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Joseph HopVinson. The family name of our late Vice-president 

 is intimately associated with the political and forensic history of the 

 United States. His grandfather, his father and himseilf, were in suc- 

 cession the judges of admiralty in Pennsylvania, each distinguished ^ 

 in his day. The father was a member of the Congress of 1776, 

 signed the declaration of Independence, and contributed by his per- 

 sonal influence and by the sportive sarcasm of his pen to its success 

 ful vindication. The son also was led astray, for a while, from the 

 walks of his profession by the seducements of political life, and held 

 an important and honoured place in the House of Representatives of 

 the United States, with Webster and Clay and Calhoun and Lowndes 

 for his associates and competitors in debate. 



His reputation was national, as were all his aims and wishes and 

 thoughts ; and his life truly written out would be a chapter rather 

 than an episode in the history of his country. 



He came early to the bar, with talents to achieve the highest hon- 

 ours of his profession, and with that other indispensable element of 

 success, just poverty enough to make him willing to exert them. His 

 course to eminence was rapid. His vindication of Dr. Rush from the 

 calumnies of Cobbett, his reclamation of damages at the suit of Pat 

 Lyon, and his defence of Judge Chase before the Court of Impeach- 

 ment, are among the trophies of our Philadelphia bar. He entered 

 Congress I think in 1816; but after serving for a term or two, re- 

 tired from the gladiations of politics and law to a farm near Borden- 

 town. New Jersey. 



It is the dream of every lawyer this country life. There is some- 

 thing about the excitements of our daily professional contest, its al- 

 ternations of disaster and success, each in its turn unlooked for, de- 

 pendent on contingencies that may sometimes be calculated but are 

 not often to be controlled, which, like the adventurous experience of 

 the storm-tried mariner, makes a man long for the fancied repose of 

 a farm. But the " mox reficit rates" applies in the two vocations 

 alike; in a very few years Mr. Hopkinson came back to the bar. 

 At the close of Mr. J. Q. Adams's administration, he was appointed 

 the United States Judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and 

 he retained that office till his death. While holding it he took part 

 in the convention that framed the constitution of this State, and was 

 one of the wise minority which opposed many of its present features. 



He had refined tastes, was fond of paintings and statuary, and 

 presided for many years over the Academy of Fine Arts. He wrote 

 poetry too, as gentlemen used to do fifty years ago, and perhaps as 



