AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A PENNSYLVANIAN
and whom he would like to have retained and that so far as I could I would protect them. He named to me a brother of his wife and a few others holding minor positions. Nobody ever heard me say a word to his discredit. Nobody ever heard me utter a word of abuse of the members of the legislature. There was no occasion for it. As a general thing they were the representative men of their respective locations, ranging from men of high culture—like Roberts, Fox and Sproul—to the ordinary artisan engaged in doing a public work as well as he knew how to do it. Those who, like my old friend Blankenburg, Mayor of Philadelphia, think that they can get a legislative body to adopt measures by calling them thieves make a great mistake and generally accomplish little.
I determined also to consult as much as possible with the politicians. There was no probability of my knowing too much and their experience was of a kind which enabled them to give useful information. Beside, no man is strong enough to go it quite alone, and his ability to do depends largely upon the forces behind him. While, then, my first duty was toward the state, I recognized a subsidiary duty to the party which elected me and an obligation to those who had trusted me and given me support. If I had turned upon Quay, as Wilson turned upon Harvey and Smith in New Jersey, I should have given an exhibition of what I regard as doubtful ethics. Again, unlike Wilson, I did not regard the duties of the executive office and the success of the party as being upon the same plane. To me the latter was subsidiary and subordinate, and, doing what I could to help the party and its leaders, the determination of the questions arising within the state depended upon me, and my obligation was to look to the welfare of the state.
Nor is the test of what ought to be done the outcry of the people. He who has the true spirit of a statesman will seek to ascertain not what the people want but what it is that for their permanent good they should have. Often an
