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 A MEMOIR 
 
 OF 
 
 HORACE BINNEY, Jr. 
 
 READ AT A MEETING OF THE 
 
 UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA, 
 
 June i, 1870, 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES J. STILLE. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 HENRY B. ASHMEAD, BOOK AND JOB PRINTER, 
 
 Nos. 1 102 AND 1 1 04 Sansom Street. 
 
A MEMOIR 
 
 OP 
 
 HORACE BINNEY, Jr. 
 
 READ AT A MEETING OF THE 
 
 UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA, 
 
 June i, 1870, 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES J. STILLE. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 HENRY B. ASHMEAD, BOOK AND JOB PRINTER, 
 
 Nos. iioa AND 1 104 Sansom Street. 
 
■ BOSS'S 
 
 The following Memoir of Mr. Binney, with the exception of 
 those portions relating to his connexion with the Union League, was 
 read May 7, 1870, before the American Philosophical Society. By 
 the permission of that Society it was again read (with the additions 
 above referred to) before the members of The Union League and 
 their friends, June i, 1870. y 
 
 /^ 
 
 •/^V 
 
MEMOIR 
 
 It is not often that the judgment of a man's life and 
 character by the world agrees with that of his intimate 
 friends. By the world, success in life is too often 
 measured by results which strike most forcibly the 
 popular imagination ; — it means a large fortune, a bril- 
 liant professional reputation, opportunities eagerly 
 sought and adroitly taken advantage of for gaining 
 prominent public positions. To his friends on the 
 other hand, a man may be most endeared and best re- 
 membered by qualities of which the world knows noth- 
 ing, or at best knows them only as they are seen in the 
 perfect symmetry of his life. Happy is the memory 
 of him who, dying, forces the world to forsake for once 
 the false standards by which it commonly judges char- 
 acter, and extorts from it an involuntary homage to 
 what is real and true in human life. I think that the 
 career of our late friend and colleague, Mr. Binney, is 
 an illustration of this rare coincidence between the 
 opinion of the world and that of a man's inner circle of 
 friends. Here was a man who won none of the great 
 prizes of life as the world counts them, who was not a 
 successful politician, who never aspired to high official 
 position, or gained great professional reputation, who 
 had none of the arts which please the multitude, who 
 was simply a man of warm sympathies, and generous 
 culture, striving to do his duty in the fear of God in 
 
4 
 
 that station of life in which his lot has been cast, a 
 simple-hearted, modest Christian gentleman, — and yet 
 when he dies, a voice comes to us made up of many 
 voices, proclaiming that his conception of life was a 
 just one, and that such a life is worthy of our affec- 
 tionate commemoration. 
 
 Horace Binney, Junior, was born in Philadelphia, 
 on the 2 1 St of January, 1809. He was the eldest son 
 of the Honorable Horace Binney, and one of the 
 many blessings of his life was, that during the whole 
 of it he felt himself supported by the wise counsel, the 
 sure guidance, and the lofty example of such a Father. 
 The influence of Fathers upon their children, is I fear, 
 declining in this age and country, but in this case the 
 deep yet discriminating affection of the Father for the 
 son, and the profound filial reverence of that son 
 towards the Father, forms a picture as attractive and 
 suggestive, as unhappily in our experience it is rare. 
 Such a relationship between two such men continued 
 for threescore years could not be without an important 
 influence on both. By the younger, at least, it was 
 felt as a power which he never referred to except to 
 speak of it with gratitude, as having happily controlled 
 the whole course of his life. 
 
 As a boy, Mr. Binney was of a serious and thought- 
 ful turn. His love of study, and his exquisite moral 
 sense were developed simultaneously, and they soon 
 became blended in that perfect harmony which formed 
 the great charm of his character in his maturer years. 
 He was somewhat shy and retiring in his disposition, 
 and possibly a constitution never very robust may have 
 unfitted him for those boyish sports for the keenest 
 
enjoyment of which high animal spirits are essential. 
 His studies began in the school of Mr. James Ross, 
 and under the training of that most accomplished 
 teacher he gained great proficiency in the Greek and 
 Latin Classics. In this school, among his friends 
 and associates, were the late Professor Henry Reed, 
 Charles Chauncey, a young man of great promise, cut 
 off in early manhood, and the Rev. Dr. Hare — and 
 they remained his friends until death divided them. 
 "He was remarkable among his school-mates" says 
 the last survivor of these companions, *' for the quali- 
 ties which distinguished him in after life. He was to 
 an unusual degree just, regular and industrious. I 
 have no remembrance of his having ever missed a 
 lesson or incurred a censure." 
 
