Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 17.pdf/169

 THE GREEN BAG

have a liking for the stories of the lives of lawyers will find its history well told in the privately printed book of Peyton L. Miller,— the grandson of Van Buren's partner, Cornelius Miller,—entitled "A Group of Great Lawyers of Columbia County, New York," printed in the neat and attractive style of the De Vinne Press. There you

Buren was employed in the trial of almost every important cause that was tried in Columbia County until he removed to Albany, and generally opposed to Williams. Van Buren was a plebeian, a Democrat; Williams, an aristocrat and a Federalist. He was a worthy foe. The best comparison of the two men was drawn by Benjamin

MARTIN VAN BUREN

may read of Van Buren, of Tilden, of the Livingstons, of the Spencers; of the mul titudinous Van Nesses and Vanderpoels; and of the mighty Williams. The tradition of Williams still survives. Raymond, the biographer, who wrote more than fifty years ago, says that after Van Ness was made a Judge of the Supreme Court in 1807, Van

Franklin Butler, the partner of Van Buren from his admission to the bar until 1828 and a student in the office of Van Buren & Miller, a member of the cabinet of Jackson and of Van Buren, and Van Buren's most intimate friend. "Never," said Butler, "were two men more dissimilar. Both were eloquent, but the eloquence of Williams was