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.