Horace Binney

Horace Binney (January 4, 1780 – August 12, 1875) was an American lawyer, author, and public speaker who served as an Anti-Jacksonian in the United States House of Representatives.

Through his sister Susan Binney Wallace, he was the uncle of Horace Binney Wallace (1817–1852), a legal critic and through his sister, Mary Sarah Binney Sargent (d. 1824), wife of Lucius Manlius Sargent (1786–1867), an author and temperance advocate, he was the uncle of well-known author and Horace Binney Sargent (1821–1908), a Civil war veteran.

Between 1806 and 1807, he served in the Pennsylvania legislature. From 1833 until 1835, he served as a Whig member of the United States House of Representatives. While in the House of Representatives, he defended the United States Bank and opposed the policies of President Andrew Jackson. In 1808, Binney was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society.

After leaving office, he returned to the practice of law. Binney's most famous cases were Lyle v. Richards (1823), and Vidal et al v. Philadelphia et al (1844). In the latter case, which involved the disposition of the fortune of Stephen Girard, he was unsuccessfully opposed by Daniel Webster. Binney's argument in this case greatly influenced the interpretation of the law of charities.

Personal life

Binney was married to Elizabeth Cox (1783–1865), one of six daughters of John Cox, Esq. of Bloomsbury, New Jersey, and descendants of the Langeveldts who originally settled New Brunswick, New Jersey. Her sister, Mary Cox, was married to the inventor John Stevens III (1749–1838). Mary (1805-1831), first wife of Judge/Congressman John Cadwalader Horace Binney Jr. (1809–1870), a member of the American Philosophical Society. married Eliza Frances Johnson Esther Coxe Binney (1817–1902), who married John Innes Clark Hare (1816–1905), also an attorney. Elizabeth Binney (1820–1910), who married Richard Roger Montgomery (1818–1888), the son of William M. Montgomery and Marie d'Elincourt, on April 30, 1844. Elizabeth and Richard Montgomery were the grandparents of Helen Hope Montgomery Scott. Susan Binney (1822–1887) William Binney (1825–1909), a prominent banker in Providence, Rhode Island who married Charlotte Hope Goddard, the sister of Robert Hale Ives Goddard, in 1848.

In 1865 he was elected as a Companion of the Third Class in the Commandery of Pennsylvania of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States for his support of the Union during the war.

Binney died on August 12, 1875, at the age of 95 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the city of his birth. He was buried in the churchyard of Church of St. James the Less in Philadelphia.