The weekly sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1886-1887, 1886-06-17

/ tend to be. By means of his noted
Committee of Discipline, which was
wholly in his own hands. he shut out
! from the Hall every man who would
/ not blindly sfollow his orders. His
first campaign, however, against the
nomination of Mr.. Hevemeyer by the
! Committee of Seventy, was a failure.
! but it was made the occasion of still
further consolidating Tammany Hall,
and it was followed by success i'll push
! ing Mr.. Tilden as Governor and Mr..
| Wickham as Mayor, and it was from
| the latter he obtained the nomination
as Comptroller, which place he held
until 1880. But from this time on
his career was one of failure in all his
larger enterprises. In 1878 Edward
Cooper was elected Mayor against his
active and desperate opposition In
1879 Kelly defeated Mr.. Robinson for
Governor by " bolt from the State
Convention, and by running for Gov
ernor himself, but that was negative
and barren victory. In 1880 he won
one of somewhat similar character in
defeating the nomination of Mr., Til
den to the Presidency, and in 1884 he
failed to prevent the nomination of
Mr.. Cleveland His activity was
thenceforth confined to the manipula-
ton Of local offices.
He obtained the rudiments of an
English education at St. Patrick's
Cathedral.
In private life he was the most con-
vivivlal of companions. Temperate.
witty, a good story teller and possess
ed Of a flexible baritone voice.
1t was while in Congress that Gen.
Cass, President Buchanan's Secretary
of State, spoke Of him as Honest
John Kelly which he has commonly
been called since.
Mr.. Kelly was twice married, the
second time to niece of Cardinal Nc
Closky. He was devoted to his family,
and man of temperate habits He
enjoyed the reputation of honesty in
his personal affairs.
Though the cartoonists shcw :tiwavs
him as adumpy man, he was ue:,rly six
feet IN heighth and weighed nearly 24O
pounds. He ran with the Sfire lad
dies IN his early days, and made
hosts Of friends, who elected him aid
erman in 1853.
His parents were both born in Ire
land, and emigrated to this country
III 1916. just six years after, in New
York, April 22d, 1922, John was ush
cred into this world Both parents
died whilst he was under age, and he
was left To his own resources.
His excellent speeches increased his
influence, and gave him reputation
for sound judgement and political dis
cernment. His greatest oratorical eff
fort, however, was speech on Gre
hgeous Toleration," in response to
Congressman Davis, of Maryland. be-
ing granted the floor as an act of
courtesy, as he was the only Catholic
on the floor. His speech was consid-
cred the most marked piece of elo-
quence of the session.
Prominent men like Mr.. TiIden.
Seymour, Hewitt and Belmont sought
Mr.. Kelly to help them in this crisis.
lie had vowed never again to enter
politics. Their importunities continu-
ed for year, till at last he entered
the fight, and while Mr.. Tilden and
Charles O'Connor attacked the Tweed
ring in the Legislature and in the
courts. Mr.. Kelly had a hand to
hand russell with them in Tammany
Hall, their citadel, and routed them,
as is known. This gave him a pres
tige which he has held since. An
idea OF the tremendous power this
ring welded may be obtained from
the fact that they gave employment to
1000 persons and disbursed S3O,0OO,-
600 annually.