The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-08-13
The Death OF Horace BInney.

Deatn IiOruCe
In the course of nature no event would be
more natural than the death of a citizen in
the ninety-sixth year of hisa And yet the
announcement of the death of Horace Binney
will be heard throughout the country with
profound regret In tho course of nature
but n little time was left to him. In his
death America loses one of its illustrious and
honored sons Sixty years ago Horace Bin
noy was distinguished man. Nearly
seventy years have elapsed since he was
member of tho Pennsylvania Legislature.
Fifty years ago he was deemed fit by even MS
severe critic as John Quincy Adams to be
Minister to France. He began his political
career under Jefferson; he practically closed
it under Jackson. For q generation he has
lived in complete retirement in Philadel-
phia preserving his remarkable faculties to
the last and fading away in extreme old age.
1t is hard TO realize in our hurrying world
how many years are embraced in the life of
this one man lie was eight years Older
than Byron, ten years older than Shelley.
He, no doubt, saw Franklin and Washington,
and was on terms of friendship with many of
the great men of the Revolution. Lincoln
belongs to the past Horace Binney was old
enough to have been the father of Lincoln
and the grandfather of General Grant. He
was the contemporary of DR.. Samuel Johnson
and Frederick the Great, and of that Ogle
thorpe who founded Georgia and who fought
in the wars under Marlborough and Prince
Eugene. He was only eleven years younger
than Napoleon, and was in full manhood
when Austcrlitz was gained. Nearly quar-
ter Of century ago Webster and Calhoun
died, full of years and honor. We regard them
as of a generation long past. Horace Binney
was older than either When he was born
this Republic was composed of thirteen
colonies. He could we'll remember the adj
mission of every State into the Union, from
Vermont, which came in in 1871, to the nd
mission of Nevada and Oregon. When he
entered manhood the Union had little more
than five millions of population. He could
have voted for jefferson and Adams in 1901
as he voted for Grant and Wilson in 1872.
He could remember the execution Of Marie
Antoinette and of Robert Emmett, the Reign
of Terror, the career of Napoleon from Rivoli
to Waterloo. When he was an active public
officer the politics of America were under the
control of jefferson and Burr the politics of
England under that of Pitt and Fox. He
saw the rise and fall Of empires, and that
remarkable movement of thought which
began with the fall of the Bastile and ended,
so far as we can see the end, with the aboli-
ton Of American slavery.
Horace Binney's career covered tho whole
life of the Republic, if we regard the forma-
He heard the bells which rang out the sur
render of CORVALLIS, as well as those which
ioyfully told of the surrender of Lee. His
life had become almost a sacred heritage to
Philadelphia Many and fervent have been
the prayers that it would be spared till the
centennial year-that one who had seen the
foundation of the Republic might grace with
his presence the celebration of the centenary
of our independence. But this was not to
be. All that remains of Horace Binney is the
memory of o blameless, an honored and O
useful life. He belonged to the far past, rep
rescnting its patriotism and its glory II
will be well for us in this sad time, with tho
degradation which has fallen upon so much
of our social and political life, if we cherish
well the lessons of such career and initiate
the virtues of the age in which he flourished
and of the great men with whom he labored
to strengthen the foundations of the Re-
public