the splendor of the golden bough: the genius of Mr. | was restored. His faithful counsel received no other Taney was his guide. It spread itself over the tree of reward than the gratitude of the veteran's heart.

From this time until 1823, Mr. Taney was engaged in extensive practice in various courts of the state. He removed, in the spring of this year, to Baltimore. Pinckney was now no more. His renown as a lawyer had been wafted to the distant regions of the earth: he fell almost on the field of his greatest fame, after arguing an important cause in the supreme court of the United States. Mr. Taney now aimed to occupy the place occasioned by his death. For this purpose, he had left the theatre of his long and laborious life, and separated himself from the friendships of twenty-two years. He was soon ranked among the foremost at the Baltimore bar, and extended his practice to the supreme court, where he was always admired by the court and lawyers of that high tribunal. In 1827, he was appointed attorney general of Maryland, which office he resigned in 1831, when, as attorney general of the United States, he was chosen a member of president Jackson's cabinet. No man ever discharged the duties of this station more faithfully than Mr. Taney.

On the 24th Sept. 1833, he was appointed secretary of the treasury, which not being confirmed by the senate, this modest and amiable citizen once more returned to the toils of his profession in Baltimore. His arrival was welcomed by thousands, and his society courted by all.

In March, 1836, he was appointed to the exalted situation which he now fills.

knowledge, and gilded with a new light every leaf on which it shone. He would argue no case in the higher courts until he had minutely examined all its relations and bearings; and for this end he would explore the vast and boundless regions of the common and statute law, and bring home their richest treasures, to instruct and enlighten all who heard him. His manner was strikingly impressive. When his slow and solemn form was seen rising in court, every ear was open, and all eyes were fixed on the speaker-the audience insensibly taken captive, and borne away by the weight of his arguments and the tones of his eloquence. He moved along like the majestic Mississippi, full, clear and magnificent. Whenever the late Mr. Wirt was opposed to Mr. Taney, he would facetiously say, that he dreaded nothing so much as his "apostolic simplicity." So soft and amiable was his deportment, that even amidst the heat and turmoil of nisi prius litigation, he was never known to offend the feelings of any of his brethren: his conversation was never roughened by austerity or pedantry, and when his gallant bearing extorted from all the most unfeigned praise, he would almost hide himself from public admiration, with the unaffected modesty of his native character. Whatever the political principles of his clients might be, you could not discern the slightest difference in the discharge of his duty. A memorable instance occurred in 1811. Gen. Wilkinson, was then commander-in-chief of the United States army, and was brought before a court composed of thir- The political life of Mr. Taney, has been marked teen general officers, assembled in Frederick, to answer with honor to his country. In 1816 he was chosen a accusations of very high and serious import. During the senator of Maryland, and served for five years in that war of independence, he had acted a conspicuous part at body. He was married to a daughter of John Ross Saratoga, when the ill-fated Burgoyne surrendered his Key, and is the father of a numerous family. In his army to Gates, and after the peace, was one of the person he is full six feet high: spare, but yet so dignified pioneers of the west, where he acquired new laurels in in deportment, that you are at once impressed with an subduing the Indians, and assisting the frontier inhabi- instinctive reverence and awe: his eye is full of genius, tants to meet and vanquish the obstacles which attend and indicative of the powerful mind that dwells within; the settlement of a new country. But in 1806 he had his features marked with the deepest thought, and his aroused the jealousies of the people, when he suspended manner so dignified, that he sheds around him in whatthe habeas corpus, and imprisoned Bollman and Swart-ever circle he may move, a moral influence of the wout; and when he appeared at Richmond in August, highest order. 1807, as a prominent witness on the trial of Col. Burr for high treason, many believed that he was deeply concerned in the plot of that distinguished and talented man. The papers of that day teemed with incessant vituperation, and impugned in the strongest terms the motives of the General. He was naturally haughty, and the number of his personal enemies was constantly increasing. He had especially awakened the indig nation of a large portion of the community in Frederick, because he had in 1803 successfully prosecuted before a court martial in that town, Col. Butler, a revolutionary veteran, of undaunted bravery, who had served his country in the most distinguished manner, but who was now old and poor. Although Mr. Taney participated in these feelings so common with men of high honor, yet did the accused, with full knowledge of that fact, seleet him and the lamented John Hanson Thomas, (the star of whose glory sat too soon for his country,) as his counsel on this important trial. He placed his destiny in their hands. For several months they labored with unabated zeal in behalf of their client. He was pronounced innocent, and his sword

The constitution of the United States, and the welfare of our union are now confided in an eminent degree into the hands of this distinguished jurist. Pursuing the brilliant and useful career of Mansfield and Marshall, he will erect for himself a monument to fame, which time itself can neither impair nor destroy.

NICHOLAS BIDDLE.*

This gentleman has been brought very prominently into public view of late. The embarrassments of commerce and the confusion of currency under which our country has so keenly suffered, have turned all eyes toward the man who fills a station of great financial importance; and fills it with acknowledged ability and manifest uprightness of purpose. His name has therefore obtained—perhaps unexpectedly to himself—a European as well as an American celebrity; yet his portrait has not been seen, except in clumsy caricatures, at * Copied from the "American Monthly," for May, 1999.

print-shop windows; nor has his biography yet graced has very felicitously adverted in the beautiful oration the pages of a review or literary magazine.

delivered by him two years since, to the students and alumni of Princeton college.

Mr. Biddle is a native of Philadelphia, and now somewhat over fifty years of age. He is one of a family re- After some years passed in the refined society of markable for eminent talent, and also for the better Paris, he quitted that brilliant capital to travel in Italy qualities that render men acceptable in social inter- and the countries of the Levant, then seldom visited by course, and endear them to familiar acquaintance. His Americans. He made some stay at Delphi and at brother, the commodore, is certainly one of the most intel- Athens, to indulge or cultivate his classic taste, and ligent and accomplished officers of our navy, if not the then returned to Paris, whence he soon after passed first in both these particulars. In his boyhood he was over to England, and again entered the diplomatic sera fellow-sufferer with the gallant Bainbridge in the cap-vice as secretary to Mr. Monroe, at that time our ministivity at Tripoli, endured by the crew of the unfortu- ter at the court of London. nate frigate which fell into the hands of the barbarians. In the war with the British he was gloriously distinguished; first at the capture of the Frolic by the Wasp, in which ship he was serving as a volunteer lieutenant; and then in the capture of the Penguin by the Hornet, which he commanded. In this last action, where, as well as in that of the Frolic, the enemy was of superior force, captain Biddle received a dangerous wound after the Penguin's colors had been struck. Since that period he has been in command in the Pacific, the Mediterranean, and elsewhere; always with honor to himself and his country; and it is well known to his many acquaintances in various parts of the world, that his qualities as a companion and a friend are not less estimable than his character as an officer.

His residence in the British metropolis was not a long one, as he preferred returning to the home from which he had so long been separated; but the friendship formed with Mr. Monroe continued through the life-time of that statesman, and perhaps materially influenced the after-life of both; for it was the remote cause of bringing Mr. Biddle into his present office, at the head of the most important financial institution of our country; and is believed to have been productive to Mr. Monroe of certain advantages, the details of which belong to private history alone. It was a friendship honorable to both; and if Mr. Biddle could have yielded the independence of his judgment so far as to act with the political party which supported his friend as a candidate for the presidency, it would almost certainly have brought him forward into office in the general government, for which his talents undoubtedly qualified him.

But several years elapsed between his return and Mr. Monroe's election to the chief magistracy, during which interval Mr. Biddle was admitted to the bar, and commen. ced the practice of the profession of law in his native city. There is yet sometimes to be met with in collections of the less valuable pamphlets of that period, a printed report of the trial and execution of two very guilty negroes for murder, on which occasion Mr. Biddle and Mr. Rush were the prisoners' counsel; and it seems rather curious that those two gentlemen, whose mutual attitudes, or at least that of Mr. Rush towards the other, has been so unfriendly, should have been associated in perhaps their earliest forensic appearance. Tempora mutantur, says Horace, et nos mulamur cum illis.

