^^ — ^ » "-^ 
 
 A HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 COMMIHEE OF ONE HUNDRED, 
 
 AND THE 
 
 REFORM MOVEMENT IN PHILADELPHIA 
 AND PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 BY GEORGE VICKERS. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 ENTERED ACCORDINQ TO ACT OF CONGRESS, IN THE OFFICE OF THE LIBRARIAN TO 
 CONGRESSi AT WASHINGTON, D. C, IN THE YEAR 1882, 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : 
 
 FROM THE PRESS OF A. C. BRYSON, 21 SOUTH SEVKNTH BT. 
 
 1883.
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNU 
 
 SANTA BARBARA 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ' I "HE possession of political power, the abuses 
 to which it leads, and the corrupt or crafty 
 means resorted to for its preservation have in 
 all ages furnished themes for the historian, the 
 statesman, and the moralist. A melancholy- 
 perversion of great talents, treachery, artifice, 
 and fraud have been the familiar and ready in- 
 struments adopted by those who have sacrificed 
 patriotism to ambition, and trampled under foot 
 the good of the State in pursuit of personal ends. 
 The rage of party and of faction has frequently 
 endangered the cause of good government. The 
 importance of party supremacy has been unduly 
 magnified, and men have been too easily per- 
 suaded that opposition to the powers that be is 
 deserving of condemnation and reproach. The 
 fears of men, their cowardice, their reluctance to 
 face the odium of rebellion, their dread of being 
 stigmatized as traitors have been skillfully seized 
 upon by autocrats as the means of suppressing 
 all murmurs of discontent. The foul dishonor 
 Qf the word rebellion has often stained the holiest
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cause ever won or lost by tongue or sword, and 
 many an ardent reformer has sunk into the grave 
 disheartened or disgraced by the charge, however 
 undeserved, of lack of loyalty. Harrington, the 
 profoundest political philosopher of the time of 
 Cromwell, shrewdly observed that corrupt min- 
 isters styled themselves the State, in order that 
 good men might not oppose them, for fear of 
 having their loyalty suspected. This sagacious 
 remark, based upon a close study of political 
 phenomena, is a happy statement of one of the 
 commonest means by which unprincipled men 
 have endeavored to preserve their possession of 
 ill-gotten power. A few illustrious victims, sac- 
 rificed without pity or scruple, were found suffi- 
 cient by way of example to awe the crowd. 
 Indifference to the egregious assumption of a 
 minister that he is the State, or bold defiance of 
 such arrogance has shut up many a man, like 
 Raleigh, in the Tower, or sent many a proud 
 head to the block. In our own day, men, some 
 of whom have never heard of Harrington or read 
 a line of his works, ignorant even of the misdeeds 
 of former days, but keenly alive to the weak- 
 nesses of human nature, have maintained for 
 years despotic sway by simple denunciation of 
 all patriotic efforts at reform as treason and re-
 
 INTRODUCTION. Ill 
 
 bellion. "I am the Party." Such is the imperial 
 edict of the party boss, "It follows, therefore, 
 that nothing that is distasteful or dangerous to 
 me can be tolerated. Disorganizing doctrines 
 must have no place in party platforms, political 
 free thought must be stifled; the people are not 
 entitled to representation upon party tickets, 
 and can have no hand in shaping policies. The 
 man who prates of lofty principles is a lunatic: 
 he who dreams of freedom is an enthusiast: 
 he who refuses to be a slave is an outlaw: he 
 who hates corruption and denounces it is a sore- 
 head. He who strikes at me is an enemy of the 
 people, because I am the people. The man who 
 has a conscience is an idiot — politics must be 
 practical; while he who considers the science of 
 government as one of the noblest subjects of 
 human speculation, or who agrees with Arnold 
 that the highest earthly desire of the ripened 
 mind is the wish to take part in the great work 
 of government is a dangerous aristocrat, as his 
 studies must lead him to distrust me," This is 
 the political creed of a modern politician. His 
 sphere may be large or small, it may boldly em- 
 brace the nation or a state, or it may be confined 
 to the limits of a ward prccingt in a town ; it
 
 iv I N TKODTTCTIOW. 
 
 matters not, within these bounds he aims to be 
 supreme. 
 
 Our view must be limited, however, to the 
 narrow field of municipal politics. 
 
 At the close of our great civil war, when a 
 grateful people rewarded with their confidence 
 the party that had saved the Union and made 
 free the slave, the unscrupulous speculators who 
 dealt in local politics as a trade and who grew 
 fat upon the spoils of office, saw and seized their 
 opportunity. While great men were debating 
 high questions of statesmanship, they slowly but 
 surely were forging the fetters of "The Machine." 
 With infinite tact they allied themselves to pop- 
 ular doctrines, and while careful to preserve the 
 forms were industriously destroying the sub- 
 stance of public liberty. They cunningly bound 
 local issues to national interests, and thus having 
 confused the duties that a citizen owes to the 
 Nation, to his State and to his City were able to 
 turn to their own advantage his mental bewilder- 
 ment. So inseparable did the union of national 
 and municipal interests become that the latter were 
 often wholly sacrificed, and good men stolidly 
 voted for the most odious and unworthy candi- 
 dates upon the local ticket, rather than endanger
 
 INTRODUCTION. V 
 
 the supremacy of the party in national affairs. 
 This popular devotion to the Union was made a 
 shield of protection to public robbers. The as- 
 sassins of Liberty, disguised in her own mantle, 
 crept close to her heart and there sheathed their 
 daggers. The patience and incredulity of the 
 people knew no bounds. It could not be true 
 that the party of high moral purposes, of rectitude 
 and progress, the chosen guardian of human des- 
 tiny, could ever prove false to its high trust. 
 Thus while the people slept an enemy came and 
 sowed tares among the wheat. The harvest soon 
 came — a harvest of shame and dishonor. Virtue, 
 ability, integrity were rarely seen in public life; 
 rapacity, cunning, trickery, fraud, ignorance and 
 violence supplanted them; men of character were 
 driven away, self-respecting voters remained at 
 home, men who busied themselves with public af- 
 fairs fell under the ban of suspicion; debts, state 
 and municipal, were piled mountain high, neces- 
 sary public works were neglected, public money 
 was squandered or stolen, offices were sold and 
 the spoils divided, new, useless, and expensive 
 offices were created, salaries were enormously in- 
 creased, fees became extortionate; even the courts 
 of justice were invaded, the jury fixer plied his 
 nefarious trade, while crime stalked in the streets
 
 VI rNTRODUCTION. 
 
 defiant anu unrebuked. Councilmanic appropri- 
 ations attracted clouds of vultures which fed on 
 the offals of contracts; conspiracies and plots 
 were organized to plunder the State Treasury, 
 and in a moment of reckless daring the bribery 
 of the Legislature was attempted. Neither sex, 
 age, nor condition provoked the pity or stayed 
 the hand of the despoilers; pauperism was strip- 
 ped of its rags to clothe the shivering dependents 
 of the Ring, and the copper of public alms was 
 transmuted by the alchemy of politics into gold 
 for political lazars. Taxes grew into grievous bur- 
 dens, and though vast sums of money were annu- 
 ally collected the treasury was always empty. 
 
 Means were devised to perpetuate this system, 
 the results of which were so profitable to the 
 leaders, under the pretence of maintaining the 
 boasted party supremacy. The cry was raised 
 that to defeat the party in the city was to de- 
 feat the party in the nation. Party organization 
 was carried to such a pitch of refinement that, 
 while it rendered hopeless all efforts at reform 
 within the party, it could not fail to excite aston- 
 ishment at the ingenuity and skill of the archi- 
 tects. In short, the party rules consolidated all 
 power in the hands of a City Committee, an ar- 
 bitrary and irresponsible body clothed with un-
 
 INTRODUCTION. VU 
 
 limited authority. Coercive measures were 
 adopted to insure success, and the pohtical dice 
 were loaded. Conventions were packed, dele- 
 gates were gagged, election returns were falsified, 
 office-holders were mercilessly assessed, the po- 
 lice force was converted into a Praetorian guard; 
 the right to cast a ballot as conscience dictated 
 was flatly denied, to scratch a ticket was felony; 
 Remonstrance, argument, persuasion, entreaty, 
 threats were all in vain. Reform was jeered at, 
 sneered at, stormed at, and denounced. To be 
 a Reformer was to be a traitor to Republicanism. 
 To fight for honest government was to be a De- 
 mocrat, a sympathizer with disunion, with State- 
 rights and civil war. This was enough. The 
 men who styled themselves the party well knew 
 that good men would not oppose them for fear 
 of having their loyalty suspected. Old Harring- 
 ton was right. 
 
 The situation, though desperate, was not hope- 
 less. Slowly did the people awake to full con- 
 sciousness of the fact that the men whom they 
 had trusted had betrayed and wronged them, 
 that they were political defaulters, and that if vi- 
 gilance committees were not soon organized, 
 there would be nothing left of public liberty or
 
 VIU INTRODUCTION. 
 
 virtue but tne name. Citizens' and Tax-Payers' 
 Associations were formed and gradually gained 
 strength: the Municipal Reform Association for 
 eight years waged heroic but almost unavailing 
 war. Fraud with her crooked fingers tampered 
 with returns and filched the fruits of victory. 
 The ardent Henry Armitt Brown, whose spotless 
 character and brilliant eloquence caused men to 
 build high hopes, fell a victim to his excessive 
 labors in the field of exalted patriotism. The skies 
 darkened, and doubt and fear again fell with crush 
 ing weight upon the hearts of all lovers of pure 
 and free government. A handful of brave and 
 good men continued the fight, hoping against 
 hope for better days. 
 
 The political Renaissance, however, was at 
 hand. The perils that had threatened the life of 
 the nation aroused men to the dangers at their 
 own doors. A gigantic conspiracy to violate the 
 unwritten law of the Republic by the novelty of 
 a Third Term was happily defeated at Chicago. 
 The vicious features of the Unit rule were dis- 
 closed and the secrets of the machine laid bare. 
 Bossism must be destroyed. Bosses had been 
 ignominiously beaten at Chicago; bosses must 
 be driven, like the Tarquin, from Philadelphia. 
 The hour had come for an appeal to the people,
 
 INTRODUCTION. ix 
 
 and in response to popular demand the Citizens' 
 Committee of One Hundred sprang into vigorous 
 being. The secret of its strength and its success 
 lay in its sympathy with public indignation, its 
 thorough knowledge of public wrongs and its 
 intelligence in dealing with them. Though in 
 strictness a self-constituted body there was noth- 
 ing aristocratic or oligarchical in its composition, 
 for reflecting as in a mirror the popular thought, 
 its acts were in harmony with the wishes of the 
 people, and were solemnly ratified by them at the 
 polls. The history of its services to the com- 
 munity is the subject of the following pages and 
 need not be here detailed. One by one were the 
 departments of municipal government wrung 
 from the grasp of the spoilsmen. The great 
 principle was established that partisan politics 
 should have no place in municipal affairs. Na- 
 tional, state and municipal politics were severed, 
 and each was assigned to its proper sphere. 
 Faith in the ability of the people to govern them- 
 selves was renewed and purified. 
 
 Posterity will treat with respect and admiration 
 a body of men who, without experience or pre- 
 vious political training, abandoned their counting 
 houses and offices and zealously labored by day 
 and by night to overthrow one of the most pow-
 
 INTEODTrCTTON. 
 
 erful and corrupt political rings that ever dis- 
 graced this country. They have not wholly es- 
 caped from errors of judgment, nor have they 
 been entirely free from human frailties, but in pur- 
 ity and unselfishness of purpose, in courage, in 
 determination, in intelligence and activity, in a 
 generous — almost improvident — devotion of 
 themselves, their time, their money, and their 
 strength to the public good they will compare 
 favorably with many bodies now historic and 
 destined to live in the grateful recollection of 
 mankind. Institutions such as ours can fail only 
 when such men no longer exist to defend them. 
 In the quiet contemplation of their own good 
 works, and of their dearly-bought success, they 
 have their rich reward. Sustained by the right- 
 eousness of their cause, and by thousands of 
 good people at the polls, they have saved Phila- 
 delphia from the fate of Actaeon, who was de- 
 voured by his own dogs. -,__. 
 
 Hampton L. Carson.
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM; 
 
 OK THE 
 
 REFORM MOVEMENT IN PHILADELPHIA 
 AND PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A GOVERNMENT OF THE BOSSES. 
 
 The year 1880 will be memorable in Philadelphia's 
 political history. It found public affairs in their worst 
 stage of mismanagement, extravagance and corruption. 
 The public departments, with one or two exceptions, were 
 the centres of all that was dishonest, vicious and demor- 
 alizing in public life. Political dictators, working to- 
 gether with the smoothness and system of a skil- 
 fully constructed machine held within their grasp the 
 secret of manipulating elections, and everything ordered 
 by their imperious will was swiftly executed. Public 
 service, where fitness for the discharge of appointed 
 duties should prevail, was degraded to the level of an 
 auction shop where the largest consideration that could 
 be advanced to comport with the personal interests of the 
 political autocrats was the price at which all appoint- 
 ments, whether of subordinate officials or executive
 
 4 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 heads, were made. William S. Stokley was Mayor, and 
 twelve hundred dependents in the form of police were 
 powerful agents in enforcing in the various wards and 
 precincts the will of the petty rulers of the city, in the 
 matter of elections. Behind Mayor Stokley in various 
 degrees of illiteracy and with an incapacity for nothing 
 so much as government in its legitimate sense, stood his 
 political masters. To say that he faithfully executed 
 their bidding is to give him credit for steadfastly observ- 
 ing a custom which through long experience under their 
 insolent domination had come to be an unwritten law 
 among city officers. It was the price for which they 
 elevated men to public position, and for any officer thus 
 dependent upon their favor to refuse to perform their 
 commands, was for him to invite political death. 
 
 Of the group of political satraps who had thus assumed 
 the reins of city government there was one who, for hia 
 boldness, his defiance of the public will and his assump- 
 tion of an authority which even the prerogative of the 
 sceptred head of a monarchy might have failed to yield, 
 stood above all others conspicuous. Over Mayor Stokley 
 and the chiefs and subordinates of City Departments, 
 James McManes held sway as an imperious and exacting 
 taskmaster. Artful in politics as a Machiavelli his name 
 was synonymous with all that an autocratic and un- 
 scrupulous control of political machinery and methods 
 could imply. His hand so active in secret manipulation 
 and scheming, was seldom seen but his power was felt in 
 all departments of the city government, in the City 
 Councils, and even in the Legislature of the State. En- 
 trenched in a political position which he had converted 
 into a veritable fortress for purposes offensive and de-
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. O 
 
 fensive, he had gathered about him as his aids and lieu- 
 tenants men who were apt and skillful in executing his 
 orders and prompt in sharing his spoils. Thus, to the hands 
 of men emerging from the obscurity of taxgatherers, 
 public messengers and miscellaneous trades, was the 
 control of the destinies of the city confined. To enter 
 public service, whether as a Councilman, a member of 
 the Legislature, or as an officer of a public department, 
 was to first give satisfactory proof of allegiance to these 
 men, to their claims and methods with no reference what- 
 ever to personal scruples or to convictions of personal 
 duty. The ease with which these combined spoilsmen 
 made and unmade public officers could find no com- 
 parison that would better illustrate their power than to 
 say that the process was performed with the facility 
 of a simple wave of the hand. Under their rule, 
 although elections still went on with their accustomed 
 regularity, and it was pleasant to believe that 
 therein the supreme right of citizenship still had 
 force, every material outcome of such elections was 
 in the interest of the self-constituted dictators and 
 against the interests of the people. To the cause of 
 the former, Mayor Stokley with his twelve hundred 
 police officers was a powerful auxiliary. A Republican 
 himself, he enjoyed a thorough understanding with 
 James McManes who, with his associates carried on his 
 practice of spoils-gathering through his professed de- 
 votion to the principles of that party. Yet with the 
 people Mayor Stokley possessed some popularity. Before 
 his elevation to the office of Mayor he had in the City 
 Councils displayed considerable ability, championing the 
 interests of the people in some things which required no
 
 6 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 little courage and foresight. As Mayor of the city, how- 
 ever, there was one practice which aroused much public 
 discontent. The use he made of the police in elections, 
 met with almost universal condemnation. It was one 
 of the most potent agencies depended upon by James 
 McManes and his political co-partners to secure their 
 triumphs at the polls. That neither regard for the rights 
 of men nor for existing laws were allowed to stand in the 
 way of these political schemers where the object sought 
 was the control of public affairs, the case of William 
 Conway well illustrates. He was a resident of the Fiftli 
 Ward, by occupation a merchant, in politics a Democrat, 
 but so free from partisanship and self-interest in his ad- 
 vocacy of public measures, particularly in the matter of 
 public education, that he was greatly respected alike by 
 Republican and Democrat. In the canvass preceding 
 the Municipal election of February 1880, Mr. Conway, 
 yielding to the solicitations of citizens of both parties, 
 became the Taxpayer's Candidate for a seat in Common 
 Council. Opposed to him was the candidate of the 
 McManes clique, John Carpenter by name, a man of 
 untried character, with no claim on the favor or tho 
 consideration of the people. On the day of election Can- 
 didate Conway going to one of the precinct polling 
 places saw, under the eyes of the police, a professional 
 repeater in the act of casting fraudulent votes. Turning 
 to the officers he requested them to take the offender in 
 charge. What was his surprise to find himself roughly 
 seized and, amid a flourish of hostile maces and a clamor 
 of threatening tongues, hustled into the street and com- 
 manded to take himself away under pain of arrest and 
 imprisonment. Smarting under the indignity, he repairs
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 7 
 
 to headquarters and reports the affair to Mayor Stokley, 
 the gray hairs of sixty-odd years being a successful 
 passport through the gauntlet of politicians — for it is a 
 great day at the Mayor's office — to the official presence. 
 
 Upon the Mayor's ears the story falls lightly ; is even 
 received offensively. "Would not your party do the 
 same thing if they had the power?" he asks with 
 elevated brows. Strange words to the ears of one who 
 has come as a citizen to claim the protection of his Chief 
 Magistrate. Amazed is Candidate Conway. Is this the 
 Mayor of Philadelphia who is speaking and shall he, a 
 citizen of Philadelphia, standing within shadow of the 
 towered Cradle of Liberty, upholding still that ancient 
 bell, whose voice, world-wide in its life-like thrill, 
 rang out in the hour of dead midnight, year 1782, 
 news of the young Nation's glory at Yorktown, and 
 whose tones yet reverberate through the generations, 
 appeal to him, not for discriminating favor, but for 
 simple justice only, to be slighted and affronted? Wil- 
 liam Conway turns away disenchanted. A word of 
 warning will he give as he departs. He reminds this 
 man of power that it is no light thing for him, the 
 head' of the Police Department, to justify such out- 
 rages ; that the patience of the people may become ex- 
 hausted. Furthermore does Candidate Conway, in mild 
 language, yet not less impressive, predict that the Mayor's 
 indifference to his plea in this instance shall cost him his 
 re-election. Which prediction he leaves the Mayor to 
 ponder over, there being yet plenty of time for such 
 mental occupation the Mayor's present term continuing 
 yet another year. 
 
 The result of this election in the Fifth Ward, in
 
 6 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 "William Conway's case, remains on the Court records, a 
 glaring instance of the high-handed methods employed 
 by infamous craft to thwart the people's will and defraud 
 men of their rights. Of the large vote cast — more than 
 twenty per cent, fraudulent, thanks to the Mayor's par- 
 tisan use of the police — John Carpenter was returned 
 elected by a majority of less than one hundred, and was 
 in due time sworn in as a member of Councils. William 
 Conway, however, disputed the legality of his election, 
 caused an investigation to be instituted under direction 
 of the court, and after a contest protracted for nearly 
 eighteen months, established his right to the seat, prov- 
 ing, by the testimony of voters themselves, the casting of 
 a large number of votes in his favor which, through a 
 conspiracy between certain of the precinct election offi- 
 cers and tools of McManesism were not credited to him 
 in the returns. To say that the political corporation, 
 with all its power, was defeated for once — although with 
 reservation, considering that during half the council- 
 manic term the seat of the rightful occupant was re- 
 tained by a political adventurer — is to acknowledge the 
 important service rendered to the cause of good govern- 
 ment by William Conway, who made his battle against 
 intolerable presumption and despotism, not for his own 
 particularly but for all men's rights. To those who would 
 inform themselves of the condition of the city with 
 reference to its political affairs at this time the printed 
 record of the testimony in the case of Conway versus 
 Carpenter, with its several thousand folio pages, is in 
 itself a vivid history. If conspiracies within con- 
 spiracies, and plots and schemes, having for their sole 
 object the defeat of the people's choice in elections)
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 ever had place among the political marplots of a com- 
 munity, they had there, where wrong-doir.g ran without 
 license and criminal disregard of law and everything 
 else calculated to act as checks upon lawlessness were 
 conspicuous in the acts of those representing the political 
 group familiarly calling itself " the party." 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE CRY OF DEMAGOGUEa. 
 
 But to this partisan use of the police, — that it must 
 either come to an end, or be kept up until the pleasant 
 fiction of " people's rights" at the polls shall cease to be 
 a pleasant fiction, and become rather an unpleasant one, 
 must be lo all persons obvious. Friend Stokley can do 
 nothing to abate the trouble, lest his good friend Mc- 
 Manes shall put an end to his official life and as the 
 Mayor is looking forward to a fourth term, it is not the 
 time to put friend McManes in a bad humor. But the 
 people meantime suffer. This they are likely to do for 
 some time to come, since the Mayor has yet another year 
 in office, and to keep in favor with the political autocrats, 
 it will be necessary for the police to keep up the business 
 of beating, kicking, cuffing, dragging and maltreating 
 citizens, especially if they raise their voice, above a 
 whisper on election day against wrong-doing and cor- 
 ruption. 
 
 The boldness with which the police perform this busi- 
 ness, is surprising ; even astonishing beyond belief. If
 
 10 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 William Conway's gray liairs and seventy-odd years were 
 not protection enough for him, what chance does the 
 voter stand whose hair is not yet gray and whose years 
 are under seventy ? If the punishment is increased by 
 inverse ratio must not the glossy raven locks of thirty- 
 five stand a chance of being killed outright? So much 
 more then will be the inducement for men to vote the 
 ticket of the city's political rulers, and learn to control 
 their tongues. 
 
 But, stop I there is still another mode of escape; why 
 need a man expose himself to the clutches of the police? 
 Why need he go to the polls at all? To be abused and 
 treated like a ruffian, haled along the street like a com- 
 mon thief caught in the act of picking a pocket is not 
 pleasant for peaceably disposed men who pride themselves 
 on their character and their exemption from police and 
 lock-up experiences. To be assaulted by policemen for 
 committing the crime of putting into the ballot-box a 
 ticket not favorable to the interests of their bosses is bad 
 enough ; to be unable to get any redress is worse. Best 
 stay away from tho polls ; the police will not take the 
 trouble to hunt a man up and abuse him for simply think- 
 ing against the cause of their bosses. 
 
 Thus reasoning, many persons who love peace and 
 quiet as things more profitable than noise and fighting 
 j-eason themselves out of the notion of going to the 
 polls ; which fact causes McManesism to grin and rub 
 its chin significantly. Clearly the policy of intimidation 
 pays. Our foes surrender without striking a blow; 
 and the glory of the victory shall belong to the swollen- 
 eyed criminal and brawler who guards the polls, the 
 fruits of the victory to the party managers. Of which
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 11 
 
 fact let the reader take note. This man with the 
 scarified countenance, the swollen face and bleared eyes, 
 who swaggers and jostles the voter who votes not his 
 ticket, is, for the time being, an important personage. 
 Last night he slept in a place of circumscribed dimen- 
 sions; his supper reaching him not even on the most 
 ordinary crockery, but on tin, through a narrow aperture 
 to the tune of a gruff-voiced turnkey. To-day he struts 
 defiantly before the eyes of Respectability, and questions 
 its right to vote save in the way he wishes. To-night 
 he shall receive his reward which shall be proportioned 
 to the degree of violence and rascality he has practiced 
 during the day, the more effectively the exercise of his 
 criminal propensities on such occasion the more val- 
 uable his peculiar services. Moreover shall the 
 easily acquired wealth of politicians serve to screen 
 him from constables's warrants and the law's con- 
 sequences. Such able adjunct do we see rendering 
 aid to a partisan police, the combined efforts of both 
 against men^s civil rights being calculated to render 
 such things as law and order in elections somewhat 
 unpopular. 
 
 Yet after all there is something about the position of 
 the police that is pitiful. They would gladly do their 
 duty, no doubt, which is not to meddle with elections, but 
 to clap wrongdoers into dungeons and combat with mace 
 and bludgeon the effervescence of whisky, if their politi- 
 cal taskmasters would permit them. But they have their 
 orders, and the hungry mouths of wives and little ones 
 demand that they shall obey. Look I hear the statement 
 of one of many of their number, who, being discharged 
 with his fellows for not taking part in politics, a little
 
 12 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 over a year later — when Mayor Stokley was running 
 again for that fourth term and had arrayed against him 
 the newly organized but formidable Committee of One 
 Hundred, and needed all the help he could get, and more, 
 too, as the result proved — held a "discharged police- 
 men's" meeting up in old Kensington and invited news- 
 paper men to attend and report their speeches — wherein 
 they stood upon an equality with King McManes — of 
 which The Times next morning, date January 15th, 1881, 
 gave this account : 
 
 " One of the organizers of the affair, when questioned 
 about the object of the movement, said it was political, 
 but neither in the interest of Keim,* nor any other man 
 in particular, but for anybody to beat Stokley, and that it 
 had attained formidable proportions all over town. To 
 give an idea of it, he said, there have been over 3,500 
 men discharged for one cause or another since Mayor 
 Stokley first went into oiEce, the vast majority of whom 
 went off for trying to keep a little political independence. 
 When Stokley ran the last time against Caven, we were 
 assessed $25 apiece and thought that was all, but it 
 wasn't very long before we were compelled to pay $10 
 more. That was $35 altogether." 
 
 Mulcted out of thirty-five dollars pay to help elect the 
 Mayor again, in addition to being robbed of their politi- 
 cal independence I Well, William Conway might for- 
 give and forget so far as the police are concerned, if he 
 knew all and saw things in their right light. But who 
 is to rescue the police from this cruel species of thrall- 
 dom in which they are held ? It is unlikely that a ray 
 
 * A Republican opponent who, however, failed to get tho noiamation 
 and ultimately withdrew from tha contest.
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 13 
 
 of magnanimity will fall upon Mr, McManes and prompt 
 him to be easy with Mayor Stokley and allow that offi- 
 cial also to be magnanimous. It is still less likely that 
 Mayor Stokley will take things into his own hands, and 
 be magnanimous of his own accord. From the people 
 the only help can come. And will it come? Wait I 
 
 A sadder sight than that even is pictured by Mr. John 
 Field, Chairman of the Committee of One Hundred's 
 Campaign Committee, as he tells his committee in meet- 
 ing, nine months later, how the employes of the Gas 
 Trust out at Fairmount were roused from their beds by 
 heartless bosses, early in the morning of election day, in 
 November '81, and driven like sheep to the polls and 
 commanded to cast ballot-s which were put into their 
 hands. And ]\Ir. Field, as he tells about it, warms up 
 and with wonderful eloquence, spontaneous from hia 
 earnest nature, saya in words not to be forgotten by any 
 one who heard him, that his heart bled for those men 
 and that being enlisted in the cause of reform, he will 
 work night and day, sacrifice his rest, his time, hia 
 money, if need be, until they are emancipated from a 
 political thralldom worse than slavery. 
 
