Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 5.djvu/313

 HON. HARRY BINGHAM. 283

tion during the presidential campaign in the summer of 1S72. He was one of the delegates from this State to the Union Convention at Philadelphia, in 1S67 ; also to the National Democratic Convention at Baltimore, in 1872, and at Cuicinnati, in i83o, and was the New Hampshire member of the Democratic National Committee from 1S6S to 1872. Although not a popular orator in the general sense of the term, he has rendered frequent and effective service upon the stump in behalf of the Democratic cause.

In 1880 he received from his Alma Mater the Degree of Doctor of Laws, in conferring which it is safe to say the trustees honored the institution no less than the recipient, which is by no means always the case in the disposition of such favors. In this connection may properly be mentioned the fact that Mr. Bingham was leading counsel for President Bartlett, in the celebrated investiga- tion of his administration upon charges brought by the New York Alumni Association, in which he was pitted against such distinguished lawyers as ex-Judge William Fullerton, Sanford H. Steele, and U. S. District Attorney A. W. Tenney, of New York, and which resulted mainly — as one of the trustees is credited with declaring — in demonstrating the fact that Mr. Bingham is more than a match, in legal force, for the renowned Judge Fullerton. His public addresses, although not numerous, have been of a character to enhance his reputation for intellectual power and culture, exalted patriotism, and statesmanlike ability. Of these the most notable are the Centennial address, on the occasion of the fourth of July celebration, at Littleton, in 1876; the Memorial Day address before Marshall Sanders Post, G. A. R., May, 1S80; and the address in honor of the late Chief Jusdce Andrew S. Woods, before the Alumni of Dartmouth College, at the June Commencement in 1880 \ all of which bear the stamp of the master mind.

Mr. Bingham is a bachelor, and has not entered so generally into the pleasures of social life, or formed so many of the ties of acquaintanceship and the more intimate relations growing out of the same, as might otherwise have been the case. Yet he is by no means a recluse. Nor is he of the reserved uncompanionable spirit which some have imagined. However the stranger may be impressed at first, he is known by his friends, and will be found by any to be one of the most approachable ot men, genial, frank, open hearted, and thoroughly Democratic in the full sense of the word. He obtrudes his opinions or advice upon no man ; but when the same are sought, in any proper direction, they are freely given, and are found, almost invariably, of more than ordinary value, whether bearing upon matters of private interest or public concern. No man has the welfare of the community more thoroughly at heart, or takes a deeper interest in all measures calculated to advance the material or educational prosperity of the people. The interests of agriculture, especially, have ever found in him an active champion, and for the last twenty- five years he has been, himself, the owner of a fine farm in the town of Beth- lehem, to the management and improvement of which he has directed his attention in such leisure hours as he has found at command.

In religion he has been connected with no church organization ; but his early training and the strong conservative element in his character have operated to establish in his mind a profound respect for the general doctrines and institu- tions of Christianity, as established by our New England ancestry, divested of the superstitions incident to the age in which they originated. Yet the tolerant character of his views in this connection, and his estimation of religion in the broad and general sense, as co-important with government itself, is emphatically set forth in the Centennial address, — before alluded to, — in which we find him taking the broad ground that ".Any form of government, with any

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