Page:The autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.djvu/332

 the Governor of North Carolina made a requisition for the return of a negro charged with murder. After an examination of the papers, being dissatisfied with them, I required some further support for the charge and it led to a sharp correspondence. In this instance the negro was never returned.

On the evening of November 5th, toward the close of a campaign for the election of a state treasurer and auditor general, I made an address to the Penrose Republican Club in the Eighth ward of Philadelphia, in the main commending political effort and pointing out to them the fact that in Quay, who was not present, we were fortunate in having a man unequaled in his line of effort anywhere else in the country and that it was the part of unwisdom to keep those capacities engaged in conflicts at home which ought to be utilized for our benefit in the contests of a larger sphere. The correctness of this line of thought, however, never made it palatable.

Some time before my advent, the policy had been adopted by the state of erecting memorial stones to mark the service of its regiments upon the different battlefields throughout the South, and it so happened that the greater number of these monuments, after being erected, were accepted and dedicated during my administration. The performance of this duty took me over the South to an extent that under no other circumstances would have occurred. Early in November, accompanied by the adjutant general and the staff, I set out for Chattanooga, Tennessee, a town which during the war saw many battles and military movements and which since the war has grown to be a thriving manufacturing city.

On the 9th of November, at Sherman Heights, in the presence of the surviving members of the regiment, the monument of the Seventy-third Pennsylvania Regiment was dedicated and transferred by me, representing the commonwealth, to General H. V. Boynton, representing 316