who with each passing year constantly increased in the esteem and confidence of the public, can find few if any faults that are worth to be recorded. They may have had the passions, the prejudices, the cupidity and jealousy of others, but they must have held them in control while in the discharge of their high functions.

Judge Beardsley, after retiring from the bench as chief justice of the Supreme Court, though not engaged in as many cases as some others, was counsel in nearly all of the most important cases in the Court of Appeals-causes involving from thousands to millions of dollars. In speaking of his ability, the late Nicholas Hill once said: "I had been retained as counsel in a very important cause, with the liberty of choosing my colleague from the ablest in the country, and without hesitation I selected Judge Beardsley."

In the elegant language of an eminent judicial officer of the State-Judge R. W. Peckham, “Judge Beardsley knew men and the springs of human action; he was able to inspire them with a portion of the same spirit that fired his own bosom. He had really more of the General Jackson in him than any of the public men that survived the old hero."

Eminent as he was in ability, he was not less distinguished for the high toned, manly integrity that characterized every act of his life. To say that he was honest, conveys no adequate conception. Fidelity and truth were in every element of his nature. Many lawyers deem it entirely admissible, in preparing amendments to bills of exceptions, to speculate upon the forgetfulness, the possible partiality or fear of appearing ridiculous, of the judge who tried the cause. Judge Beardsley was not of that number. The late Joshua A. Spencer, who had practiced law in the same town with him for a quarter of a century, in alluding to the chivalrous integrity of Judge Beardsley, observed to me that he never felt called upon to examine with much care bills of exceptions or amend

ments from him, as he knew they were always prepared with a scrupulous regard for the truth of the case, as it occurred on the trial. Nor was he in the habit, on the argument of cases, of expressing his own opinion to the court as to the merits of his cause. He chose to prove the case in the legitimate model of authority and argument.

Though a candidate at various times for popular favor, in fact a public man, he never sought popularity by changing in the slightest degree from that urbane dignity and manly mien, the opposite of that of a demagogue, that always marked his carriage. He never could sink down into the sycophant-there was nothing of servility, nothing of hypocrisy, nothing of sham in the man. A delicate modesty always shone with peculiar grace upon the hardier features of his character."

Judge Beardsley died at Utica on the 7th day of May, 1860. He continued at the bar until a short time before his death. Two weeks before that event, he appeared in the Court of Appeals, and in a case involving many intricate questions, made an argument to which the bench and the bar listened with pleasure and profit.

In person he was tall and commanding; there was that in his presence which evinced superiority; and yet there was no repelling or chilling reserve in his manner. His features indicated thought, intellect and firmness, while his high forehead developed high moral and reflective faculties. On the bench, he was dignified and courteous; his manner of listening to an argument elicited the confidence of the speaker, and drew from him all that he desired the court to understand.

"In private life, he was social and hospitable, in his family kind and tender; no man enjoyed the society of his friends so perfectly as he did. 'Having completed the business of the day, it was peculiarly grateful to him to meet them in the confidence of

private friendship, and then he was a most pleasing companion.' But he was 'lofty and sour to those who loved him not,' and to his enemies, those few, who in life, crossed his path in hatred, he was implacable-sometimes aggressive in his resentmenthe knew how to be a turbulent and persistent hater."

He was a firm believer in the Christian religion, unostentatiously devoted to the observance of its worship. He had little respect for loud and stormy professions of religion, believing that deep and ardent piety, while it is intended to act powerfully on our whole nature-on the heart as well as on the understanding and the conscience, is generally noiseless and seeks no display.

If there is one among all the great judges who have adorned the bench and bar of New York, to whose memory the language of eulogy and even panegyric is due, it is that of SAMUEL BEARDSLEY.

WILLIAM L. MARCY.