 Mr. Binney entered the Freshman class in Yale 
 College, in the autumn of 1824, in his sixteenth year. 
 Although he was with one exception, the youngest 
 member of a class nearly one hundred strong, his at- 
 tainments in the classics were far beyond those required 
 by the College rules for admission. This proficiency 
 gave him of course a great advantage at the start, and 
 was no doubt one cause of his high standing in his 
 class. I well remember years afterwards at Yale a tra- 
 dition, that Mr. Binney's class was one of the most 
 brilliant which had ever passed through that College, 
 and in this class he carried off the highest honors. 
 Those who know what is meant at Yale by that dis- 
 tinction, can best estimate not merely the attainments, 
 but the force of character required in a boy of twenty 
 years of age to reach it. His friends at College, like 
 his friends at school, seem to have been chosen from 
 those whose subsequent career proves his early dis- 
 
criminating judgment of character. I need mention 
 only the names of two of our most eminent colleagues, 
 Mr. Justice Strong, and Dr. Barnard, President of 
 Columbia College, who were his class-mates, and his 
 life-long friends, in illustration of what I have said. 
 
 Perhaps however, the most powerful influence in 
 moulding his character at this period of his life, came 
 from a source outside the College. During the four 
 years of his residence there, not a week passed on some 
 day of which a letter was not written by the Father to 
 the son, or by the son to the Father. Such a corres- 
 pondence could never have been maintained without 
 that profound mutual confidence in each other which 
 was a striking characteristic of both. It had too the in- 
 estimable advantage of making the Father and the son 
 better known to each other, and one of its results was, 
 that the Father who had been the most careful and 
 judicious of parents while his boy was at College, re- 
 garded him from the time he left to the day of his 
 death as a younger brother rather than a son. 
 
 It is not to be supposed that because Mr. Binney 
 attained the highest college honors, he had no time or 
 inclination for studies beyond the ordinary curriculum. 
 Although a firm believer to the last, in the simply dis- 
 ciplinary value of a thorough study of the Classics and 
 the Mathematics, he never had the folly to suppose 
 that four of the most precious years of his life were to 
 be given merely to training his intellect, without stor- 
 ing his mind with knowledge, or cultivating his taste. 
 H is study of languages, and especially of Greek, led him 
 into a far wider field than that embraced by an accurate 
 knowledge of their grammar and their idioms. His 
 proficiency was such that he was able to do that which 
 
7 
 
 tew young men at College ever do, to regard the 
 ancient languages principally as the vehicles of the 
 literature of the people who spoke them. He was 
 thus led to study in the best way the civilization of the 
 free states of antiquity. No one had a finer appre- 
 ciation of what modern culture owes to Greek models. 
 He himself was thoroughly imbued with their spirit, 
 and their influence was conspicuous in liberalising his 
 views, and directing his studies all through life. 
 
 There can be, I suppose, little doubt that Mr, Bin- 
 ney's strong religious nature inclined him after he left 
 College to adopt as a profession, that of the Sacred 
 Ministry, That he acted wisely in not following this 
 inclination, no one who now looks back upon his career 
 can doubt, Mr, Binney's life as a layman was a living 
 epistle of all virtues, a daily exhibition in the midst of 
 no ordinary trials and duties, of purity, goodness, faith 
 and truth, and it is not to be doubted that the silent 
 influence of such a life upon those around him was as 
 powerful and as healthful as if he had been the most 
 brilliant professional teacher of those Divine truths, the 
 fruits of which were so conspicuous in his daily walk and 
 conversation. There is no warrant for the statement 
 which has been made, that hewished to devote himself to 
 the Ministry, and that he was persuaded by his Father 
 to study Law, His Father, no doubt wished and recom- 
 mendea it, but his intervention was confined to point- 
 ing out the priceless value of the life of a truly religious 
 layman in the world, and more particularly that among 
 such religious men in England, were to be found seve- 
 ral of her most eminent Judges and Lawyers. No one. 
 Indeed, who knows how solemn a thing duty always 
 was with Mr. BInney, and how absolute was the confi- 
 
8 
 
 dence which his Father reposed in him, can doubt that 
 the decision when arrived at was the result of his own 
 free and deliberate choice. 
 