Another brother is major John Biddle, now of the state of Michigan, formerly a meritorious officer of the army; and a third is the honorable Richard Biddle, a member of Congress from the city of Pittsburgh, who has already distinguished himself by his eloquence, and whose constituents hold him in high estimation for his forensic and literary abilities, as well as for the great amiability of his character in social life. This gentleman last named, is the youngest of the four brothers; and the eldest is Mr. Charles Biddle, now or lately in Guatemala, where he has been engaged in forming a company to cut the long-talked-of canal across the Isthmus of Panama. The eminent merchant or broker, of the same name, is of another family, which is likewise remarkable for personal merit of no common order. The subject of our present sketch, being the son of a gentleman of independent property, had every early advantage of education, and was sent to Princeton col- Soon after his admission to the bar, he married a lege, where he was graduated with the highest honors lady of considerable fortune and most amiable charof his class at the age of only sixteen years. After acter; and being tired of the "forum contentiosum,” completing his college course, he was placed in the office or finding it uncongenial to his taste, he withdrew from of a lawyer; but before he had passed his minority, he the legal profession, and devoted his attention to literawas invited by general Armstrong, who had just been ture and politics, and that very costly amusement called appointed envoy to the court of France, to accompany sometimes "gentleman farming," and by those who him to that country as his private secretary, or secretary | follow it, dignified with the name of experimental agriof legation. Mr. Biddle accepted this offer, and went accordingly to Paris, where he remained several years as a member of the American embassy, during a period when its duties were rendered uncommonly arduous by the obligation to remonstrate incessantly against the repeated aggressions upon our neutral rights. The case of the ship New Jersey is recollected as one in which Mr. Biddle's name appeared, as in some manner connected with the controversy. During his residence near the French court, the first consulate was exchanged for the imperial crown, and he was present as one of the diplomatic corps, at the splendid ceremony of Napoleon's coronation; an incident in his life to which he

culture. Andalusia, a beautiful country-seat on the banks of the Delaware, was the scene of these researches into the qualities of seeds and the power of manures; and though we do not know that any important discoveries crowned the labor, we have seen a discourse delivered to an agricultural society by the farmer Biddle, which seems to be a learned dissertation, (but on subjects of tillage, we confess ourselves unread, beyond the Georgics of Virgil,)—and is certainly marked with the eloquence which has appeared in everything proceeding from his pen.

His zeal in the cause of letters induced him to assume, as a labor of love, the editorship of the Port

Folio, then the only literary journal of any repute in the country. It attained its most palmy state under his management; but soon passed into other hands, and began to decline.

For several successive winters he was a member of the legislature of Pennsylvania, and was in the senate, a very youthful member of the patres conscripti of the state during the exciting period of the war with Great Britain. He was an able and ready debater, attentive to the business of legislation, and on two occasions at least was particularly distinguished. The legislature of one of the eastern states, had adopted resolutions condemning, in very severe terms, the conduct of the general administration and the policy of the war. These resolves being in due course communicated to the several states, it happened that Mr. Biddle was chairman, or the most active member, of the committee of senators to whom they were referred. He considered it no time for showing a divided front to the enemy; and possibly his own war-spirit was quickened by sympathy with two gallant brothers in the army and one in the navy, all of whom had been earning fame and honor by distinguished bravery. The report which he wrote upon that occasion embodied with signal ability the sentiments which all would now agree to have been entirely appropriate to the peculiar circumstances of the juncture. About the same period, very near the close of the war, Congress was about to adopt a very energetic war-measure, which was strongly opposed as unconstitutional. This was, to raise an army of fifty thousand men by means of militia drafts. The details of the plan would be tedious and uninteresting here; it is enough to say that Mr. Biddle advocated with zeal and eloquence the passage of resolutions in the Pennsylvania legislature favorable to the execution of the plan by the federal government; and it was, in fact, we believe, prevented only by the peace.

It was a period of much party exacerbation; and, as always must happen in such times, both parties, or leading men in them, said and did much that cannot on retrospection be entirely approved by men of any party now:

"Simul insanavimus omnes ;"

After the bank of the United States was chartered

by Congress, he was named by president Monroe as one of the directors on the part of the government; and attending regularly at the meetings of the Board, he entered upon a new and hitherto untried employment of his abilities. Though not a commercial man, but at that time merely a gentleman of literary taste and leisure, he became so efficient a member of the direction, that, on the resignation of Mr. Cheves, he was designated, at a convention of stockholders, as the most suitable person to fill the arduous office of president. It is known that he was continued in that very important station, by successive re-elections, until the expiration of the charter; and that whatever may have been the extent of hostile feeling generated among politicians by the angrily vexed question of the re-charter, there has been but one sentiment manifested toward him by the stockholders, namely, a grateful and constantly augmented approbation. This has been testified by a repeated vote of thanks; and at the time of the last one, when the new charter was accepted from the state of Pennsylvania, it was accompanied with a magnificent present of a memorial service of plate.