Birth and Parentage.-Enters Leicester Academy in the midst of the Excitement between Jefferson and the Federalists.-Mr. Adams, the Principal, a Strong Federalist.-Young Marcy an Admirer of Jefferson.-The Debating Club.-Jefferson Attacked in it.-Marcy Defends him.-Reasons for Jefferson's Popularity.— Interview between Dr. Adams and Marcy.-The former Demands that Marcy shall Cease Defending Jefferson in the Debating Society.-Respectful but firm Answer of Marcy.-The Expulsion.-Returns to his Parents.-Is Commended for his Firmness by them.-Enters College.-Graduates.-Removes to Troy, and Commences the Study of Law.-Admitted to the Bar.-His Professional Progress not Flattering.-Continues to Study.-Slow increase of Business.-War with England.-Marcy Second in Command of the Troy Light Infantry.-Tenders that Company to Governor Tompkins.-Is accepted.-The Company in active Service at French Mills.-Marcy assigned to lead the Attack on Fort Saint Regis.-The March. The Sentinels.-The Attack.-The Contest, and the Victory. The Trephies and the Prisoners.-General Dearborn.-Marcy's Company Attached to Colonel Pike's Regiment.-Colonel Pike Attacks the works of the British at Le Colle.-Marcy's Company Attacks the Indians with Slaughter.-Repulse of Pike. -Marcy's Time of Service Expires, and he Returns to his Profession.-Finds his Clients Scattered.-His Want of Professional Industry.-His Personal Appearance at this Period.-The Troy Female Seminary.-Mr. Marcy and the Ladies.Marcy and the Heiress.-His Friendship for her.-No Romance in the case.-Is Reported to Faculty as Paying his Address to her.-The Elopement.-The Excitement.-The Pursuit.-The Parties Found, but no Elopement.-Chagrin of the Pursuers.-Astonishment of Marcy on learning that he has Eloped.-Great Merriment.-The Lady Graduates.-Meets Marcy at Washington with her Husband Years Afterward.-The Introduction.-Marcy as a Writer.-Effect of his Writings.-Martin Van Buren and Mr. Marcy.-Is Appointed Recorder of Troy.-Opposes De Witt Clinton.-Threatened Removal from the Office of Recorder. The Removal.-Marcy Dependent on his Profession.-Is the Author of the Celebrated Address to Bucktail Members of the Legislature.-Appointed Adjutant-General of the State.-Appointed Comptroller.-The Finances of the State.-Supports Judge Rochester for Governor against Clinton.-Who was the Author of Jackson and Van Buren's Messages?-John Woodworth Resigns his Seat on the Bench of the Supreme Court.-Marcy Appointed in his Place.Appointed to Hold the Lockport Oyer and Terminer for the Trial of Morgan's Abductors.-The Trial of Colonel Jewett.-Orsamus Turner, the principal Witness against Jewett.-Refuses to Testify.-Exciting and Thrilling Scene.-The Imprisonment.-Character of Judge Marcy as a Judicial Writer.-Contrast between Burke and Marcy.-Opinion of Judge Marcy in the case of the People v. Mather.-Judge Marcy appointed United States Senator.-His Reply to Mr. Clay in Defense of Van Buren.-He Sustains Jackson in his Policy.-Marcy at Harrisburgh.-Public Honors.-Speech.-Marcy Nominated and Elected Governor.

His Administration.-His Messages.-His Repeated Election.-John Tracy.George Thompson.-Abolitionism.-Martin Van Buren, President of the United States. Troubles of his Administration.-Marcy Retires to Private Life.-Appointed Commissioner to Settle the Mexican Claims.-Great Defeat of the Democracy, 1840.-Marcy presides at State Democratic Convention in 1843.-Is appointed Secretary of War under Polk.-Mexican War.-Trouble with Generals Scott and Taylor.-Secretary of State under Pierce.--The Affair of Martin Kosta.-Captain Ingraham.-Correspondence with the Austrian Minister.-Marcy Retires to private Life.-His Manner of Life.-His Singular Death.-Reflections on his Character.

WILLIAM L. MARCY was born at Sturbridge, now Southbridge, Worcester county, in the State of Massachusetts, December 12, 1786. He was descended from one of the oldest families in his native State. His father was Jedediah Marcy, a respectable farmer in comfortable circumstances. When William was in his fifteenth year, he was sent to an institution at Leicester, Massachusetts, known as the Adams' Academy, for the purpose of preparing for college.

At this time, the struggle between the Federalists and the Democrats or Jeffersonians was beginning to attain that point of uncompromising bitterness, which eventually rendered it memorable in the history of the nation.

Mr. Adams, the principal of the academy, notwithstanding his many virtues and his rare qualifications, was a strong and even bigoted Federalist, though honest and well-meaning; while young Marcy had inherited from his father, those strong Democratic tendencies which grew with his growth and strengthened with his years.

Thomas Jefferson was then the coming man; his simple manners, his opposition to the aristocratic tendencies of the Federal leaders, then exhibited itself "in combing his hair out of pigtails, discarding hair' powder, wearing pantaloons instead of breeches, fastening his shoes with strings instead of elaborate buckles, and putting fine gentlemanism quite out of his heart." All this was pleasing, nay, captivating to those who preferred plain republicanism to