learning, led to a day of results and triumphs; he soon became one of the most popular lawyers in western New York. His intellectual and moral constitution, his education, his habits and his sympathies, all conspired to render him a favorite with "the sovereigns," and while he continued at the bar he was emphatically the people's lawyer, whom they have delighted to elevate and honor. He has represented them in Congress, and for many years has pronounced the laws for them from the bench, and they have recently given another proof of their confidence by placing him for a term of years upon the bench of the highest court in the State.

In 1835, Judge Grover, prompted by his confidence in Mr. Angel's legal attainments and abilities, prevailed upon him to remove to Angelica, and enter into business with him. This arrangement was fortunate for both parties; it combined strength of intellect, long experience and research, which soon brought the well-deserved emoluments of ardent professional devotion. The firm of Angel & Grover, during a period of nine years, was engaged in nearly every important case which was tried at the Angelica bar-a bar by no means inferior in ability and versatility of talent.

From the days when Ambrose Spencer sat upon its bench down to the present time, it has been an arena where the most gifted intellects of the State have contended, and there every kind of legal combat has been witnessed. There, John C. Spencer, S. A. Talcott, J. A. Collier, Luther C. Peck, John B. Skinner, Henry Wells, Robert Campbell, George Miles, Fletcher M. Haight, Martin Grover, and William G. Angel, have contended.

It was the fortune of Mr. Grover not only to contend with these eminent lawyers, but with a class equally powerful who came to the bar after themmen like David Rumsey, Wilkes Angel, M. B.

Champlain, Washington Barnes, S. G. Hathaway, Ward, Hawley, and others.

The firm of Angel & Grover continued until the year 1843, when it was dissolved, and Mr. Angel formed a copartnership with his son, Hon. Wilkes Angel, now of Belmont. This relation continued to exist until 1847, when the senior partner was elected county judge of Allegany county.

In 1846, Judge Angel was elected a delegate to represent Allegany county in the constitutional convention which met at Albany on the first day of June, 1846. The proceedings of that convention attest the ability and labor with which he devoted himself to the discharge of his duties.

As chairman of the committee on the appointment or election of all officers whose power and duties are local, and their tenure of office, he performed severe as well as delicate duties. The report on the matters submitted to that committee, which he made to the convention on the fifteenth of July, 1846, was a document prepared with masterly skill and ability, and reveals the vast amount of labor and investigation which it required and he gave.

Of the many speeches which Mr. Angel delivered in the convention, the one which he made on the ninth of June, on the qualification and the duties of the executive, was not excelled by any speech on that subject in the convention. His speeches on the apportionment on the election and tenure of office of the Legislature on the judiciary articles-on the canals and finances, and on the rights of married women, were pregnant with practical, useful and liberal suggestions, and furnished the convention with a fund of valuable information which greatly aided the members in their deliberations.

With the adjournment of this convention, Mr. Angel resumed his professional duties. But he was not permitted to continue long in practice. In June, 1847, he was elected county judge of Allegany coun

ty. He discharged the duties of that office in the most acceptable manner four years and a half, and then retired forever from all public duties.

The learning, experience, ability, sound sense and impartiality which he brought to the bench, rendered him a favorite with the bar, and inspired the community with a general respect for him.

Judge Angel died at Angelica, on the thirteenth day of August, 1858, in the sixty-seventh year of his age.

Through life, his manners and habits were plain and unassuming; he delighted in the society and conversation of the learned and the intelligent. The sunny playfulness of his nature remained undimmed by the approach of age, giving peculiar grace to the autumn of his life, for it seemed like hoarded treasure, purified by the ordeal through which it had passed, "preserving his mind fresh and green from the frosts which bowed his form and whitened his locks."

Down to the latest period of his life, books were his delight, and when the author pleased him, he read and re-read his productions, gathering new beautics with each repeated reading; and thus the sun of his life went down, clear and unclouded.

BENJAMIN F. BUTLER.

