Page:The autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.djvu/417

 Seventh.—To abolish fees in the offices of the Secretary of the Commonwealth and the Insurance Commissioner.

There was great excitement throughout the state and all sorts of discussion. The purpose was to prevent the elimination of Penrose. It was to help Knox. It was to remove the stains from my administration. It was due to the results of the election and, so far as the thought of the newspapers went, there was not one of them to seize the simple explanation that there was a man at the head of affairs doing what he could, with the circumstances and forces surrounding him, to benefit the commonwealth and doing it successfully. All failed to recognize that most of the recommendations were only duplications of former messages. Knox, who had been in favor of the movement from the beginning, came out warmly in its support.

On the 25th, at the Navy Yard in Philadelphia, I presented to the American cruiser “Pennsylvania” a set of silver on behalf of the state which had cost $25,000 and was the most elaborate and costly given by any of the states to vessels named in their honor. It was specially designed by J. E. Caldwell & Company of Philadelphia. The chief piece was ornamented by casts of the heads of the chief historical personages of the state, selected by me. Quay had been much interested in the matter and it was because of his desire that the bill was passed making the appropriation. He, Penrose and I were the commission having the matter in charge.

Monuments to the Pennsylvania soldiers who gave up their lives at Andersonville and fought at Chattanooga, had been erected and were now to be handed over by the state to the national government. In order to save time and expense, Stewart had arranged to have one journey cover both events. His plan was to go by sea to Savannah and thence across Georgia to Andersonville and Chattanooga. The generals and their wives, the colonels and their wives, Rh