Before taking up the proceedings of the adjourned convention, it is interesting to consider here some views Cheshire once expressed on the Episcopate in North Carolina. In 1891 a friend wrote him asking who he thought would make a good successor to Bishop Lyman. In reply to this query, Cheshire remarked that he did not approve of anyone's expressing an arbitrary opinion as to the choice of a bishop for this Diocese, but since that was what his friend desired, he would offer some suggestions. He declared that Dr. Francis J. Murdoch, Rector of St. Luke's, Salisbury, was his first choice, and characterized him as a learned, noble, and lovable man. His second and third choices were the Rev. Robert S. Barrett, of Atlanta, and the Rev. Mr. Winchester, of Nashville. Above everything, said Cheshire, "We want a plain man—one who can come down to the plain people of our country." He did not suggest anyone above the age of fifty, since he thought it was better to choose a clergyman "rather under than above his prime." Speaking in general of the election of bishops, Cheshire observed: "I really, and in all seriousness, think that there is something providential in the choice of a man to the office of Bishop. The best men are so often those who were hardly thought of beforehand—sometimes hardly heard of."[24] To illustrate his point, he cited the elections of Bishops Ravenscroft, of North Carolina, Whipple, of Minnesota, and Jackson, of Alabama. These observations are particularly interesting, coming as they did only two years before the proposed election of an assistant bishop. When the adjourned convention convened in Christ Church on June 27, Bishop Lyman gave his canonical consent to the election of an assistant bishop. The convention then provided that the new office should carry with it an annual salary of twenty-five hundred dollars. At the afternoon session the doors of the convention were closed, and nominations for an assistant bishop by the clergy were in order. The clergymen nominated were Rev. Nathaniel H. Harding, Dr. Joseph Blount Cheshire, Jr., Rev. T. M. N. George, Dr. Francis J. Murdoch, Dr. Matthias M. Marshall, and Rev. Robert S. Barrett. It is significant that all of these candidates, with the exception of R. S. Barrett, of Atlanta, were clergymen resident in North Carolina. It is also of interest that Murdoch and Cheshire, who were to be the two most important candidates, nominated each other. In his nomination speech Dr. Murdoch said: "The good shepherd knows his sheep. This is pre-eminently true of Dr. Cheshire. He knows the people of North Carolina, their history, their relationships, better perhaps than any other person living."[25] Under the rules of the convention the clergy elects a bishop by a two-thirds vote of their number. Their choice is then submitted to the laity, who either ratify or reject it. In this convention twenty-nine votes was the necessary majority for election.