The life and times of John Kelly, tribune of the people

by J. Fairfax McLaughlin

CHAPTER VIII.

ELECTED SHERIFF—MASTERS DUTIES OF OFFICE—RE-ELECTED—NOMINATED FOR MAYOR AGAINST A. OAKEY HALL—CAUSES OF HIS WITHDRAWAL—GOES TO EUROPE—VISITS HOLY LAND—INNER LIFE—HIS CHARITIES—RELATIONS WITH S. J. TILDEN—LEADER OF TAMMANY—SECOND MARRIAGE—COMPTROLLER OF NEW YORK—SPEECH AT LOTOS CLUB, ETC.

On Christmas Day, 1858, having been elected Sheriff of the City and County of New York, November 2d of that year, Mr. Kelly resigned his seat in the Thirty-fifth Congress. He remained in Washington at his post until it was necessary to go to New York to enter upon his new office; but in refreshing contrast to those Representatives in a subsequent Congress, the Forty-second, who voted themselves back-pay, he declined, after his election as Sheriff, to draw any salary at all for his service as a member of Congress. The total number of votes cast at the election for Sheriff was 69,088, of which John Kelly received 39,090, and William H. Albertson received 29,837, scattering 161. Kelly was the regular nominee of the Democratic party of the city. His majority was 9,092.

He entered with characteristic energy upon the duties of Sheriff, that most ancient of county officers known to the common law, Vice-comes to the Earl, as Blackstone calls him. The difficulties and responsibilities of this office in New York are peculiarly great. The reported cases upon Sheriff’s law in that city indicate the immense number of statutes applicable to the office, and the subtleties, refinements, and nice legal distinctions, together with the liabilities, which constantly press upon the Sheriff in the discharge of his duties. As laymen nearly always have been elected to the office, it was the rule, before Kelly’s term, for incumbents to rely for guidance upon legal advisers and prompters behind the scenes, whose special knowledge of business was supplemented by professional knowledge of law, and by training and experience in the office. But John Kelly set resolutely to work with his law books, for it is one of the leading traits of his character to perform conscientiously whatever duties are imposed upon him, and he was determined to delegate to no one else a labor which the people had elected him to do himself. While he was in the office the Under-Sheriff ceased to be the High-Sheriff. After reading one or two good elementary books, he next applied himself to the Code of Procedure, the Revised Statutes, and Reported Cases, and wrote out a syllabus, or private digest for himself, of opinions delivered in the lower Courts and the Court of Appeals in relation to Sheriff’s law. To master such questions he worked with unflagging zeal, not only by day but far into the night, during the greater part of his term. In the meantime he acquired familiarity with the routine and usages of the office. Thus equipped, he was perhaps the first Sheriff who thoroughly understood the duties of the office, and discharged them in person. He became a favorite among the members of the bar, and was an authority, theoretically and practically, upon disputed questions of Sheriff’s law. In the Sheriff’s Court Mr. Kelly himself presided over the intelligent juries there empanelled. He heard arguments of counsel, passed upon authorities cited, was conversant in the law applicable to cases, and in the opinion of leading members of the profession he displayed a judicial mind of high order.

The best body of jurors in the United States is undoubtedly the Sheriff’s Jury in New York city. The members of this jury are chosen annually by an eminent Commission of judicial and other high officers, and are selected from among the foremost citizens in the community, whose wealth, intelligence, and established character afford a guarantee of their freedom from improper influences. Large fines for absence are imposed, and cheerfully paid. An annual banquet, known of all men, ubique gentium, as the Sheriff’s Jury’s Dinner, is provided for with the ample sum thus accumulated. Delmonico’s choicest menu is laid under requisition, and a distinguished and brilliant company is always brought together.

That accomplished and discerning gentleman, Mr. Rosewell G. Rolston, President of the Farmers’ Loan and Trust Company of New York, was one of the members of the Sheriff’s Jury during Mr. Kelly’s term. He once expressed to the writer of these pages his high respect for the Sheriff, and descanted upon his sturdy qualities, saying, that while he was a stern and austere man to look at, he was, nevertheless, brimful of kindly human nature. After mentioning some occurrences which had come under his own observation, he said, with no little earnestness, “John Kelly is a love of a man, a grand fellow undoubtedly.”

Under-Sheriffs had presided at the trial of Sheriff’s cases before Mr. Kelly’s entry into the office. The Jury was surprised now to see the usual rule broken, and the new Sheriff going upon the bench himself. The more experienced members gave each other a smile of astonishment and a knowing wink, for they suspected that Kelly was led away by zeal, and by ignorance of the mysteries of the law, into whose knotty labyrinths he would be plunged presently by wrangling lawyers. But Mr. Rolston and his fellow-jurors quickly discovered that the imperturbable Sheriff behaved like a veteran under legal fire, and the lawyers themselves were surprised to find him not only familiar with questions at issue, both of traverse and demurrer, but practically master of the situation. He had broken the precedent, and what had been before a fiction was now a fact, a Sheriff of New York who knew more about his office than any of his subordinates. John Kelly made a reputation for honesty and capacity as Sheriff, which in the whole history of the office has never been excelled by any man who has occupied it. The best evidence of this is found in the fact that at the earliest moment when he was eligible under the Constitution of the State, namely, at the expiration of the term of Sheriff Lynch, his immediate successor, John Kelly was renominated and re-elected Sheriff of New York. He is the only man since the foundation of the Government who has been elected twice to this important office. In the early day, before the Hamiltonian or monarchical features of the State Constitution had been abolished, and the Jeffersonian or elective principle had been substituted for them by constitutional amendment, the Governor and Council held the appointment, not only of judicial and other great officers, a most fruitful source of corruption and centralization, but they were likewise clothed with the power to appoint Sheriffs and County Clerks in the several counties of the State. But twice only, in the early history of the State, did the Council of Appointment at Albany select the same men to fill a second term as Sheriff of the city and county of New York. Marinus Willett was appointed Sheriff of New York in 1784, and served until 1787. He was re-appointed in 1791, and held until 1795. Benjamin Ferris also held the office by appointment from 1808 to 1810, and again from 1811 to 1813. On the 6th of November, 1864, John Kelly, who had filled the office so faithfully from 1859 to 1861, was re-elected Sheriff of New York, an unprecedented honor, as well as endorsement of his official integrity, now bestowed for the first time in the history of the city, by the people themselves, upon any individual.

At this election there were three candidates in the field, two Democrats and a Republican, but after an exciting canvass John Kelly led the poll by a plurality of nearly 6,000, his Republican competitor coming next. The whole number of votes for Sheriff was 106,707, of which Kelly received 42,022, John W. Farmer 36,477, and Michael Connolly, commonly called the “Big Judge,” 28,099. The number of scattering votes was 109. Mr. Kelly’s second term expired December 31, 1867. That it was a repetition of the first one in his fidelity to the important interests and duties confided to his charge, was universally declared at the time, without one whisper of dissent. In the fierce conflicts of party fifteen years after his first term as Sheriff, and seven years after the second, when his talents and commanding position in the community had made him a formidable antagonist, John Kelly’s official integrity as Sheriff was called in question for the first time by certain political opponents, whose misconduct he had exposed, and whose arbitrary acts he had resisted. These tardy shafts of malice fell harmless at his feet.

In the year 1868, eleven months after he had ceased to be Sheriff a second time, a still handsomer testimonial to the stainlessness of his character was tendered to him than that implied in his re-election as Sheriff; an emphatic endorsement of his qualifications for the highest civic preferment was received by him when the Democratic Union of New York nominated him for Mayor of the city against A. Oakey Hall, the candidate of the Tweed Ring. In a laudable and patriotic attempt to drive the Ring from power at the Charter election of November, 1868, New York’s best citizens,—merchants, bankers, tradesmen, mechanics, and members of the various professions, turned to John Kelly to lead them, to the man whose admirable administration of the trusts he had previously held as Alderman, Congressman, and Sheriff, afforded satisfactory proof of his fitness to grapple with the Ring, and if elected, to crush it, and restore honesty and economy in the various municipal offices.

Among those who looked to Mr. Kelly at this interesting and critical hour in the history of New York, as a safe leader against the notorious triumvirate of Tweed, Sweeny and Connolly, were Samuel J. Tilden, Andrew H. Green, Augustus Schell, and still another—tell it not in Gath! mention it not in the streets of Ascalon! for it is surprising to relate—Nelson J. Waterbury himself. Yes, in the very next year after John Kelly had ceased to be Sheriff, this gentleman, who has since lavished so much savage abuse upon him for mythical misdeeds as Sheriff, the self-same Nelson J. Waterbury was an enthusiastic supporter of John Kelly for Mayor of New York.

The support which Mr. Tilden was disposed to bestow upon Mr. Kelly was a more important incident of that eventful campaign. For a long time they had been intimate acquaintances, and Tilden not only looked upon Kelly as a man of invincible honesty, but recognized in him a born leader of men. It was a most unfortunate thing that Mr. Kelly’s health, at this particular juncture, was so much impaired that it was not possible for him to stand the strain of such a contest, or, indeed, of any contest at all. The blackest chapter in the history of New York was about to be written. He felt the magnitude of the occasion, and rose from a sick bed to go meet the people half way, when they called him to lead them in the fight. No personal sacrifice could be too great, not even life itself, when the stakes were the reformation of the public service, and the rescue of a million people from the corrupt domination of such a Ring. “You will never live to reach the army,” said Voltaire to the feeble and emaciated Mareschal de Saxe, as the leader was setting out for Fontenoy. “The object now,” replied the fiery commander, “is not to live, but to go.” But Mr. Kelly, however willing to act his part, soon found that nature’s barriers are not to be overcome. The hand which had rejoiced in its strength was relaxed and powerless under wasting illness, and like that of Old Priam, telumque imbelle, no longer could strike an effectual blow. He was, indeed, destined to smite the Tweed Ring a death-blow, but not now, nor until four years had come and gone, when, with health restored, and energies all on fire, he drove them from Tammany Hall, and inscribed his name among the benefactors of New York. He lived, like Saxe, to fight and win his Fontenoy.

