John Van Buren. him. He was a professed disciple of the celebrated doctrine expounded by Henry (afterwards Lord Chancellor) Brougham, during his memorable defense of Queen Caroline, as to the tenacious relation a coun sel sustained towards a client. Appeal after appeal came from Mr. Van Buren not only as to main issues but against the enormous alimony that Judge Oakley imposed upon the client; and the contests extended over several years. Forrest versus Forest con cerns the indices of many volumes of New York reports. In all those contests the fecun dity of Mr. Robinson in making motions and in taking interlocutory appeals excited the admiration of the whole profession, as did the courage of Mr. Van Buren. To use the lingo of the P. R., " although knocked out in one round the latter would come up smilingly in the next." However, in Mr. O'Conor he had found an antagonist equally pertinacious with himself. During all the years of litigation Mr. O'Conor ad vanced every disbursement, and throughout acted without receipt of fees. His per sonal pride, which was Milesian to the heart's core, had been aroused : for Forrest on one occasion, when meeting him in a railway car riage, foolishly attempted to assault the law yer, but was prevented by bystanders. Finally, however, Forrest was adjudged to pay the accrued alimony with interest, and out of it Mr. O'Conor was fully reimbursed. This long and tedious litigation, coupled with the drain upon the purse of Mr. Forrest — and his fees to Mr. Van Buren were princely — worried the actor and caused him to become irascible and peevish. Moreover the contest injured his popularity : although critics agree that some of his best acting — notably in the character of Lear, — was witnessed during his later days. The Forrest litigation had embarrassed the general business of the firm of Robin son and Van Buren. Indeed it is a maxim among New York lawyers, " Beware of Jarndyce cases that absorb your general litiga
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tion." Friends of Mr. Van Buren began to notice that the wear and tear of the divorce litigation had injured his general health and robbed his cheeks of their wonted floridity, and his step of its uniform elasticity. Never theless he continued actively at the Bar, but the calls upon him were spasmodic; al though mentally he showed no psycho logical correspondence with his physical weakness. While the appeals of the Forrest litigation had slowly progressed, the Presidential con test between candidates Pierce and Scott intervened; and into the campaign Mr. Van Buren was literally dragged. That is the word to use, for his sympathies were not fully with the Democratic candidate, who was suspected of kindly leanings toward the maintenance of slavery as a national institu tion. And Mr. Van Buren had previously given birth to the epigram : " Congress has no more power to make a slave than to make a king." Here it will become appropriate to con sider Mr.Van Buren as the politician. Where has lived, or still lives, the great lawyer who was or is not active in public affairs? Can we refuse to such a one the duality of interest in jurisprudence and politics when we recall the figures of Marshall, Taney and Chase, or of Story and Wood bury, from the judicial mirage; or those of Wirt, Webster, Seward and Sumner from the joint ranks of Bar and Senate? When Mr. Van Buren in 1847 left Albany — then, as now and always, a very hothouse for the growth of political fruit — and next arrived in New York, he had determined, as he assured friends, to quit politics as even incidental to professional pursuits. Doubtless he could have kept that resolution had not his father become in 1848 the Presidential standardbearer of the Free Soil Democracy. Or except for the co-incident fact that John Van Buren's soulful sympathies were with that party had the movement been disintegrated from paternal connection. This event oc
