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408 however, evidently wedded to his profession rather than to the excitements of the political field, and at the end of his term he resumed the practice of law, continuing his work before the courts of the state for five years when he was again drawn into state politics by the importunities of his party who believed that he possessed the qualities which serve to make a successful candidate and an able legislator. He was elected to the state senate, serving for six years, and one year as presiding offcer. His course in the senate marked him as the logical candidate of the party for governor, and the Republican state convention of 1895 placed his name at the head of the state ticket and triumphantly elected him to the highest office in the gift of the people of the state, the first Republican governor elected in thirty years. He had served acceptably for two years with every prospect of being continued in office for successive terms, when the nation demanded his service, and the president by selecting him to fill the vacancy in the cabinet caused by the promotion of Attorney-General McKenna to the bench of the United States supreme court, deprived the state of New Jersey of its efficient chief magistrate to make Governor Griggs the head of the Department of Justice of the United States. He served as attorney-general for three years and two months, resigning to take up again the practice of the law.