The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-07-15
Will Quay Beat
Cameron's Record ?
Penn" in Philadelphia Bulletin.


Senator Quay announces himself as n
candidate for United States senator for
the third time. If he can eject next year
a legislature Which will serve that pur-
pose, he will have done what only the
Camerons suCCee ded in doing in Penn
misunderstanding election to the senate
for more than two terms. Those who
have thought that he has been meditating
retirement do not understand the man or
his methods. There Is no likelihood that
he will be disposed to get out of politics
until either he Is carried out or until age
has sapped good zeal more of his intel
lect and erergy than it has even yet be-
gun to do Men who remember him as a
youth before the war, coming home from
the south, where he had been something
of rowing pedagogue, say that he did
not then have the appearance of a man
who would live much beyond the middle
years. He was not only delicate, but had
a manner suggestive OF shyness and diff
fidence, as, indeed, he yet has. Now, in
his sixty-fourth year. he has both a men,
tai and physical alertness. when his ma
ture is aroused, that few men are capable
of at that age. With an inherent love of
ease, fond of his books in his solitary
communings as he is of his fishing rod,
he has al astonishing capacity for arous-
ing suddenly to vigorous and long-sus-
tanned action in the handling of a multi
tude of petty and onerous details. He is
as much capable apparently of hard work
as he was when, as chairman of the Re-
publican state committee, he pulled Hoyt
through the governorship in the desper-
ate campaign of 1878. During the long
Harrison campaign of 1888 he felt day af-
ter day as II, to- use his own words, he
would like ITO put a. quart bottle under
his vest" but not until the election was
over was he willing to relax. His cam
paign in Pennsylvania in the summer of
1895 reminded me of the celebrated de-
scriptlon of the Duke of Luxembourg
when he was attacked by the allies. The
great French marshal had kept guard
caretessly; he had neglected warnings
and had taken false information; he had
been taken by surprise, and he had first
looked upon it slightingly; but it was in
the midst of the confusion and disorder
which presa ged sure rout that his clear
and unerring judgment was at its best,
and, rallying the household brigade to do
its work with the cold steel, he shattered
the army of the coalition, and won his
greatest victory on the field of Stenkirk
o
This is the way in which Quay, with
lieutenants of marked inferiority to him
self for the most part and frequently Of
no popularity. has been able to hold his
own, for his strongest qualities are usu-
ally seen at their best In an emergency or
crisis Some of his friends thought that
Re had cut five years off his life in travel
ing thousands of miles up and down the
state I'm the summer of 1885, writing or
debating thousands Of kilograms and let
ters, and attending to the thousands CT
little details in his marvellous memory
and in his knowledge of the politics Of
siXty-seVen counties. He is at about the
same age as Simon Cameron was when
he went off to Russia after he was eXi)ed
| from the war department, but Cameron
had yet to enjoy his career in Pennsy,-
vania politics when he came back He
was still to obtain the complete mastery
of the Republican party in the state, to
return to the senate twice, and almost
without opposition the last time, and TO
hand his seat over to Don; and he was
| seventy-eight years old before he actu-
ally got ready to toast his shins for the
| rest of his days at the family hreside.
90
With tho exception Of Cameron, no poll
| tician In Pennsylvania, either Republican
| or Democrat, has held sway over a par,y
organization longer than Quay has al
ready done. Stree 1867 his personal su-
premacy has been maintained The senior
Cameron was sixty-eight years old when,
after his final rout of the Curtin forces,
he had disposed of all rivals who could
ever again break him down; but Quay,
since he was fifty, has been practically
the controlling force Of the state orgaiza-
| tion. There have been periods of per-
| sonal ascendancy in the Democratic party
that have lasted from two to seven years,
like the Wallace, the Randall, the Scott
and the Halrity regimes, but each of
them was finally overwhelmed or deposed
or forced to the rear
| o
Up to the time when Quay entered the
senate there had actually been but five
persons that had gone there from the Re
publican party, and two of them were
| Camerons. The other three, Edgar Cow
an, John Scott and John l. Mitchell, were
| single termers, all of them non-success-
| ful In politics, and only one, Cowan, max
| ing more than ordinary impress on the
senate, although he has long been among
the forgotten. Quay has probably been
the ablest OF them all, Simon Cameron
| included. Without gifts Of speech, with
cast OF countenonce sometimes unat-
! tractive ANA seemingly sinister. without