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 atCincinnati, 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.