Transcriber’s Note Italic text displayed as: _italic_ [Illustration: _Accept for yourself my esteem and affection, yours truly_ _John Kelly_] THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN KELLY, TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE. BY J. FAIRFAX McLAUGHLIN, A. M. AUTHOR OF “SKETCHES OF DANIEL WEBSTER,” “A LIFE OF A. H. STEPHENS,” ETC., ETC. “I REGARD JOHN KELLY AS THE ABLEST, PUREST, AND TRUEST STATESMAN THAT I HAVE EVER MET WITH FROM NEW YORK.”—ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. _WITH PORTRAITS IN ARTOTYPE._ TAKEN AT 35, 50, AND 58 YEARS OF AGE. NEW YORK: THE AMERICAN NEWS COMPANY. 1885. Copyright, 1885, by J. FAIRFAX MCLAUGHLIN. _All rights reserved._ Electrotyped and Printed By the N. Y. ECONOMICAL PRINTING COMPANY, NEW YORK. PREFACE. The life of John Kelly, written without partisan bias, and to promote no other object but the vindication of the truth of history, is presented to the reader in the following pages. The narrative is associated with three great epochs in American history, in each of which John Kelly has acted a prominent and conservative part. If he appears in the foreground of the picture which the author has attempted to sketch of those epochs, it is because no true history of them can be written without according to him such a place. He was the champion of civil and religious liberty during the era of Know-Nothingism, and contributed as powerfully to the overthrow of the Know-Nothing party as any man in the United States, with the single exception of Henry A. Wise, of Virginia, who slew the monster outright. In the fierce war between Barnburner and Hunker, and Hard Shell and Soft Shell Democrats, which broke out in 1848, and continued to rage throughout the State of New York with intense bitterness for eight years, John Kelly, in 1856, played the conspicuous part of pacificator both in the State and National Conventions of his party. The re-union which then took place between the Hards and Softs resulted in the nomination of Buchanan and Breckenridge at Cincinnati, who were elected President and Vice-President of the United States. The third epoch covers the contest with the Tweed Ring, and the expulsion of the Ring from Tammany Hall in 1872, when the Reformers were led by John Kelly. Grand Sachem Tweed had to give place to Grand Sachem Augustus Schell; and Sachems Peter B. Sweeny, A. Oakey Hall, and Richard B. Connolly were succeeded by Sachems Horatio Seymour, Samuel J. Tilden and John Kelly. It was not merely a change, but a revolution.