BLAKE, EDWARD. 



59 



elected, in 1854, for a full term, fifteen years. 

 On the accession of James Buchanan to the 

 presidency, in 1857, Judge Black became At- 

 torney-General. He was very industrious and 

 successful, in connection with Edwin M. Stan- 

 ton, in protecting the interests of the nation 

 against false claimants to grants of land made 

 by the Mexican Government to settlers in 

 California before that country came under 

 the control of the United States. When the 

 secession crisis arrived, Judge Black showed 

 himself to be considerably in advance of the 

 weak and vacillating President. Buchanan 

 held that there was no authority which could 

 coerce a State, if it chose to secede and set 

 up as an independent government for itself. 

 His Attorney-General was clear that it was 

 the absolute duty of the Government to put 

 down insurrection anywhere and everywhere, 

 under whatever plea or pretense it might be 

 attempted to be justified, and that the Con- 

 stitution contained no provision for a disso- 

 lution of the Union by secession or in any 

 other wise. Gen. Cass having resigned as 

 Secretary of State in December, 1860, Judge 

 Black was appointed to fill the vacancy, Edwin 

 M. Stanton taking the post of Attorney-Gen- 

 eral. He occupied this position during the 

 remainder of Buchanan's administration, and 

 it is claimed, in his behalf, by those intimately 

 acquainted with the history of that critical 

 period, that he was mainly instrumental in 

 saving the Government from absolute disrup- 

 tion and falling into the hands of the seces- 

 sionists. 



In March, 1861, when Abraham Lincoln be- 

 came President, Judge Black retired from 

 public life. He was appointed United States 

 Supreme Court Reporter, but soon resigned 

 that position, and entered again upon the 

 practice of law at his home, near York, Pa. 

 He was engaged in several prominent law- 

 suits during the last twenty years of his life, 

 and retained his vigor and professional skill 

 even to the close of his career. The Vander- 

 bilt will contest, the Milliken case, and the 

 McGarrahan claim, were among the more 

 noted cases in which he was engaged. Be- 

 sides more strictly professional duties, Judge 

 Black found time for contributing to current 

 literature. He furnished an account of the 

 Erie railway litigation, argued the third-term 

 question in magazine articles, and had a lively 

 newspaper discussion with Jefferson Davis. 



Judge Black generally enjoyed good health, 

 but an operation having become necessary, it 

 was successfully performed, yet superinduced 

 pyaemia, which was the immediate cause of his 

 death. His religious views were those of the 

 Campbellites, or Disciples of Christ. He left 

 a wife, two sons, and two daughters, these last 

 being married. One of his sons was elected 

 Lieutenant- Governor of Pennsylvania, in 1882 ; 

 the other resides in Texas and is a lawyer. 



BLAKE, Hon. Edward, a Canadian lawyer and 

 statesman, born in the county of Middlesex, 



Ontario, in October, 1833. He is of Irish ex- 

 traction, being descended, on his father's side, 

 from the Blakes of Cashelgrove, Gal way, and 

 on his mother's from William Hume, M. P. for 

 Wicklow, who during the rebellion of 1798 

 was shot by a party of rebels of whom he was 

 in pursuit. William Hurne Blake, his father, 

 emigrated to Canada immediately after his 

 marriage, and took up his residence near Pe- 

 terborough. He was accompanied by his bro- 

 ther, a clergyman of the Episcopal Church ; 

 and on the appointment of the latter to a 

 charge in the county of Middlesex, both fami- 

 lies migrated westward, and settled in what 

 was then an almost unbroken forest. Here 

 Edward Blake was born, in a log-cabin ; but 

 the family removed to Toronto when he was a 

 year old, and there his father became an emi- 

 nent lawyer. The son followed, professionally, 

 very closely in his footsteps, as did also his 

 younger brother, Samuel Hume Blake, who 

 never entered public life, but was raised at a 

 very early age to the post of Vice-Chancellor 

 in the court over which his father formerly 

 presided. 



Edward Blake was educated" at Upper Cana- 

 da College and University College, Toronto, 

 and graduated in the University of Toronto. 

 He was called to the bar in 1856, and rose with 

 extraordinary rapidity to the very foremost 

 position as a chancery practitioner; and dur- 

 ing the ten years which elapsed before confed- 

 eration took place he had gained such a position 

 that he became, in 1867, a candidate for elec- 

 tion at once to the House of Commons of the 

 Dominion and to the Legislative Assembly of 

 Ontario. In both positions he astonished even 

 his most intimate friends by his extraordinary 

 capacity for work. He was chosen leader of 

 the Opposition in the t)ntario Assembly very 

 soon after it began its course, and during the 

 whole of the first parliamentary term, though 

 at the head of a small minority of the House, 

 he kept the ministry almost constantly at a 

 disadvantage. He frequently introduced bills 

 which his legal experience and political saga- 

 city suggested, and many of these were voted 

 down, at the instance of the Government, 

 only to be taken up afterward and carried 

 through as Government measures. One of 

 the principles which Mr. Blake most persist- 

 ently kept before the public was the obligation 

 resting on the Government to give the people's 

 representatives as much detailed knowledge as 

 possible of the destination of public moneys 

 before they are voted by Parliament. This 

 very principle was the final issue on which the 

 Sandfield-Macdonald Government was defeated 

 in 1871, and it therefore became the most, im- 

 portant plank in the platform of its successor. 

 Of the bills first introduced by Mr. Blake, and 

 afterward taken up by the Government, was 

 that which provided for the trial of contested 

 elections by the courts instead of by partisan 

 committees of Parliament. This system came 

 into operation for the first time in the Prov- 