From early life Mr. Kelly had suffered from bronchial troubles, which always were increased by public speaking. His mind is intensely active. “I must be occupied in some way,” he once said to a friend, “and I can’t sit still five minutes without doing something. I cannot be an idler.”[53] Whatever he undertook to do, his faculties became concentrated upon the task until it was accomplished. His occupations for a long time had been engrossing and laborious, and his health had suffered under the strain. “For twenty years,” to repeat the remark of the editor of the Utica Observer, quoted in a preceding chapter of this volume, “he had devoted several hours of every day to the pursuit of literature and science,” and at length his constitution was seriously impaired. Domestic afflictions also came upon him about this period, and his physical maladies were increased fourfold.

John Kelly had entered into wedlock when a very young man, and for twenty years his circle of domesticity was unclouded by a single shadow. His wife, nèe McIlhargy, was the daughter of an Irish adopted citizen of New York, and an interesting family, a son and two daughters, grew up to the verge of manhood and womanhood about him. Mrs. Kelly, whom the present writer knew well, and greatly respected for the excellent but unostentatious qualities of her character, was a good wife, a devoted mother and a pious Christian woman. In the year 1866 she fell a victim to consumption. Her son Hugh, a bright and winning young man, just as he had turned his twenty-first year, succumbed to the same disease, and followed his mother to the grave. Symptoms of consumption also appeared in the daughters, and it was evident that death had marked them both for its early victims. To a man of John Kelly’s strongly affectionate nature, wrapped up in his home and family, these visitations falling upon him like unmerciful disasters, one after another in quick succession, proved well nigh irreparable. His health already impaired, gave way entirely, and his friends were seriously apprehensive of his own early demise.

It was in the midst of these afflictions that he was nominated for Mayor against A. Oakey Hall. He was placed in nomination by the Democratic Union, which held its convention at Masonic Hall, November 18, 1868, and he received on the first ballot 240 votes, to 51 for John W. Chanler, and 1 each for John McKeon and Fernando Wood. On the second ballot John Kelly received every vote in the convention, and was declared the unanimous nominee for Mayor. A committee was appointed by the chair, Mr. Roswell D. Hatch, to notify Mr. Kelly of his nomination, and to invite him before the convention. The chairman of this committee was Mr. Nelson J. Waterbury. After some time Mr. Kelly entered the hall escorted by Mr. Waterbury, by whom he was presented to the convention in appropriate terms, as the reform candidate for Mayor.

He was warmly received, and made a brief speech, vigorously denouncing the Tweed and Sweeny Ring, which had usurped control of Tammany Hall. He referred in terms of praise to those honest Democrats, many of whom he saw before him, who formerly like himself had been identified with the Wigwam, but who had retired from it in disgust, as he himself had done when the Ring obtained control. “I see many gentlemen in this convention,” said Mr. Kelly, “who formerly were associated with me in Tammany Hall, and who felt the same grievances there which I myself have experienced. I have no desire for this nomination, but while I have not sought it, I will only say this, I shall stand by those who have so generously nominated me for Mayor, and if elected, I will discharge the duties of the office honestly and faithfully. In accepting your nomination I fully realize that both yourselves and myself will have to work strenuously against the corrupt men opposing us, if we expect to secure victory. But by working together in good faith we can succeed, for the people of New York feel the importance of the contest, and the necessity of putting down the bad men who have obtained control of the city government. I accept your nomination, and if elected will do the best in my power to realize all your legitimate expectations.”[54]

Abram R. Lawrence was nominated for Corporation Counsel. The candidacy of Mr. Kelly greatly alarmed the Ring leaders and their Republican allies. The latter sought to control the Republican convention which was held the next day, and force through a straight Republican ticket for Mayor and Corporation Counsel, as the most effective way to secure the election of A. Oakey Hall. But fortunately there was a reform element among the Republicans, as well as among the Democrats, and the opponents of the Ring were in a majority in the Republican city convention. That excellent citizen, Mr. Sinclair Tousey, was President of this convention. The main struggle was between those who favored the endorsement of John Kelly for Mayor, and, therefore, wished the convention to adjourn over, and those who advocated the prompt nomination of a straight Republican ticket. The latter class was led by Charles S. Spencer, who vehemently demanded immediate action. But the opponents of Spencer prevailed, and secured an adjournment to the following Monday. “It was understood,” remarked the Herald of November 20th, “that the party of compromise was engaged in fixing up quite a neat little arrangement, by which the Republicans would endorse the nomination of John Kelly for Mayor, in consideration of having Mr. Shaw substituted for Mr. Lawrence as candidate for Corporation Counsel. The compromisers gave out that Spencer and the party of action were simply acting in the interest of Tammany Hall in endeavoring to have the Republican convention make regular nominations.”

In this campaign the Herald opposed John Kelly, and championed A. Oakey Hall for Mayor. This was not evidence of any complicity on the part of that paper in the misconduct of the Ring, for in 1868 there was no positive proof in possession of the public of the criminality of the Ring, and hence the Herald or any other journal was not justly obnoxious to unfavorable criticism at that early day in the history of the plunderers for advocating the election of Hall. “The Ring,” says Mr. Tilden in his history of its overthrow, “became completely organized and matured on the 1st of January, 1869, when Mr. A. Oakey Hall became Mayor. Its duration was through 1869, 1870 and 1871.”[55]

The morning after Mr. Kelly’s nomination the Herald declared for A. Oakey Hall and against Kelly, in one of those plausible leading articles by which it has so long and so remarkably influenced public opinion for or against men and measures. The reference to Mr. Kelly as a nabob was an adroit campaign stroke, and although he was living quite unostentatiously in a modest three-story brick house at the corner of 38th Street and Lexington Avenue, an impression was created that he was surrounded by princely opulence, in the fashionable quarter among the millionaires. The Herald editorial was as follows:

“John Kelly is a good citizen and a respectable man; but he has already been elected by the Tammany Democracy, to which he owes all his past political favors, to the offices of Councilman, Alderman, member of Congress, and twice to the valuable position of Sheriff of New York, being the only man, we believe, who has held that lucrative office a second term. John Kelly was brought up a lad in the Herald office, when he first came to New York, and was well brought up; but he went into politics in spite of his early training. We supported him for office while he was poor and lived in the locality of the Fourteenth Ward. Now that he has made himself a millionaire, and lives like a nabob in the high locality of one of the most fashionable avenues of uppertendom, we think he should be satisfied, and give place to others who have not enjoyed such good fortune.”

“If the Democrats nominate A. Oakey Hall, as it is said they will, as their candidate for Mayor, he will no doubt be elected by a large majority. He will suit those who take a pride in the dignity of the city, because he is a man of superior ability, a profound thinker, an eloquent talker, and understands thoroughly the details of the municipal government.”[56]

The Ring men got thoroughly frightened after the adjournment of the Republican City Convention without a nomination, for it was becoming quite clear that independent citizens, both outside and inside of the respective political parties, meant to support Mr. Kelly for Mayor against the Ring candidate. This state of things caused the Herald to discard special pleading respecting the “nabobs of uppertendom,” and to redouble its attacks on Kelly. He was now denounced as a deserter for having retired from Tammany Hall, and joined the opponents of William M. Tweed. “The fight,” said the Herald, “is to be made against the Democratic organization with the object of breaking down Tammany, and thus giving the death-blow to the regular Democracy in its stronghold. The Tribune, Times and World are co-laborers in this work—the two former openly, and the latter in an underhanded but not less vindictive manner. They are preparing to unite on John Kelly, who has deserted the Democratic organization for the purpose of leading the Republican forces in the battle. District Attorney A. Oakey Hall will be the Democratic nominee, and will no doubt be elected; but it will be one of the greatest fights we have ever had over a Charter election, as the breaking down of the Democratic organization at this end of the State would be the death-blow of the party, and is therefore a stake worth playing for by the Republicans, who feel the loss of power in New York very severely.”[57]

Against this pretended but sham regularity, not only Mr. Kelly, but Mr. Tilden also revolted. “Weighty pressure,” says Tilden, “was brought on me from powerful men all over the State to ‘save the party.’ I denied that the system of organization then in use in the city had any moral right to be considered regular, or to bind the Democratic masses. I told the State Convention that I felt it to be my duty to oppose any man who would not go for making the government of this city what it ought to be, at whatever cost, at whatever sacrifice. If they did not deem that ‘regular,’ I would resign as chairman of the State Committee.”[58]

The exertion made by Mr. Kelly in leaving a sick bed to go before the Democratic Union City Convention to accept its nomination for Mayor, increased the illness from which he suffered. His physician called eminent doctors into consultation, and it was the opinion of them all that his continuance in active political movements would have a fatal result. This professional decision was communicated to Mr. Kelly by that eminent physician, the late Dr. Marion Sims. Thus admonished that the excitement of the campaign would kill him, Mr. Kelly, on the 27th of November, reluctantly sent in his withdrawal from the Mayoralty contest to the Executive Committee of the Democratic Union, and the vacancy was filled by the nomination of Mr. Frederick A. Conkling.

