains in libraries to attest the accustomed clear Saxon style of the orator and his perfect mastery of biographical skill. The Ex-Chief Justice ranks high as a conversationalist and a litterateur. Hum boldt, in his published correspondence, to be hereinafter referred to, has left a charm ing testimonial to that ranking, consequent upon meeting Chief Justice Daly in Berlin upon one of the latter's three pilgrimages to Europe. During these journeys he found his reputation was cosmopolitan. The Chief Justice married in middle age, and the wedlock proved a singularly happy one. His chosen wife was of the noted Knickerbocker Lydig family, a notable beauty in her girlhood, and to her latest matronhood charming society with her graceful majesty of mien, that was coupled with a queenly courtesy perhaps too rare of late years. She became a perfect companion as a wife, and she realized to the Chief Justice the full sense of that sweet old-fashioned word, " help-mate" : ever sympathizing in tellectually with all his pursuits, and proud of his career. Only a few months ago there