 Meantime, in other quarters there is mischief. The 
 city's debt is more than seventy million dollars and has 
 been increasing at an alarming rate. Hordes of men are 
 employed in the various departments who are unneces- 
 sary, being useful only as a sort of hot-house product 
 which will ripen and be ready to be served up about 
 election time when votes are needed. In the Gas De- 
 partment, where Chief McManes in an official position 
 by virtue of the discerning powers of an accommodating 
 and obliging city Councils, can more particularly see to
 
 14 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 the quality of the voting stock, there is a mighty army 
 ol employes, the exact number of which is not known, 
 because Mr. McManes keeps under lock and key his pay 
 rolls, and Councils, which is the only power that can 
 rightfully command him to produce them, does not do so 
 for the reason that he has kindly taken it into his hands 
 to elect his own Councils, and has succeeded so well that 
 they never ask him troublesome questions. 
 
 This swarming of human voting stock in the public 
 departments, equal in magnitude and disaster almost to 
 the swarms of locusts that plagued the life of Pharaoh, is 
 a fearful disturber of the public exchequer, causing it to 
 collapse and look thin and thinner. More than this, it 
 is a tax upon the morals of the community, and especially 
 is it bad for that sentiment which hangs about the sancti- 
 ty of the ballot. If these legions of public pensioners 
 do their duty, as they have been bidden, they will long 
 before election day have planned systematic ways of 
 repeating, stuffing the ballot-box, changing the returns, 
 personating voters, preventing voters from casting their 
 ballots, and doing many other things which seem strange 
 in a place where the ballot is supposed to be free and 
 pure. They will have arranged methodically, with the 
 aid of skilled and experienced heads above them, to 
 defeat the people's will, to throw out thousands of genu- 
 ine votes and put in their place tens of thousands of 
 spurious ones. They will execute their plans as formed, 
 and all the effects of continued corruption, extravagance 
 and greed, which are piling so high the city's debt, will 
 continue. 
 
 But there is a law against violating the purity of the 
 ballot ! How strange that in this statement there should
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 15 
 
 lie the least cause for fear. As for the law, the political 
 rulers have taken care that the road to its execution in 
 such cases shall be well blocked. They have not done 
 their work slipshod. As for lawyers, let their underlings 
 be arrested for repeating, or for any other grade of elec- 
 tion crime, there will be no lack of able counsel to take 
 charge of their case. The funds come from, — well, no 
 matter where. If the worst comes to the worst, and it is 
 healthy for some one or more of the accused persons to 
 flee the city and State, his expenses will be paid, and he 
 will be provided with a place elsewhere. It is all done 
 " for the good of the party." 
 
 Poor party I If ever word was misused and abused 
 that one is, being contracted on special and particular 
 occasions to the dimensions of half a dozen crafty and 
 ambitious politicians who, through the brains and fiery 
 rhetoric of hireling advocates, make more noise on the 
 score of that meek, overburdened term than could be 
 stirred up by the whole world together, in the face of the 
 threatened destruction by some awful human mischance 
 of this terrestial planet.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 FLASHES OF REFORM THROUGH DARKNESS. 
 
 In the City Councils these days there is room for culti- 
 vating a feeling of respect for old-fashioned maxims on 
 the excellence of honesty. New things have come into 
 vogue with wonderful spontaneity, and the conduct of 
 public affairs is tinctured with a spirit of loudness which 
 is not in accordance with the ideas of a strict and me- 
 thodical application of ofBcial faculties to the concerns 
 of public business. Yet the loudness is only with respect 
 to immaterial, or surface things ; beyond official manner- 
 isms, in the recesses of official transactions nothing can 
 be more suppressed, nothing more quiet even to the point 
 of being suspiciously quiet. Officialism at its desk is 
 different from officialism in boon companionship on the 
 street or in the club-room. In the latter respects it is in 
 its most conciliatory and generous disposition and dis- 
 plays qualities of exuberance and effervescence which 
 uncharitable critics would call gush, and furthermore ex- 
 hibits a tendency for drawing out with considerable 
 flourish and parade, rolls of greenbacks from every 
 pocket, as if hastily thrust in at random and expending 
 them with promiscuous liberality suggestive of the ease 
 with which they were obtained. Yet the dash and eclat 
 of such festive occasions wholly disappears when seated 
 at its desk with endless streams of public tribute-bearers 
 thronging its apartments, on which occasion nothing but 
 non-committal sternness will serve as a substitute for 
 
 16
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 17 
 
 Strict rectitude and spotless integrity, and to ward off 
 curious questions and prying insinuations. Likewise has 
 officialism a fondness for shining silk hats and heavy 
 jewelry whereby those of its guild may be distinguished 
 apart from other citizens anywhere save as regards one 
 particular class known as gamblers who not infrequently 
 are confounded with them, not any more by reason of 
 similarity of personal appearance than by reason of a 
 certain resemblance as to loudness in the display of 
 money and a recklessness in spending it. 
 
 Yet of the many evidences of heavy incomes in lucre 
 -which a life in politics seems to yield, this is but one and 
 among the least. Others are seen in various forms, and 
 in larger ways. They are seen in the driving by our 
 dashing politician of fast horses, accompanied by trap- 
 pings that would do honor to the establishment of an 
 Oriental prince; in the sudden change of circumstances 
 from a life in a dingy tenement in an alley to brown 
 stone or marble mansions on Spring Garden street or 
 Green street, or some other equally pleasant thorough- 
 fare, and in the rapid elevation of the subject from his 
 former unknown position in society to the dignity of 
 partner in a large and flourishing business establishment, 
 or stockholder in or president of some large corporation. 
 The rapidity with which the change in his worldly con- 
 dition takes place is among not the least of the things 
 which make men marvel. A period of six or seven years as 
 Receiver of Taxes or City Treasurer, it has been demon- 
 Btrated, is sufficient to elevate a man from a condition of 
 poverty in an humble dwelling owned by somebody else, 
 to a state of affluence on a fashionable street in an im- 
 posing establishment owned by himself.
 
 18 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 To all of this public interest opens its eyes wide with 
 wonder. Sometimes becoming very suspicious and being 
 possessed of the idea that large embezzlements of public 
 funds have taken place, it gets together through a few of 
 its representatives and forms an association which asso- 
 ciation goes to work investigating and does unearth some 
 enormous frauds which in itself is one thing and to con- 
 vict the parties guilty of the offense another ; for the 
 statute of limitations too often conveniently steps in and 
 saves the culprit, or if it serves not as a protector there is 
 generally another safe reliance in a system of falsifying 
 accounts and mixing up figures to such an extent that 
 no investigating committee or investigating expert can 
 ever hope to reach the truth, and public interest losing 
 patience in the matter drops it summarily, leaving the 
 plunderer to enjoy his ill-gotten gains unmolested. 
 
 But sometimes these investigations have another effect. 
 If plundering oflScials cannot be brought to justice their 
 profligacy may be checked and the treasury protected 
 from their wholesale raids. Such work did the Citizens' 
 Reform Association accomplish, with Henry C. Lea as its 
 President, in the matter of a public work, known as the 
 Hart Creek sewer contract, executed under the super- 
 vision of the Department of the City Engineer, on which 
 occasion citizen Henry B. Tatham, of that association, 
 was detailed to ascertain by the aid of experts the actual 
 cost of performing the work and executed his mission so 
 well that more than twenty thousand dollars of the city 
 funds were saved in a single instance which act stands 
 among the rare and notable accomplishments of the early 
 efforts of citizens to secure reform.* 
 
 * See Appendix.
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 19 
 
 Meantime while Officialism and its extensive family of 
 politicians revel in luxury the interests of the city are 
 languishing in the opposite extreme. The debt is rapid- 
 ly increasing ; large improvements are projected and be- 
 gun with money appropriated for the purpose by a pro- 
 fligate Councils, when there is not money enough left in 
 the treasury to pay for cleaning the streets which are in a 
 condition that scandalizes sober-minded citizens and ap- 
 pals strangers. And thus the city of Philadelphia, other- 
 wise the " City of Homes" and " clean Quaker City," 
 comes to be known all over the land under the new dis- 
 pensation, as the "City of Dirf'f which contrast in titles 
 bears a striking analogy to the change of standard in its 
 administrative heads during twenty years and illustrates 
 strikingly the extremes of the transition in that respect. 
 
 The City Councils upon which all official responsibility 
 for the evils which obtain in city affairs at this time is 
 placed, appear not to shirk the seemirgly unpleasant 
 burden, but rather to enjoy it as a capital joke. The ma- 
 terial of which the Councils are mainly composed is not 
 the sort of stuff" that permits responsibilities of any kind 
 to weigh heavy upon it ; being exceedingly indifferent to 
 public comment or public opinion, and naturally in- 
 diff*erent to any promptings of its own moral nature that 
 do not largely partake of the consideration of self. The 
 example of James McManes and his fellow dictators in 
 
 t Mr. John Walter, proprietor of the London Times, while making a 
 tour of the country in the latter part of the summer of 1831 visited Phila- 
 delphia, where he spent several days as the guest of Mr George W" 
 Childs, of the Public Ledger. Being pressed on one occasion for his 
 views upon Philadelphia he, after some hesitation, said in allusion to the 
 unfinished public buildings: " You are rearing here one of the grandest 
 structures in the world and its walls look down upon the dirtiest streets 
 that the sun ever shone upon."
 
 20 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 looking after self-interest finds here a large amount of 
 emulation, the competitors being exceedingly active and 
 promising. It is not, however, by any means a gratuit- 
 ous performance, but has motives and objects as tangible 
 and well defined as anything that appeals to the eye of 
 business, for which state of things Mr, McManes and hia 
 Gas Trust colleagues are in Bossism's carnivals frequent- 
 ly toasted as " skillful and successful party leaders" who 
 " know how to take care of their friends." 
 
 The Councils, which, like the national Congress, Or the 
 Legislatures of States, have also their upper and lower 
 house, are de jure in city aflairs supreme. But as there 
 can be no Councils without councilmen, and as council- 
 men are only men with common desires and common 
 weaknesses, the critic of councilmanic performances will 
 use some charity when he comes to record that during 
 these times the supremacy of Councils was somewhat of a 
 fiction so far as actual facts are concerned, its prerogative 
 being for most of the time either "farmed out" or "to let." 
 The landlord who at all times appeared to have the re- 
 fusal of the property was James McManes, though to say 
 that he enjoyed the distinction exclusively would be un- 
 just to his aids and lieutenants, each one of whom was 
 represented by " men" in the Select or Common cham- 
 ber, which men had a nice faculty of dancing readily 
 when their masters piped. 
 
 But there were circumstances under which discord 
 sometimes arose to disturb the otherwise soft music. An 
 inharmonious spirit will oftentimes break up the club. 
 Common Councils with its 83 members has three such 
 spirits, and Select Council with its 31 members has one. 
 Worse still, one of these three in the Common Chamber
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 21 
 
 occupies the position of President and is besides, with one 
 exception, the oldest member in continuous service in the 
 chamber. A household word in every home where there 
 is a taxpayer is the name of President Caven. Alone 
 has he stood, and almost single-handed has he fought, in 
 that chamber for the past seven years in the cause of 
 right, with only such encouragement as " Citizen's and 
 Taxpayer's Association," in his own Fifteenth Ward, 
 headed by veteran Eeform leader and advocate, Coun- 
 sellor George H. Earle, have been able in stirring ward 
 meetings and resolutions of confidence, to give; or as 
 similar associations in the Fifth "Ward, headed by 
 "William Conway — who^e politics, thongh opposite from 
 those of President Caven, rest upon the broad and phil- 
 anthropic base of " good men for public service," and 
 prompt him nightly to forego camforts of the fireside and 
 trudge to citizens' meetings there to help foment that 
 Blow developing public feeling against political Bossism 
 and spoils-seeking which is destined like the small cloud, 
 in the course of time to spread and overcast the entire 
 corrupt political sky — may by their earnest speeches and 
 enthusiastic endorsements afford ; or, as President Henry 
 O. Lea and his Citizen's Reform Association with such 
 earnest co-laborers as Henry B. Tatham, Charles 
 "Wheeler* and T. Morris Perot, are, through their artil- 
 lery volleys of innumerable civil service reform circulars 
 — which at times cover the streets and door steps like an 
 early fall of snow — able to yield. Such encourage- 
 ment from without, from the broad field of the people 
 comes in to President Caven in his lonely struggles. 
 But still, that most needful of all, a comrade-in-arms 
 to stand with him shoulder to shoulder in Councils 
 *See appendix.
 
 22 THB TALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 and help bear the shock of attack from the minions of 
 Bossism, whose masters, tireless and exacting, are bent up- 
 on getting out of them the worth of their money, is slow in 
 coming, for the people are not yet aroused, and election 
 results that contain a grain of substantial encouragement 
 are meagre. Yet, in time there is something ; two ster- 
 ling grains, as subsequent events prove, have been beaten 
 out in the fierce contest between the Citizens' Eeform 
 Association and Citizens' and Taxpayer's Associations 
 and political Bossism. From the suburban Twenty fourth 
 Ward, in green and fragrant Philadelphia-beyond-the- 
 Schuylkill comes plain John Hunter, fresh from the 
 spindles and woofs of his manufactories, to devote a 
 goodly portion of his time for three years, not to manu- 
 facturing but to the interests of city legislation without 
 pay. And from old William Conway's Ward, the Fifth, 
 a telling evidence of the labors of the " Citizens' and 
 Taxpayers' Association" comes S. Davis Page. Oh ! 
 William Conway and Citizens' and Taxpayers' Associa- 
 tion ! You know not what you have done in giving to 
 the service of the city of Philadelphia this man ! If any 
 one in the Citizens' and Taxpayers' Association has 
 pufTered indignity or humiliation or anything else from 
 vindictive and remorseless McManesism, let him rejoice 
 now for he has helped set a fearful Nemesis on its inso- 
 lent track. Forever while he remains in Common Coun- 
 cil is Davis Page destined to be a painful thorn in the 
 side of James McManes and of every political boss great 
 and small ; forever is he fated to be coming at them with 
 cool head and terse little resolution attempting to undo 
 this harmless looking ordinance or that harmless looking 
 resolution all of which in their aggregate effect are salient
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 23 
 
 roots in the boss system in whose destruction the citadel 
 of corrupt political domination falls. 
 
 Yet Davis is not unduly sanguine — he is not sanguine 
 at all, but cool and deliberate — and does not expect ac- 
 tual visible results from his numerous little resolutions, 
 striking so close to the heart of things ; he only puts 
 them forth " for what they are worth," well knowing that 
 with such overwhelming majority against him they will 
 suffer ignominious death. Yet is he not right? Is there 
 not an object gained in thus vindicating his convictions 
 and sending the cold shudders of " what may be" through 
 the vulnerable carcass of McManesism ? That he is succes- 
 sively defeated in all his radical measures matters not; 
 that he has struck fierce blows for the right is something 
 gained for his cause, something lost from the cause of 
 Bossism. The blows he has inflicted leave marks which, 
 unlike the spear-thrusts of fable, cannot by any magic 
 elixir be effaced but which may thereafter, like felon's 
 brands, prove troublesome and hard to explain away. 
 Already Davis' branding qualities have been felt and 
 among the subjects thereof the verdict is that they are 
 severe. Dreadful is it to some who before were among 
 the boldest in vindicating Bossism's rights and in showing 
 contempt for the public will, when Davis — who has a 
 taste for mathematics — gets up and with carefully written 
 manuscript in hand gives statistical examples of the 
 manner in which the city's treasure is melting away un- 
 der the reckless extravagance of department officials and 
 their political masters. On such occasions there is al- 
 ways a sensation ; Bossism's minions are on their feet 
 with flat contradictions and a conglomeration of in- 
 uendoes and sneers and unfavorable reflection. But 
 2
 
 4 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 the mathematician is not of the pedagogue sort, — who 
 is notoriously no man for repartee and sharp encounter, — 
 but having been dipped in a compound of gall and 
 vitriol in youth, is at home with scorn and sarcasm. 
 Scorn is met with scorn thrice ten times as severe, and in 
 the verbal melee that follows, poor tired President Caven 
 who has been fighting single handed for so many years 
 gets a chance to rest. This he may well do, for Davis 
 Page is so capable of taking care of himself that it is a 
 pleasure to see him stand battling alone. Cool as an 
 Arctic ice-berg, villification and denunciation fall like 
 harmless pellets upon his impassive face. The weak 
 points of his opponents which rage and excitement have 
 left bare, are scourged with sarcasm, sharp as polished 
 steel ; the abuse and detraction hurled at him with such 
 reckless defiance of grammar and parliamentary pro- 
 prieties react upon the shrinking assailant's head. The 
 combined forces of the majority of nearly seventy mem- 
 bers is no match for this mathematical assailant (which 
 seems to be an incongruity) fortified as he is by the con- 
 viction of right and having the aggressive vigor and 
 tenacity to strive for its vindication. 
 
 Meantime suburban John Hunter, whose manufactur- 
 ing interests must take care of themselves -much of the 
 time now, for the manufacturer is looking into the system 
 and methods of Dr, McFadden, Chief Engineer of the 
 Water Department, is, in his line, doing equally effective 
 work, while weary President Caven from his presiding 
 chair looks delightedly on, as one having in the two new 
 champions a paternal interest. But it is not by looks 
 alone that he shows his interest, for the long single 
 handed fight being now in a measure over, he darts from
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 25 
 
 the presiding chair frequently and goes to the rescue of 
 his two lieutenants, to whom his long experience in the 
 chamber, and his knowledge of the affairs of the city are 
 invaluable. Caven, Hunter and Page soon become linked 
 together in a combination that becomes as familiar to 
 "taxpayers and citizens," as was the name of Caven be- 
 fore. Before the eyes of the people they stand, making 
 their battle for people's rights and against public plun- 
 derers, — pursuing the business under the name of " party 
 leaders" — which designation is a glaring misnomer — for 
 months conspicuous. And results begin to appear in due 
 time, which gives another occasion for drawing a com- 
 parison apropos of the dripping water wearing away 
 rocks. 
 
 In the Select Council with its aggregation of represen- 
 tatives ; one from each of the thirty-one wards, although 
 no Davis Page flourishes there to cause a quaking of 
 knees and to add an impetus to the development of re- 
 partee, there is the counterpart of President Caven's ex- 
 perience before the acquisition of his two lieutenants, in 
 the spectacle of lonely Selectman King. Like Caven he 
 has been figliting single handed for years. Unlike Caven 
 he has been in Select Council continuously since 1860. 
 Yet would he not have been there more than one term, if a 
 little bright glimmer of reform sentiment up in the 
 Eleventh Ward had not been fanned by the breath of 
 public opinion into active life and burned brightly ever 
 since, receiving the additional brilliancy of a " Citizens 
 and Taxpayers'" organization, between which such a 
 feeling of independence of political domination has been 
 cultivated that James McManes cannot get a foothold 
 there and Samuel G. King can be, if he desires, continued 
 in Select Council perpetually.
 
 26 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 Yet destiny may have something in reserve for Select- 
 man King. His unswerving faithfulness to the people's 
 interests is proverbial. His high ideal of municipal 
 government constantly finds expression in his acts. His 
 keen knowledge of city affairs is unsurpassed and his 
 great usefulness as a city legislator has been demon- 
 strated so frequently that even his enemies in Councils 
 would feel it a loss to not have him there. An impressive 
 picture does he make among his thirty colleagues. The 
 visitor, when he enters the chamber, may see nothing 
 striking in the personal appearance of any one of thirty 
 members, but when the eye alights upon the well-shaped 
 head and the iron gray mustache of the rather small 
 man sitting over to the right, whose dark eyes incessant- 
 ly flash, whether in speech or in silent contemplation of 
 the rest of the chamber, the gaze will stop there and the 
 ideal of a dignified appearance will be realized. When 
 Selectman King rises to speak the chamber is hushed and 
 spectators and members alike give marked attention to 
 his words, because the style and manner of the man com- 
 mand it. 
 
 Not all the eloquence nor the high example of Mr. 
 King, however, can redeem his chamber from the blight 
 of political miasma which permeates the carcasses of two- 
 thirds of the members. Yet, like Davis Page he can 
 fight, though perhaps with less vitriol which, however, 
 is not a cause for regret among his colleagues ; especially 
 after they have stepped across the corridor and seen 
 Davis at work in the Common chamber. But he never- 
 theless does effective work. Like Davis Page he is a 
 Democrat, but this matters not. Caven and Hunter are 
 Republicans, yet they are working shoulder to shoulder
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 27 
 
 with Page, with a calm disregard of posssible eruptions 
 of nature which are commonly supposed to find their 
 provocation in the spectacle of such heinous political 
 oflenses. It begins to have its effect, too. The eight 
 hundred and forty odd thousand citizens of the "City of 
 Dirt" are awakening to the belief that there will soon be 
 at hand a time for some unusual action. Journalism 
 which has been industriously sounding public opinion 
 can bear testimony to the fact that people are growing 
 restless. The spark of dissatisfaction is kindling ; it may 
 yet become a flame 1 
 
 CHAPTER rV. 
 
 A BREAK IN BOSSISM'S WALL. 
 
 Men's minds are so taken up with the pursuit after 
 lucre that they see nothing else save with casual vision. 
 The wheels of government must go on ; this much they 
 see clearly. Taxes must be paid ; this much additional 
 they see, or if they do not, they are likely to have the 
 fact brought to their attention by accommodating func- 
 tionaries, whose official peculiarities are familiar. As 
 for other matters of public concern, all are more or less 
 vague. Only by chance, by accident, through frequency 
 ot recurring opportunities do they stumble upon things 
 which stir up suspicion, and there begin to be faint 
 murmurings, upon which men say, " the public is being 
 aroused." Not eager and quick of thought and action 
 is this public, but rather preoccupied and, as concerns 
 the performance of its political duties, sluggish. Other
 
 28 THE FALL OF B08SISM. 
 
 things, its family members have to think about, things 
 private and of individual concern. Politics for those 
 who love i^olitics; for themselves anything rather than 
 such. Out of which feeling grows "rings," and "bosses," 
 and political corruption. Politics the outcast, the ig- 
 nored, becomes politics the Tyrant, who makes ease-loving, 
 pleasure-seeking man tremble. Formidable does his 
 power for evil grow under the tutelage of those un- 
 watched and unchecked ones who, finding him ignored 
 and despised, take him up, house him, and develop him 
 as a business which assuredly shall become profitable. 
 Not in sympathy are those men, with the scofiers at poli- 
 tics ; nor in sympathy with them are the scoflfers. Irrec- 
 oncilable are the two elements, the one too high for the 
 true and practical objects of politics, the other too low. 
 Yet are the latter the fortunate ones, in being in reality 
 the rulers of the others under the cunning guise of ser- 
 vants ; which distinction our ease-loving ones discover in 
 time, much to their regret and pecuniary disadvantage, 
 whereupon ensues a struggle for the mastery, high ones 
 descending from their pedestal and learning something of 
 the ways of politics as an imperative necessity. Which 
 imperative necessity is just now being seriously felt in 
 Philadelphia ; there being among the 850,000 people 
 therein resident some thousands who are heavy tax payers 
 and some thousands more who are tax payers not heavy 
 yet not so favorably conditioned but they feel the lack of 
 every dollar which goes into the vaults of the Tax De- 
 partment and can illy afford to see taxation increased. 
 Yet, that it is increased, and that professional politicians 
 are growing rich, are unquestionable facts. In these 
 propositions lie cause for serious reflection, the tendency
 
 THE FALL Oi* EOSSISM. 29 
 
 to which among taxpayers large and small even now is 
 apparent. Thus does politics come to be a broader 
 question which has its place among the practical affairs 
 of man's life, and which claims a share of his attention. 
 With disinterested judgment does he see the effects of his 
 indifference and begin to count the cost. 
 
 So the whole subject is being pondered and reason- 
 ed over with salutary effect. Men are being aroused. 
 While political bosses have built high their walls, 
 and within do revel with their secrets for overcom- 
 ing the popular will in elections, and while there 
 arises the loud guffaw, mingled with the clinking 
 of brimming glasses in which the discomfiture of the 
 public is repeatedly pledged, the cries of that public 
 are heard on the outskirts like the distant baying of 
 hounds. Like hounds too, long baffled but now keenly 
 on the scent, they are coming nearer, and finally reach 
 the walls, where the baying does not cease, but only 
 grows louder and fiercer. Though the walls are high 
 they spring up and almost over. Nay ! at times they do 
 spring over and spread confusion among the spoilsmen 
 within, as in that case in which Bossism lost the City 
 Controllership, which was plucked in a moment of tem- 
 porary panic from its paralyzed grasp by the then young 
 man Pattison. The wall here broken down it can find 
 no immediate way of mending, which is bad, inasmuch 
 as it breaks the chain of power which it has hitherto had 
 girded around the City Departments. True, all other de- 
 partments remain ; it still has the Highway Department, 
 the Water Department — into which John Hunter is 
 pouring continually a stream of reform light much to the 
 discomfiture of the suave Dr. McFadden — the City Pro-
 
 30 
 
 THE FA 1.1. OF BOSSISM. 
 
 perty department, the City Treasurer's department, and 
 other and minor departments, the respective Heads of 
 which, having the unchangeable leopard-like spots of 
 "spoilsmen' covered with an artificial coating labeled 
 " Republican," can at least make the democratic Patti- 
 son experience a slight feeling of loneliness. Young is 
 the Controller in years, but in official integrity, in stern, 
 unswerving principle, a veteran. Soon indeed does Boss- 
 ism begin to discover the meaning of hia election. 
 Though new in official life, into which he has been in- 
 ducted while yet fresh in the sphere of law, his standard 
 of things, as people see and recognize, is high. His old- 
 fashioned notions as to his duties as an official, are hailed 
 with delight by reformers. The office of Controller, under 
 his administration, assumes a new importance ; an im- 
 portance not dreamed of apparently under the reign of 
 his predecessors who, drone-like, performed certain per- 
 functory duties with as much sense of responsibility as 
 would be displayed by a school-boy in the role of mimic 
 pedagogue ; which official lack however received a strik- 
 ing contrast in the alacrity with which they periodically 
 went through the formalities of drawing a salary of ten 
 thousand dollars a year. 
 