 Mr. Binney's career as a Lawyer was not a striking 
 or brilliant one. He studied his Profession, as he did 
 everything he undertook, thoroughly and conscien- 
 tiously, and his well-trained mind, and habits of in- 
 dustry made him a master of the great principles of the 
 science. But he was never intended for a professional 
 athlete. He had none of the abundant self-assertion, 
 the eager watching of opportunity for advancement, or 
 the disposition to regard litigation as a game, the chief 
 interest of which lies in the chances of success of those 
 who conduct it, which are so characteristic of one class 
 of Lawyers, while he had not those extraordinary gifts 
 which make the fame of the truly great Lawyer, like 
 that of the great Historian, one of the rarest of intel- 
 lectual distinctions. He was however without doubt, 
 one of those who do most to secure for the Profession 
 the confidence of the Public. His nature abhorred all 
 the arts of low cunning and chicanery, or rather with a 
 certain noble simplicity, he seemed scarcely av/are of 
 their existence, and he lived in a moral atmosphere so 
 pure, that it inspired every one who approached him 
 with implicit trust and confidence. Hence in that 
 large class of cases (much larger than is commonly 
 supposed,) in which the moral qualities of the man are 
 quite as important to the interests of the client as the 
 professional skill of the lawyer, he found abundant oc- 
 cupation. He was eminently a safe counsellor, accu- 
 rate and thorough, and perfect master of any case which 
 had been confided to him. I have been assured by one 
 of the most eminent living Jurists, that there are at 
 
least two cases in our Reports in which Mr. Binney's 
 printed arguments have always seemed to him models 
 of Professional skill, showing on his part perfect fami- 
 liarity with some of the most intricate and difficult 
 questions of the Law. 
 
 Mr. Binney's extreme modesty^ and his utter aver- 
 sion to display or ostentation of any kind, confined his 
 reputation as a scholar chiefly within the limits of 
 those who knew him well. To his friends he seemed 
 always a man of genuine scholarly instincts, loving the 
 familiar intercourse of the wise, the true, and the good 
 of all ages, as a means of enriching and invigorating his 
 own nature. His memory abounded with passages 
 from his favorite I^atin authors, and he studied Greek 
 literature, and especially the Greek Scriptures in a 
 thoroughly critical spirit. I have often heard him 
 refer to certain expressions in the original, the pe- 
 culiar significance of which he thought had been lost 
 in the translation. He talked often of St. Paul as 
 one of the finest specimens of Greek culture, and noth- 
 ing could be more instructive than to listen to his an- 
 alysis of the speech before Agrippa, and of its points 
 of resemblance to the most celebrated productions of 
 the Greek orators. He referred frequently to the con- 
 nexion between Greek culture, and the spread of Chris- 
 tianity, and to the providential combination for that 
 purpose at the time of its Advent, of the Jewish or 
 Monotheistic idea of the Deity, of the Greek concep- 
 tion of the dignity of man, and of the universal Roman 
 sway. He was fond of the study of history, but its chief 
 interest to him was as a record of the dealings of God 
 with his creatures, and of the influence of the Church 
 as a divinely organized institution in the world. His 
 
lO 
 
 familiarity with ancient literature and ancient history 
 never tempted him as it has done so many scholars in 
 our day, to make it the basis of a destructive criticism 
 which would leave us no Divine revelation, and no per- 
 sonal God. If he abstained, it was not from indiffer- 
 ence, nor from a fear of the consequences, but because 
 no man ever had a clearer intellectual perception than 
 himself, of the boundaries between the domain of faith 
 and that of reason. 
 
 The classical spirit with which Mr. Binney was im- 
 bued, formed the basis of all his canons of taste and 
 criticism. He had learned at least one thing from the 
 Greeks which so many are apt to forget, and that was 
 the value of simplicity and truth in style. He had a 
 great dislike for everything that was exaggerated, abnor- 
 mal, or simply pretentious. Like Plato, he sought the 
 beautiful by striving to find the true, and nny picture 
 in which truth and reality were sacrificed to effect failed 
 to make the intended impression upon him. He thought 
 that the ancient Poets and Dramatists pourtrayed most 
 truly human emotions and passions, because their de- 
 scriptions were at least consistent and natural, and 
 because they did not present to us as real human beings, 
 those literary monsters of modern times, — '* the names 
 linked with one virtue and a thousand crimes." He 
 had the keenest perception of what was of real value, 
 either in the form or in the substance of the writings of 
 others. He especially disliked that mode of present- 
 ing or discussing a subject which was simply rhetorical, 
 passionate or sensational. Such a style offended equally 
 his moral, and his aesthetic principles. It was not true 
 because it was one-sided, aud there was no beauty to 
 him in anything which was not true. I have always 
 