Nothing could be more characteristic of Mr. Biddle than his public appearance on the occasion just alluded to, nor could anything be more honorable to the head and heart of any man than the clear, plain, perspicuous, and satisfactory statement that he made of the advantages to be derived from the new charter, and the reasons for accepting it; and afterwards the acknowledgment which he made on behalf of the officers of the bank, as well as himself, in return for the vote of approval just adopted by the meeting of stockholders. The first address was an unadorned display of financial knowledge and sagacity, betraying, perhaps, some measure of that liberal confidence in his country and his countrymen, the indulgence of which too far is possibly his most ensnaring propensity; while the second was a spontaneous and eloquent effusion of cordial attachment to the friends and associates with whom and for whom he had labored.

It is not for us to pass a judgment upon the financial management of the board of directors of that institution from its commencement, or from Mr. Biddle's accession to the presidency, till its close; nor of the but it is not our desire to revive any of the unpleasant management of the bank under its state charter, of questions of that day. The federalists had elected which he is now at the head. Such an inquiry would Mr. Biddle to the senate, and they were now somewhat involve questions that have become too much mingled divided upon both the subjects just referred to. His with feelings of party strife to admit of any decision conduct therefore gave some dissatisfaction to a portion that can be universally satisfactory, before the case is of his constituents, and he relinquished his seat in the carried within the jurisdiction of that high court of errors legislature. At the next Congressional election he was and appeals that men call POSTERITY; and, however one of the four candidates nominated by the demo- desirable a financial history of the institution may be, cratic party in the district that included Philadelphia; both for entertainment and instruction, it is plain that to but they did not receive a majority of the votes, and write it would require opportunities of information such Mr. Biddle returned to the amusements of his country as we cannot, and few do possess. But we may sugseat during the summer, and his city residence during gest, in the meantime, that perhaps a greater share of winter; and possibly it was more at this period than the responsibility, whether for praise or blame, has been at the earlier one, which we have named above, that imputed to the president of the board of directors than his attention was particularly given to theoretic agri- was equitably his due. That board has always conculture. Writing now, without attempting to correct tained men of first rate abilities and intelligence ;-actour reminiscences by any inquiries or reference to him- ing harmoniously with the president, but never interself or his immediate friends, it is obviously not impos-mitting the free exercise of their judgments in aid of his, sible that, as to some of these less important particulars, while he has been nowise accustomed or desirous to we may transpose the dates. assume more of the government than they were dis