Mr. Kelly, who was a sufferer from insomnia, soon after sailed with his two daughters for Europe. He made an extended tour in Europe, Asia and Africa, visiting, among other places, the Holy Land. He first went to Ireland as a pilgrim would return to the home of his fathers, spending some time in the beautiful Island of Saints, where Christianity made its only bloodless conquest in the world. During fourteen hundred years, while other Christian nations have rushed back into infidelity and again become Christian, Ireland has never lapsed into infidelity, nor into a scoffing, Godless philosophy, the invariable accompaniment of unbelief and paganism. After visiting the various capitals of Europe,—London, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Madrid, St. Petersburg, and other places, he repaired to Rome, the city of the soul, the Niobe of nations, shrine of saints and martyrs, of doctors and confessors, where he spent a considerable period in rest and retirement, and in viewing its wonderful ruins, monuments, and churches. Repairing to Holy Land, Mr. Kelly remained for some time at Jerusalem, the cradle of Christianity; which Titus, in fulfilment of prophecy, left not a stone upon a stone of; where Christ had walked about among the people, and where He died upon Calvary.

In contemplating scenes associated with the earthly life and death of the Redeemer, the traveler no doubt derived comfort in his own bereavements, dignified by such a fellowship of suffering as was there. What a lesson of humility the ignominious Cross must have preached to his reflective mind. He was leading a contemplative life, and his letters at this period dwell much upon the Mount of Olives, the Way of the Cross, and the Holy Sepulchre. He had read somewhere in allegory of the contest in which the trees of the forest are represented as debating among themselves who should be their king. Had the contest occurred in the days of the Redeemer, small chance the ignoble tree of the Cross would have had to win the crown. Mr. Kelly had read Cardinal Wiseman’s beautiful thoughts on the subject. “Apply the allegory,” said he once in a circle of his friends, “and let us enter some forest of Judea filled with stately trees, lofty, tapering pine, and royal cedar, and hear the proud possessor give orders as to how their worth should be realized into wealth. He says to the forester: ‘See that elegant and towering tree which has reached the maturity of its growth, how nobly will it rise above the splendid galley and bear itself in the fell fury of the wind, without breaking or bending, and carry the riches of the earth from one flourishing port to another. Cut it down and destine it for this noble work. And this magnificent cedar, overcasting all around it with the solemnity of its shade, worthy to have been built by Solomon into the temple of God, such that David might have sung its praises on his inspired lyre; let it be carefully and brilliantly polished, and embarked to send to the imperial city, there to adorn those magnificent halls, in which all the splendor of Rome is gathered; and there, richly gilded and adorned, it shall be an object of admiration for ages to come.’ ‘It is well, my lord,’ replies his servant, ‘but this strange, this worthless tree, which seems presumptuously to spring up, beneath the shadow of those splendid shafts, what shall we do with it? it is fitted for no great, no noble work.’ ‘Cut it down, and, if of no other use, why, it will make a cross for the first malefactor!’”

Strange counsels of men! The soaring pine dashed the freight that it bore against the rocks, and rolled a wreck upon the beach. The noble cedar witnessed the revels of imperial Rome, and fell by the earthquake, or in the fire kindled by the barbarians, charred into ashes. But that ignoble tree, spurned by proud man and put to the most ignominious of uses, bore the price of the world’s redemption upon Calvary, its every fragment has been gathered up, and treasured and enshrined, and in every age it has been considered worth all that the world dotes on, and sets its heart on. An Empress crossed the seas and searched among the tombs of the dead for that material wood of the Cross of Christ. For that holy rood was built a magnificent church on Mount Sion. For it the Emperor Heraclius made war on the King of Persia; and when he had recovered it, bore it as his Master had borne it before, barefoot and in humble garb to Calvary. For that tree Constantine the Great built a noble church, yet standing among the ruins of the palaces of Rome, and brought the very earth from the Savior’s own land, as though none were worthy to be there save that upon which had first fallen the precious blood of redemption. For eighteen hundred years this relic has been the most priceless treasure of Christians. Its smallest fragment has been enshrined and vestured in gold and precious stones, and housed and sheltered in magnificent temples piled up with the richest materials and noblest productions of art. The ignoble tree which the world despised has conquered the world itself.

Mr. Kelly’s correspondence at this time made it apparent that he had ceased to feel interest in the busy trifles of politicians, and that his thoughts were directed to problems of the moral world, to reveries upon the mysteries of redemption, like that outlined in the preceding allegory upon the Cross, and to the works of mercy, both spiritual and corporal. He brought back from Palestine souvenirs and patristic relics of much interest. He had familiarized himself with the topography of the hallowed scenes of Holy Land, and those who have heard him describe them and relate the history and traditions connected with them, have been struck with his reverence as a narrator, as well as with his closeness as an observer of manners, customs and places. While he was abroad unfounded rumors reached New York that John Kelly had withdrawn from the world, in order to spend the remainder of his days in monastic retirement. Perhaps this story originated from the circumstance that he travelled much in the company of clergymen in Europe. Vicar-General Quinn of New York was his companion on the Continent. The late Bishop McGill of Richmond, Virginia, a man of ascetic tastes and profound learning, often shared Mr. Kelly’s carriage in the latter’s drives about Rome. Another thing which may have given color to the rumor was the fact that Mr. Kelly had educated, and was still educating, many young men for the ecclesiastical state, not only American youths, but those of Irish and German and Swiss nationalities. While he was in Switzerland his attention was directed by his daughters to a pious little boy, the son of a poor gardener, who with another boy of wealthy parentage, served at the altar every morning. The wealthy man’s son soon departed for the University, when Mr. Kelly sent for the son of the gardener, and finding that he wished to become a religious, told him that he would afford him the means to carry out his purpose, and amid the grateful tears and prayers of the boy’s parents, he sent him to a renowned German University, and defrayed all his expenses until he was graduated. That boy has since become a learned scholar and minister at the altar. While Mr. Kelly was in Rome he became warmly interested in the American College, a noble seat of learning in that city for the training of young ecclesiastics for the American Missions, and he generously established a bursary in the College. He gave to its President, Dr. Chatard, who since has been raised to the Episcopate, five thousand dollars for the maintenance of this charitable Kelly foundation. It reflected no credit upon the managers of the New York Cooper Institute meeting, held in 1884, to denounce the spoliation of the Propaganda, of which the American College at Rome is a part, to have omitted one of its benefactors, and so prominent a representative man as John Kelly, from the list of the officers and speakers of that meeting. Those managers were then burning incense to Monsignor Capel, a clerical gentleman of know—ledge, not knowledge, who thinks American Catholics are too illiterate yet awhile to aspire to a University.

The beautiful pictures in stained glass, which adorn the windows of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, are, with the exception of the examples in the French Cathedral in Chartres, perhaps unsurpassed in modern times, as figured scenes from the Scriptures and lives of the saints. In this pictorial religious epic is a beautiful window placed there by John Kelly in memory of his lost ones, or more correctly of those members of his family who have been called to the better life. “Before quitting the Sanctuary,” says the writer of a pamphlet descriptive of the exterior and interior of the Cathedral, “we will bend our steps towards the Lady Chapel. The window in the first bay represents the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin in the Temple. The high priest, in gorgeous vesture, advances to receive the child, while St. Joachim and St. Anne modestly remain standing behind. The friends of the family are assembled to witness the ceremony. This bears the inscription, ‘John Kelly—in memoriam.’”[59]

Some years before the completion of the new Cathedral, and while Mr. Kelly was in Rome, he gave an order to a celebrated artist in that city of art treasures to execute for him four great oil paintings representing the Baptism of our Lord, the Marriage feast of Cana, the Return of the Prodigal Son, and St. Patrick preaching at Tara. He afterwards embraced two additional scenes from sacred history in his scheme, the Ascension of Our Lord, and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin. The artist, Galliardi, produced a noble work after the best masters. These six magnificent paintings were sent from Rome to America as a present from Mr. Kelly to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and are the only paintings in canvas upon the walls of that grand church.

When he was in England he visited a region inhabited almost entirely by miners—English, Irish and Welsh. Those people were, to a great extent, ignorant of the truths of Christianity, and there were no facilities in the wild mountain region they inhabited to improve their moral condition. Working in the mines day and night, and constantly exposed to death in the midst of their subterranean toil, these poor people appealed to friends at a distance to send them a clergyman to minister to their spiritual wants. The appeal was answered, and the Reverend Mr. Dealy arrived there to open a mission a short time before Mr. Kelly visited that part of England. The clergyman found himself destitute of every worldly appliance for a proper ministration of the functions of his spiritual office, no church, no school-house, no charitable home or asylum for the sick and helpless, all things, in a word, wanting, and no adequate means to provide them. He was an excellent and zealous man, and he stated his situation, and the necessities of the people to Mr. Kelly. He told him that if he had the money to build a church and school-house, incalculable good might be done. He poured his story into sympathetic ears. Help was promised, and faithfully was the promise kept. Mr. Dealy some time after, upon Mr. Kelly’s invitation, set sail for America, and took up his residence in the latter’s house. When Mr. Kelly reached home he organized a movement among those of his immediate friends, whose opulence and charity admitted of the appeal, and in the course of a few months Mr. Dealy, as he informed the writer of these pages, was the fortunate possessor of a purse of over twelve thousand dollars, inclusive of Mr. Kelly’s own handsome donation. Those poor miners in England soon had their church, and a school for their children, and their pastor had reason to bless the day when he first made the acquaintance of the subject of this memoir.

