Hornblower

that company was bitterly assailed, no serious
imputation was ever directed against him. He
appeared as counsel in many important cases,
such as United States vs. American Tobacco
Company, et aL, 221 U. S. 106 (1911), the "to-
bacco trust dissolution suit" He served on many
public commissions, was an officer of state and
national bar associations, and was active in fur-
thering the cause of the Democratic party.

In the year 1893, Hornblower nearly achieved
the goal which would be to most members of the
bar the supreme achievement of their profes-
sional careers. He was nominated by President
Cleveland to succeed Samuel Blatchford [5.^.],
who had just died, as associate justice of the
United States Supreme Court. The opinion of
the bar was almost unanimous in holding that
Hornblower was exceptionally well equipped for
the post, but between Hornblower and the asso-
ciate justiceship stood the powerful figure of
Senator David B. Hill [^.], of New York.
The previous year Hornblower had been ap-
pointed, at the suggestion of counsel for Judge
Isaac H. Maynard, a member of a committee of
the New York City Bar Association to inves-
tigate Maynard's conduct in abetting the re-
moval of an important certificate in a contested
election. At the time of the offense, Maynard
was deputy-attorney general of New York and a
close friend of Hill, who was governor. The
committee decided unanimously against May-
nard and he was defeated in 1893 in his cam-
paign for election to the New York court of ap-
peals. Hill regarded Hornblower's acquiescence
in the verdict as a betrayal, since he had been ap-
pointed to the committee to represent Maynard.
The campaign led by Hill in the Senate was suc-
cessful and the nomination of Hornblower was
rejected by a small majority. In 1895, when an-
other vacancy occurred, Cleveland again contem-
plated his nomination, but Hornblower declined
it because the pecuniary sacrifice involved in
giving up his practice would have been too
great. In 1914 his appointment to the New York
court of appeals was unanimously confirmed by
the state Senate. He took his seat on Mar. 30,
and for a single week participated in the delib-
erations of the court, retiring at the end of that
time because of illness. It so happened that the
cases assigned to him did not call for written
opinions.

Hornblower was married, Apr. 26, 1882, to
Susan Sanford, daughter of William E. Sanford
of New Haven and New York. In 1886, shortly
after the birth of their third child Mrs. Horn-
blower died, and in 1894 Hornblower mar-
ried her sister Emily, the widow of Col. A. D.

Homer

Nelson. He died of heart disease at Litchfield,
Conn.

[Sources include unpublished memoranda of Win.
Butler Hornblower and George S. Hornblower; com-
munications from Mrs. Dorothy M. Hornblower; G. S.
Hornblower, Win. Butler Hornblower; A Synopsis of
His Life by His Son (1925) ; B. N. Cardozo, in The
Asso. of the Bar of the City of N. Y,: Year Book 1915
(1915), PP. 186-93 ; Proc. N. Y. State Bar Asso., 1915,
pp. 831-36. See also genealogy of the Hornblower
family, in Proc. N. /. Hist. Soc., z ser. VII (1883),
237~47; D. S. Alexander, Four Famous New Yorkers
(1923); AT. Y. Times, June 17, 1914. For the most
that a hostile witness can make of Hornblower's con-
duct as trustee of the New York Life Insurance Com-
pany, see Gustavus Myers, Hist, of the Supreme Court
of the U. S. (1912), pp. 739-40.] H £

HORNER, WILLIAM EDMONDS (June
3, 1793-Mar. 13, 1853), anatomist, author of
the first text of pathology to be published in
America, was born at Warrenton, Fauquier
County, Va, His grandfather, Robert Horner,
emigrated from England and settled first in
Maryland and later in Virginia. He died young,
leaving a widow and two sons, the younger of
whom, William, married Mary, daughter of
William and Elizabeth (Blackwell) Edmonds,
and was the father of William Edmonds Homer.
As a boy Homer was delicate and physically de-
ficient. This fact led to his avoidance of the
sports which usually enter into a boy's life and
to finding companionship in books. When he
was twelve years old he entered the academy of
the Rev. Charles O'Neill, at Warrenton, and
later at Dumfries. O'Neill was a clergyman of
the Episcopal Church, and had been educated at
Trinity College, Dublin, and at Oxford. It was
owing to his instruction that Homer acquired,
and retained through life, an interest in the clas-
sics. In 1809, Horner began the study of medi-
cine as a house student under the direction of
John Spence of Dumfries, who had studied medi-
cine at Edinburgh, but, having developed tuber-
culosis, did not graduate. Horner continued a
pupil of Spence until 1812, and during this time
he attended two sessions of the University of
Pennsylvania. In July 1813, before he had com-
pleted his medical studies, he was commissioned
surgeon's mate in the hospital department of the
United States Army, and served in the cam-
paigns in northern New York During the win-
ter of 1813-14 he obtained a furlough and com-
pleted his medical studies, graduating from the
University of Pennsylvania in April 1814, his
thesis being entitled "Gunshot Wounds." On the
declaration of peace with Great Britain, Horner
resigned his commission, Mar. 13,1815, and for
a short time practised medicine in Warrenton,
Va. Becoming dissatisfied with conditions there
he applied for a surgeoncy in the East India serv-

233