posed to yield from an enlightened confidence in his [is by way of interference and interruption, and such urbanity, firmness, extraordinary knowledge, and unti-meddling is always odious. The fruit of idleness in ring devotedness to the interests of the institution, one man, it renders unproductive another's labor. Then which he and they believed to be identical with the in- you may concern yourself in your neighbor's affairs, by terests of the country. It has been even said that one way of admonition and advice, though seldom with point of policy to which Mr. Biddle has owed much of much chance of thanks, even where the favor has been his popularity as president, has been the forbearance solicited. But advice is not often asked of seeming with which he has allowed directors to be really direc- idlers: it is most common to interrupt the busy by such tors, and cashiers actually cashiers, without interfering requests; and naturally enough, since those who at at all with their appropriate functions; a policy unhap- tend most carefully to their own concerns, are generally pily not duly appreciated by his predecessor. thought best qualified, by experience, to judge for Looking at him outside of the walls of the bank, it others. Mere gratuitous counsel is always frowned remains for us to say that he finds time still to be active upon, unless it meet a very submissive temper. It is in all useful projects of public improvement; to be hos- in man's nature to despise what is given gratis. It pitable, social, literary, and beneficent. As trustee of is galling enough to most men, to think, that all they the university, commissioner for the Girard college, have is the free gift of heaven: they would not increase and member of numerous charitable and literary asso- their debt of gratitude, by the receipt of human bounty; ciations, he lends not merely his name, but his faithful and, as they cannot but receive, the mind is eased by attention to all the most elevated interests of society. undervaluing each gift. Besides, the tone of advice Some of the English papers, by some strange misap-usually asserts a superiority in him that gives it; and, prehension, have said he is a Quaker-meaning, doubt as we cannot brook a favor, that seems but to imply less, one of the Society of Friends ;-but, in truth, our own inferiority, in any respect, however trifling, there is as little as possible of the Quaker, in any sense much less can we bear an open claim of pre-eminence. of the word, about him. He is, in respect to religious faith, an Episcopalian, and a regular attendant upon the public worship of the church. Entirely amiable in domestic relations, no one attaches friends more warmly; and as the turmoil of politics into which he has been thrown, has failed to affect his temper or his spirits, so neither has his early relish for polite letters, in which he is an accomplished scholar, been spoiled by long devotion to the musæ severiores of finance and commerce. While, therefore, he is at the morning council the wisest among the wise, he is often to be seen in the evening circle the gayest of the gay. Happy in family ties, in the attachment of friends, the esteem of the community, and an official station which confers much power of doing good; he is yet happier in the recollection of a life, already past its meridian, spent hitherto in the untiring application of a cultivated mind and ardent feelings to varied objects of utility or refinement; and in the reflection that if he were obliged to write a faith-upon; note down their remarks upon men's good qualiful history of his career, the record would contain "No line that, dying, he would wish to blot."

There is another class of Busy-Bodies-the name which they have received, who, idlers in domestic con. cerns, are always ready for foreign service-and a very clever class, that are always at hand to render assistance, when really needed. You have but to cry for Hercules, and one of these kind friends hastens to put a shoulder to the wheel, and help you out of difficulty. Such, it is true, are the rarest kind of idlers: their very virtues become, frequently, matter for ridicule; and, too often, they are repaid only by impositions and witticisms upon their good nature.

The last class which I shall mention needs a generic appellation, as it embraces several species. It is com posed of those who, standing aloof from any direct interference in other people's business, look at all mankind, or that part, at least, which comes under their own notice, in the aggregate; make deductions from every thing they see and hear, and reflections there

ties and foibles, virtues and vices, and give them to the public, that each one may apply them or not, use or abuse them, as he prefers. These examples and precepts, though drawn, frequently, from particular cases, are not applied, directly to these cases, by way of reproof or encouragement, unless, indeed, some individual recognise his own likeness, and himself claim the picture. Persons of this class give advice; but, then, it comes in such a way as seldom to appear obtrusive, seldom even gratuitous. Besides, advice is out of place, only when it is professedly or clearly personal. We are not very sensible of any favor received, when we gather, it may be, at some expense of money, time, or labor, from a stock thrown open to all: the receipt of such a benefit, therefore, is not irksome. Under this class, which, as I have already remarked, is very comprehensive, may be ranked those literary idlers, who deluge the world with moral essays, didactic poems, remarks upon men and manners, and other such trifles-trifles in appearance, at least ; times, perhaps most frequently, trifles in reality. Here may be grouped Tatlers and Spectators, Guardians and Ramblers, with many humbler personages, among

some

whom, in the far back-ground, I would respectfully ride, or that I prefer walking, it is not necessary to introduce myself as a Busy-Body.

mention: one thing is very certain-that this mode of It has not been without consideration that I have locomotion is most favorable to the free and satisfactory chosen the profession of an idler. I early set my heart employ of both eyes and ears. They, who hurry upon a liberal profession, and was educated for one. through the world in a coach and four, at full gallop, For the pulpit I never thought myself fitted. I entered not only lose the benefit of clear observation, while on a lawyer's office, but soon grew weary of the rays let in the road, but, also, can make little improvement of from Sir Edward Coke's "windows of the law:" they temporary stops and sojourns, their sight having beseemed to illuminate nothing but black-letter folios, come unsteady from the rapid succession of passing digests, pandects, year-books, and commentaries. The objects, and their ears stunned by the bustle and din of “gladsome light of jurisprudence" dimmed my eyes: the way. It is true that the pedestrian's field of obserI turned my back upon it. With sorrow I remem-vation, must, necessarily be small; but, therefore, each ber this now, for law is a noble study—“a science object in that field comes immediately under his notice: which distinguishes the criterions of right and wrong; he can regard almost the whole, at a glance, and exwhich teaches to establish the one, and prevent, punish amine, carefully, the different parts in detail. And or redress the other; which employs in its theory the when we consider, that however extensive may be our noblest faculties of the soul, and exerts in its practice range, we meet with no features of human character, the cardinal virtues of the heart; a science universal in at least, which might not all have been found within a its use and extent, accommodated to each individual, very narrow compass; the advantages of careful obseryet comprehending the whole community." He who vation seem to overbalance, greatly, those peculiar to toils, with patient perseverance, through its rugged an extensive sphere. course, will reach an honorable goal-will win a golden prize.