After John Kelly had re-entered the field of politics, and even when immersed in public affairs, his charity and philanthropy continued to be the controlling principles of his conduct. During the past five or six years he has been a frequent lecturer in various cities of the Union. His lectures, respectively upon the Sisters of Charity, the Early Jesuit Missionaries in North America, and upon the Irish Settlers in North and South America, were replete with historical information and sound practical instruction, and wherever he appeared on the platform as a lecturer he always drew crowded houses. Mr. Kelly realized from his lectures, which he delivered repeatedly in the North, South and West, over fifty thousand dollars, and this immense sum he gave in charity to educate and clothe the poor, to build schools, or to lift the burden of debt from charitable institutions. His heart was in his work. He would not allow one penny of the proceeds of his lectures to be diverted from the sweet uses of charity for his traveling expenses, but in every instance, wherever he went to lecture, he insisted on paying his railroad fare, and hotel bills, out of his own pocket.

Bagenal, the London traducer of the American Irish, with unblushing mendacity, classes John Kelly as a leader of “shoulder-hitters and ballot-stuffers,” and ignorantly accuses him of being an enemy of Irish colonization in the West. The simple truth is that Kelly is one of the originators and prime leaders in the movement to get poor emigrants out of the overcrowded Eastern cities, and has contributed thousands of dollars to make their colonization in the West a success.

Dr. Ireland, Bishop of St. Paul, Minnesota, one of the great pioneers in this benign scheme, while speaking kindly of Mr. Bagenal in a letter to the present writer, still shows how erroneous he is in his strictures upon Mr. Kelly. The Bishop’s comment upon Bagenal, is as follows: “He is mistaken, of course, in his remarks about Mr. John Kelly. But I do not think he will be sorry to be set right. He mixes up Mr. Kelly with the average politicians of New York—not knowing, as I know, Mr. Kelly’s exceptional qualities, his sterling honesty, his true love for his fellow-Irishmen, and his general nobility of character.”[60]

When he retired from politics in 1868, Mr. Kelly had resolved to enter upon that field no more. Chastened by domestic affliction, and loss of health, the plan of his life was changed. Public station had lost its charm for him. To feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and open the doors of colleges, or advanced schools, to those whose talents were good, but who were too poor to gain admittance, these things afforded to him his greatest pleasure. He sought out the companionship of holy men, and of holy books. Thomas à Kempis became his vade mecum. He took more delight in the pages of the Following of Christ than he had ever known in the conflicts of politics, either in the halls of Congress or the city of New York. It was not altogether surprising, therefore, that people’s conjectures should consign him to the prospective seclusion of a monastery, and that rumors to that effect should have gained circulation. The New York Times, on one occasion, shortly after Mr. Kelly’s second marriage, made editorial reference to these rumors, and spoke of him as that remarkable individual who had escaped being a monk at Rome, in order to become the nephew of a Cardinal in America.

These revelations of the inner life of John Kelly are not laid before the public without a great deal of reluctance. Some may think it were better to keep them back until after his death, and the writer knows perfectly well that no one else would prohibit their publication at any time, or under any conceivable circumstances more sternly than John Kelly himself. But these pages have been written without consultation with any human being in the world, and recollecting the unparalleled and shameful abuse which this man has been subjected to for doing his duty as God has given him to see it, the writer is resolved to tell the truth about him, and let the unprejudiced reader know something of his real character. Indeed hardly a tithe of those charities and good works of John Kelly which are within the personal knowledge of the present writer, have been mentioned in these pages. During the war for the Union, especially, were the kindly impulses of his nature displayed. He went about among the hospitals visiting and cheering the sick and despondent, supplying articles for their relief and money for their wants, and doing what he could for the wounded. He did not confine these ministrations to the hospitals in New York, but went to Washington and got a pass from Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, whom he had known well in former years, to visit the Army of the Potomac, and particularly the camp hospitals. Thither he repaired, and extended his aid not only to New York soldiers but to those of other States, with characteristic zeal and liberality. A letter was published in the New York World, November 1st, 1875, from Mr. James Murphy, in which reference is made to one of Mr. Kelly’s visits to the army in Virginia.

“I well recollect,” said the writer, “that thirteen years ago, when I was a soldier in the Second Army Corps of the Army of the Potomac, and stationed at Stafford Heights, Virginia, opposite Fredericksburg, I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. John Kelly. His mission was one of the noblest that man ever followed. He was going round from hospital to hospital, and from tent to tent, visiting the sick and wounded of the poor and neglected soldiers of the New York regiments, to see to their wants, and alleviate their sufferings as much as lay within his power, and questioning them as to their treatment as compared with the treatment of the soldiers of other States.” Many persons in the border States, as those adjoining the scene of military operations were called, who were guilty of no disloyal acts, were nevertheless made victims of spies and detectives, and they and their families suffered great hardships. One of these was Mr. John Henry Waring, a prominent and wealthy citizen of Prince George’s County, Maryland, whose property was confiscated, whose large family, mostly ladies, were banished, and who was himself imprisoned for the war in Fort Delaware. This was the work of Baker, the notorious detective, and a more cruel persecution hardly occurred during the war. Mr. Kelly was appealed to on behalf of Mr. Waring, and after he was satisfied that injustice had been done to that excellent citizen, he went to Washington and saw Mr. Lincoln, and Secretaries Stanton and Montgomery Blair, on behalf of the Waring family and estate. But Baker had poisoned the mind of Stanton against the Warings, and, notwithstanding the Secretary’s regard for Mr. Kelly, he refused the clemency that was asked. Mr. Kelly returned to New York, and enlisted in Mr. Waring’s favor the powerful co-operation of Governor Morgan, Archbishop Hughes, Thurlow Weed, James T. Brady, and about fifty other leading men, and, thus strengthened, he renewed the appeal for justice and executive clemency. Postmaster General Blair had become warmly interested in the case, and to him Mr. Kelly confided the petition of the citizens of New York named above, and Mr. Blair in conjunction with Mr. Kelly ceased not to press the case until Mr. Waring was liberated, his family were recalled from banishment, and his beautiful home and plantation on the Patuxent river were restored to him.

Mr. Kelly returned from Europe in the fall of 1871, much improved in health, but not yet restored to his old vigor. The present writer gave to Mr. J. E. Mallet, of Washington, D. C., who was going to Europe, a letter of introduction to Mr. Kelly, while the latter was abroad. Although they were near each other several times in Europe, Mr. Mallet did not become acquainted with Mr. Kelly until they accidentally met on the same steamship, the Republic, in returning to America. In a letter published in the Baltimore Catholic Mirror, Mr. Mallet gave an interesting account of this voyage, and of the amusements improvised on shipboard. “One evening,” said he, “we organized a musical and literary entertainment. The chairman made a speech, a lady played a fine musical composition, a gentleman gave a recitation, a young bride sang a beautiful ballad, Hon. John Kelly, of New York, sang in excellent style an amusing Irish song, then a duet was sung by two ladies, some one sang a French song, Father Sheehy sang an Irish ballad on St. Patrick, and the entertainment concluded, and the assemblage dispersed during the reading by the Rev. Dr. Arnot, of one of his old sermons.”

“A valued friend had given me a letter of introduction to Mr. Kelly, to present in France or Switzerland, but I met that gentleman only on the wharf at Liverpool, and then almost accidentally. Mr. Kelly has travelled throughout Europe and the Holy Land, and is one of the most interesting travelling companions whom I have ever met. I was particularly pleased with his manner of presenting the true history of, and reasons for certain religious and national practices in Ireland and Italy, in opposition to the theories and suppositions of certain of our fellow-voyagers, who ignorantly calumniated the one, and ridiculed the other.”

During the three years of Mr. Kelly’s absence in Europe, New York had been given over to every form of official rascality and plunder. No sooner had he reached the city than he was besieged by leading citizens, such as Mr. Tilden, Mr. Schell, Mr. Hewitt, Mr. Belmont, Mr. Chanler, Mr. Clark, Mr. Green and others, all of whom urged him to take the lead in a movement for the overthrow of the Tweed Ring. To each one of these gentlemen he said that it was not in accord with the plan of life which he had marked out for himself for the future, to re-enter the field of active politics. But his friends redoubled their importunities. They told him there was no other man in New York, scarcely one in the United States, so well fitted as himself to head such a movement, and that in the lifetime of but very few persons did so grand an opportunity offer itself to serve the people as that which now awaited him. His friends finally prevailed, his private plans were changed, and his memorable reappearance in New York politics occurred in the year 1872. “My health remains about the same as when I saw you,” said Mr. Kelly, in 1872, in a letter to the present writer. “I was compelled to take part, for the reason that my old associates would not take No for answer. My active participation has not helped me much in point of health, nor does it seem possible for me to live in New York without being more or less mixed up in politics.” In an interview published in the New York World, October 18, 1875, Mr. Kelly explained more fully how he was induced to return to politics. Details omitted, the salient points of that interview were as follows: “When I returned from Europe in the fall of 1871, it was my intention to have nothing to do with politics at all. I had been sorely afflicted by the loss of my family, and I wanted to spend the rest of my life as a private business man. I was met by a number of leading men, who told me that during my absence the Democratic party in the city had become utterly demoralized, and that the Grant Republicans, taking advantage of this state of affairs, had come into full possession in this great Democratic city, and they begged me to assume an active part. I had hundreds of the leading men in the city here at my house, asking me to take hold and help them up. After much importunity, I consented, and threw my whole heart into the work. I suppose I have some foresight. I think I generally see things pretty clearly, and this is probably why they trust to my judgment. Whenever I fail to win their confidence it will be an easy matter for them to dispense with me. I am not commissioned as a leader by any constituted authority. But as what power and influence I have depend entirely upon the good will and confidence of the people who choose to recognize me as a leader, and listen to my advice, I am wholly in their hands, and they can keep me or reject me any day.”

