the grave, and visited it every morning early to see if a single one had been removed and also to place flowers upon his beloved one's breast. He not only did this, but for some days sent his gardener, Alfred Taylor, to guard like a soldier the resting-place of his idolized wife."

"For years, when at home, Stanton went regularly twice a week to decorate Mary's grave, and," says Alfred Taylor, “on Sundays went alone to meet her." At the head of her grave he planted a sprig of weeping willow which a friend brought from Napoleon's burial place on St. Helena.*

Mary's death wrought a complete change in his manner and thought. "Where formerly he met everybody with hearty and cheerful greeting," says Mrs. Davison Filson of Steubenville, “he now moved about in silence and gloom, with head bowed and hands clasped behind." He kept aloof from public and social gatherings, but gave enlarged attention to religious matters.

Before her death, when mounting his carriage on Sunday to drive to Cadiz, Carrollton, or New Lisbon, in order to be present at the opening of court on Monday morning, Mary generally slipped a letter into his hand to be opened and read on the road, containing besides her expressions of regard and affection, gentle but earnest arguments and protests against traveling to court on the Sabbath Day. He really wanted to please her, but was more than full of business earning money for her, as he explained by way of justification-and felt compelled to travel on Sunday when it was necessary to appear in court away from home on Monday morning. After Mary's death these letters produced a strong effect on Stanton, which lasted, in a modified degree, to the end of his life.

History affords no example of more passionate and lasting marital affection. Stanton and his wife were totally unlike, yet they lived wholly for each other; and if the husband transgressed at all, it was "for Mary." He worshipped her till the day of his death, shortly before which, the last time he was in Steubenville (September, 1868), he spent an evening hour alone at her grave. He was like Burns, who married and reared a family but never ceased to

*"On a lone, barren isle, where the wide-rolling billow
Assails the stern rocks and the loud tempests rave,

A hero lies still, whilst a low-drooping willow,

Like some fond, weeping mourner, leans over his grave."

mourn for his Highland Mary, taken from him in his youth:

Still o'er those scenes my mem'ry wakes,
And fondly broods with miser care!
Time but th' impression stronger makes,
As streams their channels deeper wear.

CHAPTER VIII.

GREAT CASES-A TRAGEDY.

Martin Van Buren, his favorite candidate, having been defeated in convention by James K. Polk, and being in deep distress over the death of his wife, Stanton took little part in the presidential campaign of 1844; he simply buried himself in the law. The following year was also devoted exclusively to his clients. The partnership between Tappan and Stanton was succeeded by that of Stanton and McCook; and there were Stanton and Peppard at Cadiz; Umbstaetter, Stanton, and Wallace at New Lisbon; special partners at other points, like Daniel Peck at St. Clairsville, E. R. Eckley at Carrollton, Joseph (“Percent.") Sharon in Harrison, Judge Charles Shaler at Pittsburg, and others at Salem, Wheeling, and New Philadelphia. Generally, local contests were left in charge of local partners, while appealed cases and practise in the State supreme and federal courts received his personal attention.

The final re-trial of the great case of John Moore vs. Gano, Thoms, and Talbot, came on during the March term in 1845. It was the end of the tug of war in the greatest of Stanton's early legal battles a struggle which lasted about ten years. In 1835 William Talbot, William Thoms, and Aaron G. Gano formed a partnership for the purpose of "cornering" the pork and lard market. To carry on their enormous transactions resort was had to extensive borrowing. After the panic of 1837 the business became disastrous, a single loss to one of the partners reaching one hundred thousand dollars. In 1838 John Moore, a creditor, secured judgment for twenty-three thousand dollars against William Talbot, a member of the firm, who was unable to pay but who was the only one on whom summons was served. In 1839 suit was brought to subject Gano and Thoms, the wealthy partners, to the judgment, which was defeated. Following this result, Stanton must secure a new trial or be permanently routed. After exhaustive research, at the December term, 1843, before the court in banc, he made his famous argument for a new