354 HORACE BINNEY. 



new field of parliamentary debate ; but he only appeared in it on 

 great occasions, to the height of which he always rose. The removal 

 of the deposits of the Treasury from the United States Bank by 

 General Jackson, in open defiance of law, and the threatening state 

 of our relations with France, caused by the passionate violence of 

 language of that headstrong magistrate, were the chief subjects which 

 called forth Mr. Binney's eloquent resistance. At the adjournment 

 of that Congress he retired from the political arena, determined never 

 to enter it again. 



From Washington he returned to the practice of his profession, in 

 which he continued actively engaged for about ten years longer. 

 Then he withdrew from the conflicts of the bar ; but for several years 

 longer acted as Chamber Counsel, and gave opinions in cases of legal 

 difficulty, which were not unseldom accepted as final judgments by 

 the parities in interest. His last appearance at the bar was when 

 the attempt was made in 1844 to invalidate the will of Stephen Girard, 

 as an attack ujiou Christianity. Mr. Binney was matched against Mr. 

 Webster, who brought all the power of his thunderous eloquence to 

 defend the Christian religion against this assault of the French infidel 

 banker. Mr. Binney confined himself to a lucid exposition of the law 

 of charitable bequests and its application to this case. The Supreme 

 Court of the United States unanimously went with the lawyer and not 

 with the orator, and maintained the validity of the will. It was a fitting 

 occasion for the last words in court of a great lawj'^er. But, thougli Mr. 

 Binney kept himself thus free from entanglement with politics, and 

 gave himself with this entire dedication to the law, it was not because 

 he did not take a deep interest in political questions. He alwavs gave 

 the weight of his private and personal influence on the side he deemed 

 the right one. His academic and professional education falling in the 

 midst of the excitements of the French Revolution, and at the time of 

 the birth of the political parties which sprung from that tremendous 

 event, Mr. Binney began life as a Jeffersonian Democrat. His guardian. 

 Dr. David .Jackson, in whose familv he lived, was one of the strong- 

 est opponents of the administration of Washington ; and every 

 domestic influence must have been on that side. But when he 

 began to examine opinions and practices for himself, as his mind 

 developed itself, he joined the Federal party from conviction of the 

 truth of its pi'inciples and the purity of its purposes ; and he remained 

 faithful to it through evil report and good report, as long as it had 

 a name to live. When the war of the Rebellion broke out, Mr. 

 Binney, though more than eighty years of age, stood by the Union 



