Section 5:  Politics & Passing the Bar

The political campaign of 1838 was lively throughout the State, and towards fall raged with great fierceness in Lewistown. Towards Gov. Porter, the Democratic candidate, it became personal and abusive. An affidavit of a woman named Peg Beaty was procured, and circulated all over the State charging Porter with all manner of immorality and hard things. The Whig paper in Huntington, where Porter resided, was edited by a man named Benedict. My Cousin, Robert Campbell, was then Prothonotary of Huntington County. He was also active in writing vituperative articles, and Gov. Porter was held up to the public as one of the greatest sinners in the State. I think he brought suit against Campbell for slander, but I don't recollect what became of it.

Joseph Ritner was the Whig candidate. I don't mind that much was said against his character except that he did not know anything and was the tool of Thad Stephens, Thomas Burrows and Theopholus Fenn, and the country would be ruined unless they were turned out. Well, it was a bitter fight and much bad feeling engendered.

I took a deep interest in this campaign. The last week or two before the election I did little but read, think and talk about it; attended night meetings and caucuses, and felt a load of responsibility. If I had had any money I would have bet on the result, but fortunately I had none. The election came on and we Whigs were badly defeated. I felt very sore over it for a day or two and then went back quietly to Blackstone, and I have never been so much excited over an election since. I suppose I neglected my studies some, but this kind of experience seems necessary once in a lifetime -- to learn a young man to hold his head steady in time of excitement.

When the campaign of 1840 came on and hard cider, coons and songs became the order of the day, I kept very cool. I was just admitted to practice law and was far more interested in what I should do next or where I should settle than in who should be our next President.

On the first Monday of April, 1840, Mr. Benedict made application to the court for a committee to examine me. Judge Burnside appointed Isaac Fisher of Lewistown, John Blanchard of Bellefonte and James Mathers of Mifflin, and that evening at the Steel Hotel down at the stone bridge, Judge Burnside and the committee met and I took my seat. They were all arranged along one side of the room and I sat in front of them, feeling a little nervous but not much afraid. In fact I felt pretty confident I knew as much about Blackstone as they did. My fear was that they would not confine themselves to the books I had read.

Mathers, as the youngest lawyer, began on the second volume of Blackstone, and from his hesitating manner I soon felt I had nothing to fear from him. To one of my answers he objected, thought I was wrong, but the Judge said very bluntly I was right. When he got through, Blanchard took me on the doctrine of estates and went regularly and carefully over them. For an hour he asked and I answered his questions. After that he asked some scattered questions, one of which I was unable to answer. Then Mr. Fisher gave me a running fire of questions all over Blackstone, principally definitions, and by half past 10 o'clock at night Judge Burnside said I had stood a very fair examination on the rudiments of the law and advised me to take up Hobal and Halveys' practice and read all the references there to the reports of cases I should take up and read carefully so as to become familiar with the Reports and practice. Fisher told me to read Bacon's abridgment four or five times and I would be a good lawyer. Judge Burnside said I might read Bacon's abridgment from time to eternity and I would never be a Pennsylvania lawyer. I was then dismissed, and the next morning the committee reported recommending my admission and I was sworn in as a lawyer.

Here, then I had arrived at another turning point of my life, which I always found perp[l]exing. I had studied pretty closely the previous winter and spring, had pretty much secluded myself from society and social parties, and I think did more thorough work and got more severe mental training than at any previous period of my life. I had a little morbid fear that if I ever succeeded in passing an examination, I would fail as a practitioner, and the idea of a failure, I thought, would drive me to desperation, at least would be very mortifying. The consequence was when I was admitted I was pretty well worked down.

Edmond S. Doty of Mifflin was then in town. That afternoon was beautiful and warm and he and I took Miss Anna Milliken and Ellen Haling a long walk away back on the ridge. The total relaxation, the company and the delightful fresh air made that one of the pleasantest afternoons of my life. We were well acquainted and ran wild and played like children and did not get home till dark.