Mr. Kelly’s part in public affairs prior to 1872 had been creditable and marked by ability, but there were other public men who, in like circumstances, had attained equal or greater distinction. In the year 1872 he was called upon to prove whether he was endowed with that highest of all the gifts of Heaven, the capacity to lead men in a supreme emergency, and it is not the language of eulogy to say that he displayed consummate ability as such a leader; and that his courage, coolness and good judgment enabled him to achieve results which no other citizen of New York, with similar resources at command, and similar obstacles in his way, could have accomplished.

yours truly
John Kelly
(AT THE AGE OF 50 YEARS.)

In a city of a million inhabitants, where a Government had prevailed for years, such as disgraced Rome in the days of Caligula, when the tyrant made his horse a Roman Consul; or in the epoch from Tiberius to Nero, when folly, crime and profligacy ran riot in all departments of the Empire, such as Tacitus describes so vividly in the Annals, and in the immortal Life of Agricola; in such a state of affairs it was an enormous task for John Kelly to head a successful movement against a Ring intrenched in office, with millions of stolen money at command, and backed up by a purchased Legislature. This task he undertook and accomplished, and history will record the fact on its imperishable page that the gallant attack upon the Ring in the Courts and Legislature, by Charles O’Conor and Samuel J. Tilden, was not crowned with final success until John Kelly carried the war into Tammany Hall, and drove the Ring politicians from its portals. O’Conor and Tilden scotched the snake in 1871, and John Kelly killed it in 1872. Tammany Hall, the cradle of American Democracy, whose patriotic Sachems in the year 1819 were addressed in a speech by Andrew Jackson,[61] and in long friendly letters at the same period by Thomas Jefferson, the elder Adams, and James Madison,[62] was rescued from disgrace and placed again in control of honest men in 1872 by John Kelly. Not only the political organization, but the Tammany Society was wrested from the control of the Ring. No political contest in the history of the city of New York was more stubbornly fought on both sides, or has been followed by happier results to the people at large. If great public service entitles a man to rank among the worthies of the Republic, John Kelly won that title when he succeeded in expelling the Ring men from Tammany Hall. His victory marked an epoch. The Board of Sachems of the Tammany Society for 1871, and the Board for 1872 tell the story of this great revolution:

1871.	1872.
——	——
Grand Sachem:	Grand Sachem:
William M. Tweed.	Augustus Schell.
——	——
Sachems:	Sachems:
Richard B. Connolly,	Charles O’Conor,
Peter B. Sweeny,	Samuel J. Tilden,
A. Oakey Hall,	John Kelly,
Joseph Dowling,	Horatio Seymour,
Samuel B. Garvin,	Sanford E. Church,
etc.	August Belmont,
	Abram S. Hewitt,
	etc.

On the retirement of Mr. Belmont from the Chairmanship of the National Democratic Committee, in 1872, that distinguished position was tendered to Mr. Kelly at the meeting of the National Convention in Baltimore. But domestic affliction had again visited him about that time, in the death in New York of his only surviving daughter, his elder daughter having died some time before in a city in Spain, where her father had taken her in a vain pursuit of health. Cast down by these afflictions, Mr. Kelly declined the Chairmanship of the National Committee of his party, but suggested his old friend Mr. Schell, who was elected Chairman. “Who is John Kelly?” asked some of the younger delegates at Baltimore, when they heard his name mentioned as their first choice by the New York delegation. They were informed by Mr. Schell that Mr. Kelly was detained at home in the house of mourning, but that he was a great leader in New York politics, and a true patriot in public life; and that he had sat in Congress before many of those young men were well out of the nursery.

It was about this time that the Committee of Seventy set out to reform the city government, but those worthy old gentlemen soon became engaged in an amusing scramble for office, and beyond putting their chairman, General Dix, in the Governor’s chair, and another of their number, Mr. Havemeyer, in that of Mayor, they did not set the river on fire, nor perform any of the twelve labors of Hercules. As soon as the Committee of Seventy became known as office-seekers, their usefulness was at an end. John Kelly sought no office, for he had to fight a battle with office-holders, then a synonym for corruptionists, and he appreciated the magnitude of the struggle more correctly than to leave it in anybody’s power to say that the Ring men and the Reform element, the latter marshalled by Tilden and himself, were fighting over the offices. A mere scramble for office between the Ins and Outs is always a vulgar thing. When they became place-hunters, the Committee of Seventy ceased to be reformers. Kelly, with better statesmanship, sought no office, and would accept none. When every other event in his life has been forgotten, his memorable battle in the County Convention of 1872 will still be remembered. A fiercer one was never fought in American politics. To employ the words of Mr. Tilden, in his history of the overthrow of the Tammany Ring, Kelly had to confront on that occasion, “an organization which held the influence growing out of the employment of twelve thousand persons, and the disbursement of thirty millions a year; which had possession of all the machinery of local government, dominated the judiciary and police, and swayed the officers of election.”[63]

Harry Genet was leader of the Ring men in the Convention. Prize-fighters and heelers swarmed upon the floor; and when Samuel B. Garvin was again placed in nomination for District-Attorney, the fighters and heelers roared themselves hoarse with applause. Mr. Kelly took the floor to oppose Garvin, when he was interrupted by Genet. He replied to the latter in scathing language, arraigned him and Garvin with the utmost severity, and although hissed by the hirelings of the Ring, and interrupted by volleys of oaths, John Kelly kept the mob in sufficient restraint until he caught the eye of the chairman, and moved an adjournment to 3 o’clock the next day. Mr. Schell, who was in the chair, put the motion to adjourn, and it was carried, in spite of the protests of the mob.

The next day the same emissaries of the Ring were there to overwhelm the Convention again, but this time Kelly was prepared for them. He had a force stationed at the doors of Tammany Hall, and no man, not a delegate to the Convention, and not provided with a delegate’s ticket, was allowed to enter the building. The police and city authorities were on the side of the desperadoes, but no policeman was allowed inside the premises. This bold stand of Mr. Kelly had the desired effect. By his personal intrepidity, and readiness to resist attack, he cowed the rowdies, and no others but delegates got into the Convention. Garvin was defeated, and Charles Donohue was nominated for District-Attorney. Abram R. Lawrence was nominated for Mayor. It was in that day’s struggle that the backbone of the Ring was broken, and it ceased to be a compact organization, and melted away after that day’s defeat. Havemeyer of the Committee of Seventy was elected Mayor, with Lawrence a close second, and O’Brien a bad third. Phelps beat Donohue for District-Attorney. But Reformed Tammany, in spite of predictions to the contrary, polled a surprisingly large vote, and although it did not elect, it was a vote of confidence in John Kelly, and discerning men saw that the future belonged to the old organization. Mr. Havemeyer, who had been an excellent Mayor in early life, now proved a failure. His defiance of the Supreme Court in the case of Police Commissioners Charlick and Gardner raised a storm of indignation about his head, and led to his reprimand by Governor Dix, who threatened his removal from office. Charlick and Gardner had been indicted for a violation of the election laws, and Mr. Kelly was very active in bringing on their trial. They were convicted by the Jury, and sentenced by Judge Brady to pay a fine of $250 each, but conviction carried with it a still severer penalty, forfeiture of their offices and disability to fill them by reappointment. The Mayor’s attempt to reappoint them was an act of surprising folly, but when the Governor’s reprimand reached him, with the statement that his age, and near completion of his term of office, alone saved him from removal for contumacy, Mayor Havemeyer’s rage vented itself in an extravagantly abusive attack on John Kelly. He held Mr. Kelly responsible for the trial of Charlick and Gardner, and after astounding the community by defying the Supreme Court with a vain attempt to re-instate the guilty officials, he brought the matter to an impotent conclusion by pouring out a torrent of abuse upon John Kelly, and assailing his record for honesty when he was Sheriff of New York. During all the long years which had elapsed since Mr. Kelly had held that office, not one syllable had ever been uttered derogatory to his exalted character for honesty as Sheriff, until Mayor Havemeyer made his reckless charges. Smarting under a sense of humiliation after the Gardner-Charlick fiasco, the Mayor allowed bad temper to get the mastery of his judgment, and the explosion of wrath against Mr. Kelly followed. The animus of the attack was perfectly apparent on its face, and the good sense of the people was not imposed upon by the revengeful ebullitions of the angry old gentleman. Mr. Kelly promptly instituted a suit for damages, but on the very day the trial began, by a remarkable coincidence Mayor Havemeyer, stricken by apoplexy, fell dead in his office. The passionate events of the moment were forgotten, and a sense of sorrow pervaded the community. Mr. Havemeyer’s long and honorable career was remembered, and the unfortunate passage in his last days was generally, and justly imputed to the misguided counsels of his friends.