The pedestrian moves humbly along the surface of the earth, leaving the higher regions of ether to those who are elevated on wheels, or borne away sublime in the balloon. Of course, he is chiefly conversant with things of earth, and is not subject to those airy flights of the imagination, which are common with such as breathe a more elevated and a lighter atmosphere. Now, though I shall not attempt to decry the brilliant fancies of the latter, I must be indulged in the opinion, that more close and practical views of sublunary things are sometimes necessary; and must caution the reader against expecting to meet here with many beautiful figures and highly wrought fictions. My observations, and I go not beyond their limits, have been directed, entirely, to what some might call common-place matters; that is, to such every-day objects as are presented to our ordinary senses.

Next, I tried medicine, and with no better success. It seemed to me that dry, senseless, crumbling ruins of humanity were but an indifferent subject of study, compared with the form of life—the flesh and bones quick with the warm principle of being, and covered with the divine drapery of their Creator. The sight of bodies diseased and disfigured-corrupted in their very substance, by "wounds and bruises and putrifying sores"-of flesh, pallid, bloated, ulcerated, mortified, gangrened, sickened me, when I remembered the bright eye, the full, blushing cheek, the fair skin, and the warm, tingling blood of youth, health, and beauty. Could I study the body, even in its prime of health and strength, and in its proudest symmetry, and forget the soul-the spirit of life within? I turned away in disgust, and remember, that, as I hurried home from the Perhaps some invidious person, hearing me thus doctor's office, to the seclusion of my chamber, every disclaim much assistance from fancy, may, wittily, person that I met seemed to have a deathlike counte-remind me of the fable of the fox and grapes; but I Dance, a hump upon his shoulder, an ulcer on his lip, can assure them, that such an allusion cannot destroy cancer, gangrene, putrefaction, in every part! Here, my equanimity, or confidence in the utility of practical again, I may have done wrong, but, now, do not feel observations. the same regret, when I hear a skeleton rattling in its box, as when I take up old Littleton, or Coke, or their modern transcript, Blackstone, and find passages that bring back pleasant recollections.

That a maxim has become trite is, generally, conclusive evidence of its truth. Instead, therefore, of making an apology, as is frequently done, for introducing a well worn or proverbial remark, in illustration of a I became, then, from choice, "a poor devil of an subject, a writer might rather congratulate both his author," though without that almost necessary profes-readers and himself, on having luckily met with an apt, sional appurtenance—a garret, which seems to be considered the only true laboratory of attic salt.

concise, and universally admitted proposition, which does not require a long and studied demonstration, nor even a reference to the original authority, since use has, in some measure, made every man a sort of second-hand authority for its truth. Having premised this much, I may remark, that I have always adopted that celebra

"The proper study of mankind in man,"

Having thus disclosed something of my past life, it may be well, or, at least, in accordance with a good example, to describe, briefly, my manner of living. I lounge about upon principle, visit public places, study new features, and, when they can be come at, new ted line, minds and characters. I, frequently, wander away from home-sometimes from the haunts of men, where I am alone with nature and her God. Then I return as a motto, while taking notes of my observations. and write, partly for my own pleasure and profit: Not that I think the study of the subordinate creation, partly—at least, I am willing to think so-for the good useless or improper. In my rambles, I have frequently of my readers. The most of these excursions from home-and some of them are far journies--I make on foot. Whether the reason be, that I cannot afford to

stopped to admire the wondrous works of Providence, as seen in the uplifted mountain, the teeming valley, the sweeping wave, the rushing torrent, the gently VOL. IV.-45