Friday, September 23, 2016

'The Nation' on John Milton Binckley: September 19, 1867

The Nation, Vol. V, No. 116, page 221. Thursday, September 19, 1867. 

'The career of the personage who now styles himself “Acting Attorney-General,” or as he is known in the newspapers, “Binckley,” tout court, is one which is rarely met with in the Western world. His rise resembles the rise of a grand vizier at an Oriental court rather than that of a Christian lawyer, and it forms, perhaps, the most singular incident of Mr. Johnson's singular administration. “Binckley” is a jack-of-all-trades, who has been everything by turns and nothing long. According to an account given of him by the Washington correspondent of the Boston Advertiser, after having first made his appearance in Washington as a portrait painter, and then tried land agency, writing for newspapers, a clerkship in a Government office, and other shifts, he turned his mind to the law about three years ago, has had one case in court, which he judiciously withdrew, and then suddenly emerged as “Acting Attorney-General” of the United States, having been selected by Mr. Johnson as legal adviser of the Executive of the United States during a most critical period. We doubt if a parallel for this can be found in the history of any civilized state. “Binckley,” too, has actually been permitted to “advise” the President in the Sickles case; that is, to furnish Mr. Johnson with legal reasons for arraying himself in hostility to Congress and the majority of the people, and the opinion was what might have been expected from a jurist of Binckley's standing.'

[John Milton Binckley (1821-1878). This article misses the fact that Binckley also graduated with an M.D. from the Medical Department of Georgetown College on February 28, 1861
Mr. Johnson = President Andrew Johnson (1808-1875) 
Sickles = Dan Sickles (1819-1914)]

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