Page:The autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.djvu/212

 Richard C. McMurtrie, John G. Johnson, former Governor Henry M. Hoyt, George L. Crawford, Morton P. Henry, George Tucker Bispham, James W. Paul, W. Brooke Rawle, Joseph C. Fraley, Richard M. Cadwalader, Hampton L. Carson, Charles Chauncey Binney, E. Hunn Hanson, Henry Flanders, John B. Gest and substantially all of the strongest men at the Bar. In the court itself, Fell wanted me. Mitchell would have been pleased to see Rothermel take his place and Hare had no preference. The Governor asked them confidentially for their views, and Mitchell was deputed to give it expression. In a long letter, now in my possession, this is what he wrote: “Mr. Rothermel has the greater strength, both with the city leaders and with the bar, especially with the active practicing bar. Mr. Pennypacker, however, has some strong friends among the bar and, as you already know, has the backing of Senator Quay.”

Those who gave their support to Mr. Rothermel were George S. Graham, A. S. L. Shields, M. Hampton Todd, William B. Mann, James H. Shakespeare, Dimner Beeber and Alexander Simpson, Jr.

The Adjutant General, Daniel H. Hastings, telegraphed to me January 8, 1889, that I would be appointed the next day. His prophesy was based upon information.

I came to the work with many misgivings. Though as a student I had read widely, and though I had labored through the English Common Law Reports in the preparation of my digest, through forty-five volumes of the Weekly Notes of Cases and the four volumes of my own reports and had so received, perhaps, the most useful training, I feared that every once in a while some question would suddenly arise about which I knew nothing and that I should sit there undecided, not knowing which way to go. In fourteen years that situation never arose and no problem ever came before me, no matter how important, intricate or involved, about which, whether rightly or wrongly, 198