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 v. 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

bar where William W. Van Ness, Elisha Williams, Thomas P. Grosvenor, and Jacob Rutsen Van Rensselaer were the ruling spirits. These gentlemen were Federalists, distinguished at home and abroad, not only for their legal ability, but also for their political influence. But the young lawyer was an active Democrat; and as this was a period when political dissensions were peculiarly bitter, he was compelled to contend in the political, as well as legal arena, against these powerful men. For him, the struggle was trying, and the labor intense, for he had no powerful friends and no wealth to aid in the unequal contest. But he belonged to the people, his sympathies were with them, and they in turn regarded him with favor. With this advantage, and by the most unwearied exercise of his abilities he held his ground, gaining each day in strength, popularity, and in the confidence of the community.

At the period when Butler became a student at Hudson, this lawyer had just been elected to the State Senate against a distinguished Federal politician, and in spite of a strong opposition. It was, therefore, to him, a day of triumph and rejoicing. Among those who aided him in achieving this success was the elder Butler, who had long been his intimate friend.

The senator elect extended the friendship and esteem which he felt for the father, to the son, and often invited the latter to his office and house, encouraged him in his studies, and saw with pleasure his rapid progress. When finally his academic course ended, the lawyer took him into his office as a student at law. The intimacy thus begun never ended in life.

Step by step the advocate ascended to the summit of fame, and indelibly wrote his name on the page of his country's history; that name is Martin Van Buren. The student followed closely in his footsteps; and though he did not ascend as high as his perceptor, he has yet left a bright and imperishable name, and a

personal history instructive to the student, the lawyer, and the statesman.

In the spring of 1816, Van Buren moved to Albany, where he entered upon his extraordinary professional career. His devotion to the Democratic party, his incessant efforts in its behalf, subjected him to the fierce attacks of the proud and powerful Federal leaders, who early foresaw that he must be disposed of ere he became a lion in the pathway. No effort was spared which tended to his political and even social degradation. His humble origin was often referred to in language of contempt, his want of early education was enlarged upon, his character traduced, and his talents depreciated. Being slight in form and moderate in stature, his person was also sneered at; but those who watched his career attentively were reminded of Boswell's description of Wilberforce, when addressing the electors of York from the hustings. After his triumphant return in 1784, "I saw," says Boswell, what seemed a mere shrimp mount upon the table; but as I listened, he grew and grew, until the shrimp became a whale." So with Van Buren; the Federal leaders adhering to the custom in politics, denounced him as feeble in intellect, -as a shrimp mentally and physically; but at the bar, in the popular assembly, his eloquence and thought caught the attention of court, jurors, and electors, and he rapidly passed beyond the reach of his assailants, who beheld him occupy one distinguished position after another until he reached the highest in the nation.

That the Federal leaders detected faults in the political character of Mr. Van Buren, cannot be denied; for with his consummate skill and abilitywith his strength of character as a statesman, he possessed those unscrupulous arts without which political power is rarely attained. One of the secrets of his success was the skill and discernment with which he selected his friends. In this, he imitated the