excise bills. Dickinson was Secretary of State
and Republican boss of Hudson County, a “great
fellow” like Lentz. And, like Lentz, Dickinson
probably saw at once the uses of a fine, up-standing young gentleman to “stand for” a piece of
dubious excise legislation. Colby looked over
the bills; they seemed to him to be merely a
weapon to help the Republican machine take away
from the Democrats the control of Democratic
Hudson County. He hesitated. He went to
see the Governor about it. Governor Murphy
was a gentleman and the father of a friend of
Colby’s. The young assemblyman didn’t know
that governors are usually mere figureheads for
the System; he felt only that he could trust the
Honourable Franklin Murphy. And when the
Honourable Franklin Murphy pronounced the
bills “all right,” Colby was reassured. He introduced them in the House.
Colby’s own pet measure — for every legislator thinks he must put some new law upon the books — was a normal school bill. Then Essex County wanted to have passed a bill providing for the purification of the Passaic River; of course, an Essex assemblyman was for that. But you have to have votes to pass bills, and Colby’s two bills lacked a majority. How could some more votes be got for them ? Colby and some others