1 1 
 
 regarded Mr. Binney as one of the best illustrations I 
 have ever met with, of the practical value of classical 
 studies, and I may mention here that during his long ser- 
 vice as a Trustee of the Protestant Episcopal Academy, 
 — extending over a period of nearly forty years, — and 
 as a Trustee of the University, he was unceasing in his 
 efforts to uphold their dignity, and in insisting upon 
 their value in every scheme of liberal culture.^ 
 
 It is not to be inferred from what has been said, that 
 Mr. Binney led the life of a secluded student, for he 
 felt the deepest interest in the great movements which 
 were going on around him, yet it is also true that he 
 had no ambition to occupy a prominent position in 
 public life. The arts of the politician were abhorrent 
 to every instinct of his nature, and he felt, as we all do, 
 that by these arts success is chiefly gained in a public 
 career. He was one of that class, who, observing 
 quietly the current of human affairs, are not disposed 
 
 ' The following anecdote will illustrate Mr. Binney 's familiarity with 
 Greek style. 
 
 Mr. Richard Henry Wilde, once a member of Congress from Georgia, 
 and an accomplished scholar, had written some beautiful verses beginning, 
 " My life is like the summer rose, &c.," which being published in the news- 
 papers, became widely known. Some time after, Mr. Wilde was surprised 
 to find in a Georgia newspaper, a Greek Ode purporting to have been 
 written by Alcasus, an early Eolian poet of somewhat obscure fame, and it 
 was claimed that Mr. Wilde's verses were simply a translation of this Ode, 
 the ideas in both being almost identical. As Mr. Wilde had never heard 
 of AlcKus, he was much puzzled to account for this resemblance of the 
 two poems. At the suggestion of a friend, the Greek Ode was sent to 
 Mr. Binney for examination and criticism. He at once, much to the re- 
 lief of Mr. Wilde pronounced it a forgery, pointing out wherein its style 
 differed from that of classical Greek. It turned out afterwards that the 
 Ode in question had been written by an Oxford scholar on a wager, that no 
 one in that University was sufficiently familiar with the style of the early 
 Greek poets to detect the counterfeit. To carry out this scheme, he had 
 translated Mr. Wilde's verses into Greek. 
 
I 2 
 
 to niiike vain efforts to check its course until it threat- 
 ens to sap the foundations of society, and those who 
 have hitherto guided it lie panic-striken and helpless. 
 Such men form the true reserve force of a nation ; 
 never seen, almost never thought of in days when all is 
 smooth and prosperous, they are the only guides who 
 are trusted in the crisis of danger. Mr. Binney was a 
 typical man of this class. He was forced into public 
 life when earnest men sought to purify our Municipal 
 Government, orwhen the suppression of riot and blood- 
 shed in his native city, required him to assume the 
 singularly uncongenial duties of a Captain of a Vol- 
 unteer Company. 
 
 In his religious opinions, Mr. Binney was a con- 
 servative Churchman. He had deeply studied the 
 organization and claims of the Christian Church, and 
 was strongly convinced of the rightfulness of its au- 
 thority as a Divine agency in this world. With a most 
 devout and earnest spirit he strove through this means 
 to uphold a high standard of Christian life and duty. 
 He revered the memory of the Saints and Martyrs of 
 that Church. The virtues which distinguished them — 
 child-like faith, humility, self denial, and an earnest 
 love of the weak and the lowly — were those which 
 found in him the fullest recognition and sympathy. 
 His moral instincts and his mental culture were here 
 also in perfect harmony, and his enthusiasm for Saintly 
 George Herbert, and his familiarity with Keble's Chris- 
 tian Year, which he could repeat from the beginning to 
 end, were due, not merely to his appreciation of the 
 literary merits of those Poets, but also to their praise 
 of those virtues which it had been his life-long concern 
 to cultivate. 
 
Mr. Binney's peculiar views concerning the Church 
 and its functions, modified his opinions upon many 
 important questions, especially in regard to those great 
 movements of moral reform by which the present age 
 is so strongly characterized. With an ardent desire 
 that men should grow purer and happier, his sober and 
 serious judgment made him very slow in adopting any 
 one of the plausible schemes by which it was proposed 
 to accomplish that desirable object. He was no hu- 
 manitarian. He had very little hope for the future of 
 the race outside the influence of Christian faith and 
 duty. He saw too much of the disturbing passions of 
 mankind to believe that true progress could be made 
 in any other way. In all his work for his fellow-men 
 he was guided by a principle far deeper and more 
 enduring than a vague sentiment of philanthropy, 
 and that was, obedience to a duty divinely com- 
 manded. Hence his zeal had all the characteristics 
 of duty, — courage, constancy and self-denial — and none 
 of the weaknesses attendant upon mere passionate 
 impulse. 
 