 In the new light in which Mr. Pattison interprets the 
 duties of the Controller, the office is transformed from 
 that state of " happy nations," which proverbially have 
 no history, into a state of vigorous activity and eventful- 
 ness. The office which heretofore scarcely had place in 
 the thoughts of the people — save when, through laxity 
 of its administration, fraudulent bills would be approved 
 by the bushel and the city treasury emptied thereby — 
 giving it a sudden and unenviable prominence which
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 31 
 
 would be accepted as a matter of course, — now became 
 the chief bulwark of the reform structure which citizens 
 were slowly but surely erecting. Men saw in the Con- 
 troller an eflfective instrument for detecting fraud, check- 
 ing extravagance, and for framing in councils measures 
 of prevention in the future. With President Caven, John 
 Hunter, Davis Page, and Selectman King, in the city's 
 legislative body, Controller Pattison earnestly co-operated 
 and between them they became formidable as opponents 
 of the cause of McManesism in every form and where- 
 ever found. As a result. Controller Pattison and hia 
 associates soon began to receive that praise universally 
 accorded to men of aggressive honesty in public life — 
 abuse from the dishonest and criminal classes of society, 
 and the vindictive assaults of their dependent " news- 
 paper " organs. Public contractors, who had grown 
 rapidly rich from their frauds upon the city government ; 
 Department-heads, who had conspired with and shared 
 the spoils of those contractors ; employes and underlings 
 of every description, whose easily-earned salaries de- 
 pended upon the maintenance of the old order of things, 
 and, above all, political bosses who drew directly and 
 indirectly, tribute from the entire lot of lesser spoilsmen, 
 made Controller Pattison the especial object of their dis- 
 praise. His hand it was that stopped their eager and 
 indiscriminate reaching for the contents of the treasury ; 
 his eye that detected the fraud that began to send some 
 to prison, and others into the less unpleasant obscurity 
 reserved for fugitives from justice. Department-heads, 
 more politic than contractors and their hirelings, ex- 
 pended the energy of their antagonism rather in the 
 direction of complaints than of vilificationo Pattison
 
 32 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 was violating the law ; Pattison was interfering with the 
 course of public business, and Pattison was " clogging 
 the wheels" of city government. Thus does the oiEce- 
 holding element fume and chafe under such re 
 straint perpetually. Contractors more out-spoken, 
 and having less oflflcial responsibility, denounce the 
 Cerberus of the treasury with his lynx eye as an up- 
 start, a sham reformer, and a humbug. The little organs 
 whose life-blood, so sparse of that bracing quality which 
 attends a healthy organism, ceases to flow the moment 
 they cease piping the tunes of the bosses, are nothing 
 these days but vehicles of vituperative terms, and suggest 
 the assiduity with which their conductors must apply 
 themselves of nights to the study of opprobrious charac- 
 terizations. 
 
 It does not appear, however, with all this, that Con- 
 troller Pattison stays his hand when those hungry digits 
 are thrust with such unanimity toward the city's money 
 vaults ; on the contrary, the owners thereof are driven 
 back to the outer gates where they stand in a solid pha- 
 lanx with hands raised high overhead, shaking therein 
 amid confusion and a clamor of tongues, a vast number 
 of unapproved^bills, which in their nervous fluttering in 
 the air, might easily be'mistaken at a distance for a great 
 flock of rapacious birds, holding council over some in- 
 tended object of prey. 
 
 If the methods of Pattison are bad for Department 
 heads and contractors and their retainers, they are worse 
 for the political Generals in the citadel of bossism, the 
 corner-stone of which structure is the Gas Trust. Upon 
 the cupidity of the first class of spoilsmen the latter 
 have built their power, and if they fall, all falls. As th«
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 83 
 
 Generals have been engaged in the business of spoils- 
 gathering for a longer period of time than those in the 
 ranks, they have necessarily amassed more and have 
 more to lose in the event of the triumph of reform- 
 Their houses, their investments of various kinds, stand as 
 monuments to their fame as skilled and successful poli- 
 ticians, and as examples for the youth of the city con- 
 templating a political career to emulate. The practical 
 effects of the operation of their genius for economy on 
 the one hand, and for acquisitiveness on the other, are a 
 revelation to struggling, fortune-seeking humanity. What 
 could be more original and advantageous than a device 
 whereby men of no previous means in the way of lucre? 
 may become suddenly possessed of large amounts of 
 taxable property, and then may happily escape the usual 
 consequences of such acquisition by being exempted from 
 the payment of taxes?* The records of the tax office, 
 which show that the political Generals who furnish the 
 material for governing the city and executing its laws» 
 have not for many years paid taxes, are strong illustra- 
 tions of the extent to which the virtue of frugality may 
 
 * Theodore F. Hanel, an ex-clerk in the tax ofHc6 under Receiver 
 Thomas J. Smith, stated during an Investigation of the charges of mis- 
 management and fraud under Receiver Smith's administration, by a 
 committee of Select and Common Councils— consisting of Walter E. 
 Rex, John Woodbridge Patton, George R. Snowden, Henry Claj', Wil- 
 liam B. Irvine, and Frederick Halterman— beginning in.l881 and con- 
 tinuing through 1S82— that it was the Receiver's custom to exempt many 
 of his political friends from tha payment of taxes, and in other cases to 
 remit penalties imposed by law upon all taxes which are not paid up to 
 a certain date. If, on the other hand, a poor woman entered, having a 
 little property in some humble quarter of the city, and having been 
 unable until the arrival of the time for adding the penalty, to raise the 
 money to pay her taxes, her appeal for a remission of the penalty would 
 be in vain, and if she could not pay the amount demanded, her property 
 in due time would be sold by the sberitT to satisfy the tax claim.
 
 34 THE FALLr OF BOSSISM. 
 
 be carried. But this result is obtained more through 
 their foresight in having elected to the office of Receiver 
 of Taxes persons of their own class and guild, than 
 through any merit in the current methods of economy. 
 
 But meantime there will be an end to this, agreeable 
 state of things if the Generals do not weed out ol the 
 political garden-patch these noxious reformers, Pattison, 
 Caven, Page, Hunter, and King. That they are of dif 
 ferent political parties is bad, and means trouble for 
 Bossism which is deprived of all opportunity of engender- 
 ing party feeling and thus weakening in people's minds* 
 the effect of their work on behalf of the public. With 
 no party prejudice to blind men and no party strife to 
 make them forget real issues, there is danger for political 
 spoilsmen, who flourish best when partisan bitterness runs 
 high, and when crimination and recrimination among 
 party followers drown the quiet voice of truth and rea- 
 son. Best call up the political trumpeters and the politi- 
 cal clackers, and set the vast clamorous army of Bossism's 
 pride and strength in motion, and perhaps men's eyes 
 may be drawn away from those damaging facts in con- 
 nection with Bossism's stewardship, and men's minda 
 made to underrate the importance of the disclosures 
 which the investigations by Pattison and his council- 
 manic friends are bringing about. Poor clackers and 
 trumpeters ! Upon their shoulders rests a heavy task. 
 They must blind men's eyes to plain facts, to unanswer- 
 able arguments, and simply by a hurly-burly sort of pro- 
 cess, by tumbling them and shaking them about, get 
 them far enough away from the evidences of Bossism's 
 cupidity to make them think next election time there is 
 nothing wrong, and that the sua will cease to shine if
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 35 
 
 the-clackers and trumpeters' masters are not re-electefl. 
 "Fealty "to the party, "treachery" to the party, "in- 
 gratitude to the party, " traditions " of the party, and a 
 score of other terms are the chief staples in the line of 
 argument which the clackers and trumpeters glibly ring 
 the changes on, and which are expected to reason men 
 into a belief of the error of their convictions. 
 
 Meanwhile events are moving, and party bosses and 
 " people's " champions are pulling in their separate ways 
 with fierce vigor. Between the two there is no middle 
 ground upon which both may stand. At extremes they 
 must be from the very nature of things, or rather at 
 swords' points. One is making its struggle that many 
 may live and thrive, the other struggles that a few may 
 live and thrive. One sweeps with comprehensive vision 
 the dome of nature's sky, and wishes well of all under- 
 neath, while the other with cunning, avaricious sparkle 
 in its short-sighted look, sees nothing but its own imme- 
 diate personal surroundings, its own aggrandizement, and 
 self-interest, to promote which it has labored to beat into 
 men's pates the doctrine of " fealty to party," as the car- 
 dinal doctrine of their existence. Safe are party bosses 
 and with impunity may people's rights be abused, as 
 long as they manage to have " party lines " held su- 
 perior to man's sense or right and justice. Wedded to 
 party-prejudice men must become conscience-callous to 
 the evils of their political organization, or they must 
 divorce themselves therefrom, the last of which alterna- 
 tive requires courage. " What has conscience to do with 
 politics?" demands the politician; "is not the good of 
 the party superior to all other considerations ? " Let 
 the man of conviction attempt to reason with him ; all
 
 36 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 his arguments will be rank heresy, his mildest remon- 
 strances high treason, and himself a traitor of the basest 
 degree, save only that culminating point of degradation 
 reserved for him when he abandons the party. 
 
 Caven and Hunter, Eepublicans ; King and Page and 
 Pattison, Democrats I — all waging war against a republi- 
 can administration in general, and republican and demo- 
 cratic corruption in particular. To bosses in both parties 
 these heretical disturbers of the old order of things are 
 most obnoxious. If such disrespect to party prejudice 
 and party traditions extends in its practice to the people 
 at large, what may not happen ? All the safeguards of 
 political Bossism and Dictatorship will be as rotten 
 sticks. If only men were less intelligent, if only news- 
 papers would talk less and not be so independent, the 
 prospect for Bossism would look more hopeful. As it 
 now is, it is most aggravating. The aggressive Pattison 
 and his fellow champions can make no discoveries these 
 days prejudicial to Bossism, that are not within a few 
 hours thereafter proclaimed to the people with all the 
 attendant details in the news columns of the scandalous 
 daily papers. The bosses of both political parties these 
 times — who are held together by the spirit of the magic 
 word " spoils," however their political followers may be 
 kept at variance — have not command of language suffi- 
 cient, as they meet in secret back rooms to parcel out 
 and divide their spoils, to denounce the press and their 
 conductors, whose lives, if threats were swords, would 
 long ago have been forfeited. Well may they feel in- 
 censed against the press, for what has it not done ? It has> 
 day after day, for three hundred and sixty-five times in 
 a year, kept on exposing their methods, and encouraging
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 37 
 
 in their work of reform Caven, Hunter, Pattison, and 
 their associates, and it has furthermore continued in con- 
 nection with these performances to give advice to the 
 people, who, in consequence, are becoming sharper-eyed, 
 are beginning to distrust their leaders, and are beginning 
 to speak slightingly of "party fealty," intimating that 
 the party Dictators, who meet together so often in secret 
 with congenial spirits of the same sort in the opposite 
 party, are, after all, hardly perfect examples of the faith- 
 ful observance of the doctrine which they preach. How 
 often have Kepublican bosses been detected in the act of 
 "selling out" to Democratic bosses when it was known 
 that the candidates of the latter party would be more 
 subservient to the uses of the bosses of both parties? 
 Has the reader ever heard of the Pilgrim Club? If not, 
 let him go back to the files of The Times of 1875-6, and 
 read there of the practices of mutually interested bosses, 
 Eepublican and Democrat, who were accustomed to meet 
 together in fraternal council and arrange their plans 
 whereby each was to do his part in the election, in the 
 interest of certain of the candidates of the other, in return 
 for which they would all have a share in the profits of 
 the respective offices ; which state of things being ex- 
 posed in The Times columns by Colonel McClure, had 
 the effect of speedily breaking up the " pilgrims," who 
 giving a practical meaning to their title, became pilgrims 
 in fact, selling out their household effects at public auc- 
 tion, and taking a sudden departure from their club- 
 rooms, which thereafter knew them no more.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE WORK OP AMATEURS. 
 
 Patience McManesism 1 patience Bossism I This Patti- 
 5on has been a lion in the pathway of your practices; a 
 sore and perplexing annoyance which nothing but votes 
 can remove, — or rather nothing but skillful manipulation 
 of the voting prerogative since votes themselves are not 
 in question with you in the usual sense of popular ma- 
 jorities. The opportunity for such use of the prerogative 
 will come ; is coming rapidly as you well know. Before 
 the sober days of November are half gone it will be here. 
 Then, in the din and turmoil of an election for a presi- 
 dent of the nation, there will also be an election that will 
 more immediately interest you ; an election for a Controller 
 to succeed the obnoxious Pattison. Difficult may it be for 
 you to place in that office a man to your liking, especially 
 if Pattison is called upon by the people to stand again i 
 but you have almost unlimited resources and you will 
 tax them all to the utmost in very desperation to win 
 success. Now will the urbane Dr. McFadden with his 
 Water Department retainers, and the bland head of the 
 Highway Department, find use for their voting stock 
 which in pestiferous swarms will be found, even long be- 
 fore the arrival of the day of this election, in wards and 
 divisions, near and remote, in back rooms of taverns and 
 club houses " fixing up things." For, nothing is done 
 without system and arrangement ; only by close attention 
 to details, to the screws and rivets of the political ma- 
 chine, have you built up your power and influence, and 
 having so built it, there is all the more need for you not 
 (38)
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 39 
 
 to let your hands forget their cunning. Public con- 
 tractors, too, and their hosts of dependents, all savage 
 and bloodthirsty against Pattison, will need less urging 
 this time than ever before, for their own special griev- 
 ances of having their bills shorn more or less as matter 
 fraudulent and excessive, will be stimulus enough. 
 
 If voters' eyes could but look behind the scenes and 
 see the operation of the system that makes candidates, 
 and discern therein the barter-and-sale aspect of the 
 business, the interestedness of vast hordes of men who 
 somehow, in a topsy-turvy way " make a living out of 
 politics" without possessing in mind or character the 
 qualifications necessary for any legitimate return for their 
 political maintainance, there might be less indiscriminate 
 voting and more inquiry into the suitability of candidates 
 for public ofiice. 
 
 Meantime in tippling-houses and numerous convenient 
 resorts, familiar to Bossism in its ramifications through- 
 out the city, with its thirty-one wards and seven hundred 
 odd divisions, or jormncfe, Bossism's emissaries from the 
 various city departments swarm and are busy. This man 
 must go into convention, that man must be kept out. 
 This voter must be looked after, that voter must be sup. 
 pressed, or his plain talk may do harm. A sinecure po- 
 sition in the Gas Department, in the Water Department, 
 or in some other department, will stop his tongue ; it al- 
 ways does stop men's tongues, no matter how virulent they 
 may have been against Bossism beforehand. And after 
 a brief lapse of time they will be found so far convinced 
 that Bossism is right that they will be taking a hand in 
 ward politics themselves in its interest, and not unlikely 
 will be found presiding over a packed ward convention,
 
 40 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 with the result all settled beforehand, and with only a 
 slight requisite in the way of pluck and audacity to offi- 
 ciate as principal conductor of the farce which printed an- 
 nouncements dignify by the name of " nominating con- 
 ventions." But farces, if presented too often, become 
 tiresome even to the most patient of audiences, and if 
 people can get nothing better they are apt to stay away 
 from the Thespian shop and perhaps inaugurate some- 
 thing in the line of the " legitimate drama" themselves. 
 Happily there is no law against such independent de- 
 parture and the " legitimate" may go ahead and do its 
 best with the assurance that amateurs are sometimes 
 more powerful than professionals in shaping out of un- 
 favorable circumstances favorable results. For, after all 
 it is a question not so much of what people think, as it is 
 of what they can be made to think that has force in the 
 game of politics. Habit is so often allowed to serve as a 
 false leader, so often allowed to play false to men's 
 thoughts that the masses of mankind are content to drift, 
 taking but a casual glance at things around them with 
 no suspicion that '•' things are not what they seem," so 
 long as they keep moving with the current. Uncertain, 
 irresolute, they float on until some one more courageous, 
 and self-sacrificing than themselves shall arise and give 
 definiteness to their formless purposes; being at the 
 mercy meantime in the domain of politics, of craft and 
 intrigue, which notoriously prosper when men's ideas are 
 undisturbed by enlightening discussion and controversy. 
 Yet, inasmuch as they are victims of habit and only need 
 to be aroused to see things differently, the tenure of pro- 
 fessional politicians is necessarily, like the temper of their 
 constituents, uncertain. Let the treachery of habit once
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 41 
 
 be made clear to them, then will they awaken from their 
 torpor and follow valorous leaders through a " bloodless 
 revolution." 
 
 Such revolution may come in the natural course of 
 things sooner than men expect. Meantime, as a fact not 
 prejudicial to the revolutionary tendency of matters it is 
 to be recorded that Eepublican John Hunter, with a 
 printed address in hand is going among the people. Re- 
 publicans like himself in the sphere, not of politics but 
 of business, inspired by a weighty mission. The Address 
 bears testimony to the valuable services rendered to the 
 taxpayers by Controller Pattison and contains space 
 whereon these business-like Republicans may sign their 
 names as favorable to his re-election to olfice. James 
 McManes and his lieutenants and official retainers 
 (Col. McClure calls them " heelers"), who hear of the 
 Councilman's doings and who are almost compelled to a 
 belief that the earth will change its complexion, if not 
 be visited by prodigious internal disturbances, have noth- 
 ing left them to do but to solemnly disown the renegade 
 Republican ; which act is performed with all the violent 
 expletives and anathematical fulminations peculiar to 
 such ceremonies and is then necessarily reproduced in 
 the party-organs with such elaboration and improvement, 
 as the burning zeal of professional apologists of political 
 adventurers may suggest. Councilman Hunter bears the 
 ordeal like a born ingrate ; does not even stop to read the 
 organs which contain the words of his doom. He leaves 
 his manufactory, which gets even less of his time than 
 usual, and traverses Philadelphia's business districts, 
 where heavy taxpayers abound, and popping into count- 
 ing-room and office presents the inevitable Address for
 
 42 THE FALL OF BOSglSM. 
 
 signature. He may tell you, too, if he is disposed to talk, 
 that he is meeting with a success beyond his expectations. 
 He can point to names on that unequivocal foolscap 
 which represent influence in the social and business 
 world, and which have heretofore from force of habit 
 figured on the Republican books as supporters only of the 
 " straight" ticket. One name which should be there is 
 not. Pioneer reformer, Henry C. Lea, president of the 
 old Municipal Reform Association, which did so much 
 for Pattison when he first ran for Controller, is cruising 
 in his yacht somewhere off the West Indies and will not 
 return for months. Another absent citizen whose name 
 is desirable is John Wauamaker, who is in Europe. Pro- 
 fessor Morse's lightning courier carries a message from 
 Mr. Hunter to Mr. Wanamaker in London, to which the 
 answer comes promptly authorizing the use of his name 
 and another " heavy taxpayer" is added to the list of 
 those who would have it demonstrated that party ties are 
 not to be held superior to the interests of the people. 
 
 Councilman Hunter's foolscap has now grown, from 
 frequent enlargement to accommodate signatures, to such 
 proportions that it is quite a bulky affair and looks as if 
 all the Republicans were turning Democrats. And yet 
 there was much in the nature of things, when Mr. Hun- 
 ter undertook his mission, that well might have caused 
 him to hesitate. It was not an " off"" year in politics. 
 A Presidential election was fast approaching. The 
 canvass had been of the most vigorous character. No 
 argument had been left unused by the participants of 
 either party in the eiFort to keep men within their party 
 lines. Where reason was deemed insufficient as a means 
 of persuasion, other means were resorted to. Men were
 
 THE FALL OF B08SISM. 43 
 
 terrified, coerced and driven into the support of one ticket 
 OT another by both parties. Party lines had never been 
 more tightly drawn. Under the circumstances it required 
 no little courage and determination to take upon oneself 
 the position assumed by Mr. Hunter. The fear among Re- 
 publicans of the class in which he sought support for his 
 Democratic protege, of doing anything that would operate 
 against the chances of the Presidential ticket might be 
 expected to have yielded his efforts nothing but failure. 
 That fear did move some to decline to support the Patti- 
 son movement at first, but as time elapsed, there were few 
 among those who had been applied to who did not recon- 
 sider their determination. A conspicuous illustration of 
 the caution with which the proposition to break party 
 lines in a campaign of such importance was received at 
 the outset, is furnished by the case of Mr. E. Dunbar 
 Lockwood. The Union League Club had no Republican 
 who was more conservative than he, albeit his Re" 
 publicanism had long been at war with the methods of 
 those who had constituted themselves not leaders, but 
 dictators of the party and whose policy was embodied in 
 that one word which had lately come into universal use, 
 Bossism. Yet, Mr. Lockwood, being a strong supporter 
 of Garfield for President was unwilling, much as he ap- 
 plauded any movement that would crush out Bossism and 
 McManesism, — which in Philadelphia were synonymous, 
 — to sign his name to the address in Mr. Pattison's in- 
 terest, when solicited to do so by Mr. Hunter, believing 
 the Pattison scheme might impair the chances for the 
 election of Garfield. At the same time he expressed 
 sympathy for the movement and stated that he meant to 
 vote for Pattison. After events brought a change in
 
 44 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 Dunbar Lockwood's mind, and lie too was numbered 
 among the " renegades" — and worse ! For there came a 
 time very soon afterward when he was most active in 
 organizing a movement that was destined to sweep over 
 the sadly misgoverned city of Philadelphia like a strong, 
 health-laden wind over a land of pestilence, destroying 
 the strongholds of corruption and laying low in the dust 
 the structure of Bossism and all its attendant evils. The 
 occasion when Mr. Lockwood's declaration in favor of 
 Mr. Pattison's re-election was announced was most time- 
 ly. It was within a week of the day of election. The 
 movement in favor of Pattison among the people, irre- 
 spective of parties, had been so spontaneous that it may 
 be said to have been unanimous. Of all the orators who 
 had been pressed into service by McManesism there was 
 but one who ventured to differ with the practically un- 
 animous sentiment of the people, and to assail Controller 
 Pattison. This orator was General Wagner, or "Re- 
 corder" Wagner, as he was familiarly known by reason 
 of his official position as Recorder of Deeds. There was 
 a time beiore his election to the Recordership, when 
 General Wagner in Common Council was so active in 
 the cause of reform that he was classed with such con- 
 scientious representatives as Messrs. Caven, Hunter and 
 Page. He was then a strong supporter of the methods 
 of Controller Pattison. The change of views which his 
 election to an office of profit seemed to involve, subjected 
 him to much criticism on the part of his former associates 
 in Council, President Caven particularly, in public 
 speeches in the Pattison campaign being fond of drawing 
 comparisons between " Wagner the Reformer" and 
 "Wagner the Recorder." He was likewise criticised
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 45 
 
 by Journalism which, being long of memory, com- 
 pared the views of the General Wagner of the past 
 with those of the General Wagner of the present, 
 and caused the friends of that misunderstood disciple 
 of reform to feel some concern. The General's speech 
 against Controller Pattison was delivered within ten days 
 of the election. One of the first effects it produced 
 was a letter* to Controller Pattison, from Dunbar 
 Lockwood, who up to this time had been silent, in which 
 he announced himself as a supporter of the Controller 
 for re-election and explained the causes which had 
 prompted him to withhold his signature from the address 
 when called upon by Mr. Hunter. " No better beginning 
 of the work of Municipal reform can be made than your 
 re-election," wrote Mr. Lockwood, " as it will encourage 
 all good citizens to make a determined effort in February 
 next to secure honest government for this city." 
 
 * Mr. Lockwood's note, which, coming as it did unexpectedly, created 
 a sensation in political circles, and greatly encouraged the supporter* of 
 Pattison, was as follows : 
 
 Philadelphia, October 27th, 1880. 
 Robert E. Pattison, 
 
 Dem- Sir :— When in August last I was asked to sign the address re- 
 commending you for re-election as City Controller i expressed my sym- 
 pathy for the movement, although a Republican, and my intention to 
 vote "for you. but declined to then sign the paper submitted, as I believed 
 it to be the duty of every Republican, however unintluential, to refuse 
 to do auj-thing that might impair the chances of the election of General 
 Garlieldin the slightest degree, believing the maintenance of Republican 
 principles in national affairs superior to all local issues. 
 
 But Philadelphia and Pennsylvania are now sur(» for General Garfield 
 and Republicans who desire to rebuke the "ring" can .safely vote for 
 you for City Controller, and thus assist in the overthrow of that com- 
 bination of " bosses" who have too long ruled Philadelphia. 
 
 No better beginning of the work or Municipal reform can be made 
 than your re-election, as it will encourage all good citizens to make a de- 
 term|ced effort in February next to secure honest government for this 
 city. Yours truly, 
 
 E. DiTisrBAB Lockwood. 
 
 P. S.— I concluded to write this note after reading General Wagner's 
 speech.
 
 46 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 Meantime the Democrats have renominated Pattison. 
 James McManes sees the struggle for the Controllership 
 is going to be desperate. He finally decides upon a 
 candidate to stand against the formidable young candi- 
 date of the Democracy, — Mr. Joel Cook, financial editor 
 of the Public Ledger. Mr. Childs and his Ledger, how- 
 ever, have been rapidly drifting to the support of Patti- 
 son. Before Mr. Cook's letter of acceptance has been 
 two days in the light of publicity the Ledger comes out 
 in editorial announcement defining its position. It will 
 support Mr. Pattison notwithstanding one of its most 
 trusted and valued employees is the candidate of the 
 party of which the Ledger's proprietor is a member. 
 
 Complications beset the pathway of McManesism from 
 this hour. Most serious of all is the discovery that Mr. 
 Cook in his younger days was a Democrat. Journalism 
 in the interest of Pattison unearths from the archives of a 
 past era a Democratic speech which Candidate Cook de- 
 ] ivered in his s(;hool-boy days before he had attained a suffi- 
 cient age to entitle him to vote, which speech sounded 
 strangely like that of a sympathizer with secession. 
 Enough Candidate Cook! Opposition journals freely 
 parade this speech befoit the eyes of the Republican 
 peqple, and Mr. Cook, to relieve his party from embar- 
 rassment, withdraws from the field. 
 
 The day of election is close at hand. James McManes 
 and his political aids realize that they must act quickly 
 if they would recover vantage ground lost. Hastily do 
 they seize a new candidate, who, to journalism is some- 
 what of a stranger. E. Harper Jeffries is a name that 
 has not been familiar in politics. Yet, that he is the 
 candidate of McManesism is considered evidence enough
 
 THE FALL OP BOSSISM. 47 
 
 tliat he is not unacquainted witli the Gas Trust Chief. 
 After some inquiry about the new candidate enough is 
 learned by the newspapers to warrant the placing before 
 the public of a brief biography, by which it would 
 appear that Candidate Jeffries has upon a time been 
 unfortunate in business, for which reason his friends 
 would fain give him office that he might with, the Con- 
 troller's salary, repair his lost fortunes. 
 
