James Fairfax McLaughlin

“ Where the animating principle of any living organism is extinguished, this is death, and dissolution is inevitable. You might just as well expect that the component parts of your bodies could be held together by some senseless incantations after the vital spark has departed, as that this Union can be held together by any Know-Nothing oaths when the Constitution is gone. Congress is to be done away with, except in so far as its members may be necessary, as the dumb instruments for registering the edicts of an invisible but all-powerful oligarchy. ”

“ He went into their midst a big-boned, heavy-browed, brawny stranger, with his far-seeing eye, and firm solid step, and as he strode in among the Solons of Washington they all felt an instantaneous conviction from his conversation and bearing that in the society of the most eminent men of the Republic John Kelly was exactly where he was entitled to be. He flattered no great man by the least symptom of being himself flattered by his notice. He measured his strength in discussion with the most celebrated men in Congress, and feared the face of none. ”

“ It is a truism in political economy that when pauperism siezes upon this class of citizens, the wages of labor are reduced to the cost of subsistence. The whole class must therefore be subjected to the necessity of working, rather to avoid the poor-house than to better their condition. Rescue these and such as these, not only from New York or Boston, or New Orleans or Baltimore, but from every city, and town, and village in the Union; rescue them from drudgery and death, and transform them into useful and industrious citizens of a free Republic. The earth which God made is man’s. ”

“ As in the colonies, as in the revolution, as in the last war, so have foreigners and immigrants of every religion and tongue contributed to build up the temple of American law and liberty until its spire reaches to heaven, whilst its shadow rests on earth. If there has been a turnpike road to be beaten out of the rocky metal, or a canal to be dug, foreigners and immigrants have been armed with the mattock and the spade and if a battle on sea and land had to be fought, foreigners and immigrants have been armed with the musket and the blade. ”

“ There is nothing worse that can be said of any man or any people indicating a destruction of morals or personal degradation, than that ‘the truth is not in him.’ It is the life and soul of all the virtues, human or divine. ”

“ Persons of a retrospective imagination may indulge in day dreams over what might have been the destiny of the United States, and over what other and happier story the Muse of History might have related, had Martin Van Buren restrained his feelings, and not rushed headlong into the camp of the Abolitionists. Pursuing the same pleasing train of reflection, they might say—if the Van Buren bolt had not occurred, the supreme calamity of disunion and war, which Henry Clay and Daniel Webster by the most marvellous exercise of statesmanship averted in 1850, might not have taken place in 1860. ”

“ The best test of a man’s integrity and the soundness of his principles is the furnace of popular opinion, and the hotter the furnace the better the test. I have traveled from a distant part of the State, where I first heard these floating taunts of fear—as coming from this district—for the sole and express purpose of announcing to you, one and all, and in this most public way to announce to the other counties, without distinction of party, that I am again a candidate for Congress in this district. ”

“ But I submit it to the consideration of candid minds how far it is true of the new order of Know-Nothings, which is now so strenuously endeavoring to make its mark in America, and to gain political influence in the country, not only by putting down all foreigners, and all native-born citizens who may be of Catholic faith, but also all other native-born citizens who will not take upon their necks the yoke of their power. Do not hundreds and thousands of them go about daily and hourly, denying that they belong to the order, or that they know anything about it? ”

“ Nothing could break it, nothing weaken it, the King on his throne could not withstand the author of the Drapier’s Letters in his obscure Deanery in Ireland. It is fortunate John Kelly is a just and honest man, unmoved by clamor, not to be bribed by place or power, nor seduced by the temptations of ambition; for were it otherwise, his sway over great multitudes of men might enable him to lead them to the right or left, whichsoever way he might list, a momentous power for good or evil. ”

“ Thus did the Know-Nothings wince under the lash of John Kelly of New York. Had he chosen to insist, he would have been heard, for he was now one of the leaders of the House, and the majority would have found a way to secure him the floor. He was the most formidable enemy of the Know-Nothings in the Northern States, for he knew how to act as well as to talk. Dreamers and visionaries write fine theories, but only great men reduce them to practice. ”

“ You are in the habit of discussing Federal politics; and permit me to say to you, very honestly and very openly, that next to brandy, next to card playing, next to horse-racing, the thing that has done more harm to Virginia than any other in the course of her past history, has been her insatiable appetite for Federal politics. She has given all her great men to the Union. Her Washington, her Jefferson, her Madison, her Marshall, her galaxy of great men she has given to the Union. ”

“ That is the foundation of my Republicanism, as it is that of a vast majority of the Whigs and Know-Nothings of the North. You, gentlemen of the Democratic party, stand forth here denying this doctrine. You say men are not endowed by their Creator with the inalienable right of liberty. * * * I would to God I could proclaim to every slave in Virginia to-day—You have the right of self-defence, and when the master attempts to exercise the right of dominion over you, slay him as he would slay yourselves! ”

“ Whenever any government denies to any class of its citizens an equal participation in the privileges, immunities, and honors enjoyed by all others, it parts with all just claim to their allegiance. Allegiance is due only so long as protection is extended; and protection necessarily implies an equality of right to stand or fall, according to merit, amongst all the members of society, or the citizens of the commonwealth. The best of men, after all, have enough of the old leaven of human nature left about them to fight when they feel aggrieved, outraged and trampled upon ”

“ Now I know that the gentleman has displayed courage upon the battle-field, and rendered essential service to his country. No man doubts his integrity, his honesty and his bravery; but had he been here last June, he would have met in the streets of this city that which no man desires to meet. I saw a body of young men from eighteen to twenty years of age, driving men of thirty and forty years of age before them like sheep from the field, and firing their pistols among them indiscriminately. ”

