Page:The autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.djvu/197

 A few days later Garfield was shot, MacVeagh disappeared from the Cabinet, and what would have been the outcome of our effort we never knew. The figures in the kaleidoscope took on other combinations.

The National Republican League extended its operations over the state. Senator James W. Lee of Venango County became chairman of the committee consisting of John Stewart, now a Justice of the Supreme Court; Hugh S. Flemming of Allegheny; William T. Davies of Bradford (afterward Lieutenant-Governor); J. W. M. Geist, an editor in Lancaster; Thomas W. Phillips, a wealthy oil operator of Lawrence; Colonel William McMichael and myself. McMichael was the oldest son of Mayor Morton McMichael, a handsome fellow who had been out in the war in one of the western armies and, like all of the family, had just a little air of stiffness and solidity. He at one time was United States District Attorney in Philadelphia and later went to New York with the thought of making a fortune in the practice of his profession, but met with no great success there. He took with him John R. Dos Passos, a curly-haired youth, who began his career by sweeping out the offices of William T. Price and is closing it with wealth and a fame which has extended over the country. McMichael was president of the Republican Invincibles, a club of men organized in regimental shape, wearing capes and carrying torches of coal oil lamps, which in its heyday was regarded as the best disciplined marching club in the land. I belonged to and later was captain of Company H. In the political campaigns toward the close of and following the war, the Invincibles marched the streets of the city and made excursions to the neighboring towns of Norristown, Pottstown, Phœnixville, Reading, Trenton and other places. “Invincible in peace, invisible in war” was the description of The Age, but they marked a phase of the military spirit of the time and they always made an impression wherever they appeared. Sometimes there was an approach to Rh