-

Born at Kinderhook.-His Early Life.-Is Sent to Hudson Academy.-Makes the
Acquaintance of a Young Lawyer.-Friendship of the Lawyer for him, and the
Reasons.-Butler becomes a Student in his Office.-The Lawyer's Career.-Is
Elected to the Senate.-Martin Van Buren, at Hudson.-Removes to Albany.-
Hostility of the Federalists to him.-Boswell's Description of Wilberforce applies
to him. His Characteristics.-Butler Accompanies him to Albany and Continues
his Studies with him.-Butler as a Law Student.-Unites with Dr. Chester's
Church.-Incidents.-Is Admitted to the Bar, and becomes a Partner of Mr. Van
Buren. His Marriage.-The Cases of Wilkes 7. Lion, and Varick v. Johnson.-
The Medcef-Eden Case.-Aaron Burr Associated in the Cases with Butler and
Van Buren.-Interesting History of the Cases.-Butler's Early Cases in the
Supreme Court and Court of Errors.-Appointed District-Attorney.-Appointed
to Revise the Statutes of the State with John C. Spencer and John Duer.-The
work which Butler Performed on the Commission.-The manner in which the
work was Performed.-Character of the Work.-Adopted in other States and in
England.-Butler Elected to the Assembly.-His Labors in that Body.-John C.
Spencer and Ambrose L. Jordan in the Senate.-Character of the latter.-Regent
of the University.- Butler Tendered the Office of United States Senator.-
Declines.-Appointed a Commissioner with Theodore Frelinghuysen to Settle
Difficulties with New Jersey.-Appointed Attorney-General of the United States.
-Popularity of this Appointment.-Appointed Secretary of War in Jackson's
Cabinet.-Holds both Offices.-Butler's Opinions as Attorney-General.-Felix
Grundy. His Opinion of Butler.-President Van Buren.-Butler Resigns his
Seat in the Cabinet.-Subsequently Resigns the Office of Attorney-General.-
Removes to the City of New York.-Resumes the Practice of Law.-Is Tendered
the Office of Secretary of War under Mr. Polk.-Declines.-Death of Mr. Butler's
Wife. He Visits Europe.-Sudden Return, and the Cause.-Mr. Butler and Judge
Kent Engaged in the great Case of Levit v. Curtis.-Butler's labors in it.-Effect
on his Health.-Butler's Professional Life Referred to by Judge Kent.-Other
Incidents in his Life.-His Literary Tastes and Acquirements.-Characteristics as
a Lawyer.-Visits Europe.-Interview with Judge Kent before Sailing.-Travels
on the Continent.-Reaches Paris.-Sudden Death.

BENJAMIN F. BUTLER was born at Kinderhook
landing, in the county of Columbia, on the 17th day
of December, 1795. His father began life as a me
chanic, but subsequently became a merchant.

He

was a man of strict integrity, industrious in his vocation, and honorable in his relations to the society in which he lived.

The early years of young Butler were passed in attending a common district school and aiding his father in his store. He is represented as a boy of respectful manners and of an intellectual turn of mind. While engaged in the store, he became a favorite of a Presbyterian clergyman whose residence was near his father's. He was a man of great piety, generous and high-toned, liberally educated, and endowed with those qualities which are naturally attractive to young and ardent minds.

This good man duly appreciated the constitution and susceptibilities of Butler's mind, and inscribed upon it traces of light and beauty which were never effaced. He sowed in it those seeds of religious truth which bore abundant fruit in after years. From this clergyman Benjamin received his first knowledge of books, and his first impressions concerning the pleasures and business of life; by him he was taught to explore the records of past ages, in order to observe the footsteps, not only of conquerors, statesmen, and orators, but of the benefactors of the human race, "martyrs to the interests of freedom and religion, men who have broken the chain of the captive, who have traversed the earth to bring consolation to the cell of the prisoner, and whose lofty faculties have explored and revealed useful and ennobling truths." At fourteen, Benjamin was sent to the Hudson Academy. His mental endowments, close application and pleasing manners gained him many friends, and he was regarded as a promising scholar.

A few years previous to this, a young lawyer who had practiced some time in a small village in Columbia county, received the appointment of surrogate of that county, and removed to Hudson. He had the reputation of being a young man of much promise, and had already gained a respectable position at a