“ Had Davis lived during the era of the Alien and Sedition Laws, his genius probably would have placed him at the head of that conspiracy, and his name would have become famous in history. He was a contemner of the sanctions of authority. The sacredness of institutions handed down from generation to generation unimpaired by the ravages of time, awakened no sense of reverence in the mind of this iconoclast. ”

“ In this respect John Kelly almost rivals Henry Clay, and since the death of the illustrious Mill Boy of the Slashes no other man in America has had such an enthusiastic personal following.
While his liberality is great it is unpretentious. Publicity in well-doing is repulsive to his nature. His charity, which is almost ceaseless, is consequently always silent. The solidest kind of man in build and character, he delights in action more than words, and is known in New York as the safe leader. His natural ascendency over men is instinctively recognized. ”

“ It brought together foreigners of every country and clime—immigrants from Europe of every language and religion, and its most wonderful effect has been to assimilate all races. Irish and German, English and French, Scotch and Spaniard, have met on the Western prairies, in the Western woods, and have peopled villages and towns and cities—queen cities, rivalling the marts of Eastern commerce; and the Teutonic and Celtic and Anglo-Saxon races have in a day mingled into one undistinguishable mass—and that one is American. ”

“ My name is hereby presented to the district; not by any convention under a majority or a two-third rule—but by myself.
“I know, fellow-citizens, that many of you differ with me upon those exciting questions which are now dividing—and most unhappily, too, as I conceive—dividing our people. It is easy to join the shouts of the multitude, but it is hard to say to a multitude that they are wrong. ”

“ They came to the Catholic colony of Maryland. These are the Catholic people to whom the honorable gentleman from Alabama has referred. Such, sir, is the history of the Catholics in this country, and such has it ever been. These people when they leave their homes in Germany, in Ireland, or in whatever country they may be found, and come here, it is to make this country their home. They imbibe the spirit of true patriotism before they leave the Old World. They come here with their parents, brethren, and friends, because here they can enjoy their liberty. ”

“ Self-reliant, and borrowing nothing from others as to style or conduct, he gets at the point without labored approaches, and acts great parts with a happy carelessness. When others have been cast down and worried with care over affairs in which Mr. Kelly was more interested than themselves, his elastic spirit has not given way. Loving thus the sunshine, he affords a conspicuous example of the truth of the inspired words, “a merry man doeth good like a medicine.” Nothing has ever dispelled his cheerfulness. ”

“ When have the Catholic clergy urged their flocks to support particular individuals for office? When have they from their pulpits urged their congregations to support particular measures, or to vote for particular men? There is not in the history of this country an instance in which the Catholic clergy have so acted. ”

“ Whilst I have reason to believe that the great lobby spirits who control that organization are Greeley and Seward, and Weed and Webb, men of intellect and power at the North, who are as bitterly opposed to the American party as they are to the Democratic party, I do, upon my conscience, believe that there are gentlemen voting for Mr. Banks, from day to day, who do not belong to the Abolition, or, as they style themselves, the Republican organization. ”

“ While the Democrats and Republicans were in a deadly struggle on the floor of the House over questions involving the destinies of the Union, and the lives and fortunes of millions of human beings, the tipplers were in the bar-room drinking, or on the sofas of the lobby dozing in their cups. A vote is wanting to carry an imperiled measure to victory,—the inebriate is lifted into a sitting posture, dragged to the floor, and bid to vote aye, or no, provided he is there to mumble out the word. ”

“ When the principles of the Constitution are disregarded, when those ‘checks and restraints,’ put in it as Mr. Madison has told us, for ‘a defence to the people against their own temporary errors and delusions,’ are broken down and swept away, when the whole country shall have been brought under the influence of the third degree of this Know-Nothing order, if that time shall ever come, then, indeed may the days of this Republic, too, be considered as numbered. ”

“ Kelly was not a zealot, and there is not a tinge of bigotry in his nature. He was then, as he is now, a true liberal, and has always declared that religion and politics should be kept as wide apart as the poles. But he is the foe of intolerance, and while despising the arts of the demagogue, no man in New York has done more to uphold foreign citizens in their rights, and to emancipate the ballot-box from persecution on the one hand, and fraudulent voting on the other. ”

“ Stephens frequently said to the present writer that John Kelly reminded him more of Nathaniel Macon than did any other man in public life. Kelly’s rugged sense of right, his blunt honesty, sagaciousness, modesty, and good humor, conspired to make friends for him on all sides of the House. If he was asked to do a favor for any one, he generally did more than was asked, and never said anything about it afterwards. Kindness and service to mankind were virtues of which he was the cheerful exemplar. ”

“ But, sir, humanity claims for this bill the serious consideration of every member of this House, more especially of those who, like myself, represent in part any of the large and populous cities of the Union. For the laboring classes, large cities and towns, with superabundant populations, are too often but the portals from wretchedness to death. They can find no employment whereby to earn their bread by the sweat of their brow, and idleness, poverty and crime are the inevitable results. ”

“ In suffering and misfortune he administers to him the consolations of his religion and the counsel of a friend; he sympathizes with him in all his trials, and when the minister of a strange faith, armed with all the terrors of the law, sends his bailiffs and his minions to seize the very bed on which his sick wife is preparing to meet the God of her fathers—when under the maddening spectacle a momentary burning for revenge perhaps seizes upon his agonized soul—the priest is by his side whispering in his ear ‘Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord’ ”

“ We can name the very hour of our birth as a people. We need recur to no fable of a wolf to whelp us into existence. As a nation we are but seventy-eight years of age. Many persons are now living who were alive before this nation was born. And the ancestors of this people about two centuries only ago were foreigners, every one of them coming to the shores of this country to take it away from the aborigines, and to take possession of it by authority either directly or derivatively of Papal Power. ”