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WILLIAM PINKNEY.

THIS celebrated man, a native of Annapolis, Maryland, was born on the seventeenth of March, 1764. At an early age he entered King William School, in his native town, and remained there until the completion of his thirteenth year. In this institution, and, subsequently, for a short period under the guidance of a private tutor, he acquired a thorough English education, and the rudiments of the classics. About this time his father, an adherent to the side of royalty during the war of the Revolution, was dispossessed of his property by confiscation; became reduced and dependent, and young Pinkney was obliged to relinquish his studies. From this time until he commenced the study of law with Judge Chase, in 1783, little is recorded of him except that he directed his attention to medicine, in which he soon found that he had mistaken his vocation.

He was admitted to the bar in 1786, and the same year removed to Harford county and commenced practice. "His very first efforts," says Wheaton, seem to have given him a commanding attitude in the eye of the public. His attainments in the law of real property and the science of special pleading, then the two great foundations of legal distinction, were accurate and profound; and he had disciplined his mind by the cultivation of that species of logic, which, if it does not lead to the brilliant results of inductive philosophy, contributes essentially to invigorate the reasoning faculty, and to enable it to detect those fallacies which are apt to impose upon the understanding in the warmth and hurry of forensic discussion. His style in speaking was marked by an easy flow of natural eloquence and a happy choice of language. His voice was very melodious, and seemed a most winning accompaniment to his pure and effective diction. His elocution was calm and placid-the very contrast of that strenuous, vehement, and emphatic manner, which he subsequently adopted."

In the Spring of 1788 he was elected to represent the county of Harford in the Maryland convention, for the ratification of the Federal Constitution. The history of his career in that assembly is unfortunately lost. Shortly after the adjournment of the convention, he was chosen a member of the House of Delegates, and remained in that station until the year 1792. His speeches there upon the subject of the voluntary emancipation of slaves, breathe "all the fire of youth and a generous enthusiasm for the rights of human nature," yet they are not an earnest of those splendid powers of rhetoric and reasoning which were so eminently displayed in his subsequent years.

Mr. Pinkney married Miss Ann Maria Rodgers, a sister of Commodore Rodgers, in 1789. The next year he was elected a member of Congress, but declined serving in that office on account of his private and professional duties. In 1792, he became a member of the Executive Council of Maryland, and continued in that office until his election to the State Legislature, when he resigned. Amidst these several public duties he continued his professional pursuits with unabated vigor and attention, and gradually attained a prominent position in the eyes of the public, as a legislator and an erudite lawyer. "His acuteness, dexterity, and zeal, in the transaction of business," says one of his cotemporaries; "his readiness, spirit, and vigor in debate; the beauty and richness of his fluent elocution, adorned with the finest imagery drawn from classical lore and a vivid fancy; the manliness of his figure and the energy of his mien,

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WILLIAM PINKNEY.

THIS celebrated man, a native of Annapolis, Maryland, was born on the seventeenth of March, 1764. At an early age he entered King William School, in his native town, and remained there until the completion of his thirteenth year. In this institution, and, subsequently, for a short period under the guidance of a private tutor, he acquired a thorough English education, and the rudiments of the classics. About this time his father, an adherent to the side of royalty during the war of the Revolution, was dispossessed of his property by confiscation; became reduced and dependent, and young Pinkney was obliged to relinquish his studies. From this time until he commenced the study of law with Judge Chase, in 1783, little is recorded of him except that he directed his attention to medicine, in which he soon found that he had mistaken his vocation. He was admitted to the bar in 1786, and the same year removed to Harford county and commenced practice. "His very first efforts," says Wheaton, "seem to have given him a commanding attitude in the eye of the public. His attainments in the law of real property and the science of special pleading, then the two great foundations of legal distinction, were accurate and profound; and he had disciplined his mind by the cultivation of that species of logic, which, if it does not lead to the brilliant results of inductive philosophy, contributes essentially to invigorate the reasoning faculty, and to enable it to detect those fallacies which are apt to impose upon the understanding in the warmth and hurry of forensic discussion. His style in speaking was marked by an easy flow of natural eloquence and a happy choice of language. His voice was very melodious, and seemed a most winning accompaniment to his pure and effective diction. His elocution was calm and placid-the very contrast of that strenuous, vehement, and emphatic manner, which he subsequently adopted."