 In the meanwhile the unorganized Reform element, 
 Democratic and Republican, have been active in the 
 cause of Pattison. The contest at this stage was peculiar. 
 Notwithstanding the feeling that in the excitement of 
 a Presidential campaign the effort to elect a Democrat to 
 the Presidency would be most formidable, the Republi- 
 can as well as the Democratic friends of Reform deter- 
 mined to leave no stone unturned in the endeavor to 
 return Pattison. It was decided to hold a mass meeting 
 of Republicans to urge his retention in office because of 
 his non-partisanship and efficiency. At a time when the 
 streets were filled with the parading organizations of 
 both parties and the public halls were devoted to the 
 discussion of great political questions, it seemed a 
 hazardous undertaking to induce an excited population 
 to listen to reason, and to discriminate in favor of so 
 apparently humble an officer. The meeting was held 
 on October 30th, 1880, and the little band* that gathered 
 
 *"0n the stage were * * * Edward T. Steel, Joseph L. Caven, 
 Councilman John Hunter, Thomas Walter, John J. Ridgvvay, Jr., 
 John Field, William Arrott, Robert R. Corson, George H. Earle, 
 Richard P. White, Uselma C. Hmith, James Spear, James Shed- 
 wick, Godfrey Keebler, T. Morris I'erot, John A. Clark, William Bradley 
 and manv others. Shortly after eight o'clock, John Field proposed that 
 Edward T. Steel be elected Chairman of the Meeting, which was unani- 
 monsly agreed to. The following gentlemen were elected Vice-Presi- 
 dents:— John Hunter, Evan liaudolph, Henry C. Lea, Charles Wheeler,
 
 48 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 on the stage of Horticultural Hall, as tliey looked on the 
 partially filled benches, and heard the music and huzzas 
 from the great Republican mass meeting in the neigh- 
 borirg Academy of Music, could not but feel that it was 
 a hopeless fight amidst such great contending elements. 
 The meeting was called to order by John Field, who, 
 like Dunbar Lockwood, before many weeks had num- 
 bered this occasion among the things past, was destined 
 to play a still more important part in a broader si)here, 
 in that new movement which even now was in its incipient 
 stage. As presiding officer, they elected by unanimous 
 vote, Edward T. Steele, whom we know as President of 
 the Board of Education. Though the number was small 
 and the enthusiasm of the hour seemed to be monopolized 
 by the great Republican demonstration in the interest of 
 the National ticket, next door, where a Republican 
 orator* was electrifying the proud and confident 
 followers of the leading party by a summary of the 
 things great (without any mention of the things small) 
 which it had accomplished in its eventful career, it may 
 be doubted if the humble gathering in the modestly 
 appointed hall did not represent the principles of the 
 fouuders of the Republican party more truly than did its 
 
 Clayton French, James Long, George Bnrnham, James Whittaker, E. 
 Dunbar Jjockwooci, John McLaughlin, Wm. O. Knowles, R. C. McMur- 
 trie, Thas. H. Shoemaker, James 11. Gay, Thomas A. Harris. Edw. H. 
 Rowley, Wm. E. Lockwood, Wm. G. Hteel, S. A. C'oyle, J. T. Audeiireid, 
 Chas. T. Parry, K. S. I'aschall, Solomon Smucker, John I'enington, 
 Joseph Irvine, Wm. Howell, Alex. Whilldln, Thos. R. Cope, Wm. Rotch 
 Wister, John P. Woolverton, Jno. B. Garrett, Fred'k Fraley, Adam A. 
 Catanach, Edw'd W. Woolman, Blaney ITarvey, Thos. Riddle, Johp 
 Blakely, Isaac Bartram, E. W. Clark. Joshua L. Rally, Thomas Rradley, 
 Jos. B. Townsend, Edmnnd Lewis, Chas. Spencer, Gpo. w. Elkins, Jos. 
 R. Rhoades, Isadore Schloss, Jas. K. Yoang, Wm. M. Wilson, T. Morris 
 Perot, Jas. Trimble, Thos. Scott, William Wood."— T/ie Times, Oct. 31, 
 1880. 
 
 *Colonel A. Louden Snowden
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 49 
 
 pretentious neighbor. In tlie latter case the meeting 
 was mainly under the auspices of the Federal office- 
 holders and place-men of the party, and could, therefore, 
 hardly be described as representative in character. In 
 the former instance the occasion was altogether under 
 the charge of Republicans drawn together, not by con- 
 siderations of self-interest, not for the purpose of ad- 
 vancing one of their number that their own political 
 welfare might thus be secured, but that they might insure 
 the re-election of a faithful Democratic Municiijal officer 
 on whose behalf they appeared there wholly from a sense 
 of duty. Not with the principles of the party were these 
 men at war, but with the methods of those, who, in 
 Philadelphia had constituted themselves the party 
 leaders. The distinction was well explained by Pre- 
 siding officer Steele as he took the Chair. " These men," 
 said he, speaking of those who had so long controlled in 
 the politics of the city, "have no authority from the 
 Republicans of Philadelphia, nor have they any sym- 
 pathy for the humanitarian or patriotic purposes of the 
 party. As a pirate ship hauls to its peak the flag of a 
 great nation to protect itself, so these persons have raised 
 the sublime banner of the Republican party to preserve 
 them from the indignation justly engendered by their 
 arbitrary acts." 
 
 Bold and fearless words ! Such sparks of dissatisfac- 
 tion have lately begun to be alarmingly frequent. Here 
 on this night away from the glare of party temptations 
 and party folly do we see other familiar faces, — those of 
 President Caven, John J. Ridgway, Jr., and bluff Reform 
 agitator, Thomas Walter. Mr. Ridgway, who is intro- 
 duced as the next speaker, is no stranger. For years has
 
 50 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 his name shone with extreme brilliancy in a galaxy of 
 young Eeformers, typical of which was the much 
 lamented noble young orator Henry Armitt Brown ; 
 and also is he known as a member of the old Citizen's 
 Municipal Eeform Association which, however, for the 
 past two or three years has not, as an organization, par- 
 ticipated in election contests. Citizen Ridgway, to whom 
 the business of urging the claims of faithful officers to 
 the consideration of voters is consequently not new, now 
 speaks eloquently for Candidate Pattison. He tells his 
 hearers that the Controller has administered the duties 
 of his office for the best interests of the whole commu- 
 nity; that a judicious policy would have prevented a 
 nomination against him, but such policy has been scouted 
 by the " leaders " who hope that in the heat of a bitterly 
 contested Presidential election "citizens will not exercise 
 intelligence and deliberation enough to divide the 
 issues." Such course he believes is a mistake ; for, 
 through the continuous efforts of the Municipal Eeform 
 Association for the last ten years, the masses of the 
 people have been educated to a higher standard of politi- 
 cal determination. Year after year the Eeformers had 
 stood in the breach, and the people were being gradually 
 brought to see that i>artisanship in municipal affairs was 
 a most unworthy and expensive guide. " If the people 
 will rise to the occasion," says Citizen Eidgway, "they 
 will find they have firmly planted themselves in a posi- 
 tion which must lead to further advancement to that 
 reformed city government which is so much needed in 
 Philadelphia." 
 
 Citizen Thomas Walter next makes an earnest appeal 
 for the young Controller. Plain and blunt, and rugged
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 51 
 
 in appearance, is this man ; a scoffer at fine spun phrases 
 and studied periods, believing that man's reason is most 
 easily reached by unpremeditated, extemporaneous 
 speech. In the delivery of which unstudied harangue, 
 one finds him versatile, entertaining and original; his 
 address abounding with quaint comparisons, striking 
 similes, scriptural quotations and with frequent bursts of 
 irresistible humor. Last of all do we hear the speaker 
 of the evening, the noted President Caven, without whose 
 presence in these times a Reform meeting would seem to 
 be lacking one of the things essential to its proper classi- 
 fication. Before the Reform people he stands to-night, 
 his official designation, " Councilman " Caven, being a 
 justification of the work of Citizen Ridgway's Municipal 
 Reform Association, as also of the efforts of Citizen 
 Walter and Citizen George H. Earle who, as fellow- 
 residents with the Reform Councilman in the Fifteenth 
 Ward, have done their part in the agitation which has 
 given their ward such a worthy representative. 
 
 Clear and logical, and in some respects, remarkable, is 
 the speech of President Caven's, the din and thunder of 
 applause in the neighboring Academy detracting not 
 from his earnestness but adding to it by tacit appreciation 
 of the contrast. "As a Republican," says the speaker, 
 " I propose to vote on next Tuesday for General Garfield 
 because the best interests of the country demand that no 
 change be made in the National administration ; and I 
 propose to vote for Robert E. Pattison for Controller, 
 because the best interests of Philadelphia demand that 
 no change be made in the administration of that office." 
 Which utterance is received with spontaneous applause. 
 The speaker has something to say about the course of
 
 52 
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 "Recorder" Wagner; proceeding to answer in detail* 
 the charges made by that nondescript official in his 
 speech against Pattison, whicli answer is received by his 
 audience with demonstrations of approval. And, in 
 closing, there is a peroration, which is not alone remark- 
 able but prophetic; which peroration electrifies the 
 audience, evoking the wildest and most enthusiastic 
 applause of the evening. "We hear," says Citizen 
 Caven, "mutterings and rumblings of a political storm 
 which will be upon us after the Presidential election. 
 A storm that promises to sweep away the Gas Trust with 
 all its vast patronage, — closed doors, unvouched accounts 
 and great political power. If you want that storm to do 
 any good, if you desire the forked lightning to clear 
 the political atmosphere, then I beseech you do not 
 permit the citadel of the Treasury, the Controller's office, 
 to pass into the hands of a ring. If you do, any victory 
 gained afterward will be as the vine of Sodom and the 
 fields of Gomorrah." 
 
 Such was the tone and the character of this last im- 
 portant Reform meeting held before the Presidential 
 election of November, 1880. Important because it was 
 held at a time when the movement for Reform in Phila- 
 adelphia had reached a crisis, the turning point being 
 the election to come off three days later, when it Avould 
 be decided whether the Reform teachings of the past few 
 years had taken enough jhold on the people to produce a 
 sufficient number of discriminating Republican voters to 
 re-elect the faithful Democratic Controller to office, not- 
 withstanding the excitement over the National contest in 
 
 *See appendix.
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 63 
 
 which each party was exerting itself to the utmost to 
 carry the day. The proceedings of this meeting, spread 
 before the people by the press, had their effect. The re- 
 sult was a political phenomenon in the history of Phila- 
 delphia. The rest of the Democratic ticket was defeated 
 by over 20,000 votes, while Pattison was elected by more 
 than 13,000 ! ! A change of nearly 34,000 votes. It was 
 evident that the people were aroused, and needed only 
 leadership to defeat the combination that had so long 
 held them in disgraceful thrall.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 RETROSPECTIVE AND INFORMAL. 
 
 By this election of Pattison several things are demon- 
 strated. First, it is clearly shown that " able politicians" 
 are sometimes bad prophets ; that their predictions, how- 
 ever carefully framed and sagely delivered will, in spite 
 of reputed skill and sagacity, at times turn out to be not 
 wise predictions, as one might suppose from the philo- 
 sophic deliberateness with which they are uttered, but 
 rather the wildest sort of wild guessing. Heavy ma- 
 jorities, which are so surely going to "vindicate" the 
 whole brood of party pensioners, although widely and 
 triumphantly announced beforehand, are not forth- 
 coming, which would seem to indicate that promises are 
 cheaper in the political shop than performance. Only a 
 few days before the election of Pattison James McManes 
 was a most sanguine man, Mr. Jeffries was not only go- 
 ing to be elected Controller, but he was going to be 
 elected by a great majority. Such ill-success in the pro- 
 phet-business under ordinary conditions one might sup- 
 pose would weaken the faith of humanity in the prophets, 
 but whether from the gift of an abundance of audacity 
 which enables these political Elishas to overlook a slight 
 (54)
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 56 
 
 circumstance, like a failure of fulfillment or from some 
 other cause, they invariably return to their prophet's 
 habiliments with renewed confidence and unfailing gar- 
 rulity. 
 
 Another fact demonstrated by Pattison's election is 
 that the body of the people is stronger than cliques and 
 combinations however much schooling in secret and 
 questionable arts the latter may have had ; and further, 
 that the people are not yet ready to make a change in the 
 old order of things that would reverse the positions of 
 master and servant, particularly when it is seen that the 
 latter has some very bad traits of character, principal 
 among which is a tendency toward filching. It de- 
 monstrates also how weak are political conspiracies after 
 all when built upon abused trusts and violated principles ; 
 upon sacrificed public interests, outraged confidences and 
 privileges perverted and misused. It shows that there is 
 a point which a base and unscrupulous class of men un- 
 der certain peculiar conditions in a community, may 
 reach in the operation of their secret schemes for enrich- 
 ment at the public expense, when the tide of success 
 changes and under the wrath of their thoroughly aroused 
 victims, their fortunes take a downward turn to the cer- 
 tain destination of men's contempt, whether such destina- 
 tion involves prisons or the lasting stigma of felons un- 
 branded by statute law. To what depth the politics of 
 the city was degraded under the influence of such men, 
 let the non-partisan journals of the time bear witness. 
 Their columns teemed with accounts of the lawless 
 methods employed by them to overcome the people's will 
 at the polls, chief among which was the importation of a 
 large number of criminals and desperate characters from 
 3
 
 66 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 other cities expressly to take a hand in polluting the 
 ballot. Into the various wards they flocked like hungry 
 vultures come to destroy. By pre-arrangement with the 
 police they had practically a clear field and were free to 
 pursue their lawless course with little fear of interrup- 
 tion and indeed with the assurance from those who held 
 the police department under their power, of aid and pro- 
 tection in the work of pollution and crime. With their 
 immunity from arrest guaranteed it may well be imaginedj 
 taking into consideration the character of the men, that 
 opposition on the part of orderly and well disposed 
 citizens would find but little toleration. Accustomed to 
 resort to violence upon the smallest provocation these 
 men, with the police at their back, intimidated and 
 bullied wherever they appeared. And not among the 
 police alone in the category of responsible officials did 
 they find support and encouragement for their acts. The 
 election officers were in many cases persons who had been 
 placed in their positions solely to further and complete 
 the criminal work. There was scarcely a ward or a divi- 
 sion in the city in which the Election Boards were not 
 represented by some one or more of the employes of the 
 Gas Trust, of the Water Department, of the Highway 
 Department, of the Tax Department, of the City Trea- 
 surer's Department, or of the smaller political strong- 
 holds over which the political dictators held unlimited 
 sway When these creatures of corruption were not 
 found on the Election Boards, they might safely be 
 looked for among the horde of visiting repeaters and 
 ballot-box stuffers whose knowledge of the city was aided 
 and whose criminal operations were facilitated by the 
 local workers. These foreign desperadoes were for the
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 67 
 
 most part from "Washington. They came in large num- 
 bers from the public departments there and may be said to 
 have represented the worst type of the political methods 
 of almost every State in the Union. It mattered not 
 whether they were from Maine or from California, from 
 Massachussetts-or from Texas, they all had been schooled 
 in the same vicious political practices, and they proved 
 most effective in thwarting the people's will and prolong- 
 ing the lease of power of the adventurers who had en- 
 trenched themselves in the strong places of the city 
 government. They were led by one Eussell, himself a 
 Philadelphian, whose former services in corrupting the 
 ballot in his native city where he early figured in politics, 
 had earned for him substantial recognition from the 
 political great men of Philadelphia who through their 
 political influence had placed him in a profitable position, 
 in one of the government departments. He had acquired 
 for himself a peculiar distinction as a leader of repeaters 
 and ballot-box stuflers of the worst type, and no im- 
 portant election came on that he was not looked for 
 anxiously by his political patrons who placed such a high 
 value upon his services. The strictures of Col. McClure 
 in his Times upon this notorious personage had, for 
 several years before the Pattison election, caused him to 
 curtail somewhat the flourish with which he was wont to 
 appear at the head of his ragamuffins, and his work had 
 latterly been performed with some circumspection. 
 Nevertheless it was bold enough and, in its effects bad 
 enough. In many instances his acts alone frustrated the 
 people's eflTorts and saved to the politicians important 
 city offices. 
 That the government departments at Washington
 
 58 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 turned out such, disreputable ratf to prey upon the 
 rights of the people in election times had long been a 
 cause of complaint among citizens in various parts of 
 the country. Of late, however, the evil had forced itself 
 more clearly than ever upon the attention of patriotic 
 men of both political parties and was enlisting discussion 
 in the newspapers and periodicals of the land. Phila- 
 delphia with its proud revolutionary history and its en- 
 viable patriotic record had seen with humiliation the 
 rights of its people frittered away, the even course of its 
 government interrupted and rudely transformed from a 
 government of the people to a government of political 
 Bosses- whose power had been built upon this pollution 
 of the ballot and upon countless forms of bribery, 
 upon the corruption of legislators, councilmen and public 
 officials generally. At the bottom of all the trouble, this 
 cheating at the polls, this temporary outflow from the 
 the public departments at Washington of ballot-box 
 stufFers and repeaters for distribution throughout the 
 country to do their knavish work, seemed to be the one 
 evil that was tangible, that was clearly enough established 
 and defined to take hold of and, if possible, to crush out 
 of existence in the name of the law. Fierce and un- 
 ceasing were the assaults of Col. McClure upon the wily 
 Eussell and his desperate crew ; louder and more general 
 became the murmurs of citizens of both parties over the 
 fearful demoralization of the police and of the election 
 boards, until at the time of the Pattison election the 
 signs of a coming change were apparent in the political 
 sky. 
 
 If Bossism ever reflects there is no time like this, when 
 the flush of enthusiasm is still red on the cheeks of the
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 59 
 
 Pattisonites to do so. It will find much to conjure up, 
 much to think out, before it can thoroughly reconcile 
 itself to its latest misfortune. Eeasons for its defeat it 
 professes not to see. And in this fact there would appear 
 to be evidence of an obtuseness of perception not con- 
 sistent with the idea of clear-sighted performances. That 
 it should have its own way absolutely even to the smallest 
 details of things is rather too much to expect of any 
 power or persons this side of royalty, and even not al- 
 ways there. Counter influences of more or less effect 
 there always will be to curb the avarice and vain ambi- 
 tions of men, and such influences have been at work here 
 long, patiently and, at times, noiselessly. Was there not 
 a memorable meeting of citizens held in the office of 
 citizen Henry C. Lea, renowned writer, thinker, and 
 publisher of scientific and medical works, nine years be- 
 fore in the publisher's building on Sansom street, at 
 which there originated a " Citizens' Municipal Reform 
 Association,"* which association came into being to 
 
 * The act, signed by Governor Oeary in the summer of 1870, creating 
 the Public Building Commission, maybe regarded as the origin of the 
 reform movement in Philadelphia. B3' creating a body with unlimited 
 tenure of ofQce, with power to fill all vacancies, with authority to tax 
 thfe community and to spend the public money without restriction or 
 supervision, this act was so subversive of all the principles of self- 
 goverumeut that when its provisions came to be fully understood, it 
 aroused general indignation. When the Legislature met in the winter of 
 1871, an agitation therefor arose for its repeal. Petitions to this effect, 
 bearing upwards of twenty-thousand signatures, were sent to Harris- 
 burg, and at a crowded meeting held in the Academy of Music in March, 
 a committee was appointed to wait upon the Legislature and endeavor 
 to secure the passage of a repealing act. tThat committee in its report 
 stated that its object could not be effected without the expenditure of 
 money , and that public rumor at Ilarrisburg openly designated the sums 
 which had been paid to defeat the measure. 
 
 A. mass meeting, held in June, lS71,to which this report was made, 
 tSeo appendix.
 
 60 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 " reform tbe government of the city and secure a better 
 class of representatives in the Legislature," a movement 
 which as a Counter Influence, did in reality perform 
 great things. It discovered Caven and elected him to 
 Councils, and it discovered Pattison in 1877 and placed 
 him for the first time, notwithstanding Bossism's opposi- 
 
 considered the whole question of local misgovernment, of which this 
 legislative corrnption was only a single feature, and it authorized Its pre- 
 siding officer to appoint a committee consisting of two citizens from each 
 Ward whose duty it should be to select the best candidates from the 
 party tickets, and to make independent nominations for municipal and 
 legislatiTe offlcea, when neither of the regular candidates was worthy of 
 support. 
 
 It was not an easy task to find citizens to serve on this committee. The 
 violent partieanship resulting from the rebellion was still generally 
 diffused throughout the community. Municipal burdens were lightly 
 felt in an era of expansion and paper money; the attention of the people 
 had not been called to misrule and corruption, and there was nota news- 
 paper in Philadelphia to espouse the cause of reform. During the hot 
 months of summer no action was possible, and at that period there was 
 but one election held in the year, on the second Tuesday of October. 
 When September came, therefore, the Committee was but partially 
 formed, and It had but three weeks in which to conduct the campaign, 
 when it organized with the following membership: K. liundle Smith. 
 Charles H. Mcllvalne, Thomas Webster, Charles S. Ogden, George Bull, 
 James Page, Edward Penington, Jr., Richard Garsed, Archibald Camp- 
 bell. Matthew Baird, Henry C. Lea, Caleb H. Needles, L. P. Ashmead, 
 Charles Rogers, David W. Sellers, Charles Wheeler, Robert B. Corson, 
 B. P. Hunt and H. McAllister, Jr. 
 
 The registry and election laws in those days gave to the majority party 
 almost unlimited power to decide who should vote and how the vote 
 should be counted. There was also a technical device which greatly en- 
 hanced the difflcnlty of the canvass for independent candidates. This 
 was known as the "slip-ticket" system, under which the names of all 
 candidates voted for were required tobe printed on a single slip of paper, 
 headed by the number of the Ward and election division; so that, if a 
 single Independent candidate for a municipal office were placed in the 
 field it became necessary to print a separate and complete ticket for 
 every one of the six or seven hundred election districts in Philadelphia, 
 bearing the names of every candidate to be voted for, from governor 
 down to election officers— while, if votes were expected from both par- 
 ties, a complete duplicate sot of tickets became requisite.
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 61 
 
 tion, in the office of Controller. It had been fighting for 
 good men and principles up until the city elections of 
 1878, when it contested fiercely with Bossism for the 
 offices of Mayor, Eeceiver of Taxes, and City Solicitor, 
 presenting for the suffrages of the people the names of 
 Caven, Craycroft, and West. That it was unsuccessful 
 
 Despite these difficulties, the Committee made up a ticket composed of 
 the best candidates of both parties, with two or three independent nomi- 
 nations, and conducted a spirited canvas.?. It was, however, unable to 
 perfect any organization of the city; it was tl;e object of attack by both 
 parties; in many wards its ticket was not obtainable on the day of elec- 
 tion, and in many cases those who attempted to canvass it were driven 
 from the ground. Still, it was credited with 3500 votes in the returns and 
 it had reason to believe that it had polled at least double that number. 
 
 Encouraged by these results, it was determined to form a more com- 
 plete organization. With this object in view twelve citizens assembled 
 at the office of Henry C. Lea, on Sansom street, on the 2Cth of October, 
 1871. At this time the abuses prevalent in the city government were so 
 deep rooted and far reaching that their pernicious effects upon the 
 public service were practically without check and without limit. The 
 men sent to Harrisburg to represent the city in the Legislature were, 
 with a few notable exceptions, a scandal and a reproach to the name of 
 Philadelphia. Their excesses, their drunken orgies, in times when the 
 pitiable condition of their city,— swamped with debt and groaning under 
 the impositions and the exactions of the political bandits whose heels 
 were on its throat,— should have appealed to any spark of patriotism 
 that lingered in their hearts, were a shame and a disgrace to the city of 
 American Independence, whose groans of humiliation were heard 
 throughout the entire State. In the city itself at this time, beyond the 
 small handful of self-sacriflcing citizens already mentioned, there seemed 
 to be no corrective agency or influence. These men in Harrisburg were 
 the creatures of Bossi.'^m, of the Gas Trust, that centre and cardinal 
 point of political corruption. With the Instinct of common interests and 
 objects, alliances were formed with men of similar condition sent to the 
 Legislature by the same influences I'rona other parts of the State. Com- 
 bined they were all-powerful in securing whatever of legislation their 
 masters bade them secure, and when they returned to their homes it 
 was not to meet with and explain to the people at large their acts, but 
 to come together with their masters in secret club room, or gambling 
 house and, to the music of clinking glasses and boisterous laughter, re- 
 count tlie means whereby they had swindled the people and bartered 
 away their rights.
 
 C2 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 there was not defeat,— only triumph postponed. The 
 earnest work of six years shall not be fruitless; when 
 the proper time comes there will be a harvest worthy of 
 the careful husbandry which has planted the seed and 
 tended the young growth. Such movement, springing 
 from men's deep convictions, does not, once it begins to 
 
 Such was the character of the majority of the men who were 
 sent to Harrisburg by the Gas Trust to represent Philadelphia in the 
 Legislature at the time this new reform element was ushered 
 into existence. Those citizens who answered the roll call at the first 
 meeting were twelve in number, viz. ; Henry C. Lea, Charles Wheeler, 
 Charles Mcllvaine, James Page, Thomas Webster, John P. Kidge- 
 way, Jr., Caleb H. Needles, Robert E. Corson, R. Bundle Smith, Edward 
 Peuington, L. P. Ashmead and John J. McKenna. They organized 
 themselves into an executive committee, to which were afterward added 
 the names of William Henry Kawie, J. Hughes Edwards, and Richard 
 Garsed. R. Rundle Smith was chosen President of the Association, 
 Charles Wheeler Treasurer, and L. P. Ashmead Secretary. In its sub- 
 sequent career T. Morris Perot, and especially the late Henry Armitt 
 Brown, George H. Karle, JohnMcLaughlin, William Welsh, J. Hays Car- 
 son, Henry C. Thompson, William Conway and Henry B. Tatham. were 
 active and efficient members. In politics the Association was non. par- 
 tisan, though with a few exceptions its members were Renublican. 
 
 The object of the Municipal Reform Association, as proclaimed at the 
 outset, was to secure an improvement in the management of municipal 
 affairs, regardless of party lines ; and the measures to which it specifical- 
 ly devoted itself were the substitution of fixed salaries fur fees, the 
 modification of the registry and election laws, including the "'slip-ticket" 
 system, and. in the then approaching constitutional convention to obtain 
 such changes in the constitution as should limit the control of the Legis- 
 lature over the city by depriving it of its powers of evil in the matter of 
 special legislation. In all these objects the Association was successful; 
 and it gradually, in spite of the sneers and opposition of political par- 
 tisans and leaders on both sides, was enabled to educe and cultivate a 
 public sentiment which rendered further reform possible, when enough 
 citizens to control the balance of power became accustomed to regard 
 the public good as' superior to party consid rations, and to co-operate in 
 Independent action The second election of Pattison, in ISSO, showed 
 that this had been accomplished, and that wise and energetic action 
 alone was needed In the future to guide the political force which thus 
 was demonstrated to exist. 
 