The Tammany Democrats were completely victorious at the election of 1873. Those able lawyers, Charles Donohue and Abram R. Lawrence, were elected to the Supreme Court. The late William Walsh and the late Wm. C. Connor, both excellent men, were elected County Clerk and Sheriff. Again, in 1874, victory perched on the standards of Mr. Kelly. This time its dimensions were larger. In addition to a Mayor (Mr. Wickham), and other city officers, a Governor (Mr. Tilden), and other State officers, were chosen by overwhelming Democratic majorities.

Mr. Kelly had been the first man to suggest Mr. Tilden’s nomination for Governor. His splendid services in the war on the Ring pointed him out as the fit candidate of his party. Tired out, after his long labors, Mr. Tilden, in 1874, went to Europe to enjoy the first holiday he had allowed himself for years. But such was his confidence in the judgment of Mr. Kelly, that a cable message from that friend was sufficient to cause him to cancel his engagements in Europe, give up his tour, and take passage in the first steamer for New York. The Canal Ring was in motion against Tilden’s nomination, and Kelly, who had found this out, thought there was no time for delay. Tilden at first expressed disinclination for the office, but the Tammany Chief had set his heart on his nomination, and the author of these pages has heard Mr. Tilden say that Mr. Kelly’s persistency finally controlled his decision, and won his acquiescence. One of the leading delegates to the Convention of 1874 was Mr. William Purcell, editor of the Rochester Union. “To John Kelly,” said Purcell editorially, shortly after the election, “more than any other man does Governor Tilden owe his nomination and his majority at the election. Governor Tilden was personally present at the nominating convention, in close counsel with Mr. Kelly, than whom he lauded no man higher for his personal honesty, his political integrity, and his purity of purpose.”

Mr. Tilden was a constant visitor at Mr. Kelly’s house during this period, and no two men could have evinced more respect and friendship for each other. The last time Mr. Tilden attended a meeting in Tammany Hall was at the election of Sachems on the third Monday of April, 1874. The late Matthew T. Brennan and others ran an opposition or anti-Kelly ticket, and so anxious was Mr. Tilden for the defeat of this movement that he came down to the Wigwam, and took an active part in favor of the regular ticket. He sat with Mr. Kelly, and when the result was announced warmly congratulated him upon the victory.

In the latter part of January, 1875, a few weeks after Mr. Tilden’s inauguration as Governor, the author spent a morning at his residence in Gramercy Park, and there met ex-Governor Seymour and Mr. Kelly, in company with Governor Tilden. The conversation of these three distinguished men, in the abandon of social intercourse around the hearthstone of Gramercy Park, was very agreeable and entertaining. The author was an attentive listener and observer, and afterwards, on the same day, wrote out in his diary his impressions of these three celebrated New Yorkers. Although ten years have elapsed since those impressions were written, they are here reproduced in the exact words in which they were then put down in the diary, without the alteration of a single sentence:

[Conversed with Messieurs Seymour, Tilden and Kelly at 15 Gramercy Park to-day. Big fellows all of them, but entirely distinct types. Let me see if I can depict them.

Horatio Seymour is a man well advanced in life, tall, well-shaped, though rather spare in build, with a beaming open countenance, a bright speaking eye, expressive mouth and a large nose. The marks and lines of the face and forehead are deep and strong. His language is quite Saxon in its selection and character, words of one or two syllables prevailing. His expression of thought was clear enough to be taken down by a stenographer as prepared utterances. His range of subjects is large, and his treatment of each ready and versatile. It is conversation all the time, not platform or stump-speaking. The fault with him seems to be one which any person of such eminent parts might be liable to—it is an occasional tendency to diffusion, a Narcissus-like disposition to dwell on the shadow mirrored in the wave; not vanity, but an introspective play of thought. His mental bent is speculative, which perhaps accounts for his sometimes presenting a thought under a great variety of aspects. He throws out an opinion, and follows it up by a profusion of suggestive considerations. Instead, however, of pausing after the stroke was dealt, he would now and again keep on elaborating his points until the conversation began to expand into a disquisition. The key remained conversational still, while the range was widening. But let an interruption occur, and the ex-Governor knew how to conclude with a hasty stroke or two. His descriptive power is good, but not so good as his reach and closeness of observation into general principles, and his capacity to grasp and develop causes and effects. He is more of a philosopher than a delineator, and has humor too, which draws the laugh at will.

Governor Tilden is a spare, close-cut man, of rather a nautical appearance. You might mistake him in a crowd for a weather-beaten old tar retired from the deck of a man-of-war, to enjoy a little needed repose. His movements and quiet speech suggest the idea to a stranger of a cold, formal, negative man, reticent, receptive, and not easily to be enlisted in ordinary matters. Five minutes conversation with him will suffice to upset such an opinion. First you will most probably be struck with his eyes, which have an indefinable expression. It would be spectral, if it were not now melancholy, and again indicative of a womanly tenderness. There is a peculiar play in them which expresses a great deal. His voice is low, and one might suppose, till he begins to converse, that he is a better listener than talker. The forehead is gnarled and concentrated, and on phrenological principles would not indicate a marked presence of the intellectual faculties, considered by itself; but if you draw an imaginary line from the tip of the ears across the head, it is evident that the brain power from the brows to this line is proportionately very large, and phrenologically very strong. His nose is a decided aquiline, the mouth full but compressed, and the chin prominent, and indicative of a marked preponderance of the vital forces. His conversation is more nervous than Seymour’s, but not so copious. He seems better pleased with the suggestion than elaboration of ideas. He can, however, when you don’t want to talk but to listen, throw an analytical strength into his expressions which sustains his reputation for sagacity and vigor. Governor Tilden is classical in diction. The right word is used all the time, although not a shadow of art is perceptible in the language. He seems bent on convincing you by what he has to say, and not by his manner of saying it. His method of reasoning is logical and exhaustive, and yet it is analytical and not synthetical. He leaves his listener to draw conclusions. He is less given to generalization than to subtle methods of mastering subjects. He has a quiet way of talking, and of saying trenchant, sententious things. Governor Tilden strikes me as a man who would be very slow to gain popularity by dash of manners or exterior conduct, but as having grit in him, and a genius for accomplishing what he undertakes. He is already named in several quarters as a prominent Democratic candidate for the next Presidency.

John Kelly, leader of Tammany Hall, remains to be described. He is a very different man from Seymour or Tilden. An English traveler once heard Daniel Webster on the stump in an interior New England town. As he gazed at “Black Dan” with his massy brows playing with ponderous thought, and his great arm and big body swaying back and forth in obedience to the ideas he was expressing, the first impression of the Englishman was: “Why this man Webster, with his herculean frame and sledge-hammer fist, would have proved the most formidable gladiator that ever entered the arena—if Providence had not given him a still bigger head than body. He is a magnificent creature considered as an animal, but a still more magnificent man.” Kelly answers this description. The New York Herald once compared him to General Grant on account of his quiet manners and reticence. He stands two or three inches under six feet, weighs about two hundred and thirty or forty pounds, is active and firm in step and movement, and from his leonine aspect must be the envy of those who delight in the manly art of self-defence. His forehead is massive and broad, with a wealth of phrenological development; over his physiognomy are the lines of decision and benevolence of character. The under jaw is large and firmly set, imparting to his face an air of command and resolution. In conversation he is modest and direct, and seldom speaks of himself. That he is a man of action is at once revealed to the observer. He has humor and a keen appreciation of the amusing side of human nature. His manners are quiet and frank, but underneath there is discernible a cool and commanding spirit. A mingled air of bonhommie and sternness proclaims to all that he knows how to command obedience as well as respect, and if once fairly aroused no man can confront an enemy with sterner mien, or more annihilation in his glance. Those who have seen him in stormy public place, where such qualities alone avail, have often witnessed this quiet man’s transformation into the fiery ruler of his fellows.[64]]

The extraordinary victories of the Tammany Democracy for several years after Mr. Kelly became its leader, at length aroused jealousies and rivalries, and it began to look as though the successful leader had enemies in Printing-house Square. Perhaps the editors thought they should have been consulted more frequently in regard to nominations and other matters, and perhaps Mr. Kelly made a mistake in not oftener seeking their advice. At all events, an animated newspaper fire was opened upon him in 1875. He was called a boss, a dictator; “one man power” was furiously denounced; and so savage was this onslaught, that if the editors had not modified their expressions after election, and even begun again to speak handsomely of him, one might have imagined that John Kelly was a veritable Ogre, a lineal successor to Tweed, instead of the destroyer of Tweedism. But it was all only a custom of the country at elections, and not an expression of the editorial conscience. No man occupying a high place ever escapes these fusillades; John Kelly formed no exception to the invariable rule. At the election of that year the Tammany ticket was badly defeated. Replying to these denunciations against the Tammany Chief, Mr. Abram S. Hewitt, then Chairman of the General Committee of the Tammany Democracy, made a speech, October 30, 1875, in the course of which he said:

“The assertion that John Kelly is a dictator is an insult to Tammany and its members. All organizations must have leaders, and no one but John Kelly could have done the work that he has performed. The city of New York owes to that calumniated man honors that statues could not adequately pay. There is no desire in John Kelly’s breast so strong as to be relieved from his present onerous position but if some one of respectability was not found to do such labors, the city of New York would be soon as uninhabitable as a den of wild beasts.”[65]

One of the shrewdest political observers who has figured during recent years in New York politics, was the late Hugh J. Hastings, editor of the Commercial Advertiser. As a Republican he was opposed to Democrats, but he had the blunt candor to speak of John Kelly in the following manner:

“On the ruins of Tweed rose Kelly, of Tammany Hall, and Tilden, Hewitt, and Cooper joined his Court, and were numbered among his legions. Under Kelly the condition of society has improved in the city, and we might add the municipal government,—all know there was great room for improvement. Kelly has ruled the fierce Democracy in such a manner that life and property are comparatively safe. It is a fearful responsibility to hold this wild element in check. Beasts of burden may easily be managed by a new master. But will the wild ass submit to the bonds? Will the unicorn serve and abide his crib? Will the leviathan hold out his nostrils to the hook? The mythological conqueror of the East, whose enchantments reduced wild beasts to the tameness of domestic cattle, and who harnessed lions and tigers to his chariot, is but an imperfect type of the man who can control the wild, whiskey-drinking and fierce spirits that make up the worst elements of this great city. It requires a great man to stand between the City Treasury and this most dangerous mass. It demands courage, activity, energy, wisdom, or vices so splendid and alluring as to resemble virtues. Again we say, dethrone Kelly, and where is the man to succeed him?”[66]

The spirit of faction, the curse of New York politics from the beginning of the century, was again distracting the Democratic party. New York and Albany are natural political antagonists, as were Carthage and Rome of old.

