The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1861-10-10

q late hour announced the sad news
that the Hon. Kinsley S. Bingham, one
of the Senators in Congress from this
State, died at his residence at Green
Oak, on that day. His unexpected and
sudden decease is reported to be by
apoplexy. We cannot doubt the fact
of his death, and in common with the
large circle of his friends, we cannot
but deplore the loss of one so true to
duty in ali the relations of neighbor-
hood and domestic life, of SO excellent
an example as father, husband and
friend, so eminent in his patriotism
and devotion to the interests of the
State and the Nation. At such crisis
as the present, the loss of such man
from the public councils is especially to
be deplored. No one has been more
constant and persevering than he in re-
sisting, for long years past, the down
ward tendency of the Federal Govern
ment under the pressure of the slave
power and the dangerous doctrine of
secession; and few have surpassed him
in talent and eloquence in the efforts
to arouse the free States to a sense of
the impending danger. Indeed, pat
riot has departed a wise and useful
public servant has been taken from us
at moment when we most need his
counsel and his labors. But the ways
of Providence are inscrutable, and
those who knew him and loved him,
those who looked with hope and conf.
dence to his high talents and wisdom
as public man and private friend must
acquiesce in the decree.
Mr.. Bingham was of revolutionary
parentage. His ancestors, it is said,
served in that immortal band of heroes
who, under Stark at Bennington,
achieved the first victory of the Revo-
luton. His father emigrated to Onon-
daga county, N. Y, where he was
born, in 1903. His early education
was such only as could be obtained at
the district school and village academy,
in comparatively new country, but he
was diligent in study and stored his
mind with the knowledge that was
necessary to fit him for business and
industrial pursuits. He also spentsome
time as student at law, but never en-
tered upon the profession. In 1884 or
1885 he removed to Michigan, and, we
believe, settled on the tract of land
where his homestead now is, and fol-
lowed farming for living. His gene
raj intelligence and popularity among
his neighbors soon induced them to
elect him to the Legislature of the
State, in which he served some four or
five years with great credit to himself
and satisfaction to his constituents. He
was elected Speaker of the House and
served as such for two sessions; and,
though party politics then ran high,
gave, as we are informed by his politi-
cal opponents, the most perfect salts
faction by the correctness of his de-
pertinent, his aptness in business, and
his impartiality. As presiding officer
no successor has surpassed him. In
1916, Mr.. Bingham was elected to Con-
gress from the Northern District and
served through the goth Congress.
He was again elected in 1s4s, and
served through the 3Oth Congress, by
which the famous compromise measures
of 1850 were passed. In consequence
of his voting against the fugitive slave
act of that year, and evincing very
decided repugnance to the extension of
slavery into the territories, as he was
instructed to do by his democratic con-
stituents, he was ruthlessly prescribed
by the then leaders of his party, and
another nominated and elected i'm his
stead. But this rebuke from his Dem
ocratic friends, or rather their volun-
tary desertion of him and the princi-
pies they had instructed him to act
upon, did not for moment cause him
to relax his exertions in favor of the
freedom of the territories and against
slave-holding despotism. He had fall
len victim to the influence of that
despotism, and his defeat only impelled
him to make still firmer stand against
it.
In the spring of 1854 he was put in
nomination for governor by the free
soil democratic convention of the State,
then representing party highly re-
spectacle by its numbers, patriotism
} and talents but on the organization
of the Republican party by the Jack
son convention of July 9Th, 1854, the
former party united with the republi
cans, and both parties put him in nom