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Proceedings of the Adjourned Meeting of the National Congress On Uniform Divorce Laws, Held at Philadelphia, Pa., November 13, 1906
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The Settlement of Germantown, Pennsylvania: And the Beginning of German Emigration to North America - Primary Source Edition
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Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker was an American lawyer, judge and historian. He was a Governor of Pennsylvania.
Background
Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker was born on April 9, 1843 in Phoenixville, Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. He was the son of Anna Maria Whitaker and Isaac Anderson Pennypacker and a descendant of Heinrich (or Hendrick) Pannebäcker, who emigrated to Pennsylvania before 1699. The father was a practitioner and university teacher of medicine.
Education
Unable to go to college, Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker left school in 1859. After working in a country store, teaching in a country school, and serving for a few weeks in the army of 1863, he studied law and was admitted to the bar on May 19, 1866. The following July Pennypacker graduated in law from the University of Pennsylvania.
Career
Prompt election to successive offices in the Law Academy (of which Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker became president at the age of twenty-four) attested the respect he commanded among his young fellow practitioners. For many years his practice was small; but sound judgment, and learning acquired by exceeding industry and evidenced in professional publications, eventually brought him important clients. He was appointed judge in Common Pleas No. 2 of Philadelphia in 1889 (qualified, January 12), to which office he was elected in November for a ten-year term and reëlected in 1899, after having become president judge of the court two years previously. Patient attention to counsel, ample learning, sound sense, and promptitude in disposal of his cases made his judicial service very satisfactory to the bar. Especially as a nisi prius judge he was highly praised. On the bench he was no innovator, nor did his many convictions and strong prejudices deflect his legal judgments, but as governor he later sought to curb what he regarded as particular abuses in the administration of the law.
From 1885 to 1889 Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker served on the Board of Public Education of Philadelphia. Nominated in June 1902 for governor, he was immediately attacked for "Quayism. " Matthew S. Quay was a relative. They had common literary interests; they were friends. Pennypacker was always loyal in friendship, nor would he deny every virtue to political bosses. After talking with complete frankness with the people, he was elected by an unprecedented vote. He immediately declared publicly his purpose to consult with all persons, but "especially with politicians, " believing this both unavoidable and desirable for popular government. His record, however, was marked by entirely reasonable independence in appointments and measures, and by many excellent accomplishments.
Nevertheless, Pennypacker's administration (January 20, 1903 - January 14, 1907) was stormy. From judicial life he had derived strong convictions that legislation was excessive, that many statutes were absurd, and that there was an inordinate disposition to multiply statutory crimes. By pressure, vetoes (63 in 1903, 123 in 1905), and threats to veto, he cut by half the legislative output and improved its quality. Every attempt to create a new crime was blocked. He had other convictions: that corporations should not be chartered with nominal capital as mere trial-balloons, or with capitalization too small to protect the public; that water companies should not be delegated powers of eminent domain; nor coal companies (or other corporations) select and pay state-commissioned police utilizable in labor disputes. He corrected all these abuses.
Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker forced a long-delayed reapportionment of representation in the legislature, as required by the constitution; established a department of health; sponsored direct primaries and improved the election laws, curbing corrupt practices; advanced conservation of forest land and historic sites; paid the state debt, and left a large balance in the treasury, without new taxation and despite the cost of a state capitol. This last caused one of the two great political turmoils of his gubernatorial term.
The furnishings of the capitol involved corruption on a great scale, but nobody ever hinted or believed that he was corrupt, though many thought he should have detected "jokers" in the contracts. The second turmoil arose from his conviction that a sensational press hampered the administration of justice. His "libel bill" of 1903 and his supporting message roused tremendous opposition. The statute merely authorized actions for damages against newspapers for publication of untruths as facts when there was negligent failure to discover their falsity, and required newspapers to publish the names of their editors and publishers. It was repealed in 1907, but the last-mentioned requirement was reenacted.
Pennypacker's only public service after his gubernatorial term was as a member of the railroad, and later the public service commission. His serious historical studies began before 1872, when he became an active member of the Pennsylvania Historical Society. He served as president of the Philobiblon Club (1898 - 1916), as trustee of the University of Pennsylvania (1886 - 1916), and as president of the Pennsylvania Historical Society (1900 - 1916).
To this last position, particularly, Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker gave unstinted and devoted service. His reading, of which he kept records, was varied in character and vast in quantity and not a little was in foreign languages. His numerous published writings touch upon his interests in local history and the law. His work as reporter-in-chief of Common Pleas No. 3, 1876 - 1888, is in the Weekly Notes of Cases (vols. II-XXIII, 1876 - 1888), but he did work for all the forty-five volumes thereof. His decisions are in the Pennsylvania County Court Reports and Pennsylvania District Courts, 1889 - 1902. Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker died at Pennypacker's Mills, near Schwenksville, Pennsylvania on September 2, 1916.
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
Membership
Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker was a member of the Pennsylvania Historical Society.
Personality
In appearance and voice, Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker was decidedly rural. His language, however, immediately showed the scholar. His conversation combined wide information, humor, practical philosophy, and charm. Perfectly simple in his personal tastes and life, by nature informal and unconventional, Samuel Pennypacker maintained well official dignity when occasion required it. He had abundant self-confidence where it was justified, and this doubtless contributed to his successes, but he was modest otherwise, nor did his many strong opinions, or even prejudices, alienate associates. Great vigor, intense interest and endeavor, and extreme conscientiousness were characteristic of him in every undertaking and office.
Interests
Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker was a bibliophile. He formed an unrivaled collection of some 10, 000 items on Pennsylvania history.
Connections
On October 20, 1870 Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker married Virginia Earl Broomall.