The Constitutional Conventions of 1821 and 1846, by enlarging the elective features of government, had greatly relieved New York, and greatly diminished the power of the Albany Regency, but the love of power is inbred in man, and special legislation at the State capital still holds the giant metropolis in political leading strings. During Mr. Tilden’s administration as Governor, he and his old friend Mr. Kelly became involved in unfortunate differences as leaders of rival wings of the Democratic party of the State. It were useless here to recapitulate the story of this disastrous breach between two statesmen who had done so much when acting together to purify the public service; each occupying the place he held at the wish, and by the powerful assistance of the other; Kelly in Tammany at Tilden’s urgent request, and Tilden called back from Europe by a cable dispatch from Kelly to run for Governor of New York. It were worse than useless to revive the bitter memories of the strife. Let them be buried in oblivion. A few weeks before the St. Louis Convention in 1876, Mr. Tilden called upon Mr. Kelly, and talked over old times. Before leaving, the Governor humorously remarked:

“Now John, you are my sponsor, or political godfather. You found me not inclined to take any office two years ago, and you insisted that I should take the nomination for Governor. No matter what differences may have arisen since, remember John, you are my sponsor.” Mr. Kelly smiled, but was non-committal. But that visit, and graceful reminiscence of a happier day in their political lives did its work well. Let the brilliant Philadelphia editor, Alexander McClure, tell the sequel. In a letter to his paper from St. Louis, announcing Mr. Tilden’s nomination for the Presidency, Mr. McClure said:

“The work of the Convention was then done, but it was electrified by the appearance on the main aisle of the full-moon, Irish face of John Kelly, the Anti-Tilden Tammany Sachem. Those who hissed and howled at him yesterday, now greeted him with thunders of approval, and called him to the platform. When he appeared there a whisper could have been heard in any part of the hall, and when he gave in his adhesion to Tilden and Hendricks, and pledged his best efforts for their election, he was crowned and welcomed as the returning prodigal of the household.”[67]

Right nobly did John Kelly keep that pledge. Rutherford B. Hayes came in from the rural districts of New York 30,000 ahead of Samuel J. Tilden. When he reached the Harlem River he found that Tammany Hall had given Mr. Tilden 54,000 majority in the city of New York, and had wrested the Empire State from the Republicans. President-elect Tilden sent a message of congratulation on that memorable election night to John Kelly, and his warmest salutations to the invincible tribe of Saint Tammany, as “the right wing of the Democratic Army.”

By changing dates and names, it will be found that Mr. Kelly’s services in the Cleveland campaign of 1884 were an exact repetition of his services in 1876. He gave the same loyal support to Grover Cleveland that he had given to Samuel J. Tilden. He held his forces in hand magnificently, and if the high honor may be attributed to any one man of carrying New York through the most desperate conflict ever waged within her borders, safely out of the very jaws of defeat, to the Democratic column, that honor belongs to Honest John Kelly. To save Grover Cleveland, Kelly sacrificed every man on his local ticket, every dear friend who bore the Tammany standards on that eventful day, which decided the destinies of the United States for the next four years.

When John Kelly was appointed Comptroller of the City of New York by Mayor Wickham, in 1876, the debt of the municipality which had been uniformly accumulating under his predecessors until it reached over a hundred million of dollars, was first arrested in its upward course, and brought into a line of rapid reduction. In four brief years he had reduced the debt $12,000,000, thus justifying the encomiums of the press at the time of his accession to the office. The New York Herald of December 8, 1876, the day after his appointment, said editorially:

“Mr. Kelly will make a very good Comptroller. He has firmness, honesty and business capacity. He is the right man in the right place, and a great improvement on Mr. Green. He will guard the treasury just as jealously as the present Comptroller, without being impracticable, litigious and obstructive. The people of New York will be satisfied with Mr. Kelly.”

The New York World of the same date, after dwelling editorially upon his great ability, said:

“Mr. Kelly’s honesty and integrity are unquestioned, even by his bitterest political opponents. He is a native of New York city. Beginning life as a mechanic, by his energy and industry he very soon made himself a manufacturer and a merchant. He sat for one term in the Board of Aldermen, and was twice elected to Congress. At Washington he handled questions of national importance with ability and decorum, and by the force of his native good sense soon took rank above many men who had more experience than he in the national councils. He is best known to New Yorkers of the present day as the leader of the Tammany organization, as the man who took hold of that ancient society after it had been deservedly defeated, disgraced and overthrown under the management of members of the old Ring. He reorganized it, filled it with new life, and weeded out the men who helped to bring reproach upon it. The property-holders and taxpayers of this city are to be congratulated that the administration of their financial affairs has fallen into such worthy hands, and will be entrusted to a man of Mr. Kelly’s perspicacious brain and known probity.”

The New York Evening Express, of the same date, referred to Mr. Kelly’s eminent fitness for the office, and to his services in the election of Mr. Tilden to the Presidency, and said, editorially: “Speaking in a political sense only, Mr. Kelly has well earned this office, and even a higher one, for to him more than any other man is the credit due for the immense Democratic majority in this city, which gave the state to Governor Tilden.”

The New York Sun, of the same date, said editorially:

“Mr. Kelly is an honest and capable man, willing to do a great deal of hard work, well fitted to look after the important and varied business of his office, and the financial interests of the city. He is the most popular man of the party that governs this city, and stands well with the community at large. He will make a good Comptroller. When the nomination of Governor Tilden was made in St. Louis Mr. Kelly promised to do all in his power to insure the success of the people’s choice. During the campaign Mr. Kelly’s labors were arduous and continuous. He gave time and strength and money, and even deferred his marriage until the fight should be over. That Mr. Kelly might have secured the Mayoralty or any other local office for himself, had he so desired, is no secret. That he was urged against his will to take the Comptrollership is asserted by his friends as a fact.”

An interesting event in Mr. Kelly’s life is incidentally alluded to by Mr. Dana in the preceding article from the Sun. This was his second marriage, which took place on the 21st of November, 1876. His wife is an accomplished lady in every sense of the word, the good helpmeet, such as the Scripture describes. The following, account of the wedding, is taken from the New York World:

“As announced in The World of yesterday, promptly at the hour of 8 in the morning, the ceremonies began that were to end in the marriage of Mr. John Kelly to Miss Teresa Mullen, a niece of Cardinal McCloskey. About 7.30 the very few who were to participate in the event assembled at Cardinal McCloskey’s house in Madison avenue, where, in the private chapel of His Eminence, the marriage was to take place. This alone was a compliment of the highest order in Church etiquette, doubtless owing to the relationship of the bride to His Eminence. The little company invited to witness the ceremony was gathered together in the parlor of the mansion. The party consisted, besides Mr. Kelly, of Mr. Francis D. Cleary, brother-in-law of the bride; Mr. Edward L. Donnelly, Colonel George W. Wingate, and Mr. Kelly’s nephew, Hugh Kelly. Above stairs was assembled the bride with her two sisters, Mrs. Francis D. Cleary and Miss Mullen. At the hour appointed the Rev. Father Farley made his appearance at the parlor door, and announced that all was ready. The gentlemen at once arose and proceeded to the chapel on the third floor, Mr. Kelly and Father Farley being last. On the way to the chapel Mr. Kelly was joined by the bride, and, arm in arm, the couple slowly passed up to the double Prie-Dieu, before the altar under the escort of Father Farley. Meantime all had taken their respective positions in the beautiful little chapel, in the order peculiar to Catholic Church etiquette. All knelt in silent prayer for some few moments, when the venerable Cardinal made his appearance, preceded by the Rev. Father Farley, Very Rev. Vicar-General Quinn, and one handsome little boy dressed like a miniature Cardinal, who acted as candle-bearer to His Eminence.

“The Cardinal in his scarlet robes then took his place before the altar, with the Vicar-General to his right, and Father Farley and the acolyte to his left. Immediately behind His Eminence knelt the future husband and wife, side by side. After a moment’s silent prayer the Cardinal began the services. Laying off the mozetta, the Vicar-General and Father Farley enrobed His Eminence. The amice, alb, cincture, pectoral cross, stole, cope and mitre having been placed upon his head and shoulders, the Cardinal turned to perform the marriage ceremony. The vestments worn were white and gold. The ring was blessed, and the Cardinal said: ‘John Kelly, do you take this woman to be your lawful wife?’

