Horace Binney

Portrait of Binney at age 20, by Gilbert Stuart

Binney was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Dr. Barnabas Binney (1751–1787), a prominent Philadelphia physician who cared for Deborah Sampson. He graduated from Harvard College in 1797, where he founded the Hasty Pudding Club in 1795.[2]

Through his sister Susan Binney Wallace, he was the uncle of Horace Binney Wallace (1817–1852), a legal critic and through his sister, Mary Sarah Binney Sargent (d. 1824), wife of Lucius Manlius Sargent (1786–1867), an author and temperance advocate, he was the uncle of well-known author and Horace Binney Sargent (1821–1908), a Civil war veteran.[1]

Photograph of Binney in his late years

He then studied law in the office of Jared Ingersoll (1749–1822), who had been a member of the Constitutional convention of 1787, and who, from 1791 to 1800 and again from 1811 to 1816, was the attorney-general of Pennsylvania.[2] In 1800, Binney was admitted to the bar in Philadelphia and practiced there with great success for half a century, and was recognized as one of the leaders of the bar in Pennsylvania and the United States.[3]

Between 1806–1807, he served in the Pennsylvania legislature. From 1833 until 1835, he served as a Whig member of the United States House of Representatives. While in the House of Representatives, he defended the United States Bank and opposed the policies of President Andrew Jackson.[4]

After leaving office, he returned to the practice of law. Binney's most famous cases were Lyle v. Richards (1823), and Vidal et al v. Philadelphia et al (1844). In the latter case, which involved the disposition of the fortune of Stephen Girard, he was unsuccessfully opposed by Daniel Webster. Binney's argument in this case greatly influenced the interpretation of the law of charities.[2]

Binney was married to Elizabeth Cox (1783–1865), one of six daughters of John Cox, Esq. of Bloomsbury, New Jersey,[6] and descendants of the Langeveldts who originally settled New Brunswick, New Jersey.[7] Her sister, Mary Cox, was married to the inventor John Stevens III (1749–1838).[6] Together, Horace and Elizabeth were the parents of:[8]

• Mary (1805-1831), first wife of Judge/Congressman John Cadwalader
• Horace Binney Jr. (1809–1870), a member of the American Philosophical Society.[9] married Eliza Frances Johnson
• Esther Coxe Binney (1817–1902), who married John Innes Clark Hare (1816–1905), also an attorney.[10][11]
• Elizabeth Binney (1820–1910), who married Richard Roger Montgomery (1818–1888), the son of William M. Montgomery and Marie d'Elincourt, on April 30, 1844.[12]
• Susan Binney (1822–1887)[13]
• William Binney (1825–1909), a prominent banker in Providence, Rhode Island who married Charlotte Hope Goddard, the sister of Robert Hale Ives Goddard, in 1848.[14]

Binney died on August 12, 1875, at the age of 95 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the city of his birth. He was buried in the churchyard of Church of St. James the Less in Philadelphia.[1]

• Era of Good Feelings
• Second Party System

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Binney, Horace". Encyclopædia Britannica. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

• Binney, Charles C. The Life of Horace Binney: With Selections from His Letters. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co, 1903.
• Binney, Horace. An Eulogium upon the Hon. William Tilghman, Late Chief Justice of Pennsylvania (1827)
• Binney, Horace. The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus Under the Constitution (excerpt). History of the Federal Judiciary: Ex parte Merryman and Debates on Civil Liberties During the Civil War

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Horace Binney.

• Horace Binney at Find a Grave
• United States Congress. "Horace Binney (id: B000475)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Works by or about Horace Binney at Internet Archive