as the recognized leader of the National Democracy in the State, received a liberal share of invective and denunciation. The contest became bitter and its effects have continued to be visible in the politics of the State, in a greater or less degree, to the present time. The division of the Democratic vote of New York defeated General Cass and threw the government into the hands of the Whig party, by the election of General Taylor to the Presidency; and the movement by which it was accomplished, inaugurated a course of political demoralization in the State which has borne bitter fruits to the Nation. While the more consistent of those who engaged in it, being antislavery from principle, went over permanently to the opposition, the prominent and responsible leaders, though maintaining for a time their hostile organization and reaffirming the doctrines upon which they ostensibly separated from the National Democracy, soon again claimed recognition from the party and the right to exercise control in its affairs; and various "unions," having for their objects the success of candidates, parcelled out between the two organizations, were from time to time formed with them, but generally without satisfactory results. They continued for some years, in local and State politics, to stickle over slavery in the Territories, but actually supported the Democratic candidate for the presidency in 1852, upon a popular sovereignty platform; supported Mr. Buchanan in 1856 upon a similar platform, and finally in the presidential campaign of 1860, as the special advocates of Mr. Douglas, the author of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, and the proposer of the repeal of the Missouri compromise, became the champions of the doctrine in its most ultra form.

Thus was the course of Mr. Dickinson upon this vexed question as amply vindicated by those who most vehemently assailed it, as it was approved by the great body of the people. It should be added that he opposed reunion, for the mere pur pose of securing the spoils of office, with those who went off

from the Democratic party, just so long as they asserted distinctive principles; and he took occasion, as will be seen by those who shall peruse the subsequent pages of this volume, in his specches and letters, called out by current events, fully to mark his sense of their position, as well as to define his own. Another thing is worthy of mention and remembrance in connection with the free soil controversy. Though the probability of results was not used as an argument in its favor by the advocates of popular sovereignty, not a foot of the vast territories, which its opponents declared would be surrendered to slavery by its adoption, ever became slaveholding under its full operation.

When a course of demagogism, folly, party dishonesty, official imbecility, and sectional madness, culminating in rebellion and treason without the shadow of justification or excuse, had plunged the country in civil war,-the slaveholders mainly becoming rebels in arms,-nearly every slaveholding State entering into a hostile, spurious confederacy, founded for its leading idea upon perpetual slavery, and, in every capacity in which as individuals or commonwealths they could act, having repudiated the constitution and authority of the Union, thrown off its protection, and in the face of the world appealed to the chances of war, he held from the first that they brought their property in slaves-the institution of slavery-being their chief source of labor and means of supply, especially and clearly within the scope of the war power of the government; that it thus became the right and duty of the President, as the commander-in-chief of the army and navy, to deal with slaves and slavery as with any other element of material strength to the enemy; to make such practical use in regard to them of the powers of his high office, within the rules of civilized warfare, as should most effectually weaken and paralyze the rebellion, strengthen the cause of the Union, and tend to restore the power of the government over the people of the revolted.

States: in his own graphic language, "to strike rebellion hardest where it would feel it most "; and if in the exercise of a high function to save the national life, slavery should perish. forever, justice and humanity would gladly add an approving Amen!

He pointedly stated his own position upon the slavery question, in its earlier and later aspects, as follows: "While slavery," said he in substance, "remained within the protection of the constitution, I sought, like the careful physician, to heal the diseased member and save the body politic from harm on its account; but now that it has thrown off the constitution and broken out in armed rebellion, endangering the national existence, I would promptly act the part of the surgeon, and cut it off." Thus, though his opinions relating to slavery, its rights and constitutional status within the Union, had undergone no change, the question in all its circumstances had been entirely changed by the slaveholding people and States assuming a new attitude towards the government; repudiating the constitution, discarding its protection, dictating the destruction of the Union, and attempting to enforce their infamous behests by the dernier argument of arms. It would be difficult to tell what other legal, logical, and at the same time loyal conclusion could be arrived at; or to demonstrate the charge of inconsistency that chronic partisanship has brought against it.

The sun and centre of Mr. Dickinson's political system was the Union. To its recognition, as the pride and strength and safety of the nation, and the hope of the oppressed everywhere, all his theories tended; to defend and preserve it in its beneficent attributes-in the spirit of its founders-was the purpose of all his efforts. Thus he vehemently opposed the long course of anti-slavery agitation, as tending to weaken its hold upon the affections of the people and destroy its moral force; and he sought by all practical means to allay the sec

tional irritation that it occasioned. He declared that he would stand by the South in the maintenance of all her rights guaranteed by the bond of union; but when the South, using this ill-boding agitation for excuse, rebelled against the Union, we have seen with what entire devotion he threw himself into the conflict for its defence. Whenever, by whatever means, from whatever quarter, the Union has been assailed or threatened, he never failed to be found facing the foe.

The professional career of Mr. Dickinson was characterized alike by ability, fidelity, and eminent success. His thorough familiarity with legal principles, his quick perception, and varied knowledge, enabled him to grasp his case as if by intuition; but to those advantages he always added careful preparation. He excelled particularly in trials before juries: in unravelling the intricacies of fact, gathering up the scattered threads of many hues, and weaving them with deft hand into a web of symmetrical and potent conclusions. He loved the profession, and always returned to it from public employment with satisfaction; regarding law as the perfection of reason, and its successful professional pursuit as requiring the highest standard of fidelity and honor. His ablest intellectual efforts were undoubtedly produced at the bar; but, with two or three exceptions, no report of his forensic efforts has been preserved.

His labors in the political and professional field, though almost unremitted, by no means engrossed his entire attention. He kept alive his love of literary and rural pursuits, as is shown by his numerous addresses before agricultural and learned societies in various parts of the country. In 1858, the degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon him, by the faculty of Hamilton college, New York. As a speaker and writer he possessed equal facility in an easy, terse, and vigorous style. His political addresses were generally called out by some party or public exigency, and made often on brief notice and without

pre-arrangement or preparation, other than the thought that could be given to the subject amid the hurry of business avocations or the progress of a journey to the place of speaking; and his addresses apparently of a more studied character have been subject, in a great degree, to a similar rule as to preparation. His efforts, though for this reason lacking at times something of methodical arrangement, are always adapted to the occasion and the subject in hand, and characterized by point and directness. Though generally abounding in illustration and comparison, adorned at times with poetic imagery, and often enlivened by wit, anecdote, and repartee, or shaded by pathos, the train of argument is never lost sight of all is made to tend to the main purpose. He had a clear, ringing voice, that readily commanded an audience of any reasonable dimensions, and possessed that magnetic power that always secured a pleased attention and carried his hearers with him to his conclusions. His strength consisted in this, that he always spoke his earnest convictions, and knew the pulses of the popular heart by the beating of his own. As an advocate he had few superiors; as a popular speaker, his wide-spread reputation attests his power and effectiveness.

It was, however, in his private, domestic and neighborhood life, that Mr. Dickinson's qualities were pre-eminently admirable. His family attachments were peculiarly strong, tender and devoted,—his tastes domestic, his aspirations tending always most strongly towards home and friends. As a husband, a father, a neighbor, a friend, he has left a name and a remembrance that those who knew him best in those relations cherish beyond all his public honors.

In 1822 Mr. Dickinson was married to Lydia Knapp, a daughter of the late Colby Knapp, M. D.—a pioneer, like his own father, in the settlement of Chenango county; extensively identified by his professional skill and usefulness with its early history, and a prominent member of the medical faculty of the