Gibson were the sources of a literary and legal style combining clearness, force and elegance.

While still a boy in years he was appointed Deputy Attorney General for the County of Somerset. Forty years afterwards in the Constitutional Convention he said:

"I endeavored to discharge the duties of public accuser with fidelity. I felt no inclination in the world ever to allow any rascal to escape, and I certainly never tried to convict an innocent man."

It is interesting that the law-abiding qualities of native Pennsylvanias are so inherent that such term, for example, as Whiskey Rebellion should be given to a protest against commercial restraints considered unjust, involving less of violence than in many regions would accompany a cattle show or camp-meeting.

In the "Buck-Shot-War" not a grain of powder was burned and no missile hurled more deadly than political invective. The Democratic candidate, Porter, had been elected Governor. The Stephens faction in control of the Ritner administration threatened to hold the Capitol by force. The militia were gathered, but good sense and self-restraint prevailed, and no man would be the first to strike a blow or give a warlike command. Indirectly, the "Buck-Shot-War" put Black upon the bench.

He had been an effective speaker and writer on the Democratic side in the campaign of 1838 and in 1842 exerted the influence so acquired to press on Governor Porter the appointment of James X. McClanahan, a prominent lawyer of Chambersburg, as Judge of the 16th Judicial District. Unexpectedly, the position came to him, instead of his

nominee.

For ten years he served as President Judge, riding to the terms of court across the hills and valleys of Franklin, Bedford, Somerset and Fulton Counties, with ample opportunity for meditation on the fundamentals of government

and jurisprudence. This was a time of usefulness and preparation.

Our organization, based upon the Common Pleas Court as the unit, has been and is a force for good. The Bench and Bar are closely identified with local interests, are themselves of hourly influence for conservatism and good government and are subject to the wholesome restraint and incentive of the opinion of their neighbors.

The county lawyers and judges have the handling of the greatest variety of questions depending upon important legal principles, evoking the same learning and ability as expected in the cities or highest courts. They have more time for

study than their busier urban brothers.

A large proportion of the most useful and brilliant of the profession have, like Judge Black, been developed at the County bars and as Common Pleas judges served their day and country, all the more nobly because so modestly.

The faithfulness of all the Common Pleas judges cannot be rewarded by promotion to the higher court; but most of them deserve the honor and are perfectly qualified to perform the duties well and grace the place.

It was with such training that Judge Black went upon the Supreme Bench in December, 1851, and the lot to determine the shortest term made him Chief Justice at the age of forty-two.

For a year and four months a member of the Court over which he presided, was John Bannister Gibson, from whose luminous expositions he had derived his earliest knowledge of the law.

The relations of these two, as presented by the young Chief Justice himself, make a striking and beautiful picture.

The Nestor of the Bench had kept the ermine scrupulously, delicately and conscientiously unspotted for a longer term than any contemporary judge in the world. The fame of his learning and talents was the glory of his native State.

The younger man reverenced him romantically, and in