bodies ever assembled in the State for a like purpose, nominated a ticket without regard to former party designations, and placed upon it the name of Mr. Dickinson for the office of Attorney General. Having counselled the Union movement he accepted the nomination, and with the whole ticket was elected by a majority of over a hundred thousand votes.

In 1862 as in 1861, he disapproved of arraying a political party upon minor, incidental and exceptional questions in an attitude of hostility to the Administration, while the one great and all-absorbing issue whether the nation could preserve its existence or must yield it on the demand of a wicked and impudent rebellion, was pressing upon the country for solution, and he therefore condemned, pointedly and severely, the action of the managing leaders who controlled the machinery of the Democratic organization in the State, as placing such of its adherents as were loyal in a false position ;-as unfaithful to the principles, the history and the great memories of the Democratic party and suicidal to its future; as tending to divide the sentiment and weaken the efforts of the people, and hinder if not paralyze the government; as giving comfort and encouragement to the enemy at home and abroad, and as fraught with momentous peril to the cause of the Union. He held that in such a contest there could be but two parties, one for the government and the Union and against the Rebellion, the other, by whatever name called, virtually, and more or less directly, for the rebellion and against the government and the Union; and that if alleged mistakes and short-comings in the conduct of affairs existed, they could not be corrected by the operations of party politics, in the face of the armed legions of the enemy, arrayed against the whole structure of the govern ment. In accordance with the impulses of his nature, the theories of his education and the convictions of his experience, he continued to give to the President, as the representative head of the country, his active support; and, recognizing a sphere of

duty far above mere partisanship, he treated with indifference alike the weak attempts of party intriguers and rebel sympathizers to convict him of political inconsistency, or of party infidelity. The frequent change of position by those who assumed to speak for the Democratic party, being in truth unwilling concessions to the union sentiment among the Democratic masses, shows that even they must finally admit, as they have practically though reluctantly in regard to a former memorable question, the correctness of his judgment and the patriotism of his conduct. The Democratic party never before failed, heartily and manfully to support the Government, in whatever contest with an armed foe; and it will ever remain to be regretted that the short-sighted policy of its leadership has permanently damaged if not destroyed its character for patriotism, and its prestige as the great leading party of the country.

In 1862 the name of Mr. Dickinson was, to some extent, used in connection with the office of Governor of the State, to be filled at the election of that year, but without his wish or encouragement. He supported, with all his zeal, the lamented and patriotic General Wadsworth the Union nominee; whom, though an opponent in the party divisions of 1848 and subsequent years, he respected as a man of worth, honesty and consistency, and now loved and honored as a true patriot and friend of the Union, and one of its most devoted and gallant defenders.

Prior to the State election of 1863, Mr. Dickinson publicly declined a re-nomination for the office of Attorney General. He was nominated by Mr. Lincoln upon the joint commission to arrange indemnities arising under the settlement of the Northwestern boundary between the United States and Great Britain, and the nomination was unanimously confirmed by the Senate, without the usual reference; but the position was declined.

In December of the same year, Governor Fenton tendered

him a seat upon the Bench of the Court of Appeals, about to become vacant by the resignation of Hon. Henry R. Selden; but the appointment was also declined; and on the expiration. of his term as Attorney General, he retired from official connection with public affairs and resumed his home pursuits; but with undiminished interest and unflagging determination in the great struggle of the Nation.

he was

In the spring of 1865, and among the last of his public acts, President Lincoln tendered to Mr. Dickinson the office of United States District Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Though unsolicited and unexpected the appointment was accepted; and from that time to the close of his life actively and laboriously engaged in discharge of the duties of that important office. His death occurred on the 12th day of April 1866, suddenly and with but brief warning; yet the summons found him prepared, as he had always been, to meet the ever recurring duties and the changes and varying responsibilities of life. For some time previously he had been engaged in the United States Circuit Court at New York in the trial of the case of the United States vs. the Steam Ship Meteor under the neutrality laws, upon the allegation that the vessel was being fitted out as a Chilian privateer, or to act in some hostile capacity against the friendly power of Spain. At the close of the proceedings on Monday, he retired to the residence of his son-in law Samuel G. Courtney, Esq., (his home in New York city,) feeling somewhat indisposed, which was attributed to a slight bilious attack; and though a physician was called, not the least apprehension of a serious result was entertained. Thursday morning he dressed and shaved himself, and made preparations to go to the office, but finally decided to delay it. a day longer. In the course of the day symptoms of an alarming character were manifested, and in the afternoon the attending physicians, upon consultation, communicated to Mrs. Dickinson their opinion that her husband could not recover, nor live

probably at most beyond a few hours. Stunned and oppressed with the yet unrealized magnitude of the impending blow, she nevertheless, with the true calmness of Christian fortitude and the tenderness of wifely devotion, took upon herself the sacred duty to inform him of the extremity of his condition. He however anticipated her purpose by a remark showing that he understood the full purport of what she would communicate: and taking her hand said that though the struggle was severe, they must meet it like Christians,-their separation would not be long. He remained in the full possession of his mental faculties to the last; left messages for absent members of the family, and spoke of his condition with calmness and Christian confidence. For a time he suffered much and failed rapidly. About eight o'clock in the evening, after an interval of comparative quiet, he raised himself to a sitting posture, and being supported by Mr. Courtney and Hon. Ausburn Birdsall, seemed to breathe freely and easily; then reclining his head upon Mr. Courtney, in a short time it was observed that he had ceased to breathe. "His countenance wore," said one who was present at this time, "an expression of benignity indescribable." "The conflict is strong, but the other side is ours," was one of his last expressions, addressed to his daughter Mrs. Courtney. Thus passed from earth to Heaven a brave, a true, a faithful, a loving, a noble spirit ;-one that had met life in its stern and trying as well as in its tender and lovely and heroic aspects, and in all been sustained; as now in the final conflict it was, through Infinite mercy, enabled to triumph over death and the grave.

During the greater portion of his active life, Mr. Dickinson was prominent in connection with the political affairs of the country; and as, for nearly all that period, the slavery question formed the key note of American politics, and, notwithstanding slavery in form has been abolished at a blow by the power of the loyal people, is even yet exerting a posthumous influence

upon the issues before the country, it is proper to refer more directly to his course in that respect; and more especially so, as whatever of opposition and criticism he encountered in his public career was ostensibly based on the positions he maintained upon that subject, though doubtless referable, in a good degree, to the promptings of political rivalry.

He has been called a pro-slavery Democrat; but as far as intended in a disparaging sense, it has been by those who were as willing to misrepresent his sentiments and position as to misunderstand the true aspects of the question. A Democrat certainly he was; by birth, education, habits, and well-grounded principles; of the school where Democracy means civil and religious liberty, equality, justice, law, order, advancement, the greatest good to the greatest number. The phase of Democracy which taught to trim party platforms to meet contingencies; to traffic alike in principles and offices; to manage the democracy of numbers by the secret machinery of party organization, he always heartily despised and condemned.

He regarded slavery as an incumbrance fastened upon the country in its colonial condition, and recognized at the formation of the Union; and held that the rights of the slaveholder, as thus recognized by the constitution, in the States, were not within the power and control of the general government; and that the government, the States, and the people of the States, ought, on whatever side of the question, to observe and keep the constitutional provisions regarding slavery, fairly, in the spirit in which they were framed; and thus avoid, as did the patriot framers of the government for wise and good reasons, the "conflict" which the extremes of Northern and Southern opinion were constantly urging forward and tending to make "irrepressible."

His course in relation to slavery in the Territories has already been alluded to, in connection with his resolutions introduced into the Senate in 1847. The advocates of the