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[Illustration:
_Accept for yourself my esteem
and affection, yours truly_
_John Kelly_]
THE
LIFE AND TIMES
OF
JOHN KELLY,
TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE.
BY
J. FAIRFAX McLAUGHLIN, A. M.
AUTHOR OF “SKETCHES OF DANIEL WEBSTER,” “A LIFE OF A. H.
STEPHENS,” ETC., ETC.
“I REGARD JOHN KELLY AS THE ABLEST, PUREST, AND TRUEST STATESMAN
THAT I HAVE EVER MET WITH FROM NEW YORK.”—ALEXANDER H.
STEPHENS.
_WITH PORTRAITS IN ARTOTYPE._
TAKEN AT 35, 50, AND 58 YEARS OF AGE.
NEW YORK:
THE AMERICAN NEWS COMPANY.
1885.
Copyright, 1885, by J. FAIRFAX MCLAUGHLIN.
_All rights reserved._
Electrotyped and Printed
By the N. Y. ECONOMICAL PRINTING COMPANY,
NEW YORK.
PREFACE.
The life of John Kelly, written without partisan bias, and to promote
no other object but the vindication of the truth of history, is
presented to the reader in the following pages.
The narrative is associated with three great epochs in American
history, in each of which John Kelly has acted a prominent and
conservative part. If he appears in the foreground of the picture which
the author has attempted to sketch of those epochs, it is because no
true history of them can be written without according to him such a
place. He was the champion of civil and religious liberty during the
era of Know-Nothingism, and contributed as powerfully to the overthrow
of the Know-Nothing party as any man in the United States, with the
single exception of Henry A. Wise, of Virginia, who slew the monster
outright.
In the fierce war between Barnburner and Hunker, and Hard Shell and
Soft Shell Democrats, which broke out in 1848, and continued to rage
throughout the State of New York with intense bitterness for eight
years, John Kelly, in 1856, played the conspicuous part of pacificator
both in the State and National Conventions of his party. The re-union
which then took place between the Hards and Softs resulted in the
nomination of Buchanan and Breckenridge at Cincinnati, who were
elected President and Vice-President of the United States.
The third epoch covers the contest with the Tweed Ring, and the
expulsion of the Ring from Tammany Hall in 1872, when the Reformers
were led by John Kelly. Grand Sachem Tweed had to give place to Grand
Sachem Augustus Schell; and Sachems Peter B. Sweeny, A. Oakey Hall, and
Richard B. Connolly were succeeded by Sachems Horatio Seymour, Samuel
J. Tilden and John Kelly. It was not merely a change, but a revolution.
To achieve the results reached in 1872, and in the few years
immediately following, a leader of consummate power was necessary.
Honesty, courage, and sagacity in the highest degree were required in
that leader. A man of action—not a visionary in the closet, was what
the times demanded. Upon John Kelly, who sought not the position, but
had it thrust upon him, then devolved the leadership of the Democratic
party in New York. The events of that period have passed into history,
and although there were some who at the time called Kelly a dictator,
posterity will be more apt to remember him as a benefactor.
For years the subject of this memoir has been the target of calumny and
misrepresentation. His whole life from childhood to the present hour is
here laid before the reader, as the best answer to his maligners.
J. F. McL.
THE ILLUSTRATIONS.
The author has been at much pains to procure good pictures of Mr.
Kelly. The caricaturists have taken so many liberties with his face,
and presented it in so many ridiculous lights, that public curiosity is
felt in every part of the United States to know exactly how John Kelly
does look _in propria persona_. To gratify this curiosity the book has
been embellished by three excellent likenesses of Mr. Kelly, taken at
the ages respectively of thirty-five, fifty, and fifty-eight. To Mr.
Edward Bierstadt, whose picture of President Garfield has been much
admired, the reproduction in artotype of the pictures for this volume
was intrusted. Fine engravings were used to get the likeness, and the
artotypist has executed his work with great success.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE.
Partisan Abuse.—Jackson also subjected to it.—The First
detailed Narrative of Life of John Kelly, Author’s long
Acquaintance with, Popular Misconception of his Character.—Anti-Kelly
Crusade in the Press.—Compared to
Nathaniel Macon.—Kelly a Safe Leader. 3