Bingham took rank with the foremost at a very early period in his professional career. Without noting the details of his progress as a lawyer it is sufficient to say that probably no lawyer in the state was engaged in the trial of so many causes, during the fifty years of his active practice at the bar, as was Mr. Bingham, and certainly no one was more generally successful; nor has there ever been a New Hampshire lawyer whose advice was more extensively sought or more safely followed, whether by attorney or client.

There was scarcely an important case tried in Grafton County for a period of forty years at least, in which Mr. Bingham was not engaged on one side or the other as attorney or counsel; while in Coös his services were in nearly as great demand. His practice extended, however, into all parts of the state, quite largely into Vermont, and even into New York, and into the federal as well as the state courts. There were few lawyers of prominence in New Hampshire in the period between 1855 and 1895, whose lot it had not been at some time to encounter Mr. Bingham as an antagonist at the bar, and no man thus placed in regard to him ever failed thereafter to entertain a most profound respect for his abilities. Some ten years after commencing practice, while yet a young man, he met the Hon. Daniel Clark, then in the meridian of his power and the acknowledged head of the Hillsborough County bar, in a strongly contested case in the court of that county, and not only won a victory for his client, but proved his ability to contend successfully with the ablest and most experienced among the lawyers of the state.

A review of the important cases in the trial of which Mr. Bingham was engaged, on the one side or the other, in the course of his career, would transcend the proper limits of this sketch, and would be, moreover, entirely superfluous, since it would be of no particular interest to the non-professional reader, while the lawyer will readily find the record thereof in the New Hampshire reports, covering a period of fifty years, and constituting no inconsiderable portion thereof. The more important of them all, it may be noted, were the celebrated Concord Railroad cases, in all of which he was prominently engaged, involving questions of vital interest and importance, the determination of which

settled the railroad policy of the state, so far as the courts are concerned at least.

While his most important work was done in civil causes, his services were frequently in demand in criminal trials. He was connected with most of the capital cases heard in his day, in his own county, appearing in each for the defense, except in the case of State v. Mills, for the murder of Maxwell at Franconia, in which he appeared for the state. He defended John Scannell of Bethlehem, tried for the murder of his wife; Moses B. Sawyer, for the murder of Mrs. John Emerson of Piermont; Martin V. Dickey for the murder of Eastman at Ashland, and Williams and Steere for the murder of Orrin Steere at Warren, and with a successful outcome in each case.

During the greater portion of his life in Littleton Mr. Bingham was the regularly retained counsel for the town, maintaining and defending its interests in whatever legal controversies it became engaged, questions of no small financial importance frequently being involved, and his services in this connection were appreciated as most valuable by all who had the interests of the town at heart. He was also leading counsel for President Bartlett of Dartmouth College, during the progress of the investigation instituted by the New York Alumni Association represented by Judge Fullerton, Sanford H. Steele and Asa W. Tenney, and in which contest he proved himself the peer of any of his eminent antagonists.

Mr. Bingham was a thorough master of every branch of the law involved in the ordinary practice of our New England courts; and in this respect his location in what may be classed as a country region, instead of a great metropolis, where the practice is to a great extent specialized, which some of his friends and admirers deplored because of the fact that it deprived him of opportunity for national distinction in connection with litigation of vast importance, may have proved advantageous, on the whole, in insuring a fuller and broader development of his powers than would have resulted had his practice covered a less general field. Whenever he took up a case, whatever the magnitude of the interests involved or the financial ability of his client, he gave it unstinted care and attention, laboring with un

remitting zeal for a successful outcome. As an advocate he was not eloquent, in the ordinary sense of the term, but he was remarkably strong and effective. His thorough knowledge of the law, his complete mastery of the facts in the case, his manifest devotion to the cause of his client, his concise, comprehensive, direct and forceful manner of statement, carried conviction to the jury where pathetic appeals and finely rounded periods would have had no effect. In power of analysis and clearness of reasoning he was unsurpassed, and court as well as jury never failed to accord him that most careful as well as respectful attention which is generally essential as well as conducive to conviction. In manner of speech and habit of thought, he is said by those familiar with the characteristics of both to have closely resembled that most distinguished lawyer, as well as statesman, of his day-Daniel Webster-as well as in his commanding personality, his imposing figure, striking features and large, deep-set penetrating eyes.