 The method of the Association in city political contests had been to 
 organize auxiliary Associations in the various wards. It elected a num-
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 63 
 
 gather force, stop half way and harmlessly retrace its 
 course. Like the tornado it belongs not to the order of 
 things that rise spasmodically and threaten, then fall and 
 disappear without destructive effects. Destiny has a use 
 for those vital forces in man which are stirred by an in- 
 fluence that seems above and beyond himself — the in- 
 
 ber of good men to Councils, conspicuous among whom was President 
 Caven. In the ControUershlp contest, in ls77, it co-operated with the 
 Democrats wlio had nominated Pattison, and through its aid he was 
 elected. It also persistently and energetically labored to effect, by the 
 substitution of fixed salaries for fees, the refoim of the fee system of 
 oliicial remuneration. No abuse was more glaring and flagrant 
 than this. In Philadelphia, at the time the Eeform Association came 
 into existence, this system, amounted to nothing less than wholesale 
 public robbery. Five officers put into their pockets annually, iu the 
 aggregate, the enormous sum of |223,000, or an average of $t4,C00 each, 
 almost $20,000 more than the amount received annually, at that time, by 
 the President of the United States. These offices and their respective 
 emoluments, according to an exhibit made by the Reform committee, 
 were the office of Recorder of Deeds, $80,000; office of Receiver of Taxes, 
 §S5,000 ; office of Clerk of Quarter Sessions Court, $35,000 ; office of Pro- 
 thonotary of District Court, f 15,000; office of City Commissioner, ?8,000. 
 So effectually did the Municpal Reform Association bring this monstrous 
 robberj' before the attention of the people that the framers of the new 
 Constitution, when they assembled in Philadelphia, in 1873, to enter upon 
 their labors, encountered a. unanimous demand for a change of the 
 system. This convention from time to time advised with representatives 
 of the Municipal Reform Association and many of the suggestions of the 
 latter were embodied in the Constitution which was adopted by popular 
 vote in December, 1873, when the fee system was abolished and the 
 salary system took its place. 
 
 Mr. Lea, the originator of this reform movement, who had for years 
 been celebrated not only in his own country but in Europe, as a pro- 
 found scholar and writer on scientific subjects, would seem especially 
 here to claim some attention. His ideal of government was high, his 
 understanding of political systems was most complete. He had been 
 for some j'ears past an industrious contributor to the political literature 
 of the countrj-. He had been from the time of the breaking out of the 
 civil war in 1»61 a prolific writer of pamphlets and addresses upon politi- 
 cal subjects. In addition he had been a practical worker and a liberal 
 contributor of money to the cause of the Union during the struggle for 
 iti preservation. One of the earliest members of the Republican Union
 
 64 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 flucnce of justice and truth — which is the sustaining 
 power of all earnest effort in a cause that is right. So 
 the six years of trial and discipline which the Citizens' 
 Municipal Reform Association has undergone that con- 
 victions might be vindicated and wrongs rebuked have 
 assuredly an influence which in all its subtle workings 
 
 LeaRue of liis native city, he held important positions in that organiza- 
 tion as a Luember of the Board of Directors, member of the Milltarj' 
 Committee, and of tlie Committee of Publication, in which latter capacity 
 he wrote many of the addresses issued by the League in support, nf ti e 
 principles and policy of the Republican party during the war. He was 
 also active in another respect. At a time when the public mind was 
 agitated on the subject of drafting citizens for soldiers, he originated 
 the system of offering bounties to volunteers which subsequently was 
 generally adopted. At a later period he was active as an advocate be- 
 fore the Legislature for the reform of the civil service. Conservative 
 always he had no sj-mpathy with a political system the paramount mo- 
 tive of which was the possession of tlie spoils of ofDce. 
 
 Now in those trying war times, while Mr. Lea and others of his kind 
 were laboring incessantly and giving largely of their means for the 
 benefit of their country, there came to the front of the party organiza- 
 tion in Philadelphia a baser element which might well be termed, to use 
 a familiar characterization, the rag-tag and bob-tall in politics. Tliey 
 were the moths of humanity, drawn from the four quarters of the earth 
 to the staid Quaker city by the glare of opportunity. One party to them 
 was as good as another so far as principles were concerned. The main 
 consideration that influenced their actions was opportunity for self-ad- 
 vancement. With the Democratic party laboring under reverses and 
 the Republican party successful In city and state, their lot was, of course, 
 cast with the latter. These political Ishmaelltes worked darkly and noise- 
 lessly. With great policy and much humility they knocked at the doors 
 of the Union League, and presenting a respectful mien asked to be allowed 
 to enroll their humble names in membership. At atimewheneverj' vote 
 In the Republican party was needed, they were accepted without question. 
 They at once made themselves useful, showed a practical disposition to 
 look after the welfare of the party in the city and thus, in a measure, re- 
 lieve the real leaders of the party, some of whom were at the front, brav- 
 ing the enemy's Are for the safety of their country while others, like Mr. 
 Lea were occupied with schemes for raising volunteers, and at the same 
 time for keeping the party lines intact throughout the state. Thus, the 
 welfare of the party in Philadelphia was left practically in the hands of 
 these men. Carefully and with great system did they lay their plans and
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 66 
 
 cannot be reckoned directly, but which in due time may 
 be reckoned by inevitable results. 
 
 Is not the election of Pattison in this autumn of the 
 year 1880 proof that the principles of reform have taken 
 a hold upon the people? This much has been done by 
 the people unorganized, by popular sentiment crystal- 
 push their fortunes. They began to place men In the Legislature who 
 could be relied upon to introduce new measures, and to influence legisla- 
 tion solely in their own personal interest ; who could be depended upon 
 to introduce bills for the creation of new offices with enormous emolu- 
 ments, and to rehabilitate olHces already in existence In the direction of 
 Increasing their fees to thren and four times the original amounts. They 
 began to place men in the City Councils who could likewise be counted 
 upon as subservient tools; who could be trusted through city legisla- 
 tion to throw numerous safeguards around the stealthy plunderers on 
 the one hand, and to divert the public money into their pockets on the 
 other. Their schemes were executed with promptness and skill. It wag 
 not until they had attained their consummation, that the people became 
 suspicious, and even not then. Not until the insolence of suddenly 
 acquired wealth and power began to flaunt itself in the faces of citizens' 
 did Philadelphians awake to the realities of the situation. The war was 
 come to an end and men now began to see some of the latent costs which 
 had not previously been taken into consideration. They found that while 
 they had been aiding in the struggle to save the life of the nation, 
 there had been a subtle enemy at work at home. This new element which 
 had crept into politics on hands and knees, as it were, now stalked erect 
 with high head and Insolent mien. Well might it do so ; for it had left no 
 loop-hole of danger unprovided for. Laws had been enacted In its interest, 
 and Judges on the bench were perforce compelled to construe the laws as 
 they stood, however obnoxious they might be. The party machinery 
 also was completely in its hand. Disciplined and trained party workers 
 were already under its sway in the shape of hordes of employes in the 
 various departments over which It had so completely assumed control. 
 To such a state of things Henry C. Lea, having done his patriotic labors 
 on behalf of his country, came back as one who opens his e3-es to an un- 
 pleasant realization after a troubled dream. He saw in high places of 
 power men who a few years before had been humble beneficiaries of the 
 city, state, or national government. In the form of clerks messengers or 
 letter-carriers. He saw party politics debased and the city government 
 corrupt and vicious In practice and influence. That antagonisms should 
 spring up between two elements of the Republican party at this time 
 under the circumstances was not unnatural; that there should grow
 
 66 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 lized into tangible opposition. There will be more yet 
 to do, before the force of this movement has been ex- 
 hausted ; there will be need of more energetic work be- 
 fore its purpose shall have been fulfilled. For there is 
 yet to come the trial of trials between Bossism and the 
 people. In the month of February — only three short 
 winter months oif— there will occur another city election 
 in Avhich a Mayor, a Receiver of Taxes, and a City Solici- 
 tor must be elected. Bossism, encouraged by the memory 
 of its triumph in 1877, is looking forward already with ex- 
 pectations. It is even now centring its power and in- 
 fluence there for a desperate conflict. Either triumphant 
 vindication or disastrous overthrow will attend it, and it 
 is not unnatural if it feels, under the circumstances, some 
 concern. If the latter event happens, what consequences 
 may follow? Loss of prestige, — loss of power, — public 
 investigations, — exposures, — courts of justice, — prisons ! 
 " Liberty" and the blessed rights of citizenship have 
 been nice things to prate about unmeaningly to the 
 
 therefrom a fruitful crop of trouble for the parly in the future was to be 
 expected. Fealty to party lines and " party ties" had theretofore been 
 deemed the weightiest consideration that could influence the political 
 action of men, and it was destined to have a potent eflTect in the canvass 
 for political oflficM for some time yet to come. The evil consequences of 
 blind partisanship, however, must sooner or later appear ; the motives 
 which prompted these men who now held the places of power in the 
 city government could not long be coDcealed. Tlie vulgar and disgrace- 
 ful scramble on their part to get rich, proved that the temptation had 
 been too strong for their prudence, and that public sentiment and public 
 decency were recklessly defied in the presence of an opportunity to 
 fill their pockets with the public money, regardless of law and of 
 morality. Two hundred and twenty-three thousand dollars of the 
 tlie public money going into the pockets of five city officers in Philadel- 
 pliia yearly! What did that incontrovertible fact show ? Simply that 
 under such a state of affairs " political party" was a misnomer and that 
 " public freebooters" was a more appropriate title.
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 67 
 
 masses in the election times in the past. Strange if the 
 Ijraters shonld come to realize finally what a blessing 
 such things truly are by discovering through compulsory 
 experience the things that are opposite. 
 
 Toward the February elections then many eyes are 
 turned. The three ofSces to be filled are offices of chief 
 importance. As to the Mayor's office, friend Stokley 
 who has already enjoyed two terms and is known to 
 aspire to a third, looks out respectfully from his waning 
 lease of power upon all elements, and points to his " past 
 record." What the future holds in store for him it does 
 not show at this time, which is perhaps best. It is doubt- 
 ful nevertheless if the spectacle of twelve hundred 
 policemen participating in elections on every occasion in 
 the interest of the p2.rty of their superior, meets with 
 favor among the class which has demonstrated lately in 
 Pattison's case that it knows how to exact respect for its 
 opinions. But if there is one office which popular senti- 
 ment has become excited over, and which Bossism has 
 determined with desperation to fight for, it is that of Re- 
 ceiver of Taxes. This office has been the subject 
 during the last nine years of some great scandals. It 
 has been held as one of the richest prizes of the 
 political spoilsmen and no effort that has been made 
 by Councils has been successful in penetrating thorough- 
 ly the mystery of the operations of its official head- 
 An investigation by a committee of Councils in 1876 
 revealed some startling things. The inquiry originated 
 from the confession of one of the Receiver's clerks that 
 he had frittered away in losing speculations upwards 
 of forty thousand dollars of the public money. As the 
 investigation progressed it was discovered, in the light of
 
 68 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 other frauds, that this was among the smallest of the 
 cases of peculation which seemed general among the 
 attaches of the office, not even excepting the bootblack, 
 who being detected on one occasion robbing the office 
 was arrested, tried, convicted and sent to prison. The 
 Receiver at this time was Thomas J. Smith, a man who 
 from small beginnings in politics came to be a most 
 serviceable instrument of James McManes, the acknowl- 
 edged chief of the political cabal that controlled the 
 elections. It is doubtful if a more incompetent man could 
 have been found for the responsible position of Receiver 
 of the city's taxes than Receiver Smith. His own testi- 
 mony, during investigations, inaugurated both before and 
 after his term of office had expired, revealed the fact that 
 the business of the office was conducted utterly without 
 any system. The frequent peculations of the tax clerks 
 under him, each of whom seemed to be in a position to 
 pocket any amount of money he chose to take, were 
 ample corroboration of the truth of the Receiver's 
 statement. The looseness which prevailed in the man- 
 agement of this most important Department was simply 
 a reflection of the evils which obtained in every office 
 under the city government in which the political power 
 of McManesism was supreme. Nevertheless in the Tax 
 Office there existed peculiar opportunities for originating 
 and encouraging flagrant abuses, and the condition into 
 which the administration of the duties of the department 
 had fallen* at the time the Committee of One Hundred 
 
 *" One the most important ofuces within the gift of the people is the 
 office of the^Receiver of Taxes, i lie olKce is said to be worth a quarter 
 of a niilliuii dollars yearly, Its perquisites are so enormous as to cause a 
 frightful demoralizaiion in the ranks of both parties. The whole com- 
 munity cries out for a repeal of tlie iniquitous law which givps large 
 fortunes to a few individuals at the expenses of the Taxpayers."— roH/i- 
 cilman Samuel, Q. Kuiy's Letter to JJemucralic Mayoralty Convention, 
 Jan. 27tla, 1881.
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 69 
 
 came into existence, was the strongest evidence that could 
 be adduced to show tliat nothing that could be utilized in 
 the interest of a corrupt and venai body of men was 
 neglected. While the poor were groaning under the 
 burden of taxation which had been growing heavier 
 with each successive year, the rich politician was chuck- 
 ling over the good fortune of ihose who created Tax 
 Receiver's and whose services were so highly esteemed by 
 their creatures after assuming official functions that they 
 were only too happy to exempt them from the payment 
 
 " The Tax Office is regarded as certain to afford a quarter of a million 
 of dollars of fees and perquisites fur those who can obtain possession of 
 It. This immense revenue is wrung from the poorer 'lass of taxpayers 
 who are unable to pay when they could secure exemption from extor- 
 tion."- Times, Jan, 30, 1881. 
 
 " This man (Eeceiver of Taxes) is to get §200,000 a year, squeezed out of 
 the widows and the unfortunate poor. I call i ' blood money. The Presi- 
 dent of the United States gets §5U,U00 a year. Lincoln— the great and 
 noble-hearted Lincolu-gotiylOO.OOO for his martyrdom. The Tax Office 
 is the graduating place for Gas Trustees."— iVesidenJ Caven'n JPublic 
 Speech, Feb. 4, 1881. 
 
 " During the existence of the Delinquent Tax Office— a mere tender to 
 the of Receivpv of Taxes, the Delinquent Collect(i' being appomted by 
 the Receiver— the salary ant! the fees of the Receiver of Taxes have 
 never amonuted to less than $150,000 and have often amounted to nearly 
 $200,000 per annum.'' -Evening Telep7'aph, Feb. 12, ISSl. 
 
 " For all the iniquity of the Tax Office, as well in the law as in its ad- 
 ministration, the 'ring roosters' of Philadelphia are directly and solely 
 respoiisible. They concocted and had passed every oppressive measure 
 of which the people complain. When Taxpayers asked for relief the 
 Basses replied with the pitiless act of 1879 which put every tenant of a 
 delinquent landlord at the mercy of the tax-gatherer-"— C/ironicte-.ffa-a;c/, 
 Feb. 15, 1881. 
 
 " Long and patiently the people submitted to the spoiler until patience 
 ceased to be a virtue and further fm-bearance a crime. The defiant 
 bosses had laughed to scorn the idea that successful resistance could be 
 made against them. Entrenched in the strongholds of corruption, sup- 
 ported by the very worst elements of both parties, flushed with dishonest 
 spoils already secured and thirsting for more they .".went, into the contest 
 confident of getting through somehow."— -Bueninff iSto?-, Feb. IJ, 1881. 
 
 " When it is remembered that the profits of the Delinquent Tax Office 
 are $728 a day and that the Democratic and Republican ringsters who are 
 to share such big spoils do not ntiinber over a score, any school-boy chu 
 figure up the amount that will fall to each. One of the bosses is credited 
 with receiving $40,000 as his annual share of the cresent orotits."— .fc'Dc?!- 
 ing Star, Feb. 2, 1881.
 
 70 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 of taxes. Not strange is it then that James McManes 
 and his followers should be anxious about this office. A 
 Receiver, not of their kind, means for thjem a great deal 
 that would likely prove annoying; while one of the kind 
 they have been used to supplying would give them all that 
 could be desired. Meantime the people will likely take 
 a hand in settling this question at the coming election 
 for there have been frequent indications of late that they 
 are becoming aroused.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 DISINTEGRATION AND DISORGANIZATION. 
 
 Bossism has been so loug in business it bas become 
 philosophic ; nothing being more conducive to philosophy 
 than the thwacks and cutis its family members receive in 
 their probation period when, under the discipline of ex- 
 perienced masters they are trained, as in a school for 
 thieves, after a rigorous system which looks not toward 
 leaving them unprovided with resources in times when 
 fortune deserts them and justice, to a greater or less ex- 
 tent, secures her vindication. To accept defeat like 
 philosophers, then, is the first duty of its followers; the 
 next, to recruit their strength and plan their campaign 
 for the all-absorbing struggle of February. Past ex- 
 perience bids them hope ; these November battles have 
 been lost before and still the mure important February 
 fights have been won. Thus does Bossism reason in the 
 endeavor to convince itself that things are not as bad as 
 they might be and that good dame Fortune is with it a 
 permanent guest. Yet men know this fascinating lady 
 and know how unreliable are some of her most flattering 
 promises. Justice to her, however, demands that she 
 shall not unwarrantably be set down as the beguiler of 
 Bossism on this occasion, her deft fingers being strangely 
 absent from the signs that mark the dubious prospect, — 
 dubious even to a degree that causes the political prophets 
 to be unusually wary and reserved, a spectacle so rare 
 that it is enough to create al.irm throughout the entire 
 political brotherhood. For Bossism has reached a criti- 
 cal stage and old tactics and methods are about to be 
 •(71)
 
 72 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 taxed beyond the limits of anything ever contemplated 
 by its most far-sighted leaders. The point of human 
 endurance has been reached and passed and certain in- 
 evitable consequences are arising, like armed men from 
 slumber, to the work of indiscriminate, spontaneous retri- 
 bution. The tmprofessional politician is arising, whose 
 number is legion and whose occupation that of payer of 
 taxes, and his ominous frown beclouds and darkens Boss- 
 isms entire low-hanging sky. 
 
 In the meantime one of the aggravating causes of the 
 present revolutionary spirit of citizens are the public 
 journals, Not to Philadelphia alone is the journalistic 
 agitation confined. The Herald, of New York, has for 
 weeks past, through the medium of its correspondent, 
 Mr. Julius Chambers, been exposing what appear to be 
 gigantic frauds in the Gas Trust. Intense is the ex- 
 citement which these disclosures produce, the subject 
 being followed with great persistency and determination, 
 incendiary threats against Correspondent Chambers not- 
 withstanding. Finally the public sentiment over these 
 revelations becomes so thoroughly aroused that the Gas 
 Trust is compelled, in its own defense, to ask the City 
 Councils for an investigation of its stewardship, a resolU' 
 tion having been introduced in the Cominon Chamber by 
 one of the members* providing for the appointment of a 
 joint committee of both branches for this purpose. 
 Meanwhile, Citizen E. Dunbar Lockwood, perceiving 
 that in the aroused state of the public feeling against the 
 Gas Trust, a favorable time has arrived in which to give 
 this creature of despotism and corruption its death blow, 
 goes among influential citizens on a weighty mission. 
 
 ♦Councilman Bardsle»
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 73 
 
 Business men and "heavy taxpayers" approve of 
 his idea as, in counting-room and miscellaneous busi- 
 ness places, he dilates upon it, and soon the interest 
 in his scheme becomes contagious. If the people 
 are truly ready for a change, and only wait for wise 
 leadership to prompt them to arise in a mass and over- 
 throw the pretenders who have sought to rule them in a 
 spirit almost approaching barbaric despotism, could there 
 be a better time for action tlian the present? Dunbar 
 Lockwood hurries on, well pleased with the prospect of a 
 speedy fruition of his hopes and purposes. Leaders! 
 leaders ! Well, if these are all that are lacking the people 
 shall have leaders, and they shall have principles to fight 
 for, and system and courage and faithfulness and per- 
 severance. For Dunbar is deeply in earnest and those 
 whom he visits and consults with are in earnest and they 
 are, moreover, (some of them) experienced, tried and 
 proven veterans. Are there not among them President 
 Henry C. Lea, Charles Wheeler, T. Morris Perot, George 
 H. Earle, John McLaughlin, Henry Winsor, L. P. Ash- 
 mead and Henry B. Tatham, of the old Municipal Ke- 
 form Association,* the latter two Democrats, and diffi- 
 dent about connecting themselves with Dunbar's move- 
 ment for Dunbar's sake and the movement's sake, be- 
 lieving it to be the part of good policy to have the new 
 organization distinctly Republican, supported at a later 
 period by another citizen's organization distinctly Demo- 
 cratic. Yielding to the advice of veterans Ashmead and 
 Tatham, Mr. Lockwood passes Democratic reformers by, 
 
 *The Citizens Municipal Reform Association, althougli not disbanded, 
 ceased to act politically as an organization after the February elections 
 Of 1877,
 
 74 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 and seeks support for liis scbeuie among Republicans who 
 enroll their names on his informal foolscap with an en- 
 couraging display of resolution. 
 
 Clear sailing, without a ripple in the current, in this 
 preliminary stage of things would be too much to expect. 
 Obstacles here and there spring up among i>erverse and 
 perplexing humanity, all of which, however, be it known, 
 are in the end brushed aside by the swift flying organizer 
 of citizens' movements and become only incidents of the 
 progress toward great results. Jealousy and prejudice 
 are not absent. In different forms they show them- 
 selves, but prove to be of no more account than petty an- 
 noyances. In some cases they take the form of deliberate 
 action through counter methods to defeat Dunbar's plan: 
 being not overscrupulous about circulating false state- 
 ments as to the object of the movement. In other cases 
 they take a gastronomical form* and seek through the in- 
 
 *A few days before the arrival of the time originally fixed by Mr. 
 Lockwood for the "'meeting of citizens," for the purpose of organizing 
 a Citizens Reform Committee, he received an invitation to attend a 
 dinner to be given by a gentleman who had been prominent in previous 
 reform efforts. The invitation was followed by a request to him to post- 
 pone the time of meeting in order that the dinner might take place first 
 Mr. Lockwood assented, and when he arrived at the residence of his 
 host he met a number of the gentlemen who had pledged their 
 support to his movement, among them Messrs. Wheeler and Perot. 
 There was also present Mr. Wayne MacVeagh, who was destined to 
 become a few months later the Nation's Attorney General under Presi- 
 dent Garfield. Wharton Barker, "original Garfield Republican," was 
 another guest, as was also Hampton L. Carson, the eloquent young Repub- 
 lican orator and le.ader of the Independents. After dinner, to the astonish- 
 ment of Dunbar Lockwood, the host abruptly entered upon the subject 
 of his Reform Organization movement and made a speech against it as 
 ill-advised and premature. Eight or nine other guests followed with 
 speeches, among them Messrs. Barker and MacVeagh, all of whom, 
 with one exception, took the same view of the subject and urged Mr. 
 Lockwood to withdraw his call. Five of those speakers had previously
 
 TKE FALL OF BOSSISM. 75 
 
 fluence of hospitable wines to induce the Organizer to 
 forego his intentions. 
 
 All of which, however, is preliminary to the statement 
 that on the 15th of November, 1880, Dunbar Lockwood 
 called a meetiug of citizens to order in the office of the 
 Lockwood Manufacturing Co., and called upon Amos. R. 
 Little, a Germantown merchant, to preside. The election 
 of Pattison had taken place only a few days before. 
 Nineteen days ago Mr. Lockwood had written to the 
 Controller that letter announcing himself as one of his 
 supporters and speaking prophetically about an effort on 
 
 engaged to attend the meeting, but the opposition to the movement 
 liaviiig changed their minds they informed the author of the move- 
 ment that they would not be present. 
 
 When, In the order in which tliegucsta were seated, it came Dunbar 
 Liockwood's turn to speak, he arose and with considerable spirit declined 
 10 either recall his action with reference to the meeting, or to modify his 
 plans. He assured those present that the meeting would come off 
 whether the}' attended or not, and that their places would be filled by 
 others. He was warmly supported in his position by Messrs. Wheeler, 
 Perot, Eudolph Blankenburg, John McLaughlin and Joseph Lapsley 
 Wilson, who determinedly announced that they would stand by him 
 in hismovement, and do their best to carry it forward in the interest of 
 reform though everj-body else deserted him. Surprised at this evidence 
 of dotermiiiation the opponents of the movement had nothing further 
 to say and the party broke up without having accomplished the purpose 
 which a good many well-meaning but misguided gentlemen had at 
 heart. Thej- did not however despair. On the day upon which Dunbar 
 Lockwood's meeting was announced to come off, some of the same 
 gentlemen had quietlj' called a meeting on their own account at another 
 place, and had drawn thereto a number of those who had b^f-n invited 
 to attend the other meeting. Dunbar heard of the afTair within a few 
 minutes of the time appointed for the opening of his own meeting and 
 wont in person to the place. By the exercise of a little diplomacj', pro- 
 posing to those present the name of their own chairman, Mr. Amos R. 
 Little, as the presiding officer of his own meeting, he induced them all 
 to accompany him to the office of the Lockwood Manufacturing Co., 
 on South Third Street, where the preliminary meeting of the Committee 
 of One Hundred was held.
 
 76 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 the part of " all good citizens in February next to secure 
 better government for this city." The preliminary step 
 toward the fulfillment of that prophesy was now about 
 to be realized. The meeting was in session for several 
 hours during which time the last of the opponents to this 
 scheme of reform raised his hands and besought those 
 assembled to do nothing, immediately after which he was 
 metaphorically killed and buried with summary rites. 
 Chairman Little was empowered to appoint a Committee 
 of one hundred business men " to consider the subject 
 of the nomination of proper candidates for munic pal 
 offices to be chosen at the February election." The 
 meeting then idjourns and Bossism forthwith, as it hears 
 the news, becomes unusually grave, for the proceeding 
 looks as if the Reformers mean business. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE citizens' committee. 
 
