Page:The autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.djvu/205

 under the aegis of the Government at Washington, which would tend to increase the export trade of the United States at the expense of Great Britain,” that epithet, borrowed from English politics, will have no terrors for an American.

To him who says that he cannot support Mr. Blaine because of conscience, there is nothing to be answered since he stands upon a ground beyond the reach of argument. He assumes, however, a great responsibility, and we ask him to take good heed as to his steps. We suggest to him that there may be a merit in the self-discipline which permits the people to have their own way, because even if our lives be cleaner and our judgments better than theirs, there is still a possibility that our information is incorrect or our conclusions from it erroneous. We appeal to him, if he live in Massachusetts, not to mistake for conscience the resentment he may feel for sharp words spoken years ago and which broadminded men have forgotten, and if he live in New York that he see to it that his conscience does not conceal his approval of certain English views upon the subject of political economy. We in Pennsylvania see no reason to strike at so distinguished and able a Republican. We perceive no merit and no wisdom in hurrying into an alliance which necessarily includes the most corrupt element in American politics. We decline to form a league with men who always opposed the measures we held to be of the most importance, who now reject the reforms which we regard as essential, and who still cling to those means of stifling minorities which Republicans have discarded as unworthy. We feel that whether or not Mr. Blaine was our choice for the nomination, his election will best serve the interests of the people and that to defeat him would be to aid in the restoration of “machine” methods, and to entrust with general power a party which has given every evidence of inability to exercise it in such a way as to promote the common welfare. ”

In 1885 I was appointed by the Board of Judges a member of the Board of Public Education for the City of Philadelphia, representing the Twenty-ninth ward. The appointment was due to the intervention of Judge David Newlin Fell, who then and ever since has been a close and helpful friend. Edward T. Steel, a successful Market Street merchant and one of my associates in the effort to improve political conditions, was the president of the board. He Rh