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-comesto 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 ofAppeals 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 sumthus 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 himnot 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 secondterm 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 thecommunity 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 ofTweed, 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 theUtica 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,nèeMcIlhargy, 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, “whoformerly 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 Ringwere 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 theHeraldof 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 theHeraldopposed 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 theHeraldor any other journal was not justly obnoxious to unfavorablecriticism 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 theHeralddeclared 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. TheHeraldeditorial 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 theHeraldoffice, 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 theHeraldto 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. “Thefight,” said theHerald, “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. TheTribune,TimesandWorldare 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 governmentof 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 fourteenhundred 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 amongthemselves 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 presumptuouslyto 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 ofredemption. 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 inEurope. 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 beenraised 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 toreceive 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 themidst 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 theirchildren, 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 Kellyas 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 whowere 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 hisvade 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. TheNew 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 totell 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 YorkWorld, 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 thepowerful 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, theRepublic, in returning to America. In a letter published in the Baltimore CatholicMirror, 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 youngbride 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 amovement 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 YorkWorld, 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 tospend 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.

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