 Over the result of this citizens' meeting McManesism 
 is said to be not lightly exercised. Such meetings have 
 been held before and have been productive of more or 
 less mischief. Primarily the mere announcement of their 
 occurrence is bad, having a tendency to prejudice the 
 minds of voters. That citizens have assembled for a 
 purpose such as this, presupposes the existence of dis- 
 satisfaction with the present order of things, and dissatis- 
 faction being sometimes contagious, there is danger that 
 it may become universal and find forcible expression in
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 77 
 
 the elections. Meantime, witli busy tongue, Rumor is 
 furnishing plenty of exciting topics for all classes, and 
 Journalism in many directions is scouting for the latest 
 and freshest revelations to satisfy the popular craving. 
 From his towered sky-retreat Colonel McClure, godfather 
 of Revolt and Disorganization, looks with cold philosophic 
 eye upon the threatening clash of belligerent elements, 
 and hides beneath a calm, self-contained exterior a deal 
 of genuine satisfaction. Well does he know the forces 
 that are slowly working out a solution of this political 
 problem ; for, has he not, in many private conferences 
 with Dunbar Lockwood, in that towered chamber, other- 
 wise sanctum sanctorum, for weeks past advised and 
 suggested ways and things expedient to the object in 
 view and to the circumstances of the hour, this doing as 
 experienced politician and able editor combined, whose 
 forty years of political life, enriched by a varied ex- 
 perience of ups and downs and five years' life in Phila- 
 delphia journalism, has served to give him a knowledge 
 of men and things which is used with most potent 
 effect, in any cause he undertakes. To the Philadelphia 
 public Colonel McClure addressed his journalistic saluta- 
 tory, before reform in that city had found a foothold, 
 since which time City, State, and Nation have felt the 
 power of his vigorous pen. These political revolutionists 
 has he encouraged and incited, the cause of the people 
 has he espoused, their wrongs proclaimed, their self-ap- 
 pointed masters fiercely denounced, for all of which he 
 has earned the cordial hatred of those masters to whom 
 the mention of his name is disturbing and irritating as 
 salt and vinegar upon raw flesh. In no circumscribed 
 sphere of action has he received his training. From the
 
 78 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 remote southern tier of Pennsylvania counties, where 
 the fertile Keystone soil mingles with the limestone rocks 
 of sunny Maryland, and where, embosomed among the 
 hills of the blue valley of Cumberland, in the heart of 
 Franklin County, lies the historic little town of Chambers- 
 burg, with its hollow-sounding turnpikes and its moun- 
 tain-inns, came Colonel McClure in the early days of 
 Philadelphia reform, when people's movements and or- 
 ganizations for popular rights were in their incipiency, 
 and for a time was not heard of in politics, having settled 
 down quietly to the practice of the profession of law. 
 Not long, however, was he destined to remain thus, in 
 retirement. The struggles of the unorganized and po- 
 litically inexperienced people against the banded and 
 organized hosts of the ringsters had already begun, 
 and the crying need of the hour was an experienced 
 leader. Back through the years of political strife and 
 turbulency, of which sturdy Pennsylvania had had its 
 share, were the meteor-like traces in Legislative hall and 
 Nominating convention, of Colonel McClure, and never 
 did they shine with a gladder light than to these strugg- 
 ling and politically unpracticed Eeformers now, when, 
 as if by an inspiration-flash, an idea possessed them. 
 Here in their midst, seeking public favor no longer, nor 
 yet free from contempt for the practices of political ad- 
 venturers — wearing the guise of devotees to party prin- 
 ciple only that they might steal — was the veteran of many 
 stirring conflicts, friend of Lincoln and of "war-Governor" 
 Curtin, and the type and representative of a nobler and 
 more lofty aim in politics, whose skill and unbounded 
 resources, tried and proven so often in the past, might 
 well spread confusion and dismay through the forces of 
 the enemy.
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM, 79 
 
 With enthusiasm and courage new-born the Eeformers 
 seized Colonel McClure, dragged him, with stern disre- 
 gard of the question of individual liberty, from his law- 
 books and legal surroundings and nominated him in a 
 great people's meeting as their candidate for Mayor 
 against the candidate of McManesism, none other than 
 Councilman William S. Stokley. Then began a contest 
 the like of which Philadelphia never before witnessed. 
 In stirring oratory, night after night, did Colonel McClure 
 picture to the people the profligacy and corruption among 
 their public servants, who had in reality become masters, 
 and enthusiastically and etfectually did his young lieu- 
 tenants, irrespective of party, from among the people 
 fight for their leader, until the popular feeling against 
 Bosses and adventurers reached flood-tide, and into the 
 ballot-boxes on election day went thousands of votes for 
 Colonel McClure, in excess of those voted for candidate 
 Stokley. But the resources of the Bosses were not yet 
 exhausted. They controlled the election boards, or such 
 as they did not control they speedily bought, and they 
 were leagued together, Democrat and Republican, in 
 closely knit brotherhood whose interests were mutual, 
 and, making common cause against the people's cham- 
 pion, the election returns were falsified without limit and 
 election ofiicers bribed to perjure themselves, by which 
 means the oflicial count was made to result in favor of 
 candidate Stokley, which acts have ever, among the many 
 dark things done by the political conspirators, been open- 
 ly admitted. 
 
 But, presto ! what have they done ? Rejecting a Mayor 
 who would have been an obstacle to the success of their 
 practices for not more than three years at the worst, they
 
 80 THE FALL OP BOSSISM. 
 
 have made an Editor who will be with them evermore, 
 while their lives run, a fearful Nemesis on their tracks, 
 whose very shadow becomes an object of dread. Fatal 
 act I Never from that day have they had an undisturbed 
 hour, never have they been exempt from the wasting fire 
 of the journalistic battery which their own knavis^h deeds 
 provoked into action. 
 
 Consequences swift and disastrous grow out of this 
 crime. Men's indignation and destructive fury are accele- 
 rated in their effects under the stimulating power of this 
 aroused victim of an infamous wrong. Weary and well- 
 nigh disheartened Reformers feel their hopes revive and 
 their strength return under the bold and methodical war- 
 fare which this man, relying upon no man's opinion, con- 
 sulting no man's judgment, but depending upon his own 
 instinct and planting himself firmly upon the principle 
 of all men's rights, inaugurates against a political oli- 
 garchy, as insolent and arrogant as any that ever reared 
 its head in the despotic climes of the East. Under the 
 fierce vigor of his attacks retribution appears to be truly 
 a speedy minister. Though far from vanquished, or be- 
 ing dislodged from their entrenchments, the Bosses never- 
 theless see their erst powerful band of followers, broken 
 and diminished, some flying, with prison haunted vision, 
 to unknown parts for refuge, while others, less fortunate 
 even than fugitives from justice, are driven, despite the 
 influence and ready methods of their masters, into jails 
 and prisons, there to expiate their crimes after the man- 
 ner prescribed by law for the punishment of felons, all 
 of which are among the first indications of the tendency 
 of a sentiment to evolve tangible results out of the oppo- 
 sition of the people to self-constituted Bosses.
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 81 
 
 Meantime the work of organization among citizens is 
 going forward. Presiding oiEcer Little, acting out his 
 instructions, proceeds to select a committee of " not less 
 than one hundred business men," in which task he is 
 aided by Dunbar Lockwood, Joel J. Baily, Joshua L. 
 Baily, Rudolph Blankenburg, James A. Wright and 
 Francis B. Reeves. Their meetings are held daily in the 
 second story room of Dunbar Lockwood's manufactory, 
 and the proceedings are, for the present, a secret. After 
 a lapse of eleven days, or on the 26th of November, the 
 work of Chairman Little and his colleagues is completed, 
 and on the following day the list of the permanent Com- 
 mittee members*, one hundred and seven in all, is 
 
 * The names and occupations of the members of the Committee of 
 One Hundred, as originally constituted, were as follows, viz. : George N. 
 Allen, merchant; William Allen, manufacturer; J. T. Audenreid, coal 
 operator ; William Arrott, manufacturer and insurance manager ; Chas. 
 B. Adamson, manufacturer; JoelJ. Baily, merchant; Alexander Brown, 
 banker; William B. Bement, manufacturer; William Brockie, shipping 
 merchant; Joshua L, Baily, merchant; H. W. Bartol, sugar refiner; 
 Henry C. Butcher, merchant; John T.Bailey, manufacturer; James 
 Bonbright, merchant ; Charles H. Biles, cashier; Rudolph Blankenburg, 
 manufacturer and Importer ; George L. Buzbj', secretary board of trade; 
 David Branson, coal merchant; Bobert R. Corson, secretary; E. R. 
 Cope, manufacturer; B. B. Comegys, banker; John F. Craig, broker; 
 George V. Cresson, machinist; Matthew H. Crawford, gentleman; Chas. 
 J. Cohen, manufacturer; H. T. Coates, publisher; Lemuel Coffin, mer- 
 chant; Samuel Croft, manufacturer; Edward H. Coates, merchant; A. 
 A. Catanach, builder; Thomas T. Child, jeweler; James Dobson, manu- 
 facturer; A. J. Drexel, banker; William P. Ellison, merchant; George 
 H. Earle. attorney; Oliver Evans, merchant; George W. Farr, jeweler; 
 Clayton French, wholesale druggist; John Field, merchant; W. W. 
 Frazier, Jr., sugar refiner; Phillip C. Garrett, retired manufacturer; 
 JabeE Gates, merchant; R. H. Griffith, farmer; D. R. Garrison, lumber 
 merchant; James Graham, merchant; John E. Graeflf, coal operator; 
 Henry C. Gibson, merchant; Thomas Hart, attorney ; F. Oden Horst- 
 mann, manufacturer; Thos. S. Harrison, manufacturer; Samuel Hecht, 
 merchant; R. E. Hastings, manufacturer; Theodore Justice, merchant; 
 N, E. Janney, real estate agent ; William H. Jenks, merchant ; Eben C.
 
 82 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 published in the newsj^apers aud read with varying emo- 
 tions by different persons. Some of them have been 
 familiar Keformers who have given many uneasy hours 
 to Bossism in the past; — among them Henry C. Lea, 
 Charles "Wheeler, T. Morris Perot, George H. Earle, and 
 John Field. The majority of them, however, have been 
 unknown in politics, being strict business men v/ho have 
 heretofore taken no further interest in political affairs 
 than is involved in the casting of a vote, and not always 
 have they gone this far, the political surroundings of the 
 polling places being, as a rule, not inviting to self-re- 
 specting persons, a fact which accounts largely for the 
 
 Jaj'ne, wholesale druggist ; Chas. C.Knight, merchant: Godfrey Keebler, 
 baker; Henry C. Lea, publisher; Edward Longstreth, manulacturer ; 
 Henry Lewis, merchant; Amos R. Little, merchant; E. Dunbar Lock- 
 wood, manufacturer ; J. Frederick Loeble, manufacturer ; Louis C. Ma- 
 deira, insurance agent; Thomas G. Morton, surgeon; Jauies S. Mason, 
 manufacturer ; Theodore Megargee, manufacturer ; George D. McCreary, 
 coal operator; John McLaughlin, merchant; AcquilaNebeker, physician 
 Morris Newburger, manufacturer; H. M. Oliver, manufacturer; T. Morn.i 
 Perot, malster ; James Peters, merchant; Joseph Farrish, attorney; H. W- 
 Pitkin, manufacturer; Thomas Potter, Jr., manufacturer; Chas. Kober s 
 manufacturers; Charles H. Rogers, banker; Francis B. Reeves, merchant 
 Charles Spencer, manufacturer; David Scull, Jr., merchant; William 
 Sellers, manufacturer; B. H. Shoemaker, importer; F. R. Shelton, banker 
 James Spear, merchant; Seville Schofield, manufacturer; Samuel G 
 Scott, merchant; J. C. Strawbridge, merchant; Alexander Simpson, Jr. 
 attorney; Oswald Seidensticker, teacher; Wm. Henry Trotter, impor- 
 ter; A. C. Thomas, importer; John P. Verree, manufacturer; Charles 
 Wheeler, manufacturer ; George Whitney, manufacturer; George Wat- 
 son, builder ; John Wanamaker, merchant ; Edward S. Whelen, banker; 
 John C. Watt, manufacturer ; Ellis D. Williams, attornej- ; James A. 
 Wright, shipping merchant; William Wood, manufacturer; Henry 
 Winsor, shipping merchant ; Alexander Whilldin, merchant; E. R. 
 Wood, manufacturer ; Christopher Wetherill, wholesale druggist. 
 
 Of the composition of the committee the lYess of the 27th of Novem- 
 ber, 1881, makes the following analysis: 
 
 " In the foregoing list certain sections of the city, in which the Reform 
 element is not extensive, have very small representation. For instance^
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 83 
 
 frequent success of Bossism, Demagogism, and all the 
 other isms that, from a political source, curse the people- 
 These nS,mes no sooner see the light of print, than 
 speculation and gossip run wild. lu club house, hotel, 
 public vehicle and on street corners, they stimulate the 
 wagging of tongues. Names are there, which constitute 
 base and superstructure of Philadelphia business enter- 
 prise, which commemorate in the third, fourth and fifth 
 generations the integrity of the city's early founders and 
 still shed lustre upon the religious faith of Penn. Yeri- 
 ly, the uprising is formidable, as James McManes him- 
 self even does admit, adding, with smooth desire to 
 placate, that he " does not wish to antagonize the best 
 element of the community," which expression of magna- 
 nimity comes rather late. 
 
 the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Ward, have but two 
 representatives on the Committee. Mr. Loeble from the First, and Mr. 
 Watt from the Fourth. The Eight Ward has twenty-six gemlemen on 
 the Committee, the largest representation, as might be expected, in a 
 district so largelj- populated by extensive property owners. Following 
 it is the Twenty-Second Ward (Germantown and Chestnut Hill) in which 
 reside so many wealthy merchants, with sixteen reprtsentatives. The 
 Seventh Ward is represented by nine gentlemen, and the Ninth by 
 seven. Both these Wards have within their limits Spruce, Pine and 
 Arch streets, on which are the residences of many wealthy and influen- 
 tial citizens. The great Reform Ward of Philadelphia, the Fifteenth, 
 where Mr. Joseph L. Caveu resides, has ten r^jpresentatives, only one of 
 whom has ever been prominent in political life. The Nineteenth Ward 
 is represented by Mr. Peters, alone, and the Twenty-Third also has but 
 one representative. The Twenty-Fourth Ward and the Twenty-Seventh 
 Ward, in the former of which John Hunter resides, and in the latter W. 
 Ellwood Rowan, have each four names on the Committee. ManayunJj, 
 with its great manufactories, has two representatives. The other Watrds 
 that are without representation at all in the Committee are the Four- 
 teenth, Sixteenth, Seventeenth, Eighteentu, Twenty-Fifth and Thirty- 
 First. Every gentleman named on the Conamittee is Republican in 
 politics.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 READjraSTINQ POLITICAL BALANCES. 
 
 Now there will be an end to this one-sided manage' 
 ment of things political, an end to the usurpation of 
 narrow cunning and audacity and consequent wholesale 
 misrule ; and an end, too, to the domination of insolent 
 a)id offensive political bullies and types of a brute force 
 in politics whose influence upon men has ever been 
 vicious and degrading, and who, through indifference or 
 lack of vigilance on the part of the people, possess them- 
 selves of the reins of government and utilize the power 
 thus acquired not for the public good, but for their own 
 vulgar aggrandizement and self-exaltation. Long enough, 
 McManesism, have you been making your war against 
 the unorganized people ; long enough have your unkempt 
 followers and curb-stoue heelers proficient in rascality 
 in every form, stood as a menace and a terror to men 
 whose offense has been that they sought to exercise their 
 citizen's rights and cast their votes, without dictation or 
 advice from you. Now you shall witness a change. The 
 sleeping lion which you so persistently kicked and prod- 
 ded and abused, has at last been aroused and you shall 
 find, by a test more practical and compulsory than will 
 be to the suddenly acquired luxury of your tastes agree- 
 able, how insignificant, after all, is this power by which 
 you have awed and intimidated men in the past. Fools 
 may you well be called. The vulgar love of tinsel and 
 scarlet, outstripping discreetness and smothering honesty, 
 has led you to believe that with your trickery and politi- 
 cal jugglery you could build uv and maintain a limited 
 (84)
 
 THE FALL or BOSSISM. 85 
 
 Despotism, and that, too, in a city wliicli, upon a time, 
 under the goad of cruel oppression, arose in its young 
 vigor and might, and rang out a Declaration that smote 
 tyrants with pallid fear, and in stern, unequivocal 
 speech taught kings to be humble. Short-sighted, puny 
 creatures ! Independence, which has been the thews and 
 sinews of the Nation, was not born here to be overcome 
 and eradicated by you, — crafty interlopers of unheroic 
 stock; nor has that sacred hall, white-towered, and 
 eloquent in dumb pleading, with its age-tarnished bell, 
 lost the power to stir men's souls when their rights and 
 liberties are threatened, whether by you or by less treach- 
 erous foreign foe. 
 
 There is old William Conway I Though his appeal for 
 his citizen's rights has been slighted and mocked, there 
 is fire in men's hearts that will be kindled into a danger- 
 ous flame by that act. Too much of "nature's nobility" 
 is here among men, too little of that artificial quality 
 which elsewhere is reserved for the "favored of the 
 king," and in which lurks merely a verbose and ear- 
 wearying title, to permit a failure to arouse men at sight 
 of such doings. Mark well the fact: consequences will 
 grow out of it. 
 
 Even now events, springing from the perturbed souls 
 of men, are crowding thickly one upou another. Currents 
 and counter-currents are setting in and beating savagely 
 against the foundation of Bossism's strongest fortress 
 which yet stands firm, with windows and port-holes 
 guarded, and with white, anxious faces looking out upon 
 the raging waters. Bland Mayor Stokley is there, not so 
 much a Boss as formerly, but with deep policy written on 
 his countenance and with manners conciliatory and re-
 
 86 
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 respectful. Difficult is the Mayor's position now ; waters 
 pressing against him from without, yet with some kindly 
 favored currents; and half suspicious glances from friends 
 and household members from within. Upon the outward 
 tumult tJie Mayor looks with benign self-composure, as if 
 he were one of the promoters of the uproar, and had 
 been merely cast away and borne to the enemy's strong- 
 hold by mistake, and now was anxious to escape. Such 
 is the Mayor's expression when looked at from the stand- 
 point of the attacking forces without ; how his counten- 
 ance appears to those who view it from within, the out- 
 siders cannot know. 
 
 The Keform fever, meantime, is spreading and many 
 persons are becoming infected. In the most unexpected 
 places it breaks out ; dissatisfied humanity, emulating 
 the Committee of One Hundred, is colloguing together 
 with a view to forming clubs. The public ear soon be- 
 comes familiar with the names of the Veteran's Associa- 
 tion, the Union League of America, the Minute Men the 
 Keim Club, and a host of other designations expressive 
 of a stout determination to give the people a chance, 
 through each aforementioned organization individually, 
 to annihilate Bossism and accept what they have to offer 
 in place thereof, each separate club having a candidate 
 of its own for Mayor, upon whose election depends the 
 overthrow of the entire system of Bossism, which view of 
 the matter the numerous clubs vie with each other in en- 
 deavoring to impress upon the minds of the One Hundred. 
 There is the name of Keim I Plain citizen, business man 
 and loyal Eepublican. He is looking confidently for- 
 ward to the party nomination by the Republicans for 
 Mayor against Mr. Stokley ; believes two terms ought to
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 87 
 
 be enough for Mayor Stokley, despite the plea of the lat- 
 ter's friends to the effect that his vigorous suppression of 
 gamblers and housebreakers should secure him the office 
 for life. Nevertheless Mr. Keim has hopes, as he has reason 
 to have, for assurances have been given him by persons 
 influential with the dispensing power in politics, that he 
 shall have the nomination ; and his friends throughout 
 the city go on forming their clubs and hiring bands of 
 music to develop enthusiasm in the interest of their 
 candidate. 
 
 Quietly the work goes forward on the part of the One 
 Hundred ; quietly they formulate their plans and discuss 
 their prospects. The 3d of December is come, and with 
 it comes their first meeting as a body. Temporary Chair 
 man Little in the chair, Francis B. Reeves, Secretary, 
 and the meeting place the Board of Trade Rooms. Im- 
 portant is this first meeting, for there is to be elected a 
 permanent chairman, who has already been agreed upon 
 in the person of citizen Philip C. Garrett of German- 
 town, retired merchant, with leisure and pecuniary 
 means which will enable him to give time to the work 
 devolving upon him, as the Committee's Executive. 
 Preliminary to the business in question, Mr, James A, 
 Wright submits a motion to the effect that the officers 
 shall consist of a Chairman, first and second Vice-Chair- 
 man, Treasurer, Secretary, and a first and a second Assis- 
 tant Secretary. Mr. John E. Graeff" offers a motion for the 
 appointment by the chair of a committee of three, whose 
 business shall be the nomination of officers, and the 
 chair appoints Mr, Graeflf, Joel J. Bailey and Henry 
 Winsor as the committee, which at once retires, and the 
 meeting takes a recess until it returns. 
 4
 
 88 THE FALL OF BOSSTSM. 
 
 After a brief absence the committee appears and sub- 
 mits its report : for Permanent Chairman, Philip C. 
 Garrett ; First Vice-Cliairman, James A. Wright ; Second 
 Vice-Chairman, Francis B. Reeves ; Treasurer, A. J. 
 Drexel ; Secretary, George W. Farr ; First and Second 
 Assistant Secretaries, Robert R. Corson and Charles B. 
 Adamson. 
 
 The report is accepted, the officers unanimously elected 
 and amid demonstrations of applause Chairman Garrett 
 takes the seat which is resigned to him by his friend and 
 neighbor, Mr. Little. 
 
 Mr. John Wanamaker presents the first resolution 
 under the new chairman. It is to the effect that "in 
 order to perfect the organization the chairman be author- 
 ized to appoint the following committees : an Executive 
 Committee, to consist of twenty-five members; a Com- 
 mittee on Legislation, to consist of fifteen members; a 
 Committee on Finance, to consist of twenty-five mem- 
 bers ; a Committee on Public Meetings, to consist of fifteen 
 members; and a committee on Ward Organization, to 
 consist of thirty-one members; "and inasmuch," citizen 
 Wanamaker's resolution goes on, " as there is not in the 
 membership of the Committee one representative from 
 each of the thirty-one wards, the chair be hereby author- 
 ized to constitute a committee on Ward Organization, con- 
 sisting of, at least, one member from each ward," which 
 resolution is also unanimously adopted. 
 
 Another motion, by Mr. John Field, that the chairmen 
 of all Standing Committees shall be ex officio members of 
 the Executive Committee, is carried ; as also is a motion 
 by Mr. John McLaughlin, to the effect that all resolutions 
 and communications received by the General Committee
 
 THE FALL OF EOSSISM. 89 
 
 be referred to the proper Standing Committees, without 
 debate. Mr. Eudolph Blankenburg moves that the 
 Executive committee, when appointed, be requested to 
 report, at an early day, a plan of action and rules for the 
 government of the organization. The meeting then ad- 
 journs, to come together at the call of the Chair. Yet, 
 a word more: two significant things have happened, 
 which rather indicate the importance the Committee 
 has already acquired in the eyes of other political 
 organizations. The City Executive Committee of the 
 Republicans — composed largely of obsequious supporters 
 of Bossism — has sent a letter congratulating the Com- 
 mittee on its determination to battle for Eeform, and 
 diplomatically pledging itself to co-operate with the 
 latter body in its work and assuming that the latter will, 
 as a matter of course, renominate Mr. Stokley. 
 
 The other communication is from the Union League of 
 America, which is supporting Mr. Keim, and hints that 
 the proper thing for the Committee to do is to nominate 
 Mr. Keim which letter, Avith the other, is taken charge of 
 and laid away for future use among the Secretary's papers.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE GAS TRUST "COURTS INVESTIGATION." 
 
 The " dear people" have as much as they can do, 
 watching events in this now wide awake city. To keep 
 trace of everything that is turning up politically, is a task 
 requiring sharp eyes and ears. So much is happening 
 these days, so much more is threatening. Leaving out of 
 question that which is yet unrealized, enough will be 
 found in the record of each day's acts to impress the 
 mind with an idea of the extent of the influences which 
 are working a change in the political balances of the 
 municipality and laying a sure foundation for new 
 doctrines which have long been frowned down and 
 sneered at by those whose interests were best served by 
 the continued supreraacj'' of Bossism and its pernicious 
 methods. 
 
 In this preliminary political skirmish two distinct sets 
 of fighters are discernible as aggressors. The Citizen's 
 Committee, among the people, in radical ways, though 
 yet scarce fully equipped, are sapping the enemy's 
 strength. President Caven and Messrs. Page, Hunter 
 and King in the City Councils are engaged with equal 
 vigor in the same operations, conducted under parlia- 
 mentary restrictions. Upon the actions of both, the 
 interest and the sympathy of the populace are centred. 
 From the wards and precincts, where the despotic hand 
 of Bossism has for years stifled all political independence, 
 come words of encouragement and hope. The dissatisfied, 
 the wronged and the abused alike,rally around the standard 
 of the popular cause, and crave a place in the ranks, to
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 91 
 
 do whatever work may be assigned to them, content if 
 they be only allowed to contribute their mite toward the 
 overthrow of the mischievous schemers against men's 
 rights. 
 
 The Councilmanic proceedings at this stage of things 
 will bear watching. The virtue of figures is being ex- 
 emplified in a notable way ; and the usefulness of Con - 
 troller Pattison, as an adjunct to the Reform quartette in 
 Councils, is being strikingly illustrated by daily acts in 
 connection with certain matters somewhat distasteful to 
 that formidable source of popular dissatisfaction, the Gas 
 Trust, Since Mr. Pattison's re-election there has been a 
 considerable amount of night-work ; considerable exami- 
 nation"of books and records on the part of the skillful Chief 
 Clerk Hirst, and there have also been conversations and 
 quiet meetings over the result of Chief Clerk Hirst's 
 work, between the Controller and the quartette of 
 Eeform Councilmen. Latterly the press has discovered 
 that something important is passing between them, and 
 the continuous agitation of the mystery in its columns 
 only serves to intensify public curiosity and excitement. 
 