 How completely Mr. Binney's whole life was the 
 outgrowth of this principle of duty was shown by his 
 conduct during the war. He had no favorite theories 
 to establish, no passions to gratify by the subjugation 
 of the Southern people. Moreover, he was one of 
 those who, while he deplored most deeply the evils of 
 slavery, felt himself bound by the force of positive law 
 to abstain from interfering with it where it existed. 
 Yet when a gigantic conspiracy to overturn the govern- 
 ment of the country revealed itself, he regarded it with 
 almost judicial calmness, and he prepared to resist it, 
 as he would have performed any other high duty with 
 
all the manly earnestness of his nature. Shocked and 
 indignant, no doubt, he was : 
 
 " Neque enim slluisse licebat, 
 Cum passes, moerens indigna, Columbia crines 
 Et pectus lacerum et stillantia lumina monstrat." 
 
 Yet he never lost his balance : he went about his 
 work with a sober enthusiasm which was deep-rooted 
 in conscientious conviction. He never doubted or 
 wavered, nor weakly desponded, but keeping his eye 
 steadily on the end in view, he gave himself and all 
 that he had to the support of the government. Noth- 
 ing was more suggestive than the sight of this quiet, 
 undemonstrative gentleman, in active sympathy with 
 the country in danger. Of all the many schemes de- 
 vised here to give popular aid to the authorities during 
 the war, he was a most zealous promoter. He was one 
 of the founders of the Union League of this City, an 
 agency in the successful prosecution of the war, the 
 value of which I do not think it easy to over-estimate. 
 He was never unduly excited by our successes, or de- 
 pressed by our reverses, and I do not think that I ever 
 saw him more moved during the war, than when on a 
 public occasion here, he expressed his satisfaction that 
 he was at last permitted to give free play to his con- 
 victions concerning slavery, and to aid with a clear con- 
 science in its destruction. 
 
 Mr. Binney's later years were so identified with the 
 history of the Union League that any account of his 
 life would be very incomplete which did not present at 
 least a sketch of the motives which induced him to take 
 so prominent a part in its organization. I have often 
 talked with him on the peculiar relations which he bore 
 to the movement out of which it grew, and I am con- 
 
'5 
 
 fident that he never looked back upon any act of his 
 life with a more absolute conviction that he had well 
 and faithfully performed a duty, than when he recalled 
 the aid he had given in founding this Institution. I 
 propose to give some of the grounds on which this 
 conviction rested. 
 
 Mr. Binney, like every thoughtful person, was fully 
 satisfied that the only real difficulty in suppressing the 
 rebellion was to be found in the possibility of a divided 
 sentiment at the North. He knew that without the hope 
 of such a division of opinion as would paralyze our 
 efforts, no rebellion would have been possible. Previous 
 to the outbreak of hostilities, as we all remember, the 
 opinion that the Government would be unable from this 
 cause to maintain its supremacy, was shared alike by 
 those who were friendly and those who were hostile to 
 it. Most unexpectedly, for reasons not necessary to 
 recapitulate here, a wonderful unanimity was shown by 
 all classes and all parties in support of the war during 
 the first year of its continuance. Then began that 
 period of trial and despondency, which, as it has come 
 upon every country engaged in prolonged war, so it 
 came upon us. The extravagant hopes and headlong 
 confidence with which all nations, especially those with 
 a popular form of government, plunge into a war for a 
 cause which is dear to them, are chilled if the end is 
 not speedily reached. Distrust and disgust succeed 
 to the early enthusiasm, and people soon turn from 
 blaming the conduct of the war to seriously questioning 
 the policy of carrying it on at all. This is the critical 
 period of all wars waged for a principle, and the manner 
 in which it is met tests the courage and the constancy 
 of those who have embarked in it. Such a crisis oc- 
 
i6 
 
 curred in this country in the autumn of 1862. The 
 disasters in the Peninsula, the widely differing opinions 
 in regard to the capacity of the Commander of one of 
 our armies, the necessity for more troops and greater 
 sacrifices, the Emancipation Proclamation, and many 
 other causes, all going to prove that the struggle would 
 he a long and bloody one, utterly destroyed the una- 
 nimity which had up to that time prevailed among all 
 parties in regard to the necessity of its vigorous prose- 
 cution. From that period till the close of the war the 
 line which divided those who were lukewarm or indif- 
 ferent, or wholly opposed to it, from those who felt 
 that by military success alone, the difficulty could be 
 solved, grew every day clearer and more distinct. This 
 result, in the logic of events, was inevitable ; but hap- 
 pily the remedy for the great evils which this division 
 of sentiment involved was equally clear and obvious. 
 
