The Sterling genealogy

616 THE STERLING GENEALOGY
W. W. Badger graduated from Harvard College, A.B., 1855
Harvard Law School, 1856, and was admitted to the Bar in New
York City in Dec, 1856, and began the practice of law at No. 10
Wall Street. He took the first prize of his class for oratory in
1855, the Boyleston Gold Medal, and wrote the parting song of
his class, a poem entitled " Washington, or a Vision of Liberty,"
which attracted much attention. This poem was originally written
for a celebration of Washington's birthday, in the preparatory
school, where he fitted for' college, the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary
at Lima, N. Y., and was repeated on many occasions and pub-
lished with additions and corrections many times, the last being
under the title " Columbia," in the New York M ail and Express,
July 18, 1898, but a few months before his death. Charles Sum-
ner, William Lloyd Garrison, and others wrote complimenting it
and William H. Seward said, " It is as full of genius as it is of
patriotism and humanity." He also wrote many fugitive pieces in
prose and verse, chiefly under the nom de plume of William Whittlesley,
titles to some of which are " : The Burn's Rescue," " Sculp-
ture," " The Greek Slave," " God's Almoner," " Be true to the
Dreams of thy Youth," " American Bards," " Confession," " Gen-
ius in Chains," " The Garden," " The Cherry Tree," " The Foun-
tain," " Sweet Thoughts of Thee," and " The Royal Wreath."
His first important business after entering practice was in
settling up the affairs of Antioch College, an educational institu-
tion in Ohio, under the presidency of Horace Mann. In March,
1857, he defended the celebrated murder case in Brooklyn of John
Wesley Layman, and secured an acquittal for the accused on the
ground of insanity. This was the beginning of an extensive and
important practice, which included many cases of note in the an-
nals of the law, among them the suit for libel brought against
James Gordon Bennett, in which he secured for his client the
second largest verdict ever recovered for libel in the State of New
York, $10,000; and numerous cases before the Court of Appeals,
which often on his presentation overruled the decisions of the Su-
preme and Superior Courts.
In Apr., 1861, he joined the famous 71st regiment of New
York Militia as a private and, after serving five weeks on picket