The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-01-11


then organized the Wcstmoieland Coal Com
papy, and commenced shipping gas coal to the
Eastern market, acting as President of the COM
pany until his duties in Congress compelled his
resignation. His management of this company,
which extended through several years, was COM
pletely successful.
In 1S45 John Covode first entered the political
arena as n candidate for Office, becoming the
Wing nom inee for the State Senate in a district
strongly Democratic At his second nomination
he came within SO few votes of being elected
that the opposing party became alarmed at his
growing popularity and changed the district
Kept out of the State Senate by Demo-
cratic gerrymandering, Mr.. Covode
finally turned his mind upon Con-
gressional career, and in 1854 became the Wing
candidate for the Thrty-fourth Congress in
what then the Nineteenth district of this
State, and was elected by a majority of 2757
votes. Two years previous, the same district
had been carried by the Democracy by majo
rity of 2009, this great political revolution being
one of the episodes of the Kno Nothing and
ant-Nebraska outbreak of 1854. Mr..
Covode was reelected to Congress
three times in succession, but in 1862 and 1864
was not a candidate, and on both of these occa-
sions his district carried by the Democracy.
During his service in the Thirty-sixh Congress,
from 1859 TO 1861, he was made chairman of the
special committee of the House of Representa-
tives which was entrusted with the celebrated
in nvestgation of charges against the admin tra-
sion of President Buchanan in relation to affairs
in Kansas. This committee did much TO show
up and bring TO light the enormous frauds and
corrupt practices of certain parties at that time
associated with the Government.
On the outbreak Of the Rebellion, Mr.. Covode,
still a member of Congress, became one of the
first to urge bold and decisive measures in its
suppression. He had become thoroughly allied
with the Republican party from its organiza-
tion, and TO the day of his death remained q
staunch adherent of that political organization.
He sent three sons into the army, the youngest
of whom was only fifteen years old. They
joined the 4th Pennsylvania Cavalry, one of the
most efficient regiments in the service. The
eldest, George Covode, became Colonel Of the
regiment, and was killed while gallantly leading
his men at st. Marys Church, near Richmond.
The youngest suffered the miseries and torments
of ADdersonville for year and q half, from
the effects of which he will never recover. Toe
second son returned at the expiration of his
term of enlistment
During the last term of the first period of his
service in Congress, Mr.. Covode was an active
member of the Joint Committee on the Conduct
of the War, and after the close of the struggle
be was sent South by President Johnson'to aid
the Government in working out its reconstruc-
tion policy. His views however, falling to
harmonze with those of Mr.. johnson, he de-
clined any further connection with his policy
and administration.
In 1866 Mr. Covode, at the earnest solicitation
of eadiDg members of the party, again became
q candidate for Congress, aud again the dis
trict in which he resided, now numbered the
Twenty-frst, and consisting of Fayette, Indiana,
and Westmoreand counties, was wrested from
the Democracy. Mr.. Covode was elected by 354
maj ority. In 1868 again he was q candidate
Hon. Henry d. Foster being his opponent. The
vote was very close, both candidates claiming
a small majority. The Governor refused to give
the certificate of election to either, on account
of informaities in the returns, but the House.
at the opening of the Forty-Hrst Congress-
awarded the seat to Covode, without prejudice
TO the claims of the contestant. Tue result of
the contest was the throwing out of
large number of Democratic votes
on the ground of fraud, and on February O.
1870, Mr. Covode was awarded the seat by q
vote of 1l8 to 45, after a bitter opposition from
the Democratic side of the House. In 1862
Mr.. Covode became chairman of the Republican
State Central Committee and in that capacity
had the general management of the Guberna-
toria campaign of that year, well as of the
gGessional campaign of 1870. Last year. however,
he declined a denomination for Congress and
the district was again carried by the Democracy.
The adage tells us that ''Some meu are born
to greatness, some achieve it, and some have
greatness thrust upon them" and of these three
classes John Covode belonged to the second,
for he owed his prominence to his own exer-
tions. Descended from a peculiar and unusual
combination of natlonaities-the High Dutch
with the English Quaker-his character was a
strange compound of both, for hc united the
vim, vigor, determination, and dash of the
former with the unwavering devotion to humani-
tartan principles that distinguishes the latter,
and thus he became a prominent leader, despite
his deficient education, In the great new party
that has dominated for the last ten years. The
district he represented in Congress is not only
often Democratic, but as il Is neither Quaker,
Dutch, nor German aud as it's staple element is
q hardy and keen race of ScOtch-Irlshmen by
the time descendant of High Dutch and Quaker
ancestors gained sufficient influence ia such a
district to be nominated and elected to Con-
gress, he had fathomed much more deeply than
most men the depths of American politics aud
the diverse influences by which voters are con-
trolled and governed. Soon after his appear
ance in Congress COvode's mature and sharp
ened shrewdness enabled him to win one of the
greatest triumphs ever won there. Despite his
inferiority as an orator or as a chairman of an
ordinary Congressional committee, he was
just the man to head such an investigation as
that with which his name will be forever iden-
tilted in Congressional history. He had at
once the nerve and the sagacity to spy out and