 It is a fundamental principle established by all his- 
 torv, that war can be carried on for a lengthened 
 period, and on a large scale by a free country only 
 where the public opinion of that country is in the 
 fullest sympathy with the objects of the war. Acting 
 upon this obvious truth, Mr. Binney and his friends 
 earnestly sought the best means of organizing public 
 opinion in favor of the war in the most efficient man- 
 ner,' so that it might speak in a tone so clear and 
 decided as to leave no doubt how far the Government 
 might count upon its support. There was, of course, 
 danger that if the scheme was fully carried out it might 
 alienate some of the timid and the doubtful ; but in 
 times of revolution, earnest men do not stop at half 
 measures, nor are they tolerant of differences of opinion. 
 One of the sad necessities of such a time is that men 
 
I? 
 
 will not hesitate to sacrifice their old associations, and 
 even their dearest friends if their safety can be assured 
 in no other way. Men whose government is assailed, 
 whose homes are threatened with invasion, and whose 
 property. is exposed to plunder, have not usually been 
 thought guilty of social proscription because they felt 
 a distrust of those of their countrymen who, not shar- 
 ing.eithcr their opinions or their fears, were not disposed 
 to aid them actively in their measures of resistance. 
 There was nothing peculiar about the antagonism which 
 broke up so many social relations among us during the 
 war, unless it was that history may be searched in vain 
 for an instance in which the course of the dominant 
 party in a civil war towards those who did not sympa- 
 thize with them was marked by as much forbearance as 
 was shown here. 
 
 In view, then, of the disaffection which prevailed in 
 certain quarters, Mr. Binney and those who acted with 
 him endeavored to arrest it by maintaining a public 
 opinion which should not only be in sympathy with 
 the Government, but which should stimulate it to 
 employ all its resources in the prosecution of the war. 
 In the methods they adopted to accomplish that end, 
 they showed themselves inheritors of the true spirit of 
 English liberty, and followed the safe line of English 
 precedent. They knew that the nobles who extorted 
 Magna Charta from King John, formed themselves 
 into a " Confederacy ;" that the earnest men who threat- 
 ened to avenge the assassination of Oueen Elizabeth 
 by the death of the Pretender who hoped to gain the 
 crown on that event, were bound together by a " Bond 
 of Association;" that the patriots of the Long Parlia- 
 ment entered into a " Covenant" to resist by force cf 
 
i8 
 
 arms the tyranny of the King; that, in short, in every 
 momentous crisis of English history, the true principles 
 of the Constitution had been successfully vindicated, 
 not by the ordinary and regular course of the govern- 
 ment, but by the force of public opinion organized out- 
 side of the Government, and acting irresistibly upon 
 it, — they knew, I say, all this, they determined to 
 accomplish a like end by the same means here. As, no 
 partisan or selfish object was proposed, so no narrow 
 or exclusive policy was adopted to attain it. As the 
 danger of the country was the uppermost thought in 
 every one's mind, the platform of the new organization 
 was to be broad enough to hold all who from any 
 motive were willing to aid the Government in suppres- 
 sing the rebellion, which was the source of that danger. 
 A few representative men were found, among whom 
 Mr. Binney was one, who pledged themselves each to 
 the other to give an unwavering support to the war until 
 success crowned our efforts. Very soon afterwards, in 
 December, 1862, many others joined with them and 
 organized the Union League of Philadelphia, the 
 object of which was avowed to be " to discountenance 
 all disloyalty to the Federal Government, by moral 
 and social means, and to acquiesce in its measures for 
 the suppression of the rebellion." What the League 
 did to accomplish these objects has passed into history, 
 and need not be told by me here ; but it seems to me 
 that this is a fitting occasion to recall the perfectly pure 
 and patriotic motives of those with whom the move- 
 ment originated. Mr. Binney was in a true sense one 
 of the founders of this League. Its objects and its 
 modes of accomplishing them had his most cordial 
 sympathy; he worked hard to increase its numbers and 
 
to extend the sphere of Its usefuhiess, and he regarded 
 it as the best means of giving to his love of country 
 during the war practical shape and value. He had 
 much to do at all times with directing its policy, he 
 rejoiced in the wonderful efficiency and success of its 
 measures, and if pride ever had a place in that humble 
 heart, it was when he remembered that he had been one 
 of its early sponsors, that from the beginning he was 
 one of its Vice-presidents, and that he had been twice 
 chosen to the honored position of its President. 
 
