Huntsville gazette., 1891-02-21
QUAY BREAKS SILENCE.
Senator Quay, of Pennsylvania
Answers His Accusers.
A General and Specific Denial of the
Many and Serious Charges Made
Against Him by Pollt-
ical Opponents.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 17.-At the close
OF the executive session of the Senate
yesterday, Mr.. Quay, of Pennsylvania,
being recognized spoke as follows:
Never probably since Alexander Hamil-
ton was hunted to his death, has one public
life been pursued so persistentlY and malig
nantly. The field of the malign effort has
been the entire Union. The assaults were of
character so monstrous as largely to carry
with them their own refutation. Were it
otherwise, could not remain, nor could my
constituents permit me to remain member
of the Senate
Partly through Indifference to slander-a
weapon which has never had place in my
political arsenal-and partly by the advice
of friends, who urged me to treat the as
sassins of reputation undeserving Of open
controversy, have permitted, without COM
ment, the passage of the flood of falsehood.
Its malodorOus waters chance at this time to
be Quiescent, and now when no heated polit-
lcal conflict Is raging; when neither hope
nor fear can be deemed the inspiration of
my utterancc, i choose briefly to confront
accusation with truth l would not allude
to this subject in this presence had not mem
bers of the other house made it a matter of
debate there. Looking to the future and
knowing that the records of this Congress
will remain for other generations to read
when most of us composing it will be for
gotten, choose, for the truth of history, and
for that which is dearer to all men than
riches, to dispel the mist of falsehood with
the clear light of fact.
1t is not my purpose to weary the Senate
by rehearsal of each detail of the mass of
misrepresentation; nevertheless, avoidn e
prolixity, will make this speech so COM
plete as to be final. If any thread in the
fav1v Col, -,
will be because this tissue of lies is so COM
plex, is so raveled with contradiction and
clOuded with insinuatiOn that some insig-
nit1cant portion has escaped my attention.
The first assertion concerning my official
acts is that at some time, continuously
between the years of 1879 and 1882 alone, or
acting with another or others, used the
moneys Of the State of Pennsylvania for
speculative or private purposes. | denounce
this statement as absolutely false. In 1877
the Democratic party of Pennsylvania
elected State Treasurer and an Auditor
General, the financial officers of the Com
monwealth. A year or two later, pending
their terms in office, 1 became engaged in
stock operations. In some transaction l
was associated and jointly interested with
the gentleman who at that time the
cashier OF the state treasury. These trans
actions proved seriously disastrous, and l
was competed to pay portion of his losses
as well as my own. In doing
this it became necessary to sup
ply an alleged deficiency he had
caused in the treasury. AS a portion of the
fund for this purpose, l borrowed 100000
from the gentleman who is at present my
colleague in The Senate. l gave him my
judgment note therefor, the amount of which
note paid to him dollar for dollar years
ago. Not until the beginning of the settle
ment of our losses was l aware that a de-
Aata fad 7
that my associate was able to carry his
share of the losses. My connection there
after was simply, with the aid OF friends, to
raise the necessary funds to supply the de-
felt.
1t is charged that again used moneys be-
longing to the Commonwealth of Pennsyl
vania to purchase bonds, or stock, or both
Of Chicago street railway. / was invited
by friends in Philadelphia to join in the pur
chase of street railway property in Chicago,
and did so, borrowing the money upon my
own collateral from the Peoples Bank in
Philadelphia. ! stood upon the same foot
ing with the other gentlemen concerned,
and it was perfectly straightforward busi-
ness transaction, and had no connection in
any way with any public fund or public in
terest. The charge that securities belong
ing to the State of Pennsylvania were used in
this transaction is false, and impossible of
truth. The only negotiable securities held
by the State of Pennsylvania are the regis
tered bonds of the United States, transfera-
Bile only on the books of the National
Treasury, by the Auditor General, Secretary
of the Commonwealth and State Treasurer,
acting conformity, after having filed certain
certificates with the Governor in their official
character.
Collateral to this last accusation is a
charge that / defrauded or attempted to
defraud the widow of a deceased friend
This also is absolutely false. There breathes
not upon the earth man or woman who can
truthfully say that / ever defrauded at
tempted to defraud him or her of dollar.
Upon this point charity to the dead and to
the living forbids my making any personal
explanation. Samuel GuStine Thompson, a
member of the Philadelphia bar and presi
dent of the Young Mems Democratic Asso-
citation of that city, is one of several
thoroughly conversant with the facts who
can give them to the public il they see
proper.
/ come now to what might be called the
fourth ground of criticism of my public con-
duct This was my action as member OF
the Board of p ardons of Pennsylvania in
voting for the pardon of certain members of
the Pennsylvania Legislature and others,
upon whom sentence had been passed for
bribery. My conduct in that matter has
been bitterly assailed, and it is proper to
say that the facts were patent to the people
of the State, and were thoroughly discussed
before my election to the office of state
Treasurer, and subsequently to seat in this
chamber. had no personal interest in the
legislation inv olved. My vote as member OF
the Board of Pardons was in accordance with
the law and with the action of my colleagues,
and was compelled by the fact that the SEN
tence imposed by the court upon the per-
sons was illegal. Upon this point the At
torney General of the State filed his written
opinion with our decision. am frank to
say have no regrets for that vote and
would repeat it under the same circum-
stances, even had not the sentence been un-
lawful-that it is my opinion that the end OF
justice had been fully served by the convic-
ton of the defendants. One of the gentle
4en involved has within the last few weeks
received the unanimous thanks of the Penn
sylvania Legislature for important services
rendered humanity and the State.
incidentally, the statement has been made
that in some unspecifed manner had pro-
cured, or attempted to procure the pardon
of person named Lynch, under sentence
for forgery, by threats delivered personally
to Mr. Byers, of Pittsburgh. can not at this
day remember the facts or the pendency OF
the case, but the charge is a lie, for which
there never was the shadow of a foun dation.
Equally false is the wondrous lyric OF my
escape from the Pittsburgh ri OterS of 1871