The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-07-18
now MAT QUAY HAS RISEN.
Napoleon at the Polls, a Student at
His pireside.
-r1p, the Neto York World.

ETiW tNS 4Nt'HNi 'fN ~ " ttt.
p,rrAnrLPaIA, July 1.-Two practical
.,Itrans. from the most corrupt state,
c,Ilv. in the uaiou, will lead the hosts
af,se two great parties during tais presi-
Snta, year. Matthey Stanley Quay,
J,hba Wat" by his warl friends, Is the
,Ivanian elected chairman of the
atinual re ublicn committee, and of tae
',,ouai leDutllcal executive comma ttoe;
irIram T. Scott, famlliarly known as
MAINS Scott, is tho Pennsylvania chosen
-. he democracy as chairman of their
,.,ton4l campaign committee When
Pa'nsylvanian meets Pennsylvanian then
r,,nps the tug Of politics.
Cmay is y ohablv the ableSt man who
.,'l his seat in the United States senate on
Turch I. 1881 Scott is the richest man III
,be lowe. house, aud keen as a Damascus
to3o in PARTY management. Scott is a
,,.n of u.incsG, Quay a student of books
Srott is a hunter-after success, wealth,
Some. QUAY is a mighty fisherman. Scott
;s 90 Years old, Quay is So.
SIX wears ago Mat" Quay was the queen
h,e of the hive of PennSvlvania's little
hoses He didn't run in the Cameron
rlass, was known personally only to the
roit,cians and fishermen, and was counted
tx the mugwumps, independents and non
nlr;i an citizens a corrupt, rum-loving
91,ord olitician, who wanted to be known as
srate boss, and who knew and worked the
rnes of Pennsylvania's machinery and
amused himself fishing at Atlantic City OF
,,le ming with the BarneYs and Mikes of his
,qrty in the back room of a saloon No
greater mistake was ever made about any
flan in pubic life
QUAY is preachers son. He was born
at bnlsburg, York county, fifty-three years
ago. He is a poor man, comparatively,
although he has been an ardent ropuDlicaI I
POLITICIAN and worker for twenty-five years,
and vas in with the machine at Harris burg
when it was charged by responsible journals
md men of its own party with using the
peoples money in the state treasury to buy
votes. to give dinners, to bolster up banks,
and even to start and equip the Union Pas
tenger railway company of Philadelphia.
The state treasury has been the most impor-
tant office in Pennsylvania for quarter of
a century. Robert W. Mackey, Quay's
POLITICAL ira ner, was state treasurer. He
was the Cameron organizer and manager,
and the shrewdest politician of his time.
There was constant scandal about the treas
urv in t.-Ose days.
QUAY was a bohemian in his youth,
taught school and fought Indians in Texas,
showed a magic lantern and tried to start a
newspaper in Louisiana, aud rOamed about
until he studied law and in 1856 was ap
pointed prothOnotary of Beaver county
He has been in politics ever since, and in
stead Of a fortune has accumulated a
library.
He was elected parliamentary to succeed
himself He resigned in 1861 and went into
ihe army He resigned the first ieuten-
sntcy Of the Eleventh Pennsylvania regi-
ment, became assistant commissary general
L.. f... l.,
came Curtins private secretary, and again
went to the front as colonel of the One
Hundred and Thirty fourth Pennsylvania
infantry. In December, 1862, he resigned
his command by his surgeons orders, but
STAYED at the front to have lone more shy
at the confederateS in the battle of Gettys-
burg. He declared he'd rather die like a
fool than live like coward" when the sur
Heon called him a fool for staying
His senatorial career-which is only bud
ding-is not his first experience in Wash
ington. He represented his state there as
fiscal agent from 1868 to 1865. In 1864 he
vas elected to the legislature of Pennsyl-
vanla, and he has been a mOulder Of opln-
ion in every legislature at Harrisburg since
lie was candidate for speaker in 1856 and
could have had Simon Cameron's influence
which would have insured his election
had he consented to work for Cameron for
senator He wouldn't do it and was de-
feated He was then identified with the
Curtin or anti-Cameron wing of the repub-
lican party. To-day, after twenty years,
during many of which he worked with and
fer the Camerons, he is once more the
leader of the anti-6ameron faction and
himself already as big boss, if not bigger,
than Dom
Quay was Gov. Hartranft's secretary of
STATE in 1878 and resigned to be elected
recorder of Philadelphia, a fat office which
was created by the legislature for him and
has Since been abolished. The handsome
residence he lived in as recorder is pointed
out at Eleventh and Spruce streets in
Philadelphia as a monument of political
corruption, or, rather, of the era of great
est political corruption in Pennsylvania.
Yet nobody has ever charged Quay with
roiitng by it except politically. Don
Cameron made Chris Mage, Quay's junior
and rival in politics, his proxy representa-
tive in the national republican committee
in 1883. Everybody sol Quay was dead. p"
They who thought SO little knew him. In
leo5 Quay did one of the boldest things ever
cone in American politics. He appealed
directly to the people of Pennsylvania to
say whether he was as bad as his enemies
declared him. He announced himself a
candidate for state treasurer, to every
body's intense surprise. He didn't consult
any of the politicians, but wrote letters 10
bis friends and let the popular feeling assert
Hselt. Such audacity was magnificent. 1t
coon got to be understood that he proposed
10 run for the United States senate to sue
coed John l.. Mitchell il he was elected state
treasurer. He received for the treasury a
plHrailtY or 43, 5l6, an almost unprecedented
majority even in Pennsylvania
against this brilliant and immensely ag-
gressIve campaign of the Lone Fisherman
OF beaver county" the Philadelphia Press,
the Blaine organ Of the party in the state,
ana the most considerable republican
Journal in Pennsylvania, waged a bitter
war of inuendo and suggestion. A Eolt
was threatened All the party scandals
and the state treasury shortcomings we're
aug up and their corpses prepared for a
erect parade which mover took place. The
iinaepenGents and mugwumps fought Quay
utterly. The famous pardon board trans
dcnon was brought up against him. This
was In substance as follows; William II.
hembe, Rumberger Salter and Crawford
Pleaded guilty March Q, 1880. to having
Wioed the legislature of Pennsylvania to
pass the bill appropriatlng $4,000, 900 to pay
, ,9t. losses caused by the Pittsburg riots OF
roo. They were sentenced to 81 900 fine
ana year in the penitentiary. The state
ooard OF pardois, of which Quay was al
actve member, pardoned them before they
put on the stripes.
IN spite of all this his triumph, personal
ana political, was the most distinct and
complete in Pennsylvania's history. From
Vne counting If the votes on the treasury
ee,tlon his election to the senate was con
U.ea' and he was accordingly chosen with