During the first six years of his professional career, Mr. Bingham was without a partner, but in July, 1852, his brother, George Azro, who had peen practising for a time at Lyndon, Vt., came to Littleton, and the two formed a co-partnership under the firm name of H. & G. A. Bingham, which continued until 1859, when it was merged in the firm of Woods & Binghams, Ex-Chief Justice Woods and his son, Edward, of Bath, associating themselves with the Binghams, with offices in both Bath and Littleton. This arrangement continued until 1862, when the firm of H. & G. A. Bingham was reëstablished, and maintained, in fact till 1870, but nominally till 1874, when it was formally dissolved, each member opening an independent office. In this latter year Mr. Bingham formed a partnership with John M. Mitchell, now of Concord, who had completed his legal studies in the office. In July, 1879, Albert S. Batchellor, who had also pursued his studies with the firm, was admitted to the partnership, the firm name being changed to Bingham, Mitchell and Batchellor. Two years later, William H. Mitchell, a brother of John M., another student of the office, also became one of the firm, subsequently known as Bingham, Mitchells and Batchellor. In 1881, however, John M. Mitchell had removed to Concord,

where an office was opened under the firm name of Bingham & Mitchell, Mr. Bingham spending some time in both places for several years. John M. Mitchell withdrew, after a time, from the Littleton firm, but Mr. Bingham's name was connected with each up to the time of his death, although he had some time previously ceased to take any active part in the ordinary transactions of either.

While no lawyer in New Hampshire was ever more conscientiously devoted to his profession than Mr. Bingham, or less a politician in the ordinary sense of the term, and while he rarely held any public office aside from service in the Legislature of the state, and in positions of party leadership, few men in the state have ever occupied so prominent a position in political life as he, or so thoroughly commanded the admiration, confidence and respect of the people in that relation. A Democrat from early youth, of the uncompromising Jeffersonian type, his devotion to Democratic principles, and the Democratic party in support of those principles, grew with his growth and strengthened with his strength, until his political convictions, like his profession itself, became, as it were, a part of his very being. This was the result, undoubtedly, of his legal study, which had been broad and philosophical, rather than limited and technical in character. He had studied law in its relation to, and as the basis of, human government, and his investigations familiarized him with the history of government in all ages. Particularly was he conversant with the growth of the English common law, which is the framework of our legal system, and with the attendant and correlative development of constitutional liberty.

When he settled in Littleton he was the only Democratic lawyer in town, and naturally became active and prominent in the councils of his party at an early day. The Whig party was then in control of town affairs; but with the general decadence of that organization in the country at large, the Littleton Democracy, strengthened by Mr. Bingham's wise counsels and tireless personal efforts, gradually came into the ascendency, carrying the town, first, in 1852, and continuing in control for a long series of years. A Democratic newspaper was established in that year, and to its columns, editorially and otherwise, he con

tributed quite extensively, for several years. It was not, however, until 1861, that Mr. Bingham became a representative from his town in the General Court. The Civil War had then commenced in earnest, and then, as throughout its continuance, political excitement ran high and party spirit was intense, on account of conflicting views as to the responsibility for the contest and the manner in which it should be conducted on the part of the federal government. Although a new member Mr. Bingham took rank, at once, with the ablest in the House, and was accorded, from the start, the leadership on the Democratic side-a position which he held, by universal recognition, through his entire legislative experience. He was reëlected to the House in 1862, when he was the Democratic candidate for speaker, also in 1863, 1864, 1865, 1868, 1871, 1872, 1873, 1874, 1875, 1876, 1877, 1878, 1879, 1881, 1889 and 1891. For two terms, covering the period from 1883 and 1887, he represented the Second or Grafton District in the State Senate. His legislative career covered a longer period of service than that of any other man of his time in the state; while his influence upon the work of legislation far surpassed that of any of his compeers. On the floor of the House, and in the judiciary committee, of which he was a member each year of his service, and chairman in 1871 and 1874, in which years the Democrats were in control of that body, he always occupied a leading position, and that not only as respecting his own party, for Republicans as well as Democrats had come to place the fullest confidence in his judgment and sagacity in all matters not pertaining to politics, and in all legislation not of partisan import or bearing he exerted greater influence than any other member of either party.

He had many characteristics in common with that other able and distinguished lawyer and legislator, with whom he served many years in the House, and between whom and himself the most cordial and friendly relations were always maintainedGen. Gilman Marston of Exeter. Like General Marston, he never engaged in the discussion of trifling questions, and took no interest in the petty measures that too often occupied the attention of the House. He never advocated a measure which he did not believe to be just, and conducive to the welfare of the