AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A PENNSYLVANIAN
For the 20th of March I had an engagement to go with Dr. John H. Fager, a gentleman of Harrisburg interested in the study of natural history, on an exploring tour through Wetzel Swamp. The newspapers announced that Senator Penrose and State Senator James P. McNichol were coming that afternoon to consult with me about some affairs of state, but there was no engagement with me and no message sent to me. I went with Fager to the swamp. The gentlemen came, did not find me; McNichol returned to Philadelphia and Penrose and I had a consultation when I returned in the evening. There was much talk about the incident, many editorials written and glaring headlines printed stating that “Penrose Waits and Frets while Governor in Boots Hunts for Bugs in the Bogs.”
The constitution provides that the incoming governor shall take his seat during a session of the legislature. It is the provision of dilettanti, who constructed an impracticable and in some ways an unworkable constitution. There is no reason why he could not have begun in the years between sessions and so have had time to prepare for his work. Governor Stone, just at the close of his term, sent in to the senate the names of many officials appointed by him. I had no time to interfere and they were confirmed. I issued commissions to all of them, but later took the bull by the horns and removed some of them where I had other views. This, of course, led to some trouble.
It is one of the unwritten laws, never infringed upon, that the governor shall not appear before the legislature, and it is founded upon the correct theory that the legislative
