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 by trying to conjecture. He may have wanted to escape from my power to name the permanent occupant by having me make an appointment in its nature temporary. It is certain that he had the purpose of putting me on the Supreme Court, sooner or later. He may even have considered the nomination of Elkin and thus disposing of a formidable rival, or he may have retained all of these purposes in mind as possibilities. It seldom happens that men are able to analyze even their own motives correctly.

At this interview he suggested the probability that Thompson would be content with a term of thirteen months and that it might open a way for my own nomination. I wrote to him November 26th:

November 24th, at the Hotel Schenley, at Pittsburgh, along with Judge Buffington, United States Senator J. B. Foraker and others, I spoke to over two hundred of the city's wealthy men and expressed a pet thought.

“What has occurred in New York when she recently absorbed Brooklyn, what has occurred in Chicago when she took into her embrace the whole of Cooke County, must inevitably happen to Pittsburgh. Sitting at the head of the Ohio with her iron and coal, she is to become the foremost of all the inland American cities.” On the 28th I spoke at the Founders' Day dinner at The 324