‘I do.’

‘Do you promise to love and cherish her until death?’

‘I do.’ And so likewise vowed Teresa Mullen to love and honor John Kelly until death.

“A few more prayers, and His Eminence turned from the kneeling couple, leaving them man and wife. The crozier, mitre and cope were laid aside; and His Eminence, putting on the chasuble, commenced the nuptial Mass, pro sponsis. The gospel of the Mass is the recital of the marriage of Canaan, when Christ changed the water into wine. The Mass progressed slowly to the communion, when the newly-married received the Sacrament. Just after the Pater Noster, the two kneeling on the step of the altar, His Eminence read from the missal, with mitre on head, the long prayer imploring from God harmony and peace in the domestic relations of the newly-married, and praying that if God should bless them with children, they might be brought up in the fear of the Lord. This over, the Mass soon ended. After the Mass the little congregation and the clergy withdrew, leaving the Cardinal, and Mr. and Mrs. Kelly together. A few kind words of encouragement, and advice, and congratulations were administered by the Cardinal; and, while he remained to say a few prayers, Mr. and Mrs. Kelly joined their friends, and received their well wishes.”

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In concluding this volume the author regrets that he has not found room for more of Mr. Kelly’s speeches. They are all full of good sense, and occasionally they display a high order of eloquence. The present plan did not admit of their introduction. One, however, must be included, as it illustrates the witty side of his character, and was spoken of by those who heard it as a very happy after-dinner speech. It was made before the Lotos Club, January 11, 1879, at the dinner given to Mayor Cooper, soon after that gentleman had entered upon his duties as Mayor of the city of New York.

The following is the report in the Herald of January 12, 1879:

“The seating capacity of the large dining room of the Lotos Club was taxed to the utmost last evening. Mayor Cooper, and the retiring Mayor, Smith Ely, Jr., being the guests of the club. About ninety members and guests found seats at the tables, and nearly as many more, who were present during the delivery of the speeches, had to content themselves with standing room. Mr. Whitelaw Reid, president of the club, presided at the middle table, and at the heads of the upper and lower tables, respectively, sat the vice-presidents, Noah Brooks and Dr. Charles J. Pardee. Among the persons present as members or guests were Postmaster James, Chauncey M. Depew, Augustus Schell, John Kelly, Judge Noah Davis, Robert B. Roosevelt, Peter Cooper, Charles H. Chapin, Paul Du Chaillu, Dr. Isaac I. Hayes, Colonel Thomas W. Knox, George Osgood, Frederick B. Noyes, Moses Mitchell, Drs. Hammond, Arnold and Callen, and General Barnum.

COMPTROLLER KELLY’S SPEECH.

Mr. Kelly was very cordially greeted when, in answer to a pressing call for ‘a few words,’ he rose to speak.

“Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Lotos Club:— I have read frequently in the papers of the Lotos Club, but never before had even the honor to know where it met after it left Irving Place, and when asking to-night where the Lotos Club was, I was informed that it was directly opposite the Union Club. I do not know what progress the Lotos Club has made in life since its organization, but certainly you are at a point in this city—on Fifth avenue—where they say the aristocracy live. If this is a specimen of the aristocracy I am entirely content to mix with them at all times. (Applause and laughter). As the president of the Club has said, you have a mixture here of all kinds, and that political discussions are never brought among you. I will say that that is a very friendly state of society when you can come together and talk of everything but politics. I have always noticed in life, particularly in public affairs, that the first topic broached was politics, and it usually commenced by abusing somebody. (Laughter). Now that has been my misfortune. I got along very well in my early political life. I had very little said against me, but I found after a few years that I was about as bad a fellow in the estimation of some people as could be found in this community, or any other. (Laughter). But it don’t worry me a bit. (Laughter). I have got to that state of mind that I feel if a man is conscious that he is trying to do his best, as well as he can understand it, he need care very little what may be said about him. (Applause). A man’s conscience should at all times be his master. (Applause). Now, I do not think that politics should be brought into discussion here. Mayor Cooper has a very important duty to perform. Probably he can hardly realize yet the amount of labor he must go through, and no man can tell until he gets into the Mayor’s office. I suppose our friend Ely here, when he first entered on his duties, considered it a light place, but he was not there long before he saw that the labor was immense. I do not mean to say that the intellectual labor is immense, but the responsibility connected with the office. I am exceedingly anxious, so far as I am concerned, that Mayor Cooper’s administration may be successful. (Loud applause.) Mayor Cooper is not the representative of a party; he leaves the party behind him. And he undoubtedly will be successful, because I sincerely believe that he has the full interest of the people at heart, and that he will do his best to serve them. (Applause.) I have said so since his election, and I said so before his election. People have various opinions about parties. Our friend Reid here sometimes scolds, but probably if he knew the truth he would not say such things about public officers as he does. (Laughter.) I do not mean to say that he will allow himself to be prejudiced or biased, but he will get a notion in his head, and say, ‘That fellow is not doing right, and I will take him to task for it,’ and so he goes at it. (Laughter.) Mayor Cooper now has the support of the press of this city, but he will probably find that before the end of his term the press will begin to find fault with him. Then Mayor Cooper will say, ‘I have not done anything in particular that I know of that they should abuse me. Damn the fellow; I will go and see him.’ (Great laughter.) I do not mean to say that Mr. Cooper will do that either, because he is a very sensible man, but I know that our friend Ely did it repeatedly. (Great laughter.) I have often gone into his office after he came in in the morning. He had read the papers at home, and was full of them. Down he comes to the office, slaps his hat on his head, and off he goes to the Times. The Times man tells him, ‘Well, we will look into this thing.’ (Laughter.) He has not got a satisfactory answer from the Times, and off he starts for our friend of the Tribune. Then Mr. Reid says, ‘Well, Mr. Ely, I don’t know; there are various opinions about this matter. I cannot give you a positive answer about it. I will look into the thing, and let you know.’ (Laughter.) So, Ely goes the rounds. Back he comes disconsolate. He says, ‘I have seen all these fellows of the press, and they are all alike, they are abusing me for nothing. They can’t do that. I have been in the leather business, and I refer them to that trade. Go and ask Schultz; go and ask any fellow down in the Swamp whether I ever took anything that didn’t belong to me.’ (Laughter.) Then he becomes a philosopher and says, ‘What is the use of talking? They are only one man. Each controls his paper, and has individual opinions. The ‘boys’ are with me. (Loud laughter.) I will throw myself on the ‘boys.’ (Renewed laughter.) ‘They can say what they please about me.’ After a few days pass down he comes to the office again, and says, ‘The Times is raising the devil this morning,’ and so the thing goes on. (Laughter.) Now, gentlemen, I will say this. You have a very large city. Some people in public office must be censured. It is necessary, probably, sometimes that they should be, for it often has a beneficial effect. There is a large number of people who will say that there has been no reform in the city government, and will never take the trouble to find out whether there is or not. During the time Mayor Ely has been in office great progress has been made; but I venture to say that, while the debt of the city has been reduced $6,300,000 inside of two years, by the end of the term of the present Mayor, if things should continue in the same way, as there is no reason why they should not, you will find that the debt will have been reduced from $3,000,000 to $4,000,000. (Applause.) That will be an accomplishment of $10,000,000 inside of four years. (Applause.) Yes; I venture to say that if I remain in office—whatever has occurred, let that pass; I do not refer to it—but if he and I work together in the interests of the city, the debt in the next two years will be reduced $8,000,000. (Applause.) I wish Mayor Cooper all the success in public life that any friend of his can wish him, and I assure him and his friends that so far as the official business of this city is concerned, there will be no disagreement between us on matters which are really in the interest of the people. (Long continued applause.)

Speeches were made during the evening by Dr. Isaac I. Hayes, Chauncey M. Depew, Robert B. Roosevelt and Judge Noah Davis.”

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As this volume goes to press Mr. Kelly, who has been indisposed recently, is again recovering his health. His severe labors in the recent Presidential campaign brought on an attack of his old trouble of insomnia. He is now steadily improving, and rides horseback for one or two hours every day. Referring to his sickness, the New York Times of December 12, 1884, contained the following remarks:

“The substantial shoes of Mr. John Kelly stand unoccupied in Mr. Kelly’s Sixty-ninth street mansion, and their owner is taking all the ease which ill-health and restlessness will admit of. Those shoes are the object of a great deal of attention. In all the 50,000 voters in the Tammany Hall organization, there is not one fit to succeed him as the head of the party.”

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The Times might have added that there is no one in Tammany Hall who desires to succeed Mr. Kelly, and that he has held the leadership of that ancient organization nearly five times as long as any other leader in the whole history of Tammany. But there are other men of no mean ability in the ranks of that organization. They are all the friends, and not the rivals, of the subject of this memoir.

The chief events of John Kelly’s past life are, at least in outline, now before the reader. The task which the author set out to perform is discharged, to tell the truth about a distinguished citizen, and to let him speak for himself, both in his public and private career, during the past forty years.

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Mrs. Kelly, and two bright little children, a daughter and son, have brought the sunlight back again to John Kelly’s home, where, after this imperfect sketch of his remarkable career, we leave him a happy man, and an honored citizen.

THE END.