USA > Pennsylvania > A biographical album of prominent Pennsylvanians, v. 1 > Part 6
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This son was of studious habits and early in life showed a disposition for the ministry. He followed the traditional bent of his race, became a Presbyterian clergyman, and made a circuit in York, etc., extending up into Franklin county. Colonel McClure's father was a deacon in the church where Anderson Quay preached, and often when a boy waited upon him while stopping at his father's house. He even met and knew the son, who has since been his political oppo- nent, when both were boys.
MATTHEW STANLEY QUAY was born at Dillsburg, York county, on September 30th, 1833. Recalling the struggles and friendships of his early life before he left
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MATTHEW S. QUAY.
Chester, he named this son after General Matthew Stanley, of Brandywine Manor, in that county. When young Quay was six years old his father left the mission in York and Franklin, went to Pittsburgh and thence to Beaver county, and for several years thereafter ministered to congregations in various sections of western Pennsylvania. He was a strong, earnest man, and his name is to this day men- tioned with great respect by those who remember his ministerial efforts in both eastern and western Pennsylvania. Matt. Quay, as he was universally known in early as well as in later life, received the rudiments of an English education from his father and in the common schools of the sections where he happened to be preaching. He advanced so rapidly in his studies that before he was sixteen years of age he was sent to Jefferson College, in Washington county, where he graduated with honors just after passing his seventeenth year. He soon after began the study of law in Pittsburgh with Judge Sterrett, but he had not pursued his studies long before a desire for travel became stronger than the disposition to fit himself for a profession, and he and a college friend started for the South. They spent nearly a year in travelling through that section. They happened there when the agitation of Union and dis-Union questions had begun, and he returned to Pittsburgh on a visit to his parents, with the intention of returning to Louisiana and starting a Union paper, with his college friend, at Shreveport. His mother, however, objected to his making his home in the South, and she had sufficient influence over him to restrain his youthful ardor, and for a time he remained at home. After a time, however, he broke away from the restraint of home and went South and settled in Texas when that State was next to a wilder- ness. The story of his sojourn in the Lone Star State constitutes a very inter- esting chapter of his life. He lectured a little and finally went to teaching school in Colorado county. While so engaged the Comanche Indians became very troublesome, and an act was passed authorizing the raising of a regiment of mounted rangers for service against the Indians.
Young Quay closed up his school, took what little money he had, bought a pony and a rifle, and started for Austin, the capital of the State. He reached there the day the Legislature adjourned, and the bill for the organization and payment of the regiment failed to pass the Senate. This was his first lesson in the uncertainty of legislation. He has had many since that time, but none more serious. On the same day the news of the inauguration of President Pierce and the announcement of his Cabinet was received.
" I shall never forget," said Mr. Quay, in speaking of his arrival in Austin, "the ludicrous scenes in the streets of that town on that eventful and, to me, unfortunate day. The town was full of young men, each with a pony and rifle, but without a dollar in their pockets and many miles from home. All had come down as I had, expecting to join the regiment, and had invested all their cash in an outfit for the service." In this crowd of disappointed frontiersmen young Quay sat upon his pony, with a rifle slung over his shoulder and his big som- brero shading the rays of the setting sun from his face, wondering what to do.
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Hle decided to sell his pony and rifle and return to New Orleans. He did so, and got just about money enough to take him there. This decision changed the current of his life, and when he started to leave Texas he took the first step toward the prominence he has gained.
He reached the Crescent City in the midst of the cholera season, and in that year the scourge was at its worst. People died so rapidly that they could not be buried. It may be imagined that he did not tarry long, but pushed on North, and finally, after a struggle, reached the home of his mother in Beaver county. His last experiences South made the quiet of his Pennsylvania home agreeable to him, and he at once resumed his legal studies with R. P. Roberts, then an eminent lawyer in that county, who was afterwards a Colonel in the late war.
In 1854, ten days after he was twenty-one years of age, he was admitted to the bar. In 1855 he was appointed Prothonotary of Beaver county. In 1856 he was elected to that office and re-elected in 1859. In 1861 he resigned the Prothon- otaryship and enlisted in the Eleventh Pennsylvania Reserves, and was soon thereafter made a First Lieutenant. Before his regiment was ordered into active service Governor Curtin appointed him Assistant Commissary-General upon his staff, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, and he was summoned to Harrisburg to enter upon his duties.
His capacity for dealing with men and meeting emergencies soon attracted the attention of all with whom he came in contact. His great capacity for work and for mastering the details of whatever service devolved upon him in the organization and preparation for active service of the great number of troops Pennsylvania was then mustering for the field, gave him a high place in the esteem of the authorities, and when the military staff of the Governor was abolished, Governor Curtin made him his private secretary. In this office his good judgment and great capacity for work were as apparent as in the perform- ance of his military duties. Much of the great strain upon the executive department, consequent upon the war and the organization of great bodies of troops, naturally fell to his lot, but he proved equal to every emergency, and won and held the good opinion of all with whom he came in contact.
After serving something more than a year in this capacity, Governor Curtin gave a public recognition of his efficient service by making him Colonel of the One Hundred and Thirty-fourth Pennsylvania Infantry. He assumed command of that regiment early in August, 1862. The regiment left Harrisburg for Washington in the latter part of August, and on the 30th of that month made a forced march toward the battle-field while the second contest at Bull Run was being fought. It did not reach there in time to participate in the fight, and returned to the defences about Washington. In the Antietam campaign it made another forced march towards South Mountain, but reached the battle-field of Antietam just too late to participate in that fight. The regiment remained in camp near the battle-field until the 30th of October. While there, Colonel Quay was stricken with typhoid fever, and his friends for some time despaired
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of his recovery. In November the regiment moved without its Colonel to the neighborhood of Fredericksburg, Va. Colonel Quay returned to his regiment early in December, but so reduced by disease as to be totally unfit for duty, and it was thought by his closest friends that he would not live long. Upon the advice of eminent surgeons he resigned his commission, and the acceptance of it arrived upon the eve of the battle of Fredericksburg. Although no longer an officer in the army, and with every preparation made to start for home at once, he was unwilling that the regiment should go into battle without him. He, of course, could not command it, so he volunteered as an aide upon the staff of General Tyler, who commanded the brigade in which his regiment was serving, and participated in that great battle. In his official report of that fight, General Tyler bears the following striking tribute to Colonel Quay's gallantry.
He says : "Colonel M. S. Quay, late of the One Hundred and Thirty-fourth, was upon my staff as a volunteer aide-de-camp, and to him I am greatly indebted. Notwithstanding his enfeebled health, he was in the saddle early and late, ever prompt and efficient, and especially so during the engagement. It is told of him that when he went into the fight he was all ready to start home, and that his men had sent considerable money by him to friends and kindred in Pennsylvania. But that so intent was he upon going into the fight with the regiment his health had forced him to leave just on the eve of battle, that when General Tyler accepted his services as a staff officer he forgot money and all else, and went into the action with it on his person."
He returned to Pennsylvania immediately after the battle of Fredericksburg, and Governor Curtin at once appointed him Military State Agent at Washing- ton, a position of great labor and responsibility. No State in the Union was more earnest in the care of her soldiers than Pennsylvania. Its Governor had promised at the outbreak of the Rebellion that no soldier killed in battle or dying of disease should be buried off her soil. Governor Curtin's object in appointing a man of Colonel Quay's ability to the position of State Agent at Washington was, that the provisions of that agreement might be carried out to the letter. This imposed upon him delicate and onerous duties-such as a watchful care over the sick and wounded, the forwarding of dead bodies home, and generally a watchful eye over the interests of Pennsylvania soldiers in camp and on the field. Although quite feeble during most of the time he held that position, thousands of Pennsylvania soldiers have borne tribute to the fidelity with which he performed that trust.
In 1863 the Legislature created the office of Military Secretary, and Governor Curtin, recalling the faithful energy and careful intelligence of his former private secretary, at once transferred Colonel Quay from the position of Military State Agent at Washington to the post of Military Secretary at Harrisburg. Soon after he had taken his new position, the death of Colonel Sees, Superintendent of Transportation and Telegraph, imposed the additional duties of that position upon him. He held these two important offices and the closest confidential
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relations with the Governor for two years or more, during which time his duties were of the most exacting character.
In 1865 he resigned these positions to take his seat in the Legislature from the counties of Washington and Beaver, to which he had been elected in 1864. He was made Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means of that body, and some of the most important legislation enacted during his first legislative service bore the impress of his intelligent work. His first memorable political contest was in 1866, when he was the presiding genius in the political move which resulted in the election of James R. Kelly as Speaker of the House. In this fight he began to develop into the sagacious politieal leader he has since become, and being a friend of Governor Curtin's, he was naturally led into antagonisms with the then ruling power in Pennsylvania politics.
When he first came to Harrisburg, at Governor Curtin's bidding, he naturally met Colonel A. K. McClure, then a power in the Republican party. He was the recognized leader of the political forces Governor Curtin represented. McClure and himself renewed the acquaintance began in their childhood days, when Colonel Quay's father preached in Colonel McClure's neighborhood and spent Sunday at his father's house. They became friends, and although they are now and have been for years widely apart in politics, and have had hard fights, their personal relations have never been disturbed. I have heard Colonel McClure say of Colonel Quay's services upon the staff of the Governor : " His services were invaluable to Governor Curtin, both as a soldier and civilian during the war, and he was true to his political interests after it, as long as Curtin was a candidate for place within the Republican party. He is a bold fighter, but a faithful friend."
It is no wonder, then, that a man of Colonel McClure's sagacity should, when Colonel Quay entered political life, make him a political friend, ally and coun- sellor in the great moves he was then making to control the Republican party of the State in the interest of Governor Curtin. He was just the man to see the power in Colonel Quay for such service; therefore it was not strange that when he went to the Legislature Colonel McClure looked upon him as the strongest weapon at command with which to fight Governor Curtin's opponent.
The Legislature of 1867 met under most peculiar circumstances. Governor Curtin, General Simon Cameron, Thad. Stevens, Colonel Forney and General Morehead were candidates for the United States Senate. Curtin had a majority of the Legislature, as it is claimed, to his candidacy, and the test vote was to be upon the Speakership. Colonel Quay was selected as Governor Curtin's candi- date, but he was, after a very bitter fight, defeated by a combination of the forces of all the candidates for United States Senator against him.
The defeat of Colonel Quay for Speaker settled Governor Curtin's fate for the Senatorship, and General Simon Cameron was elected. Governor Curtin then dropped out of polities as an aspirant for place within the State. Alexander McClure left the State and quit politics, and Colonel Quay went boldly to the
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front as a leader. His defeat for the Speakership only sharpened his appetite for other contests, and in the winter of 1868 the war between the factions was renewed, and Colonel Quay scored a victory in the election of Mr. Irwin, the anti-Cameron candidate, for State Treasurer. This same year Governor Curtin was sent to Russia and Colonel Quay was left to fight by himself.
In that year he was made Secretary of the Republican State Central Com- mittee, and that campaign bore the marks of his organizing skill and untiring industry. Curtin having been provided for, this campaign settled the differences within the Republican party, and in 1869 John Scott was elected United States Senator. Robert W. Mackey was that year chosen State Treasurer through Colonel Quay's efforts. He really created Mackey a political power in this State. This result brought Colonel Quay and Robert W. Mackey, since counted the boldest and most sagacious political leader in the country, into close sympathy and thorough working union. In the campaigns which followed, bearing the stamp of their work in every line, their names as political leaders became as wide as the limits of the country.
Colonel Quay always had a taste for journalism, and, during the campaign of 1869 established in Beaver a paper called the Beaver Radical. He issued it without notice and without a single subscriber. But it was conducted with such rare ability and energy that it at once took a leading position among the papers of the State and secured a strong patronage. As long as Colonel Quay's name was associated with it it was more largely quoted than any other paper in the State of Pennsylvania. Its editorials were terse and forcible and its general tone bold and uncompromising. In the bitter and memorable contest which resulted in the election of General John F. Hartranft as Governor, the Beaver Radical and its editor bore an important part. Indeed, but for the work of Colonel Quay and Mr. Mackey, it is doubtful whether the Republicans could have saved the State. There was a most bitter and unrelenting assault made upon Governor Hartranft, and it took untiring energy and careful organization to secure his election. When Hartranft was inaugurated as Governor, he made Colonel Quay Secretary of State, and he held that position until he was made Recorder of the City of Philadelphia. While holding the latter place he was very widely spoken of for the United States Senatorship, and but for the fact that his party fealty and devotion to friends had led him to make sacrifices which had been taken advantage of to create popular prejudice against him, he would have at that time been elected United States Senator. After he left the Recorder's office he was made Secretary of State by Governor Hoyt.
In November, 1885, Colonel Quay was elected State Treasurer by nearly 50,000 majority, and while still the incumbent of that office was chosen by the Legislature of 1887 United States Senator, to succeed Senator Mitchell, whose term expired March 4th of that year.
A man who has played as bold and broad a hand in politics as Colonel Quay naturally could not have escaped violent criticism, no matter how correct his
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acts. It was not in the nature of things, that, with his strong, positive nature, which never considered retreat, oftentimes lack of policy, and the use of power necessary for party success, that he should not have made enemies and created antagonisms, even among the timid of his own party, that could not easily be healed. He has been severely criticised, but it has never seemed to disturb him or to change his purpose when fixed. When Robert W. Mackey died, he was left as the undisputed leader of party action, the man whose judgment was law and whose political wisdom and boldness were worth a regiment of half-hearted politicians. He has shown matchless powers as a political leader ever since he entered public life, and no matter what enemies may say of him there is no man who does not respect his intelligence, admire his courage and recognize his com- manding power in political movements.
He is a true man, an earnest and uncompromising friend and an unrelenting foe. These qualities have made him ofttimes stand for the shortcoming of friends. It is not time for people to judge him or his acts dispassionately, for his grip is yet too strong upon the handle of political power to silence the tongue of vituperation or to direct the public mind to a dispassionate criticism of his acts. When he is gone the country, and especially his State, will recognize his worth and sift his qualities of head and heart to find many more grains of gold than dross.
No man who does not know Mr. Quay's character can appreciate the qualities of the man. The fact that he has been so long the master of political chess- boards, and consequently a target for all sorts of criticism, has fixed him in the minds of the people as a very different man from his real self. He is a remark- ably studious man, and his stock of information on all subjects is surpassed by that of few men in the country. He is a careful reader of history, science and current literature, and possesses many fine traits of character. He is liberal handed, steadfast in his friendships, as genial in his social relations as he is often rugged in politics. A. W. N.
Since the above was written Mr. Quay was honored by being selected as Chairman of the Republican National Committee and also as Chairman of the Executive Committee of that body. As such he had controlling charge of the canvass for his party during the Presidential contest of 1888. As a delegate to the Chicago nominating convention Mr. Quay was a staunch supporter of Senator Sherman, of Ohio, but it was with the hearty approval of General Harrison, the successful nominee, that Senator Quay was appointed the Chairman of the National Committee to conduct the canvass. The appointment elicited the warm approval of the leading men of his party, and was acknowledged to be a wise one by the opposition. [EDS.]
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HON. JOHN H. MITCHELL.
JOHN II. MITCHELL.
H ON. JOHN H. MITCHELL, United States Senator from the State of Oregon, was born in Washington county, Pa., June 22, 1835. His boyhood days were passed upon a farm in Butler county, Pa., to which locality his parents had removed when he was two years old. Bright and apt, and giving signs of marked intelligence, his parents determined that he should be given an opportunity to gratify his thirst for knowledge. So he was sent to the Witherspoon Institute, an establishment ranking high among the educational institutions of the State of Pennsylvania. Diligent in his studies and ambitious to take advantage of the opportunities thus afforded him, young Mitchell became, as was to be expected, the leader of his class, and in due time graduated with high honors.
Choosing law as the profession to which he desired to devote himself, he entered the office of Hon. Samuel A. Purviance, then the leading attorney of that por- tion of Pennsylvania of which in those days Butler was the centre. Mr. Purviance, who was subsequently Attorney-General of the State, was at the time Mitchell entered his office a member of Congress, and was a man of national reputation. Under the instruction of Purviance, who took a great interest in his pupil, the young student made rapid progress in overcoming the intricate windings of the subtle law. To read law is one thing, to read and understand it is. another. Young Mitchell was not satisfied with the mere reading; his nature was such that he could not content himself with memorizing-he must comprehend his subject ; in other words, make it part of himself. This thoroughness which marked him as a student of the law has remained one of the strongest character- istics of the man, and has had much to do with his success in life. Admitted to the bar in 1856, he soon after removed to the Pacific Coast, an inviting field for self-reliance, genius and ambition. A remarkable set of men were those who laid the foundations of constitutional liberty on those far-off shores, and the com- monwealths they created are the best monuments to their ability, energy and indomitable will. They were of a superior race, the flower of the youth of the older States ; men of calibre and will and expanding thought. And in this con- nection it may be well right here to call attention to a fact not generally recog- nized, that it was from among this body of men came the leaders who successfully waged the battle for the Union. Grant passed his early manhood on the Pacific Coast, and the lessons he there learned, and the persistency which was charac- teristic of the type of manhood of which we are speaking, he carried into the war, and the same spirit which overcame the perils of the desert and laughed at the obstacles of towering mountains and reduced the savage to abject fear conquered the rebellion. Sherman was a banker in San Francisco, Phil Sheridan a lieuten- ant in Oregon, and Joe Hooker a civil engineer amid the wilds of Rogue river in Oregon. Baker, the orator, the soldier and statesman, was preaching the " doc-
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trine of the new crusade " in the land of the Argonauts. Brave, generous men ! A grateful country recognizes their worth, and does homage to the memory of those who have passed over to the majority. A man of small ideas and petty purposes could make no headway in a current of humanity like this. That Mitchell succeeded amid such surroundings is the best evidence as to the quality of his manhood.
His first conspicuous public appearance was at the formation of what was known as the Union party in Oregon. There was a sentiment on the Pacific Coast at the outbreak of the war of the Rebellion in favor of the estab- lishment of what was to be known as a Pacific Coast Republic. Lovers of the Union were aware that if this scheme was successful the fate of the nation was to be despaired of, and that this peril, though insignificant in comparison with others which then threatened its existence, would be sufficient to hasten and bring about the success of those who elsewhere were determined upon the destruction of the Union. It was at this juncture that Mitchell first came to the front as a political leader, and his voice and influence were on the side of the Union. The welding of the Union sentiment into a political organization stood as a menace to the schemes of those who were plotting the establishment of this Pacific Republic, and in the face of this organized protest the plotters were com- pelled to abandon their proposed project. And thus was a great national calamity averted. As the representative of the Union party, Mitchell was elected to the State Senate of Oregon, and was chosen presiding officer of that body. Growing in popularity he soon became the recognized leader of his party, and in 1866 (although not a candidate in the meaning of that term) came within one vote of the caucus nomination for United States Senator.
In 1872 he was elected to the United States Senate for the term commencing March 4, 1873. He was assigned to the Committee on Privileges and Elections, then one of the most important committees of that body, and was also given a place on Railroads (of which he afterward became Chairman), Transportation Routes to the Scaboard, Claims, and Commerce. During the struggle which followed the Presidential campaign of 1876, Mr. Mitchell was for a time acting Chairman of the Committee on Privileges and Elections. Governor Morton, the Chairman, was incapacitated from serving owing to his being a member of the Electoral Commission. The duties thus devolved upon him were onerous and grave, as much depended upon the course of that committee as to what would be the outcome of a contention that contained within its environments the horrid spectre of another civil war. A mistake, no matter how trifling, would have precipitated upon the country a struggle, the result of which was beyond human ken, and the contemplation of which even at this distant day causes one to shudder. That Mitchell met the responsibilities imposed upon him with excellent judgment is evidenced by the result. The preparation of the Republican side of the case depended largely upon the result of the inves- tigations that were being pursued by the Committee on Privileges and Elections,
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