 In Councils, meantime, the Gas Trust servitors are be- 
 coming more irascible, and they frequently exhibit evi- 
 dence of chagrin and annoyance, a fact which Davis 
 Page can bear testimony to, inasmuch as he finds them 
 so much easier to arouse these days than heretofore, though 
 injustice to Davis as a vitalizing influence, it should be 
 observed that they have always had a sensitive hide for 
 his caustic touch. No marvel is it to him, who has been 
 making war on the Gas Trust from the beginning of his 
 Councilmanic career, that its puppets in Councils dance 
 easily now, since there is so much more cause. What
 
 92 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 Mr. Page should marvel at, if he does at all, h the exis- 
 tence, after his present term expires, of the remotest chance 
 of his return to Councils, if James McManes and hia 
 brother Trustees continue to be a power in politics. Not 
 without many warnings of vengeance does the aggressive 
 Councilman pursue his fight. Abundant cause would 
 he have to hesitate and ponder over probable consequences 
 were his nature of a softer mould ; but being aggressive 
 and of uncompromising convictions, he goes steadily for- 
 ward, knowing no course but that of stern duty. No small 
 thing is it to wage a fight against the Gas Trust ; for, so 
 great has become the power of this political Goliath, of 
 late years] that few indeed, are the ones who care 
 to brave its wrath. If examples of the consequences 
 of such rashness are needed, there is one close at 
 hand in the person of aggressive Councilman Clark, of 
 the Ninth Ward, champion of people's rights, like 
 Davis Page, and like him also mathematical, which in- 
 tellectual gift kept him always puzzling his brains over 
 Gas Trust official reports, until forced to the conclusion 
 that they were incomprehensible which fact he boldly 
 declared in Common Council, at the same time demand- 
 ing a clearer exposition of the Trustees' methods of 
 management ofthe public property entrusted to their care, 
 which the Trustee's did not give, but instead gave an ex- 
 position of their methods of carrying Councilmanic elec- 
 tions, where obnoxious candidates are concerned, and 
 boldly defeated Mr. Clark next time he ran, which is an 
 example of the treatment accorded all persons who dared 
 raise their voices in protest against loose system and mis- 
 management in city affairs 
 
 IVIeantime, popular feeling against the Gas Trust has
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 93 
 
 been so wrought up by the publication of charges of mis- 
 management and fraud that the demand for an investiga- 
 tion of the accounts of the Trustees becomes too strong 
 to be resisted, and Mr. McManes, as chief spokesman of 
 the Trust announces, with smooth politic air and in 
 time-honored phrase, that he and his colleagues " court 
 investigation." A resolution providing for the appoint- 
 ment of a joint committee of investigation, composed of 
 six members from each chamber is, accordingly, on the 
 18th of November, introduced in Common Council, 
 by Mr. Bardsley ; and in pursuance of its provisions 
 President Caven appoints as the Common Council Com- 
 mittee Messrs. Bardsley, S. Davis Page, John Hunter, 
 Samuel C. Collins, and Walter E. Rex, with himself as 
 member ex officio. 
 
 Now on this particular day accident or design con- 
 tributes very decidedly, in the Select branch of the Coun- 
 cils, to the advantage of the Gas Trust. The President of 
 that body is a citizen of standing in the community, Mr. 
 George A. Smith. Although President Smith has not at 
 any time distinguished himself as a Reformer, he has 
 perhaps done the best he knew, and has kept himself 
 until this hour comparatively free from the strictures of 
 the press ; perhaps more free than he has deserved. At 
 any rate, no act in his official career has ever been cal- 
 culated to try the patience of the people to the extent 
 which his conduct in this crisis of aflfairs in the Councils 
 tries the confidence of men on this important day. When 
 the joint resolution for the appointment of the Committee 
 comes over from the Common chamber to the Select 
 branch for action, President Smith is absent from the 
 Chair; has left at the mercy of one of the strongest
 
 94 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 partisans* of the Gas Trustees to be found iu either 
 branch of the Councils, this legislative body. The result 
 is what would naturally be expected. The Select 
 Council part of the Committee is made up entirely of 
 men who are friendly to the Gas Trust, who owe their 
 election to its political influence, and who, in times past, 
 have ever stood as the defenders of this most insolent 
 self-constituted arbiter of men's political rights. 
 
 The thing has been done ; it is useless for the people 
 or their leaders to waste words in vain regrets. Parlia- 
 mentary rules do not define as a crime the act of a pre- 
 siding officer who abandons his post in such an hour, nor 
 do they restrict him in the choice of a substitute to serve 
 in his absence, in view of which facts, time spent in brood- 
 ing over an opportunity lost is energy wasted. 
 
 To follow the proceedings of this Committee to their 
 close is to follow one of the leading issues of the contest 
 between the Reformers and the Bosses in the fierce 
 struggle for the possession of the important city offices 
 during the next three months. At the very outset the 
 friends of the Trustees on the Committee show their bias, 
 and more than show it. To anything like a full and 
 clear investigation they make their opposition felt in a 
 manner that is annoying and obstructive ; and to the 
 
 * President Smith, on the day this joint resolution was presented in 
 Common Councils, vacated his Chair in the Select branch on the plea 
 that important business engagements required his presence elsewhere, 
 and called upon Councilman John McCullough to prtside in his place. 
 Mr. McCuUough was, therefore, in the Chair when the resolution came 
 over from Common Council and, having been concurred in by the Select 
 Chamber, he proceeded to appoint as the cooamittee from Select Coun- 
 cil, Adam Albright, John G. Brooke, Wm. E. Eejburn, James L. Males, 
 Wm. McMuUen, with President Smith, as member ex officio.
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 95 
 
 stranger who sits as a spectator during any of the Com- 
 mittee sessions, it would be most difficult to discover from 
 observation whether some of the Select Council members 
 of the Committee were in reality members acting in an 
 official capacity or whether they were the paid attorneys 
 of the Gas Trust. No technical point that can be raised 
 to exclude important testimony as to the mismanagement 
 of the affairs of the Trust, is allowed to escape their 
 notice, but is seized with alacrity and presented as a 
 barrier to the progress of the inquiry after simple facts. 
 
 Thus the inquiry goes on through the months, with 
 Caven and Page and Hunter searching with careful, 
 laborious application, into the truth of such transactions 
 as they have record of; and such as they do not have 
 record of, letting alone for the present. The discourage- 
 ments they meet with are frequent ; the impediments 
 thrown in their way are constant. Transactions here, on 
 their face suspicious, require certain corroboration which 
 is only to be found in books and records securely hidden 
 away in the vaults and tight chambers of the Gas Trus- 
 tees' headquarters, on Seventh street. Repeated civil 
 requests for the production of these necessary instruments 
 are met by various excuses, and also by frequent promises 
 of compliance. Yet they never appear. Fi-om requesting 
 their production to demanding their production is not 
 any more successful. Ingenious pretexts are day after 
 day put forward before the Committee in explana- 
 tion of the absence of the data which is to establish the 
 integrity of these complacent gentlemen who " court in- 
 vestigation." 
 
 Finally a new plan is adopted. If written evidence 
 cannot be secured, the Committee will call the Trustees
 
 96 THE PALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 themselves, and also their chief accountants. The 
 Trustees are requested to appear, but they pay no more 
 heed to the request than they would to the voice of the 
 wind. The requests are repeated, the time and the place 
 are invariably appointed for them to meet the Committee 
 but they never show their presence, nor signify by word 
 or sign any acknowledgement of the receipt of any 
 notice. 
 
 The Committee next endeavor to secure the attendance 
 of the Cashier. The evidence of this employe is most 
 important. Nothing would more certainly throw light 
 upon the long-hidden mysteries of Gas Trust manage- 
 ment or mismanagement than the testimony of this man, 
 if he told the truth. Messengers are dispatched after 
 Cashier White, and notes are written to him, none of 
 which produce the least effect, the Cashier being too busy 
 to respond in any form. At length he is indulged to the 
 extent of a visit from members of the Committee, whom 
 he receives from behind an open ledger, with one pen in 
 his mouth and another behind his ear, in which position 
 he looks doggedly at the Councilmanic delegation, 
 through steel-rimmed spectacles. The brief parley the 
 visitors have with him, is anything but satisfactory. The 
 Cashier bluntly tells them he has no time to attend in- 
 vestigations. The request for books and papers to aid 
 in the investigation is again met by an ingenious ex- 
 cuse* It is in vain the Cashier is told that his employers 
 have assured the public that they " court investigation." 
 The Cashier seems to be supreme in his position for once; 
 appears to take no instructions from his employers who 
 blandly assure the Committee that they have ordered 
 hirn to appear and to furnish any books and papers that
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 97 
 
 may be desired. And thus the Cashier still maintains 
 his position behind the deslv, with his ponderous ledger 
 before him, and with his numerous surplus pens scattered 
 all about him, the investigation, meantime, going on 
 with such random scraps of evidence as the Committee is 
 able to get together. There will be a report to deliver, 
 one of these days ; and therein will be shown some sur- 
 prising results, notwithstanding the discouragements now 
 thrown in the way of a fair and imjiartial inquiry. 
 
 The chairman of the Committee of One Hundred has 
 been occupied, in the meantime, selecting members of 
 the several Standing committees.* On the 11th of De- 
 cember the second meeting is held, and the committees 
 are announced by Chairman Garrett, whereby cons- 
 siderable public curiosity and expectation are satisfied. 
 The Executive committee, which is the important body 
 at this stage of the organization, assumes its new func- 
 tions with promptness, and under the lead of its chair- 
 man, Mr. Little, retires to a corner of the room, to pre- 
 
 * The members of the Standing Committees, as announced [by Chair- 
 man Garrett, at the second meeting of the Committee of One Hundred, 
 were as follows : 
 
 Executive Committee : Amos R. Little, chairman ; James A. "Wright, 
 Rudolph Blankenburg, Henry Winsor, Francis B. Reeves, John Field, 
 William Arrott, George Whitney, James Boubright, George N. Allen, 
 J. C. Strawbridge, J. T. Audenreid, John Wanamaker, John E. Graeff, 
 Joshua L. Baily, George H. Earle. Samuel G. Scott, Thomas S. Harrison, 
 E. Dunbar Lockwood, H. W. Pitkin. T. Morris Perot, Theodore Justice, 
 Benjamin H. Shoemaker, William Wood, Ellis D. Williams. Members 
 ex officio: Philip C. Garrett, Joel J. Baily, John McLaughliu, E. R. 
 ^Wood, H. W. Bartol, George W. Farr. 
 
 Finance Committee: Joel J. Baily. chairman ; Henry C. Lea, Charles 
 Wheeler, Edward S. Whelen, William Sellers, Alexander Brown, B. B. 
 Comegys, George Whitney, Wm. B. Bement, Henry C. Gibson, Charles 
 H. Rogers, James S. Mason, Henry Lewis, Eben C. Jayne, Lemuel Coffin, 
 W. W. Frazier, Jr., Edward Longstreth, John T. Bailey, David Scull, Jr.,
 
 98 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 pare a report to be submitted to the general Committee. 
 This report, which is presently read by the Secretary, 
 Mr. Ellis D. Williams, presents first, a method for govern- 
 ing the proceedings of the general Committee, and pro- 
 poses that the rules of the House of Eepresentatives of 
 the United States, so far as applicable, be adopted as the 
 rules of the Committee of One Hundred, The order of 
 business shall be: first, roll call; second, reading the 
 minutes; third, reading communications ; fourth, reports 
 of committees ; fifth, unfinished business ; and sixth, new 
 business. The general Committee by a unanimous vote 
 adopts this part of the report. 
 
 The remainder of the report, among other things, de- 
 fines the duties of the other Standing committees. The 
 duty of the committee on Ward Organization shall be 
 to organize, in such manner as shall afford all persons 
 
 A. J. Drexel, F. R. Shelton, Charles J. Cohen, Amos R. Little, Charles 
 H. Biles, W. H. Jenks. 
 
 Legislative Committee: Edward R.Wood, chairman; Thomas Hart, 
 Jr., Ellis D. Williams, Joseph Parrish, Clayton French, Samuel G. Scott, 
 Charles Spencer Edwin R. Cope, James Spear, William H. Trotter, A. 
 C. Thomas, Alexander Whilldin, William Brockie, D. R. C4arrison. 
 
 Committee on Ward Organization: John McLaughlin, chairman; 
 George H. Earle, Seville Schofield, John C. Watt, David Branson, John 
 P. Verree, James Dobson, Godfrey Keebler, John F, Craig, H. JI. Oliver, 
 Matthew H. Crawford, J. Frederick Loeble, Alexander Simpson, Jr., 
 Charles Roberts, Samuel Croft, A. A. Catauach, Theodore Megargee, 
 L. C. Madeira, Oliver Evans, James Peters, George Watson, Jabez Gates, 
 R. H. Griffith, Samuel Hecht, R. E. Hastings, Thomas Potter, Jr., 
 George D. McCreary, H. T. Coates, Rudolph Blankenburg, Thohias J. 
 Child, James S. Mason, Alexander Whilldin, James Graham, A. J. 
 Drexel, D. R. Garrison. 
 
 Committee on Public Meetings: H. W. Bartol, chairman; Edward H.* 
 Coates, Wm. T. Ellison, Thomas G. Morton, Oswald Seidensticker, 
 Henry C. Butcher, K. E. Janney, William Allen, George V. Cresson, 
 James Graham, C. Wetherill, F. Oden Horstman, Charles C. Knight, 
 George L. Buzby, Morris Kewberger.
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 99 
 
 desirous of cooperating witli the Committee of One 
 Hundred an opportunity to give effect to their -wishes, 
 auxiliary committees of citizens in every ward. Tlie 
 Committee sliall also constantly, during the political 
 campaign, report to the general Committee, as early as 
 possible, for its approval the best nominations for Coun- 
 cils and for Ward offices. 
 
 The mission of the Committee on Legislation shall be 
 to report to the general Committee such measures as are 
 necessary in the interest of Keform ; and to submit an 
 act, if expedient, "modifying or repealing the Act cre- 
 ating the office of Collector of Delinquent Taxes, so as 
 to make it a salaried office, the fees to revert to the city 
 Treasury," And also " to inquire into and report as to 
 the practicability of the repeal of the Recorder's bill." 
 These sections of the Executive committee's report were 
 also adopted by unanimous vote, and the report was then 
 adopted as a whole. 
 
 Meantime, the members of the committee on Ward 
 Organization have also been getting their heads together 
 and have a report to make, the tenor of which is the ad- 
 dition of new names to their committee, in accordance 
 with citizen John Wanamaker's resolution adopted at the 
 last meeting, in order that each of the thirty-one Wards 
 of the city shall be represented by at least one member 
 on the committee on Ward Organization. The new mem- 
 bers proposed are John S. Stephens, Robert V. Barber, 
 Wm, W. Taxis, Peter Boyd, Fred Glading, Morris Car- 
 penter, Dr. J. K. Knorr, Isaac A. Sheppard, David H. 
 Kolloch, Clermont Smith, Constantino Thorn, and James 
 Dittie. The report is adopted by the general Committee, 
 and the persons named become members of the committee 
 on Ward Organization.
 
 100 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. - 
 
 Two motions are oflFered before the Committee adjourns, 
 wliicli are fraught with significance, and might well be 
 accepted as an index to important consequences. Prim 
 and clean-shaven Oliver Evans — who is a good friend to 
 Mayor Stokley — in his Quaker garb, presents a motion 
 to the effect that the Executive committee be requested 
 to report at an early date the names of suitable persons 
 for City Solicitor, Eeceiver of Taxes, and Mayor. 
 
 Dunbar Lockwood arises immediately and offers 
 a motion to the effect that the auxiliary Ward 
 committees of citizens, co-operating with the committee 
 on Ward Organization of the Committee of One Hun- 
 dred, be requested to communicate to the Executive com- 
 mittee their views as to candidates, in order that the 
 latter committee may have the benefit of their sugges- 
 tions. Both motions are adopted unanimously, and the 
 motives of their authors now seem to be in harmony, 
 yet there will come a time when both shall stand face to 
 face sternly and uncompromisingly opposed to each 
 other.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 DEMOCKATIC AUXILIARIES. 
 
 The position occupied by the Democrats during the 
 early stage of this Reform uprising is a subject of mucli 
 speculation and of no little concern. Their organization 
 in the city for the past few years has been represented by 
 a small group of men whose character and methods, in 
 politics, are such as may well cause Reformers of Re- 
 publican faith, eager to absolve themselves from any 
 obligation to support the corrupt and venal practices of 
 McMacesism, to hesitate before casting their lot with 
 those who have constituted themselves spokesmen of the 
 Democratic party. To discern any difference in objects, 
 in methods, or in moral standards between the men who 
 occupy a position of prominence before the people as 
 " Democratic leaders," and those who have long been 
 known as Republican Bosses would appear to require 
 clearer and more discriminating vision than has so far 
 been demonstrated to exist among men. That the two 
 elements are not only thoroughly congenial together, and 
 understand each other much better than do their duped 
 and betrayed followers, but that they secretly conspire 
 together to defeat candidates of the people at the polls 
 there is, and long has been, evidence abundant and un- 
 disputed; such, evidence being especially plain and 
 glaring in the case of Colonel McCIure, the candidate 
 of the people for mayor, on which occasion Democratic 
 and Republican Bosses combined, making common cause 
 against the interests of citizens generally and vying with 
 each other in their efforts, inside and outside the polls, to 
 (101)
 
 102 THE FALL OF B0SS18M. 
 
 perpetrate monstrous frauds under the guidance and the 
 protection of the police. 
 
 In consequence of this state of things, the fact that the 
 Committee of One Hundred is exclusively a Republican 
 organization, does not promise much in the nature oi 
 enc'juragement for those so-called political rivals of 
 McManesism, who, at every opportunity, so ostentatiously 
 proclaim their devotion to " the principles of pure De- 
 mocracy," and, in wildly impassioned speech, invoke 
 departed spirits to sustain their peculiarly vicious acts. 
 Toward all movements in favor of a reform of public 
 abuses their attitude is as hostile, as uncompromisingly 
 antagonistic, as has ever been toward the same movements 
 the attitude of their Republican prototypes. Witness 
 the case of the stable Controller Pattison. The only 
 Democrat occupying a conspicuous position in the City 
 government, he commanded alike, the respect and the 
 support of the people, independent of party. The 
 highest ideal of a faithful administration, and of a pains- 
 taking and capable official, was represented in the con- 
 ception the people had formed of the management of the 
 Controller's office, and of the character of its official 
 head. In snite of the prestige of repeated successes at 
 the polls, however, where other members of his party had 
 failed, Pattison found little countenance from his own 
 party leaders. Among them his triumphs awakened rio 
 spark of enthusiasm, and his enviable public record, the 
 theme of praise even among his political opponents,brought 
 no word of encouragement or of commendation from 
 those who professsed to uphold, in common with himself, 
 the principles of the Democratic party. Rather were 
 they chagrined and sullen, as if resenting the success of
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. J,OS 
 
 one Democrat in view of the defeat of so many others 
 more in accord with their peculiar aims, however they 
 may have been with the aims of the peoijle. 
 
 The chasm between Pattison and this class of his party 
 members seemed to grow perceptibly wider with the in- 
 auguration of the One Hundred's new scheme of reform, 
 — with which he was known to be in active sympathy — and 
 with the beginning of the investigation of the Gas Trust, 
 to which he contributed valuable assistance. His official 
 conduct, in brief, proved beyond a doubt that he had no 
 sympathy with the objects and purposes of these men, 
 and that his elevation to a position of power and influence 
 meant no advancement of their personal or political 
 fortunes. More than this, he seemed to have no regard 
 for the stock supply of crude and indiscriminate 
 "traditions" of the party which the most unprincipled 
 and untrustworthy of '' leaders " so largely depended upon 
 in their efforts to keep the zeal of their followers inflamed 
 in order that they might the more effectually betray them 
 for a sordid consideration -into the hands of their political 
 foes ; and even less regard for the venerable party oracles 
 who, surviving through countless disasters — which they 
 had no small share in contributing to — nevertheless held 
 themselves ever ready to tender advice and to exact 
 homage and flattering recognition as among the least of 
 the returns to be expected, for the inestimable privilege 
 of consulting their venerable judgment upon all important 
 official and party questions. In every sense he repre- 
 sented a new and more progressive element of the De- 
 mocracy which the old pensioners of the party could not 
 but regard with disfavor. 
 
 The election of Pattison and the organization of the
 
 104 THE PALL or BOSSISM. 
 
 Committee of One Hundred then, while they "brought 
 anything but cause for congratulation to those eager and 
 expectant persons known as " Democratic leaders," did 
 bring out of a seclusion induced by an antipathy to the 
 disreputable associations and methods of those leaders, 
 a new element of the Democratic party, composed largely 
 of young men of character and ability who were deter- 
 mined to be swayed by no partisan consideration, but to 
 do their part as good citizens towards securing better 
 government and reforming the abuses in the Public 
 Departments. That they had the right from a party 
 standpoint to claim a share of the credit for reforms thus 
 far secured, or for reform movements recently inaugu- 
 rated, the acts of Mr. Page and Mr. King in the city 
 Councils, of Mr. Pattison outside the Councils, and, still 
 further back of Messrs. Ashmead, Tatham, and others of 
 the old Municipal Reform Association bore unmistakable 
 testimony. Before proceeding to take any steps in the 
 way of organization, however, there was to be considered 
 a question of vital importance. The Committee of One 
 Hundied, as yet, had not signified any disposition to 
 cooperate with any Democratic organization in this work 
 of Reform, nor had it by any word or act i)idicated that 
 it was likely to go outside its own party to secure candi- 
 dates for the three important City offices. Earnest and 
 disinterested in the Reform cause as were these new and 
 conservative recruits from the ranks of the Democracy, 
 they must have been more than human did they not 
 hesitate to give their aid to Chairman Garrett's 
 Republican organization while there was reason to 
 believe that the latter body was not disposed to 
 free itself so completely from partisan considerations as
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 105 
 
 to enable it to make its selection of candidates without 
 regard to the claims and the prejudices of party. For 
 the office of Mayor, of Receiv^er of Taxes and of City 
 Solicitor, there had been no mention by the Committee 
 of any candidates who were not Republican. On the 
 other hand there had been a decided feeling among the 
 best element of the Democrats — the Pattison wing of the 
 party — in favor of Councilman John Hunter, a Republi- 
 can, for Receiver of Taxes. The candidacy of Mr. 
 Hunter was very strongly urged by his Democratic col- 
 leagues in Councils, Messrs. Page and King, and by Mr. 
 Pattison. In the meantime some of the Democrats had 
 been recommending as a candidate for City Solicitor, a 
 member of their own party, Mr. Edward R. Worrell. The 
 office of Mayor, according to the unwritten rules of party 
 etiquette (the Republicans being in the majority in the 
 city) belonged to the Republicans, and there was a 
 general disposition among the Reform Democrats to 
 concede to the Reformers of the opposite party 
 what they believed to be no more than one of their 
 rights. At the same time nothing was more 
 clearly established than the fact that the nominee for this 
 office, in order to gain the Democratic support, must be 
 one whose record was absolutely free from partisanship 
 and who could command the respect of the best people 
 of both parties. By some of the members of the Com- 
 mittee of One Hundred, several names had already been 
 mentioned, among them, that of Edward T. Steel, a 
 retired merchant of large means, resident in Germantown, 
 who had never sought political honors of any kind 
 but had for some years past rendered useful service to the 
 cause of public education as a member of the School
 
 106 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 Board and latterly as its President. The name of Mr. 
 George De Beuneville Keim also continues to be can- 
 vassed, but his candidacy is generally viewed in the light 
 of a partisan affair, Mr. Keim's friends being hopeful 
 of his nomination by the regular Republican 
 Convention. Another Republican favorite is Richard 
 Peterson, whoes friends carry his name before the 
 Committee of One Hundred, and let it be known that 
 he too is a candidate. So many candidates, in short, 
 were seldom before seen in a single campaign, nor was 
 there ever heard of virtues in such compactness as appears, 
 according to friendly representations, to exist in the 
 corporeal dimensions of each separate man who is men- 
 tioned for a public office.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ADTAKCE, YE FORTUKES OF STOKLEY. 
 
 McManesisin has been quiet and non-committal; a 
 silent observer of Reform doings; a close student of 
 political complications, following its art with diligence, 
 yet visibly disturbed by unfavorable circumstances, not 
 the least of which is Councilmanic investigation of the 
 Gas Trust, ,vhich is giving the newspapers a great deal 
 of unpleasant matter to spread before the people at a 
 most inappropriate time, being so near the February 
 elections. The Committee of One Hundred, too, seems 
 to be disagreeably active and confident, and, worse than 
 all, invariably disposed to keep its eyes on this investi- 
 gation, as if desirious of informing itself upon the subject 
 of Gas Trust business methods as a branch o: learning 
 that may be useful in its new sphere of action. 
 
 Meantime on the 20th of December, in the Rooms of 
 the Board of Trade, the Committee again assembles on 
 business of unusual importance. On this day the 
 Executive Committee will report to the General Com- 
 mittee a Constitution and Declaration of Principles and 
 there is going to be, if rumors are to be credited, other 
 business under the qualifying term of " new " which may 
 be of some interest to an observant public. If untrace- 
 able and numerous reports are to be given one atom of 
 credence there would seem to be a danger threatening the 
 Committee on the threshold of its career more grave and 
 serious than at first appears; danger of a disagreement 
 and a- break on the subject of bland and politic Mayor 
 Stokley; there being a growing impression that the 
 (107)
 
 108 THE FALL OP BOSRTSM. 
 
 Committee has in its membership a majority favorable 
 to the Mayor, which majority will not permit their 
 favorite to be cast aside no matter what his association 
 with McManesism or Bossism may have been or now is. 
 Suffice it that the Mayor has of late been talking a great 
 deal about Reform, and has been complimenting, in no 
 measured terms, the members of the Reform Committee. 
 The Committee on Ward Organization with its herculean 
 task'of organizing in wards and divisions miscellaneous 
 humanity into compact Reform Phalanxes, which shall 
 stand up against fraud and intimidation, and police per- 
 secution on election day, and see that justice obtains at 
 the polls, has the first report to make at the meeting of 
 the General Committee; it has added some additional 
 names* of citizens to its list, and reports progress. The 
 Executive Committee, whose report has been anxiously 
 awaited, submits, through Secretary Williams, the 
 
 Declaration of Principles, and ! what in brief phrase 
 
 is this! " the names of suitable persons to nominate for 
 City offices!" Who expected this, and what is the sub- 
 stance of those two resolutions which go up to Chairman 
 Garrett's desk, there to be read by the Secretary in tones 
 which cause each member present to bend forward his 
 head and strain his ear in order that not one word may 
 escape ? " Resolved, that John Hunter, by his dignified, 
 independent and honorable course as a member of 
 Councils from the Twenty-fourth Ward, and as Chairman 
 of the Finance Committee, has secured our confidence and 
 
 *The additional members of the Committee on Ward Organization as 
 reported at this meeting of the General Committee were as follows: 
 Jacob Grim, Samuel T. Child, Eli Hartley, James A. Main, Thomas V. 
 Williams, James Hambleton, Wm. Dunlap. Lewis Taws, Wm. Harkness, 
 Aquilla Nebaker.
 
 THE FALL OP BOSSISM. 109 
 
 esteem, and that believing him eminently fitted in every 
 respect to discharge the duties of Receiver of Taxes, we 
 hereby recommend him to the Committee of One Hundred 
 for nomination to that office." 
 
 No sooner does the Secretary's voice cease than en- 
 thusiastic applause breaks forth from every member 
 present, and several minutes elapse before Chairman 
 Garrett's voice can be heard directing the Secretary to 
 read the other resolution. Another Councilman to play 
 a part in this impromptu drama I " Resolved, that in 
 view of his long services in the interest of Municipal 
 Reform the Executive Committee desires to express its 
 utmost confidence in the integrity and ability of Joseph 
 L. Caven, and do recommend him to the Committee of 
 One Hundred, for their nomination to the position of 
 City Solicitor." 
 
