Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 5.djvu/312

 282 THE GRANITE MONTHLY.

1S71 and 1874, when the Democracy were in control, he has ever occupied a leading position, and that not alone as respects his own party. In all matters not of partisan import or bearing, he has exercised a greater influence upon legislation than any other member of either party, for Republicans as well as Democrats have come to place the fullest confidence in his judgment and sagacity in all practical matters. He advocates no measure which he does not beheve to be just, and conducive to the best interests of the State and the people. When he speaks he commands the close attention of all, for he speaks squarely to the point and with tlie earnestness of absolute conviction, and he seldom fails to impress his hearers with the strength of his position and the soundness of his views.

With the manipulations of machine politics Mr. Bingham has had nothing to do, either for his own advancement or that of any other individual. His pohtical services have been rendered in a straight-forward manner, from devo- tion to principle and for the good of the cause alone. Indeed his utter self- abnegation has frequently been the occasion of deep regret among his friends. Yet his party has not failed to testify repeatedly its appreciation of his worth. He has twice receivu 1 the Democratic nomination for member of Congress in his district, — first in 1S65, and again in 1867, — and has been three times com- plimented with the Democratic nomination for United States Senator ; — -in 1870, 1872, and 1879; — and, not from partisan reasons alone, but for the honor and pride of their State, have thousands of our citizens regretted their inability to place him in the highest legislative body of the country. In the Senate of the United States his great legal ability, intellectual power, and com- prehensive knowledge of the history and science of government, would give him rank with the foremost members of that body. In none of these respects, nor in any of the essential elements of statesmanship, is he surpassed by an Edmunds, a Bayard, or a Thurman, and had he been called, through the mutations of party politics, to represent New Hampshire in that body, the influence of the Granite State would have been felt, as in former days, sur- passing that of larger states, as that of Delaware and Vermont, in these later years, has exceeded Massachusetts or Pennsylvania.

Mr. Bingham has held no appointive office, state or national, except that of special agent of the treasury department under the administration of President Johnson. He was nominated by Gov. Weston, in 1874, for Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Judicature ; but the nomination failed of confirmation by the Council, through certain corporate influences. It is also an open secret that he might have received an appointment to the bench of the Supreme Court, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of his brother, George A. Bingham, in October, 1880, had he consented to accept the same. He was a delegate from Littleton in the State Constitutional Convention of 1876, in which he took a conspicuous part, serving as chairman of one of the four standing committees — that on legislative department. In this Convention, as in the Legislature, he exercised an influence second to that of no other member, as will readily be seen upon examination of the proceedings and debates, as reported.* Aside from the positions mentioned, he has held no public office of any kind, beyond that of member of the Board of Education in the Union School District, Littleton, for the first three years after its organi- zation, and that of Quartermaster of the Thirty-Second Regiment, in the latter part of the old militia days.

In the councils of the Democratic party, in conventions and committees, he has been prominent for many years, simply because his services in this direc- tion have been sought and commanded. He has presided in the State Con- vention on two occasions, — in January, 1870, and in the Electoral Conven-

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