GOVERNOR, 1904
quite satisfied with my determination of the matter and scolded over it. I believe that he knew that he would soon die and that he wanted what he regarded as an obligation he had undertaken in my interest to be assured while there was time. He wrote asking me if my mind was fully made up and advising that in that event no intimation of the purpose be given until the meeting of the convention. No doubt his plans would be helped by such silence. While Tray, Blanche and Sweetheart were yelping upon the wrong trail the real game was safe in its covert.
I wrote to him February 19, 1904:
Dear Senator:
Of course the public talk has made all of the men about me uneasy concerning their positions and naturally they want me to remain. As I told you in Washington, I have definitely given up all thought of going to the Supreme Court at this time. The bar are against it and the better class of people feel that it would be a desertion of my present office and duties. It would give a vantage ground of opposition to the ticket and perhaps endanger senators and representatives. It would be discussed in such a way as to be injurious to the court, and I am under obligations not to harm either party or court. Most of the satisfaction of being a member of the court would disappear if I felt I went there without professional approval. If the party people in Philadelphia have plans they want to accomplish they may feel assured that while I am here they will receive fair consideration. If matters run along as they are now, without my speaking until the meeting of the convention, and then some one else is nominated, it will be said you have wisely curbed my ambition, and I shall be entirely content. I owe you much anyhow. And if this be the last opportunity, very well. You will never hear me complain.
At this juncture, when a committee with Dickson as chairman, and Dimner Beeber and Alexander Simpson, Jr., as secretaries, was endeavoring to arouse the lawyers of the state in support of the newspaper crusade, Quay appeared on the scene in a new rôle. From St. Lucie, in Florida, he issued this proclamation:
