USA > Pennsylvania > Pennsylvania in American history > Part 14
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MATTHEW STANLEY QUAY
a broken limb the robin unalarmed sings his note of hope, and on the decaying roof the red squirrel undisturbed sits to crack his nut. At this spot, now wild and deserted, blue with the violet and yellow with the dandelion, James Anderson, the earliest known American ancestor of Matthew Stanley Quay, built a rude log cabin in 1713 and became the pio- neer settler in that region of country. His life had its chapter of romance. Born on the isle of Skye, in Scotland, as a youth he found his way to America, went to work for a Quaker preacher and miller of means living in the Chester valley, eloped with the daughter of his employer and brought her here to be his wife and companion in the woods. Their only neighbors were the Delaware Indians, who were near and friendly. When their oldest boy, Patrick, came into the world, later to be a captain in the French and Indian war, a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly, a major in Wayne's regi- ment in the Revolution, and commander of the Pennsylvania musketry battalion after the battle of Long Island, he was at times suckled by an Indian squaw while his mother trudged across the Valley hills to visit her old home. Nearly two hundred
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years afterwards the great grandson of this colonial and revolutionary soldier arose in his seat in the United States senate and compelled compliance by the national government with contracts, spurned and forgotten by every one else, which were for the benefit of the Delaware Indians in their reservation to the west of the Mississippi. What manner of man was this who alone had the will to take up the cause of the friendless, the strength to make his efforts successful, and who refused to permit two centuries of time to weaken an obligation ?
Matthew Stanley Quay in his character and work was a purely American product. To say that he was a typical Pennsylvanian does not much nar- row the proposition, for Henry Adams has truly written: "If the American Union succeeded, the good sense, liberality and democratic spirit of Penn- sylvania had a right to claim credit for the result." It has ever been the policy of the American gov- ernment, following the example set by Penn in 1682, to open wide the doors for the inpour of people of other lands endeavoring to escape from the rigidity of institutions and conventionalities at home, and it is to be hoped this liberality may have
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long continuance. Nevertheless he has a stronger incentive to patriotic effort and feels a keener interest in the welfare of both commonwealth and nation, who may look back to the participation of his fore- fathers in the early trials and struggles of the people. "A human life," wrote George Eliot, "should be well rooted in some spot of a native land."
Major Patrick Anderson married Ann Beaton, sister of Colonel John Beaton, as deft in penman- ship as he was vigorous with the sword, who through the whole period of the Revolution performed effective service in the military affairs of Chester county. Joseph Quay wooed and won their daugh- ter, and, with commendable pride, named his son Anderson Beaton Quay, and trained him to become a clergyman in the Presbyterian church.
The inheritance to which Matthew Stanley Quay succeeded was one of honorable traditions and little substance. No great career ever began under more unpropitious auspices and no leader of men ever depended less upon mere adventitious and per- sonal advantages. He was born September 30, 1833, in Dillsburg, York county, where his father then had a church, a village which even to-day has
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a population of only seven hundred and thirty-two persons. The family income probably never ex- ceeded eight hundred dollars a year. He was short in stature, meagre in form and had no presence likely to impress the ordinary observer. His voice had so little volume that he shunned public speech. A weakened muscle permitted one eyelid to droop and seemed to those to whom the cause was unknown to give warning of a certain subtlety. A tendency to pulmonary trouble, which had brought death to many of the immediate household, was an ever present threat from early manhood to late maturity. At the age of seventeen years he was graduated from Jefferson College, at twenty-one he was ad- mitted to the bar, and two years later became pro- thonotary of Beaver county. So freighted and so equipped he entered upon the struggles of a life be- set from start to finish with tumultuous storm and unrelenting strife.
The task which nature in its adaptation of means to necessary ends had fitted him to perform, or toward which the current and pressure of events swept him, or, if it be preferred, which he, im- pelled by the instinct for the exercise of conscious
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power, as some birds take to the water and others to the air, set for himself, was one of high importance and of vast complication and difficulty. Seldom in the history of the world have the forces which make for the advancement of the people been set in mo- tion or directed by those charged with the functions of government. The ruler, whether hereditary or selected, is apt to be a conservative, satisfied with the conditions which have led to his elevation and interested that they should be continued. It might be written of the uncrowned king of many another land beside Miletus that
" He had grown so great
The throne was lost behind the subject's shadow."
It was no king of Prussia, but Count Bismarck, who brought about the consolidation of the German empire. In the struggle of England with France for supremacy it was not George III, but William Pitt, who welded the forces which finally led to the overthrow of the Corsican. How many of us can tell which one of the Bourbons was king of France in the time of Cardinal Richelieu? There is a catalogue of the kings of England. It is printed in the histories, and perhaps the children
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are still compelled to learn it by rote, as they cer- tainly at one time were, but the men whose charac- ters left their impress upon the determining events in the development of English life and institutions were Becket and Wolsey, Shaftesbury and Claren- don, Disraeli and Gladstone. In the main the rulers who have been potent factors in shaping the desti- nies of their time have been those who like Cæsar, Cromwell and Napoleon grasped sceptres, set them- selves upon thrones and established dynasties. The experience of other countries has been repeated in America because it is an evolution, the outcome of laws more permanent than any system of govern- ment, deep seated as nature itself, which influence all human institutions. Alexander Hamilton, Albert Gallatin, Thaddeus Stevens and many others of a type entirely familiar to the student of our affairs never reached the presidency of the United States, but they formulated measures and dictated policies to an extent which few presidents have been able to equal. When we reflect that the president is elected for a term of only four years, the governors of the states for a term of from one to four years, a period entirely too brief to permit the acquisition
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of accurate knowledge, and that they reach these positions only through the nominations of political parties, it must be plain that men will arise who, possessing the capacity, devoting themselves to the study of public interests and the methods of ad- vancing them, acquiring the skill and proficiency which come with experience, exercise a dominating influence in public affairs. Fortunately they suc- ceed only by a sort of divine right and hold their power only so long as they serve the public need. No other steep is so hard to climb and the foothold upon no other crest is so precarious. He who
reaches the height is a mental athlete, and he who holds it a marvel of capacity. We give our plaudits to the successful general who can command an army of a hundred thousand troops, but he has the power of life and death to enable him to enforce discipline. We wonder at the organization of a great railroad system, but every employé knows that the livelihood of his wife and children depends upon his attention to the orders given him. What are we to think of him who without any of these means of control prevails upon a million of men to forget their diverse views and interests and to work to-
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gether for a common political purpose? Such mas- ters of statecraft, in other lands and in earlier days in this country, were called statesmen and were hon- ored for their achievements. That we have become so prone of recent years to apply to them opprobri- ous epithets only shows that we are beginning to forget the philosophy of our institutions and to be weary of the system of government handed down to us by the fathers.
In the capacity for the building up and the maintenance of political forces and for their applica- tion to the accomplishment of public ends, it may well be doubted whether the country ever before produced the equal of Mr. Quay. From the time of his election to the office of state treasurer, in 1885, down until his death on the 28th of May, 1904, public and political results in this state may be said to have rested upon his decision. During this long period every means which human ingenu- ity could devise and unlimited resources could bring to bear was used to overthrow his influence. Coali- tions between shrewd politicians seeking for substan- tial reward, heated zealots and earnest reformers, looking backward to the golden age and forward to
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Utopia, exerted their energies without effect. Men whom he had trained and who had gathered infor- mation as his allies were secured to do battle against him only to meet discomfiture. Scandal intended to be harmful to the state and to him, disseminated far beyond the state's borders, seemed only to give him strength. Even the processes of the criminal court of Philadelphia were invoked by his enemies and in vain. Thrifty commercialism reaching out to grasp the senatorship clutched the empty air. His final reliance was ever upon the confidence of the people. The bourgeoisie and the men in blouses never failed him. When, in 1885, the political powers then in control decreed his retirement, he announced instead his candidacy for a high state office and he won. Ten years later seemingly over- whelming forces united to wrest from him the con- trol of the organization of his party. They included the governor, the mayor of Philadelphia, the party organizations in Philadelphia and Pittsburg and the strongest corporate influences in the state. The in- itial step was an effort to secure the chairmanship of the state committee and they suggested for the po- sition a gentleman long identified with Mr. Quay
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in political movements. Mr. Quay picked up the glove and announced that he himself would contest for the chairmanship. No such political battle was ever before or since waged in America. Neither Marlborough nor Bonaparte ever contended with such odds in opposition. But to use his own meta- phor, he carried the "fiery cross" from Philadel- phia to Erie, the very audacity of the movement brought the people to his support, and again he won. None but a real leader among men so compels ad- verse circumstances to yield to his will. And when he went, physically feeble, tottering toward his grave, quiet had settled over all factions and there were none to dispute his mastery.
In Southey's poem of the Battle of Blenheim, when little Peterkin asked :
" But what good came of it at last?"
the answer was:
" Why that I cannot tell, said he, But 'twas a famous victory."
No such reply can be given by the political leader. Mere success, no matter how much we ad- mire the skill and the prowess, can never be a justi-
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fication. While he may be excused from adopting the standards of the idealist and from pursuing methods which are impracticable and lead to inevi- table failure, the welfare of the community and the improvement of public life are the objects for which parties arise and governments are instituted, and unless these ends be served the outcome is a barren waste. The work of Mr. Quay must be subjected at last to this test. The majority for the Republi- can candidate for president in this state in 1888, the first presidential election after Mr. Quay became recognized as the leader of his party, was 79,458, and the majority for the Republican candidate for president in the year of his death had risen to 505,519. In other words, during the course of his career, the people of the commonwealth were rapidly drifting into accord with his political views. It at least shows that they were not dissatisfied with prevailing conditions. It may be open to dispute as to whether or not the principles of one political party are more nearly correct than those of another, but this much is certain, that those of the Repub- lican party have controlled the affairs of the nation throughout a long period of great growth and pros-
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perity, and that Pennsylvania has been their most pronounced and assured advocate and exponent. In 1885 her indebtedness amounted to $17,972,683.28, and since that time it has been entirely liquidated except as to a comparatively small amount not due and covered by moneys in the sinking fund. Her revenues are more than twice those of the nation at the time Jefferson made the Louisiana purchase. She taxes no man's farm or home. Mr. Quay him- self, as chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means of the House, carried into operation the act freeing real estate from taxation and resulting in the system of collecting her revenues from the corpora- tions of the state, a system studied with benefit by those responsible for the financial methods of Mas- sachusetts, New York, and Virginia. Where else on earth is there a people more prosperous, contented and happy? Her laborers receive in comparison with those of other lands and other states remunerative compensation, and her proprietors dissipate the sur- plus of their large fortunes in building universities in Chicago and libraries over the world. The man- agement of her affairs has been in the main cleanly and efficient and conducted with a spirit so liberal
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that many of her judges, for a long time the state librarian, and through three administrations the superintendent of her schools, directing the annual expenditure of $6,000,000, have been retained in office, though of opposite political faith. In what other state is there the evidence of such advanced political thought? She has had sufficient breadth of view to give attention to correct sentiment and even to æsthetics. Monuments have been erected on distant battlefields to commemorate the bravery of her soldiers. She preserved the field of Gettys- burg and after making it a Valhalla and marking it with a care unknown elsewhere, she gave it into the custody of the nation. She has established a park at Valley Forge that the tenacious courage of the American Revolutionary soldiers may not be forgot- ten. She has taken means to preserve and cultivate her forests. She protects the game in her woods and the fish in her waters. No one of these move- ments could have succeeded without the support of Mr. Quay, and many of them had their origin in his direct intervention. In that impressive speech in the American Academy of Music in 1901, wherein he prophetically announced that his political race was
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run, and pathetically declared : "I have many friends to remember, I have no enemies to punish," he did not forget the cause of higher education and made this appeal for the University of Pennsylvania: " The state and the people of Pennsylvania should cherish it and make of it, as they can, the first temple of science in the world."
The time came when the personal influence of Mr. Quay, apart from that of the state in whose councils he was so potent, was exerted in national affairs. In 1887 he took his seat in the United States Senate. To an extent equalled by few other American statesmen, he permanently affected the development of our national life. For a quarter of a century no Republican could have been elected president of the United States and no national policy have succeeded without his consent. Two of the presidents were placed in that high office because of his personal efforts. In 1888, in charge of the national Republican campaign, he confronted his opponents in the city of New York, cowed them in their stronghold, where even Mr. Blaine had failed, and by the exercise of both strength and skill en- sured the election of Mr. Harrison. In 1900, by
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the defeat of Mr. Hanna, who came to the national convention fortified with at least the tacit support of the administration, he secured the nomination for the vice presidency of Mr. Roosevelt with all the momentous consequences later to flow from that event. The manufacturers of the country made their contracts for the erection of mills and the em- ployment of workmen with a sense of entire security that so long as he remained in the Senate the doc- trine of protection, so important to them, would be maintained as the national policy. The Force bill stood in its way and he defeated the measure. When Mr. Cleveland sought to destroy the tariff system, he thwarted the efforts of the president and obtained such a modification of the radical views urged as to have the act adopted comport with safety. Florida looked up to him as her third sen- ator. Three territories relied upon him to lift them to the dignity of statehood, and in all probability only his death disappointed their expectations. When the religious sentiment of the country was aroused by the proposition to open the gates of the Columbian Exposition at Chicago on Sundays, through his efforts they were kept closed. When
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there was need for wise counsel or energetic action, no other senator had more fully the confidence of his fellows and as a result no other of them was more effective in accomplishing or preventing legislation.
To what cause was his continuous success to be attributed? How did it come about that this bold sailor was able to guide his bark over the stormiest of seas in safety for a lifetime, when all around so many others sank beneath the waves? In the days of our savage forefathers, whenever an un- usual or extraordinary event in the domain of nature happened, it was explained to their undisciplined minds as the outcome of sorcery or witchcraft. The ignorant of our own time, when the results of public controversies disappoint them, and " the rustic cackle of their burgh" has been mistaken for "the echo of the great wave that rolls around the world," find easy consolation in the thought that those who differ have been corrupt. It is a scientific axiom that whenever a fact is ascertained which is not in accord with an accepted theory, the theory must be discarded as incorrect. It happened in many of the most important of Mr. Quay's political battles, notably in the contest of 1895 and with Mr. Wan-
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amaker, such power as comes from the possession of money was in the league against him. There is a story which has come down to us from the days of old that once a wonderful musician charmed the ears of the people with the wild and weird notes of an unearthly music and when the curious listeners peered into his instrument, behold! it turned out that he played but upon a single string, stretched across a dead man's skull. Mr. Quay was not that kind of an artist. He knew alike what were the needs of the manufacturer that the mills might be prosperous and what were the aspirations of the laborer that the little home might be adorned; he understood the manner of life in the trades, in the professions, and on the farms; he sympathized with the old soldier, proudly wearing his decorations at his Grand Army post, and with the miner carrying a light in his cap to dispel the underground dark- ness-and all these were chords in that mighty in- strument which responded to his touch, and which embraced all the interests and hopes of a great com- monwealth. The successful chess player wins his game because he is able to see the plans of his ad- versary and to make the combinations which are
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necessary to overthrow them. It is idle to learn his moves, because the same situation never again occurs. Mr. Quay overcame his opponents because he saw more clearly, reasoned more accurately and delved more deeply. They who thought they knew some petty or unscrupulous device which they might learn by sitting at his feet and then go off to imitate wasted their efforts. Strong men brought into con- tact with him, impressed by the extent of his infor- mation, the breadth of his views, and the sagacity of his conclusions, became his adherents. Mr. Johnson, of Philadelphia, and Mr. Watson, of Pitts- burg, both have testified to his perception of difficult legal propositions ; Mr. Swank to his knowledge of the statistics of iron manufacture, and Mr. Kipling to his acquaintance with literature. He accumu- lated a large library, carried books with him when he went to fish, wrote from Florida letters in the Latin tongue and discussed the merits of the Italian poets over the table with Mr. Roosevelt. The only subscribers among the senators to Brown's Genesis of the United States were Mr. Quay and Mr. Lodge. He never doubted the people of the state or the merits of their achievements, and they reciprocated
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the confidence. There are those among us who, like the false mother in the time of Solomon, would dissever the commonwealth if they could seize a frag- ment, and who never tire in their dispraise, but he wrote and in his heart believed that "of all this union of states, Pennsylvania is the fairest and the happiest and the most intelligent and the best gov- erned." He could turn phrases with the same apt skill that he directed conventions.
He was not without faults. If his conduct sometimes fell below the highest ethical standards, where is the man who can honestly scan his own life and throw a stone? Though he cared nothing for the mere accumulation of money, and was little " afflicted with the mania for owning things," he ex- ulted in the exercise of power and like the war horse in Job smelled " the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains and the shouting." He regarded men and their aims too much as mere counters to be used for his purposes. He cared too little for their comment. But in nature, as a distinguished poet has observed : " The low sun makes the color."
However much we may admire, we seldom love the austerely virtuous.
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He was simple and modest and absolutely with- out vanity. After his winning the presidency for Mr. Harrison, at no dinners amid the clanking of glasses did he tell of what he had accomplished and there is no record in his manuscript to narrate to us what he thought of the work of his life. Like Wayne and Meade, like Rittenhouse and Dickinson, he left behind him no book of memoirs to impress upon future generations how much they owed to his efforts, but if his letters to politicians and men of affairs could be gathered together, and printed, their cleanliness and delicacy, their indications of quick perception and abundant information, their gentle- ness and self restraint would lead to a higher and more just appreciation of the requirements of public life.
He had a keen sense of duty. There are men who would scorn to fail in the performance of the obligations of a sealed instrument who without compunction pass lightly over the claims of home, friendship and country. It signified much that his sons grown to young manhood ever gave him a parting kiss before they retired for the night. His grandmother as she neared her end three-quarters of
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a century ago besought those around her to bury her among her kindred in Chester county. Their means were limited and her grave was dug in Ohio. Two years ago Mr. Quay, hearing of her wish, saw to it that thenceforth she rested in the family grave- yard near the home of her youth. A hint was per- haps all that an appealing friend could secure, but it was never forgotten and seldom ineffective. In 1862 he had resigned from the colonelcy of the 134th Pennsylvania Volunteers. The army of the Potomac marched forth to do battle. Arising from a bed of sickness he hastened to the Rappahannock, fought as a volunteer aide along the front line at Fredericksburg and later received from Congress a medal of honor for brave and unusual service. With him it meant little to say that his term had ended .*
* The original of the following letter has been discovered since the death of the senator and it aids in forming an estimate of his character.
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