Such was the situation, misunderstood by few, as the convention approached in August for the nomination of a state ticket. The dearth of aspirants for places on the ticket told the story. No one expressed the slightest desire for the gubernatorial nomination, and again, as had come to be its wont, the party turned to Kern. To all such suggestions he gave a stern denial--and yet he finally agreed to make his second sacrifice. It was the fashion among his enemies during his lifetime to refer to Mr. Kern as a persistent office seeker, a “perpetual candidate,” when, as a matter of historic truth, he seldom sought a nomination and in most instances was forced by tremendous pressure from his party to accept nominations his judgment warned him against. He became a candidate for governor in 1904 on the earnest personal request of Judge Parker, the presidential nominee of his party. Having always understood this to be the case, I personally appealed to Judge Parker for the facts, and the following letter to me definitely settles the matter: “My first acquaintance with John Kern began in London in 1895. We both happened to be stopping at the same hotel, and, as we knew about each other, we soon came together and formed a friendship that I always treasured. “The story that you have heard from time to time, as you stated, that I requested Mr. Kern to accept the nomination for governor of Indiana in 1904 is quite true. But I did this only after seeing quite a number of the leading Democrats of the state. Without exception, these men said that Mr. Kern would be the very strongest man that the party could nominate. But some of them, and I think it is no exaggeration to say that all of them were of the opinion that he would much prefer not to make the race. Reaching the conclusion that his nomination would strengthen the party in the state, I telegraphed him, asking him to visit me, which he did, at my home. After discussing the party situation in the state with him, as I had with many others from the state, I told him that without exception every man I had seen from Indiana had said that he would be the strongest nominee that the party could find, and hence I ventured to urge him to accept the nomination if the convention should, as I believed it would, tender it to him unanimously. The result you know.” Having responded to the personal request, which as a good party man he considered a command from the commanding officer of his party in that campaign, Mr. Kern plunged into the campaign with his usual zeal and made a thorough canvass of the state. The extent of the Republican landslide that year is a matter of history. Kern had made his second sacrifice. CHAPTER VIII EUROPE AND ASHEVILLE: AN INTERLUDE I