 Mr. Binney's services during the war were not con- 
 fined, as is well known, to a hearty support of the 
 policy of the government. His active sympathy soon 
 embraced those who were called upon to defend the 
 country at the risk of their lives. He sought every 
 opportunity to promote their health, comfort and 
 efficiency. He helped to build up that great monu- 
 ment of American civilization, the United States Sani- 
 tary Commission, and he is entitled to a full share of 
 whatever honor may be due to those who organized 
 and carried on the grandest and most efficient system 
 of voluntary relief to the sick and wounded of an army 
 known in history since wars began on earth. 
 
 He was elected on the thirtieth of July, 1861, by 
 the gentlemen appointed by the President of the 
 United States, a "commission of Inquiry and Advice 
 in respect of the Sanitary Interests of the United 
 States Forces," a member of that body. His duties 
 in this position were all engrossing. To do properly 
 the work which the Commission had undertaken to do, 
 which was nothing less than an attempt to supplement 
 by the full measure of popular sympathy the deficiencies 
 of the government service in the care of the suffering 
 
20 
 
 of the Army, required something more than mere 
 devotion and zeal. If the whole project was not to 
 end by increasing the very evils it sought to remedy, 
 there was need of the utmost judgment, prudence and 
 intelligence on the part of those who managed its 
 affiiirs, in order to secure the harmonious co-operation 
 of the army officials. In shaping and directing the 
 policy of the Commission to this end, Mr. Binney 
 was always conspicuous. On many occasions during 
 its sessions in Washington, I was impressed with his 
 sound and well-considered views, not merely in regard 
 to the general objects of the Commission, but as to the 
 best methods of securing them. His judgment was 
 always so sure and calm, his counsel so wise and patri- 
 otic, that he soon gained the fullest confidence of his 
 colleagues, many of whom were among the foremost 
 men in the country. 
 
 But Mr. Binney's care for the sick and the suffering 
 of the Army during the war, did not end with this 
 general supervision of the means to be taken to im- 
 prove their condition. One of the methods adopted 
 by the Sanitary Commission to organize popular sym- 
 pathy on the v/idest basis, was the establishment of 
 branch or tributary associations in different parts of 
 the country. In pursuance of this plan, Mr. Binney 
 was instructed to organize, in December, 1861, such 
 an association in this City. By his zeal and personal 
 influence, he gathered round him many of our promi- 
 nent citizens, who desireci to aid in this great scheme of 
 Army relief Of this body, called the " Philadelphia 
 Associates," Mr. Binney was Chairman during the war, 
 and by means of its labors, more than a million and a 
 half of dollars were contributed in aid of the purpos:s 
 
21 
 
 for which the Commission was established. It is im- 
 possible, it seems to me, to recall the vast proportions 
 which this work assumed without admiration, wonder 
 and gratitude. Under Mr. Binney's wise and earnest 
 leadership, it collected vast supplies from the homes of 
 the country, and distributed them to the suffering of 
 the Army, it supplemented the needs of the Military 
 Hospitals, local and general, — it was foremost in re- 
 lieving the miseries of battle-fields ; it established a 
 Hospital Directory, by means of which the condition 
 of the suffering soldier, in any Military Hospital, 
 might become speedily known to his friends, and it 
 maintained a Bureau for the purpose of collecting the 
 soldiers' claims on the government without charge to 
 him. To carry on this great scheme, it secured large 
 contributions from our citizens, and as its crowning 
 work, it organized the Great Central Fair in 1864 — an 
 enduring memorial, not merely of the patriotism and 
 mercy of the people of Philadelphia, but also a won- 
 derful proof of their perfect trust that their vast bene- 
 factions would be wisely administered by Mr. Binney, 
 and the gentlemen associated with him. 
 
