Referring once to the wife of a friend, who was known to be a termagant, he said: "She's the most even-tempered woman I ever knew—always mad."
This faculty of bold, rapid characterization has always prevented him from being dull either in his speeches or in social life. He is nothing if not interesting. His rare qualities of mind and heart endeared him to a large Orange County circle, which still affectionately remembers him.
William S. Bennett, formerly of the Port Jervis bar, removed to New York, where his career has been one of uninterrupted prosperity and promotion. He is now representing his district in Congress, where he has already achieved distinction in that most difficult of all places in which to compel immediate recognition.
His abilities have been so conspicuous and the esteem of his colleagues has been so unmistakably manifested that the attention of the entire country has been fixed upon this still cherished son of Orange County.
Not only has Orange County sent forth many lawyers whose names have become famous throughout the world, but Orange County is the Mecca to which many of the country's ablest lawyers repair to spend their declining years, attracted by its beauty and invigorated by its atmosphere. Benjamin F. Tracy, once secretary of the navy and long one of the leading advocates of the bar of Brooklyn and New York, now spends much of his time upon his beloved farm near Goshen. General Henry L. Burnett, prominent in Ohio and New York, whose life of high adventure and brilliant achievement possesses all the interest of romance, also finds upon his Goshen estate the leisure in which to charm a choice circle of friends old and new with reminiscences of the famous men with whom he has been associated on equal terms and of the stirring scenes in which he has so honorably and conspicuously mingled.
Orange County, which has in days gone by attracted to itself the sensitive poet, Nathaniel P. Willis, the scholarly historian, Joel T. Headley, the gifted lawyer, Luther R. Marsh, and the still vigorous publicist, John Bigelow, will never cease to have a charm for the retired veteran of letters and the law. It should never cease to interest also the active and alert practitioner who, on its rugged hills and in its peaceful valleys and by its murmuring streams and from its bracing atmosphere can draw vitality, inspiration and delight—strength for the duties of each succeeding hour as he seeks to emulate the lofty virtues and resplendent talents of those whose eyes, like his, once wandered with rapture over its entrancing prospects.
NOTE BY THE EDITOR.
The Editor deeply regrets that since the modesty of the author has forbidden any reference to himself this review of the period in which Mr. Vanamee himself has borne so honorable and conspicuous a part contains no description of his own brilliant career as an advocate. But though it is thus unavoidable that his signal talents and accomplishments should not be specifically portrayed in these pages, still the intelligent reader will not fail to perceive in these graphic estimates of his contemporaries an unconscious reflection of his own commanding character, lofty ideals and acknowledged abilities.