In the Spring of 1788 he was elected to represent the county of Harford in the Maryland convention, for the ratification of the Federal Constitution. The history of his career in that assembly is unfortunately lost. Shortly after the adjournment of the convention, he was chosen a member of the House of Delegates, and remained in that station until the year 1792. His speeches there upon the subject of the voluntary emancipation of slaves, breathe "all the fire of youth and a generous enthusiasm for the rights of human nature," yet they are not an earnest of those splendid powers of rhetoric and reasoning which were so eminently displayed in his subsequent years.

Mr. Pinkney married Miss Ann Maria Rodgers, a sister of Commodore Rodgers, in 1789. The next year he was elected a member of Congress, but declined serving in that office on account of his private and professional duties. In 1792, he became a member of the Executive Council of Maryland, and continued in that office until his election to the State Legislature, when he resigned. Amidst these several public duties he continued his professional pursuits with unabated vigor and attention, and gradually attained a prominent position in the eyes of the public, as a legislator and an erudite lawyer. "His acuteness, dexterity, and zeal, in the transaction of business," says one of his cotemporaries; "his readiness, spirit, and vigor in debate; the beauty and richness of his fluent elocution, adorned with the finest imagery drawn from classical lore and a vivid fancy; the manliness of his figure and the energy of his mien,

united with a sonorous and flexible voice, and a general animation and graceful delivery," were the qualities by which he attained that elevated position.

In 1796 he was associated with Christopher Gore in the commission on the part of the United States, under the seventh article of Jay's Treaty; and in the various discussions which arose during the continuance of the negotiations, took an active and important part. His written opinions, as published in his Life by Mr. Wheaton, are spoken of by that learned man as finished models of judicial eloquence, uniting powerful and comprehensive argument with a copious, pure and energetic diction.*

Mr. Pinkney returned to the United States in the month of August, 1804, and resumed the practice of his profession. Soon after he changed his residence from Annapolis to Baltimore, and in 1805 was appointed attorney-general of Maryland. Here he continued until the year 1806, when he was again sent on a mission to England, in conjunction with Mr. Monroe. During the next year the latter gentleman returned to America, and Mr. Pinkney was left to perfect the negotiations alone. The result is too well known to require but a notice here. In February, 1811, he took leave of the British court, and soon after embarked for Annapolis, where he arrived in the following June. On his arrival he was elected to the Senate of his native State, and, in the succeeding December, Mr. Madison tendered him the Attorney-Generalship of the United States. This office he accepted, and at once entered upon its duties, in the performance of which he evinced his characteristic ability.

During the violent and protracted controversy consequent upon the declaration of war in 1812, Mr. Pinkney maintained a vigorous defence of the policy of the administration. His pamphlet on that subject, over the signature of Publius, addressed to the inhabitants of Maryland, had a powerful effect. A few paragraphs from that production will show the character of his sentiments upon the then momentous and all absorbing question :-"That the war with England is irreproachably just," says he, "no man can doubt who exercises his understanding upon the question. It is known to the whole world, that when it was declared, the British government had not retracted or qualified any one of those maritime claims which threatened the ruin of American commerce, and disparaged American sovereignty. Every constructive blockade, by which our ordinary communication with European or other marts had been intercepted, was either perversely maintained, or made to give place only to a wider and more comprehensive impediment. The right of impressment in its most odious form, continued to be vindicated in argument and enforced in practice. The rule of the war of 1756, against which the voices of all America was lifted up in 1805, was still preserved, and had only become inactive because the colonies of France and her allies had fallen before the naval power of England. The Orders in Council of 1807 and 1809, which in their motive, principle, and operation, were utterly incompatible with our existence as a commercial people; which retaliated with tremendous effect upon a friend the impotent irregularities of an enemy; which established upon the seas a despotic dominion, by which power and right were confounded, and a system of monopoly and plunder raised, with a daring contempt of decency, upon the wreck of neutral prosperity and public law; which even attempted to exact a tribute, under the name of an impost, from the merchants of this independent land, for permission to become the slaves and instruments of that abominable system; had been adhered to (notwithstanding the acknowledged repeal of the Berlin and Milan decrees in regard to the United States) with an alarming appearance of a fixed and permanent attachment to those very qualities which fitted them for the work of oppression and filled us with dismay. Satisfaction, and even explanation, had been either steadily denied, or contemptnously evaded. Our complaints had been reiterated till we ourselves blushed to hear them, and till the insolence with which they were received recalled us to some sense of dignity. History does not furnish an example of such patience under such an accumulation of injuries and insults.

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"Nothing is more to be esteemed than peace,' (I quote the wisdom of Polybius,) 'WHEN IT LEAVES US IN POSSESSION OF OUR HONOR AND RIGHTS; but when it is joined with loss of free

*See Part Second, No. 1, of Wheaton's Life of Pinkney.

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