Page:Men of Mark in America vol 2.djvu/130

 PHILANDER CHASE KNOX NOX, PHILANDER CHASE, late attorney-general of the United States, and since June 10, 1904, senator from Pennsylvania, was born May 6, 1853, at Brownsville, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, where his father, Davis S. Knox, was long engaged in the banking business. His mother was Rebekah (Page) Knox. The character of both parents has had a beneficial influence upon their son. He studied at the University of West Virginia and at Mount Union college, Alliance, Ohio, and was graduated from the latter institution in 1872. While in college he had the good fortune to make the acquaintance of William McKinley, who at that time was district attorney of Stark county, Ohio, and a friendship sprang up between them which continued until McKinley's lamentable death. He entered upon a course of legal study in the office of H. B. Swope, of Pittsburg, then United States district attorney for western Pennsylvania, afterward studied in the office of David Reed and in 1875 was admitted to the bar of Allegheny county. He was successful in practice from the start, and in 1876 he served as assistant United States district attorney under his late preceptor. Giving up his position for private practice in 1878, he rapidly built up a profitable business, becoming in time counsel for various large corporations, among them the Carnegie Company.

For more than twenty years the firm of Knox and Reed continued in active and successful practice, Mr. Knox winning so high a reputation for profound legal knowledge and practical skill in the law that in 1897 President McKinley is said to have privately offered him the position of attorney-general in his cabinet. Mr. Knox declined this tempting offer because he wished to continue in private practice. In 1901, on the resignation of John W. Griggs, the post was again offered to him and was accepted by Mr. Knox, who was sworn in as attorney-general of the United States on April 9 of that year. His appointment by President Roosevelt to this cabinet position was confirmed by the senate, December 16, 1901. He retained this portfolio until after the death of Senator Matthew Stanley