Binney, Horace

Binney, Horace, 1780–1875, American lawyer, b. Philadelphia. A leading lawyer in Pennsylvania, Binney was appointed in 1808 a director of the First Bank of the United States. He served in Congress from 1833 to 1835 as an anti-Jacksonian. In 1844, opposing Daniel Webster, Binney argued successfully before the U.S. Supreme Court that a bequest of Stephen Girard to Philadelphia for philanthropic purposes was lawful. His argument had an important influence on the American law relating to charitable bequests. He wrote several biographies, as well as Leaders of the Old Bar of Philadelphia (1859).

See biographies by C. C. Binney (1903, repr. 1972) and H. L. Carson (1907).

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