to co-operate with the House and continued its hostility for ten days longer, when that body finally yielded and by a vote of seventeen to sixteen "resolved, that a committee be appointed to inform the House that the Senate is now organized and ready to proceed to business." A joint committee was then appointed by both branches to inform the Governor that the legislature was organized. The returns were then opened, the amendments to the constitution were declared carried, and the election of David R. Porter as Governor was promulgated. But the fires did not soon die down. Both Houses appointed select committees to inquire into the "causes of the disturbances at the seat of government in December, 1838." A large mass of testimony was taken, elaborate reports were made and by this time all had cooled off and began to laugh over the attempt of Stevens and his colleagues to steal the legislature and Governor.

D

CHAPTER XIV.

PORTER'S ADMINISTRATION-1839-1845

AVID R. PORTER, who became Governor in 1839, was born near Norristown two years before the adoption of the constitution of 1790. From his father, who was a Revolutionary soldier, the son inherited strong qualities. At Norristown Academy he fitted himself for Princeton College, which he did not enter on account of its destruction by fire. After his father's appointment as Surveyor-General of the State he took his son with him as an assistant to Harrisburg, where he studied law. Business drew him into Huntingdon county, from which in 1819 he was elected a member of the Assembly. For several years he held some county offices; meanwhile he was much interested in farming, and in 1836 was elected a member of the State Senate. His marked qualities were soon recognized, and without aspiring to leadership, he rose to a commanding position.

Elected Governor in 1838, he was the first to serve under the new constitution. His opening message is a review of the condition of affairs, an appeal for economy and good government, the separation of the government from banking, the lessening of the number of corporations and a strong plea for education. A few days afterward he presented another message relating to the finances of the State. The House was Democratic, while the Senate was controlled by Whigs. The public debt amounted to $30,174,304. Of this sum $22,229,003 had been spent for canals and railroads, and more than a quarter, or $5.945,201, had been

contracted within three years. The large sum of $3.928,117 was either due or would be within a few months.

This sum must be

met, but whether besides doing so the public improvements should go on was another question. If they were to be continued, Ritner had regarded the following as the most useful: Erie extension, $500,000; North Branch canal, $500,000; Gettysburg railroad, $300,000; West Branch canal, $200,000; Wiconisco canal, $100,000; Allegheny feeder, $100,000. The canal commissioners had recommended $1,200,000 for each of the first two objects, doubled the Governor's recommendation for the Gettysburg railroad and Allegheny feeder, recommended $286,000 for the Wiconisco canal and $300,000 for the Sinnemahoning extension. The commissioners also recommended an appropriation of $1,256,467 "as necessary for the permanent repair and prosperity of the improvements." Though in favor of a judicious and comprehensive system of public improvements, the Governor suggested to the legislature the impolicy of applying the funds of the Commonwealth at the present time to any other work than the main lines and their immediate tributaries. How did the Assembly respond to these recommendations? It appropriated sums varying from $500 to $10,000 for roads and bridges all over the State, including $3,000 to the Mechanics' society at Lancaster. After repeating his faith in the main scheme of internal improvements, he said: "Influenced by unfortunate causes and counsels, the legislature of the State has recently tended to distract the attention and divide the means of the public by the prosecution of various undertakings unconnected with the main lines and in many instances wholly for the benefit of private companies; thus placing the public means under their unlimited control, when the faith of the commonwealth was already pledged to apply its resources to the completion of its own works and to the payment of its own liabilities. It is manifest at a glance that just so far as the original system has been departed from, so far has the system itself been retarded, and the public money has been squan