 It has sometimes been said that the war and its 
 duties, brought into active exercise qualities in many 
 men which had lain dormant all their lives, and of the 
 existence of which they themselves had hardly been 
 conscious. But in Mr. Binney's case, the war only 
 afforded an opportunity for an exhibition on a wider 
 sphere of virtues, which had been his essential charac- 
 teristics through life. He had courage, for instance, — 
 not mere coolness in the midst of danger, although he 
 possessed that to an eminent degree, — but a much 
 loftier quality, which the French call the courage of 
 
22 
 
 one's opinions. His convictions were intensely strong, 
 and when once formed, no power on earth would move 
 him. Out of every conviction grew a duty, which 
 soon brought forth fruit in an appropriate act. No 
 one who knew Mr. Binney, could doubt his perfect 
 readiness to maintain opinions so formed with the 
 courage and constancy of a martyr. And yet there 
 was at all times in him, such true modesty, and a man- 
 ner so unassuming, and almost shrinking, that to many 
 the real strength of his nature lay hidden. His large- 
 ness of view, and his innate sense of courtesy, pre- 
 served him from the slightest taint of arrogance when 
 he differed from others. Certainly, no opinions were 
 held by Mr. Binney more strongly or clearly, than 
 those concerning the nature and the functions of the 
 Church, and yet I have seen him in the most intimate 
 personal relations with representatives of almost every 
 type of thought on this subject except his own, at all 
 times most zealously co-operating with them in the 
 performance of duties demanded by a common Chris- 
 tianity, 
 
 As Mr. Binney was earnest and constant in his de- 
 votion to any cause the success of which he had at 
 heart, so he was enthusiastic in his attachment to those 
 whom he honored with his friendship. This is a trait 
 of his character which I think is little understood. 
 Few suspected what a fount of generous affection 
 and tenderness lay hidden under that quiet and im- 
 passive exterior. When he once trusted a man he 
 seemed to give himself up wholly to him. The only 
 instances which I can recall in which his usually calm 
 judgment was disturbed arose from this intense desire 
 to serve his friends. On one occasion I had urged him 
 
23 
 
 to support for an important position a gentleman in 
 whose success I felt a deep interest. After listening 
 patiently to what I had to say, he suddenly exclaimed : 
 "Do not press me, do you know thai Dr. (the op- 
 posing candidate) once saved my life?'' Then again he 
 was led to feel that one of his friends had done some 
 service to the country by his writings at a critical period 
 of the war. From that hour his heart warmed towards 
 that friend : he gave him his fullest confidence, he 
 spoke in the most unmeasured terms of the value of 
 his services, and whatever influence he could command, 
 was thenceforth exerted to secure for him posts of trust 
 and honor. "I happened," writes one of Mr. Bin- 
 ney's oldest friends to me, " to be with him at Sharps- 
 burgh a day or two after the battle of Antietam, and 
 just after a force thrown across the Potomac had been 
 surprised and driven back with some loss. The Penn- 
 sylvania regiment to which Mr. Binney's oldest son 
 was then attached had formed part of this force, and 
 had suffered heavily. Of course it took us a long 
 time to get any trustworthy intelligence about the par- 
 ticulars, and while we were making our inquiries and 
 receiving all manner of unsatisfactory and contradic- 
 tory answers, Mr. Binney maintained his composure 
 most resolutely. But when we ascertained at last from 
 a seargeant or corporal of the regiment that Captain 
 Binney (I think he was then Captain) was safe and well, 
 and had just moved off with his company, that he had 
 behaved with distinguished courage and ability, that he 
 had been one of the last to leave the ground, and that 
 his men were full of praises of his conduct, then, I shall 
 never forget how completely and thoroughly Mr. Bin- 
 ney broke down." And this is the man, with a heart 
 
24 
 
 as simple as a child's, and as tender as a woman's, who 
 was thought cold and formal by those who did not 
 know him. 
 
 Mr. Binney never fully recovered from the effects of 
 an Illness through which he passed about ten years ago. 
 Within a few weeks of his death, a disease of the heart 
 was rapidly developed, and he was snatched away from 
 his family and friends with startling suddenness, on the 
 third of February, 1870. He left a widow, the daughter 
 of the late William Johnson, Esquire, of New York, 
 the eminent Reporter, and the intimate friend of Chan- 
 cellor Kent, and seven children. 
 
 His life seems to me to have been in its symmetrical 
 beauty almost an ideal one. It was nurtured and 
 strengthened by the two great principles out of which 
 all true excellence springs. Trust in God and Devotion 
 to Duty : 
 
 " Thus it flowed 
 From its mysterious urn a sacred stream, 
 In whose calm depths the beautiful and pure 
 Alone are mirror'd ; which, though shapes of ill 
 May hover round its surface, glides in light, 
 And takes no shadow from them." 
 
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