 Again does the storm of applause burst forth and for 
 a time the enthusiasm of the assemblage runs wild. 
 When it recovers sufficiently to warrant a continuation 
 of business, it speedily is brought to its soberest senses by 
 grave things. Mr. Drexel, Treasurer of the Committee, 
 renowned banker and man of influence in financial 
 circles and of repute world-wide, offers this resolution, the 
 brevity of which is in no wise indicative of its magni- 
 tude and important consequences : " Resolved, that 
 William S. Stokley be recommended as the candidate of 
 the Committee of One Hundred for Mayor." 
 
 Unerring test I Grave business men, accustomed to 
 systematic application to things, to cool blood and firm 
 heads, forget themselves in this exciting moment. Im- 
 pulsive Rudolph Blankenburg is not there, a member of 
 this Reform body, to give countenance to Mayor Stokley
 
 110 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 ia any way. Too often has he suffered and seen others 
 suffer from police interference at the polls, to permit him 
 to sit for a moment silent now, when this unexpected 
 move of the Mayor's friends in the Committee threatens 
 to see consummated the very thing he j oined the Committee 
 to help prevent. 
 
 Mr. Blankenburg immediately offers a substitute to Mr. 
 Drexel's resolution ; moves that the name of Mr. Edward 
 T. Steel, President of the Board of Public Education, 
 be substituted for the name of Mr. Stokley. Alas for 
 unaccountable complications ! William Arrott, from 
 President Caven's ward — the Fifteenth — arises, and reads 
 a letter* from Mr. Steel, anticipating Mr. Blankenburg's 
 action, and declining, in positive terms, the nomination. 
 
 Mr, Blankenburg's ringing voice is now heard pro- 
 testing against the nomination of Mr. Stokley. The 
 Committee of One Hundred has been organized in the 
 interest of Keform. Shall they, at the very threshold of 
 their movement, give themselves over to the enemy, — 
 that enemy whose intolerable acts have provoked the 
 Committee into existence ? What will be the thought 
 of the people, upon whose support they rely for success, 
 if they thus throw away their principles, and act from 
 motives, inspired not by a design to advance public 
 interests, but by feelings of personal obligation, and 
 considerations based upon selfishness. What is Mayor 
 Stokley's past record? Who have been, and are still, 
 his associates and counsellors? Have not James 
 McManes and his entire political household of unsavory 
 Gas Trust memory been the Mayor's supporters, and will it 
 
 *See appendix.
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISJI. Ill 
 
 not be a complete surrender to them for the Committee 
 to make this nomination ? 
 
 The meeting now was in an uproar. Chairman Gar- 
 rett beckoning Citizen James A. "Wright to the Chair, 
 took the floor, holding in his hand certain correspondence* 
 which had passed between Mayor Stokley and himself. 
 The announcement that he would read it with the con- 
 sent of the meeting, brought immediate silence and 
 acquiesence. The correspondence, summed up in brief, 
 defined Mayor Stokley's position and embodied pledges 
 from him to support certain Eeform measures advocated 
 by the Committee, 
 
 Mr. Blaukenburg's motion to substitute the name of 
 Mr. Steel was still unacted upon ; and sagacious Francis 
 B. Eeeves now took it up and moved, as an amendment, 
 hat " candidates nominated by the Committee be required 
 to endorse in writing the platformf adopted this day by 
 the Committee, and that they report the same in writing 
 to the Committee." 
 
 *See appendix. 
 
 tThe Declaration of Principles as reported by the Executive Com- 
 mittee and adoiited by tbe*General Committee at this m^eeting as their 
 platform, was as follows : 
 
 The time has come when the people demand a thorough reform in the 
 methods of party management in aiatters of municipal government. 
 
 Believing in the principle that party interests must be subordinate to 
 those of the whole city, we demand that the departments shall be 
 restored to the honest administration of the early days of the munici- 
 pality, and shall no longer be prostituted to the service and enrichment 
 of a few men who arrogate to themselves the rights and powers belonging 
 to the public. 
 
 The government of the city In all its departments should be a model of 
 efficiency and economy. 
 
 Public office and public work constitute a high trust to be administered 
 with fidelity in the interest of the whole people.
 
 112 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 Wise and cool-headed Mr. Reeves ! No act has yet 
 been done in this Reform body half so important as this; 
 no measure has yet been offered that goes half so deep 
 nor means so much, as does this amendment ; and so time 
 shall prove. Other precautions and devices about the 
 organization may yet be weak ; glaring loopholes there 
 may be, which even now the enemy may have its eyes 
 upon, and which skill, experience and cunning, may 
 easily master, and with inceudious hands plot and scheme 
 to destroy, but this one radical safe-guard will save all ; 
 being linked with still another safe-guard,* — formulated 
 
 The incumbents of olBce should be at the very least, law-abiding citi- 
 zens, known for their sobriety, morality, trustworthiness and general 
 fitness. Their allegiance should be to the people and not to their party 
 constituents. There should be the smallest possible number of offices 
 and employees. King rule and Boss rule reverse all this. Offices and 
 public service are not regarded as trusts, but as vehicles for gathering 
 fees and emoluments and as aids ic securing patronage, the direct and 
 inevitable result of which is the exaction of heavy taxes and exorbitant 
 fees from those having bushiess with the public offices. The more money 
 expended the greater the amount of patronage and dividends. Instead 
 of economy of the public money and the best service of the public we 
 have a profligate waste and poor service of all degrees down to no 
 service at all. 
 
 The Committee proposes to cooperate with the people in enforcing the 
 right remedies. Of these there are two : Good men who will administer 
 the offices wholly and solely in the public interest, and legislative meas- 
 ures of Reform. 
 
 Such rules and methods as are usual in private business as to appoint- 
 ments, hours of service and compensation of employees, should apply in 
 all the City Departments. All official appointments and removals 
 should be based on the needs of the service and the fitness of the ap- 
 pointee, uninfluenced by party consideration and no office should be 
 conferred as a reward for party services. 
 
 The Mayoralty.— It is the duty of the Mayor to execute the laws and 
 to insist on their enforcement by his subordinate officers to the full 
 extent of his power. To call attention to every abuse with a view to its 
 remedy by the proper authorities; to suggest to and cooperate with 
 Councils in all financial and other measures looking to the welfare of 
 the community ; and the veto power vested in him should be executed 
 without fear or favor. 
 *See footnote, page 115.
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 113 
 
 by the same sagacious Mr. Reeves, — whose potency in 
 withstanding the most desperate machinations of 
 McManesism shall yet be demonstrated. 
 
 Citizen Reeves' amendment being stated by the Chair, 
 is put and carried. The substitute by Mr. Blankenburg, 
 however, is lost, and thus the amendment is also defeated. 
 Mr. Reeves does not despair but offers the amendment 
 again as an amendment to Mr. Drexel's resolution, which 
 that gentleman accepts. The amendment is adopted and 
 Mr. Drexel's resolution, declaring Mayor Stokley the 
 nominee of the Committee for the Mayoralty also 
 passes. 
 
 He should appoint and maintain a police force above the influence of 
 party politics, and continue men in office during good behavior; he 
 should forbid them to take part in politics, except to exercise their righJ 
 to vote. They should not be assessed for political purposes nor hold anj- 
 political ofQce while on the police force. 
 
 Receivership of Taxe*.— Offices of enormous emolument have been 
 created for the express purpose of rewarding successful party leaders. 
 This great abuse demands prompt remedy by legislation. Inasmuch as 
 the existing laws relating to the collection of Delinquent Taxes are so 
 framed as to give to one official an almost princely income, we demand 
 such a change in the law as shall reduce this to reasonable compensation 
 without impairing the collection of taxes. We also demand the repeal of 
 the Infamous Recorder's bill, by which a supernumerary office has been 
 made to Involve an enormous cost to the community. 
 
 City Solicitorship.— The City Solicitor, the legal defender and advisor 
 of the cit}', should not only discharge the formal duties of his office but 
 be zealous and vigilant in his efforts to protect the treasury from the 
 unscrupulous raids of contractors or jobbers; and the fees and penalties 
 collected in this and in other offices and departments of the city should 
 be paid into the City Treasury. 
 
 District Attorney.— It is the duty of the District Attorney to prosecute 
 as speedily as possible, without fear, favor or partiality, every case of 
 infraction of law brought to his knowledge and to correct the many 
 abuses which have crept into the administration of this office. 
 
 City Councils.— IS o man should be elected to Councils who makes party 
 caucus paramount to his oath of office ; nor who favors the office-holder 
 at the expense of the taxpayer; nor anyone holding an official position 
 in any department of the city government nor any employee thereof.
 
 114 THE FALL OP BOSSISM. 
 
 The resolution passes, but not without a storm. Fifty- 
 two members have voted in favor of it, and thirty have 
 voted against it. There are forty members absent, and 
 the opponents of Mayor Stokley raise the point that a 
 majority of the total membership of the Committee not 
 having voted in favor of his nomination the resolution 
 of Citizen Drexel should be decided as lost. The 
 Chairman, however, rules against them. 
 
 Another scene follows. No sooner is the resolution 
 adopted and the nomination of Mayor Stokley a fact, 
 than radical Mr. Blaukenburg arises, and his ringing 
 
 Those elected to Councils should be men who have an intelligent com- 
 prehension of their duties and who are of such independence of char- 
 acter as will lead them to vote as their conscience dictates. 
 
 Higlnvays, Water and 6as.—\NQ demand well-paved and clean streets, 
 an abundant supply of pure water and gas, and we believe that these can 
 be secured at a much smaller outlay than Ihe amounts usually expended 
 on these Departments. 
 
 Vagrants and Paupers.— We demand the enforcement of the laws for 
 the suppression of vagrancy, and favor the employment of able-bodied 
 paupers now supported in idleness at the expense of taxpayers. 
 
 Public (Sc/ioois.— Believing the education of our children has suffered 
 from the political manipulation of our public schools, we demand that 
 they shall be managed without party influence; that only competent 
 and intelligent men be elected as School Directors and that their ap- 
 pointment of teachers shall be made solely on the ground of merit. 
 
 jPinis.— While we are Republicans and are seeking to reform the man- 
 agement of tne Republican party, our efforts are primarily on behalf of 
 the whole people, and we ask the cooperation of our fellow-citizens in 
 the belief that these principles are indispensable to good municipal 
 government, and that no man who cannot heartily adopt and support 
 them is worthy of our suffrages. 
 
 The objects which brought the Committee into existence were thus 
 declared : 
 
 First.— To maintain the purity of the ballot. 
 
 Second.— To secure the nomination and election of a better class of 
 candidates for office. 
 
 Thikd.— To prosecute and bring to punishment those who have been 
 guilty of election frauds, mal-administration of office or mis-appropriar 
 tion of public funds.
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 115 
 
 voice is heard throughout the Chamber: " I joined this 
 Committee," declares Mr. Blankenburg, " believing it to 
 be a body organized to secure certain Keforms in the 
 City government. Being now convinced that the pur- 
 pose for which the Committee was formed is at an end I 
 herewith tender my resignation." 
 
 Friends of Mr. Stokley move the resignation be accepted 
 and there is a response in the affimative. Little matter 
 whether it be accepted or not, so far as the indignant Mr. 
 Blankenburg is concerned, for already he has seized his 
 hat and disappeared through the doorway. A solemn and 
 somewhat embarrassing silence falls upon the Committee 
 for several minutes thereafter. The members are all 
 apparently thinking deeply ; yet if any one were to ask 
 them what was in their thoughts they would very 
 likely evade the question. 
 
 Fourth.— To prevent objectionable legislation and aid in procuring 
 such as the public welfare demands. 
 
 Fifth.— To advocate and promote a public service based upon char- 
 acter and capability only. 
 
 tSome time after the occurence of the incident involving the attack at 
 the Fifth Ward polling place during the Spring election of 1880, of several 
 policemen upon old William Conway, the Democratic candidate for 
 Common Council, and the refusal of Mayor Stokley to rebuke the out- 
 rage on the part of his subordinates, Mr. Conway incidentally related 
 the facts of the case to Mr. Reeves. Afterward, when the latter, who 
 was much impressed by the story, joined the Committee of One 
 Hundred one of his first acts was to have inserted in the Decla- 
 ration of Principles a clause, declaring, as the sense of the Com- 
 mittee, against the Interference of the police at the polls, and specifying, 
 as one of the first duties of the Mayor, the maintainance of a non-parti- 
 san police force. Still later, in a meeting of the Committee of One 
 Hundred, Mr. Keeves added the finishing touch to this important plank 
 in the Reform platform by presenting a resolution which passed by 
 unanimous vote, requiring all candidates for ofHce. before receiving the 
 Committee's support, to sign the Declaration of Principles,
 
 CHAPTER XTII. 
 
 COMPLICATIONS ! 
 
 How this effort of Republican citizens to cure the 
 public service of its various ills by administering strictly 
 Republican remedies will succeed we shall presently see. 
 How their nomination of Mr. Stokley pleases the dis- 
 interested masses upon whom the success of their Reform 
 work depends, is not long a mystery. Citizens' and Tax- 
 payers' Associations meet, not for unalloyed rejoicing ; 
 Independent citizens meet, not for speeches of unqualified 
 congratulation. The nomination of Caven and Hunter is 
 well ; for therein do all men, not excepting Democrats, 
 recognize a tribute to merit and principle. But what 
 shall be said of the selection of Mayor Stokley, whose 
 own party, even outside those who profess Reform, is 
 divided on the question of fitness of the candidate, the 
 more independent party members recognizing the wisdom 
 of choosing for Mayor one who shall have less to do in 
 the way of utilizing for partisan objects the public police 
 force, and who shall likewise respect individual rights 
 enough not to compel the members of such public police 
 force to pay heavy tribute out of hard-earned salaries to 
 enable gentlemen, of easy virtue and questionable ability, 
 to purchase their way into office and perpetuate the 
 insolent reign of political Bossism and its freebooting 
 propensities ; in view of which facts, such independent 
 party members are urging the nomination, by their own 
 party Convention, when held, of Mr. Keim. 
 
 Meantime, to the ears of the Committee of One 
 Hundred, come the evidences of dissatisfaction. Quali- 
 (116)
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 117 
 
 fied resolutions of indorsement by Citizens' and Tax- 
 payers' Associations are doubtful encouragement for tliose 
 who expected fur tlieir candidate unqualified support. 
 Yet remembering the fact that even a majority of their 
 own Association have not sanctioned this nomi- 
 nation, can the people be blamed for according the result 
 rather a cold welcome ? And still further, when energetic 
 and radical Rudolph Blankenburg has shown his disap- 
 probation by resigning his membership, can anything be 
 more natural than the fact that others, equally independent 
 but under less obligation to abide by Committee results, 
 should show disapprobation too ? 
 
 Discord rages now generally, and Bossism, well-pleased 
 over the new diversion, experiences a temporary relief 
 from the popular tongue, which finds material for em- 
 ployment in this much-talked-of Reform organization 
 which by its latest act seems, despite preconceived ideas 
 on the subject, to be not such a desperate enemy of the 
 political autocrats as has been represented. Strange is 
 it, too, to see the attitude hereupon of Colonel McClure* 
 
 *Colonel HcClure's magnanimity, which enabled him to take an en- 
 tirely disinterested view of the case of one who had been (through 
 notoriously questionable means as the candidate of Bossism) not only 
 his successful political rival but a bitter partisan enemy for some length of 
 time after his election, was conspicuously illustrated at this time. At the 
 head of a great j(jurnal which wielded a powerful influence over the 
 minds of the people, it would have been comparatively easy for him, 
 had he been disposed to remember personal wrongs, to have prevented 
 the nomination by the Committee of One Hundred of Mayor Stokley for 
 a new term. Nevertheless the Mayor had latterly shown what was 
 believed to be genuine evidence of a disposition to part company with 
 McManesism, to absolve himself from all obligation to support anj' 
 longer the practices of his unscrupulous political associates and to give 
 his aid to the efforts of those citizens who were laboring to purify the 
 city government. Colonel McClure welcomed the Mayor's apparent
 
 118 THK FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 who, least of all, would have been expected to advocate 
 the re-election of Mayor Stokley. Yet, considering the 
 fact that the Colonel's motives are never left long a 
 subject of doubt or of mystery, it may happen that the 
 public, in due time, shall be enlightened, and much that 
 now seems dark and inexplicable shall be made clear. 
 In the meanwhile there is swift, rapid motion among 
 political men of various pretensions, the choice of Mayor 
 Stokley by the Reform Committee being accepted by his 
 opponents as a conclusive thing; which removes an 
 
 cJiange of heart with unfeigned delight and gave him earnest assurance 
 not only of his good-will, but of his journalistic support, in his canvass for 
 re-election, provided he adhered to his then expressed determination to 
 forsake his past ways. He advised him to boldly place himself on record 
 before the people in his new character, and to make his contest upon the 
 rapidly growing Reform issues. The blandishments of the politicians he 
 was especially cautioned to disregard, and no argument was left unused 
 in the friendly effort to strengthen him in his new position. That he 
 would be called upon by the One Hundred to give some unequivocal 
 pledge of loyalty to Reform principles, Colonel McClure did not deem it 
 unlikely, and Mayor Stokley was thus, Ln advance, made fully aware of 
 the requirements he would be expected to meet in order to gain the 
 Committees' support. The following analysis of the Mayor's position, 
 written by Colonel McClure, and published editorially in The Times of 
 the 13th of January, 1881, has a direct bearing upon this particular 
 subject: 
 
 " The strength of Mayor Stokley, as a candidate, will depend greatly 
 upon his expected letter or acceptance to the Business Men's Committee. 
 His letter addressed to that organization, before it made choice of a 
 Mayoralty candidate displayed a healthy tone, and his formal acceptance 
 of the platform laid down by the Committee will place him in an un- 
 equivocal position with regard to the issues which are likely to control 
 the nmnicipal contest. 
 
 " The men who h.ivestartedoutin the work of municipal Reform are in 
 positive earnest, and they will take no steps backward to hinder or pro- 
 mote any candidate. Fri-ely as the Business Men's Committee is criti- 
 cised by machine politicians and organs, it represents the overwhelming 
 sentiment of the taxpaj'ers of Philadelphia on municipal issues; and 
 its members, although not experts in running primaries or in stufling 
 ballot boxes, mean that honest elections shall elect honest candidates in 
 F'-bruary. 
 
 " Mayor Stokley has only to plant himself squarely on the platform of 
 resolute Republican Reform within the party, lo make him an invincible 
 candidate, while equivocation would only crush him between the upper 
 and the uether mill-sloues of the Machine and Kelorm.,"
 
 THE PALL OF BOSSISM. 119 
 
 element of uncertainty from the prospect, and causes 
 them to breathe freer, not from satisfaction that the act 
 has been done but from relief that a cause of suspense 
 has been eliminated, and that a certain detiniteness now 
 exists as to what must be done and how it must be done, 
 to advance their several interests, and to enable them to 
 take steps to effectually oppose the enemy. In the demon- 
 stration against Mayor Stokley the dissatisfied of his own 
 party seem to be coming nearer together and to be showing 
 a disposition to abandon trivial side issues which have 
 kept them apart as jarring factions, and to combine 
 upon this one great issue; and to even form a coalition 
 with disaffected Eeformers and liberal Democrats, if 
 need be, in the endeavor to build up an all-powerful 
 opposition. The one person who appears most likely 
 to profit by this state of things is Mr. Keim. Upon 
 him the support of all those regular Eepublicans — whose 
 only cause of disagreement with the main body of the 
 party, U the apparent disposition of the latter to re-nom- 
 inate Mayor Stokley — is centred. These dissatisfied mem- 
 bers, while radically different in the motives which 
 govern their actions, from such dissenting Reformers as 
 Kudolph Blankenburg, nevertheless bid fair to do for- 
 midable work for the cause of Reform albeit, involuntary 
 work. Forced into open warfare against Bossism by 
 circumstances rather than by inclination, they are not 
 lacking in the political experience or in the political 
 shrewdness which distinguish their former political as- 
 sociates ; and they skillfully attract to their support such 
 fragments of Greenbackers and Prohibitionists and other 
 political families as may be at this time standing aloof 
 from the two regular parties, with no fixed purpose in 
 5
 
 120 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 view, but with a disposition to do something for fear of 
 spoiling from inactivity. 
 
 Thus faction after faction is absorbed ; Greenbacker 
 assimilating Prohibitionist and Prohibitionist assimi- 
 lating recent skillful limbs and joints of Bossism and 
 McManesism, and all together assimilating stray Demo- 
 crats and Reformers, and a certain dissatisfied set of the 
 colored man's race ; for these shrewd graduates of the 
 house of Bossism, who from motives of revenge, or for 
 other reasons, have turned their backs on their preceptors 
 and are now so vigorously pushing forward Mr. Keim, 
 know a few cunning things about spreading disaffection 
 among others ; and have begun with the colored brother, 
 probably reasoning that he is the most susceptible and 
 will yield greater and more speedy results with less 
 expenditure of labor, than any other class or race. Ac- 
 cordingly the colored man is found of nights trudging 
 the streets at indefinite hours, in wet weather and in dry, 
 under the blaze of smoking torch-light, bearing over- 
 head, with muslin background and lamp-black inscription, 
 eloquent sentiments complimentary of Candidate Keim, 
 and sarcastic as to Candidate Stokley ; and also shouting 
 himself into asthmatic hoarseness in enthusiastic repeti- 
 tion of the name of Keim, which is uttered with a short, 
 jerky ejaculation; and with an expenditure of breath and 
 a display of frantic jubilation which testify powerfully 
 to his superiority ai an instrument of noisy demon- 
 stration. 
 
 While the absorbing powers of the Keim men have the 
 eflFect of simplifying things somewhat,— jumbling to- 
 gether various factions and rendering them homogeneous 
 — there are complications still which leave the outcome
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 121 
 
 uncertann. Eudolpli Blankenburg and his Reform fol- 
 lowers stand upon radical grouud and formulate their 
 plans in their own way, amid frequent sounding of the 
 watchword of their cause "no tampering with principle." 
 Unite with the Keim forces under any circumstances 
 they will not ; re-unite with the Committee of One 
 Hundred under the present condition of things they 
 cannot. The only alternative left them is to hold their 
 ground, organize and work in their own way for the 
 objects which are clear in their minds. And Mr. Blank- 
 enburg does work ; he begins to organize a new Business 
 Men's Committee and keeps his eyes on Edward T. Steel, 
 esteemed President of the Board of Education, who, in 
 spite of his letter of declination to the Committee of One 
 Hundred, is, in Mr. Blankenburg's mind, the proper man 
 for the people to have for Mayor. Moreover, there is a 
 possibility, to Citizen Blankenburg's thinking, of securing, 
 "with a candidate as free from i)artisanship and as widely 
 known and esteemed as Mr. Steel, the support of the 
 better element of the Democrats who will certainly not 
 support Mayor Stokley and this prospect gives him 
 occasion for encouragement and hope, and causes him 
 with characteristic energy to busy himself in the work of 
 recruiting members for the new organization in which 
 effort he makes rapid headway. 
 
 The Committee of One Hundred, observant of the 
 things going on all about it, has kept its counsel with 
 commendable success. That it is scarcely satisfied with its 
 Mayoralty candidate slight indications nevertheless now 
 and then appear. Better would it have been, many 
 members reason, had they taken more time and consulted 
 the wishes of the people of the wards and precincts
 
 122 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 through their Ward Organization Committee, as Dunbar 
 Lockwood'd resolution, presented in meeting some days 
 ago, contemplated. Yet the thing has been done and not 
 much appears to be gained by indulging in regrets. 
 Wiser will it be to make the best out of their position 
 and to accept the Mayor's pledges — provided he does not 
 forget to make them — to refrain from assessing his police 
 for election " expenses," and to refrain from commanding 
 his police to take part in elections further than to pre- 
 serve the public peace. Such requirements as these are 
 the substance of those planks which far-sighted Mr. 
 EpCeves had inserted in the Declaration of Principles and 
 upon them will the sincerity of Mr. Stokley's profession 
 be tested when the request to sign that Declaration is 
 presented to him, — a sober necessary thing which cannot ' 
 be evaded. 
 
 Uncertain, inexperienced Committee I Tossed by 
 doubt, and hedged in all round by hostile forces, what 
 remains for it but to do things in a straight-forward, 
 business-like way, in following out which policy 
 it is "at home" and at least may derive the satis- 
 faction of exercising itself by not unfamiliar em- 
 ployment. In pursuance of which policy the Committee 
 meets again on the 31st day of December — eleven days 
 after the meeting at which it nominated its candidates — 
 and appoints a Committee to notify such candidates of 
 its action ; the Committee, consisting of Messrs. Little, 
 Wright, Field, Williams and Chairman Garrett. This 
 being the only business before the Committee, it adjourns, 
 to come together again at the call of the Chair.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 "primaries" and "conventions." 
 
 Mayor Stokley, writing to Chairman Garrett, on tlie 
 20tb. of December, a hasty reply to certain questions 
 addressed to him by the latter in a communication of the 
 same date — both having been sent and received before 
 the hour of the opening, on that day, of the Keform 
 Committee's meeting, at which the Mayor was formally 
 nominated for re-election — took occasion to say : " I 
 always have been opposed to policemen holding any 
 other office and shall do whatever is within my authority 
 to limit their participation in political matters to the 
 exercise of their rights as citizens." 
 
 Three weeks have passed since these words were 
 written and the evening has now arrived on which the 
 Republicans will hold their primary election to choose 
 delegates to attend their several nominating conventions 
 which have been called to meet two days later to nomi- 
 nate respectively a candidate for Mayor, for Receiver of 
 Taxes and for City Solicitor. Upon the personnel of 
 such delegates much depends ; in theory they are sup- 
 posed to truly represent the wishes of the majority of 
 the members of the party and to execute in their choice 
 of candidates for public office, the public will. In 
 practice how vastly different I Through long usage the 
 methods of the party dictators in the manipulation of 
 votes have changed the primary elections from their 
 original significance of a beneficent means of giving 
 effect to the popular will in the selection of candidates, 
 to an absolute farce, in which even the pretence of their 
 (123)
 
 124 THE FALl, OF BOSSISM. 
 
 being anything else than a mock observance of a former 
 custom scarcely exists. To the conventions, without 
 exception heretofore, there have gone as delegates the 
 friends, dependents and beneficiaries of the clique of 
 office-holders, invariably led and directed by the office- 
 holders themselves, who, by pre-arranged agreement, 
 have always managed to have themselves distributed as 
 delegates among the most importantof these assemblages 
 where there is most need of their peculiar services. 
 Their complete control of the primaries insured them a 
 similar control of the Conventions, and if the primaries 
 were simply a mockery of the expression of popular 
 wishes, the Conventions were of a like character. 
 The nominations there made were nothing more thaa an 
 ostentatious public performance of acts already secretly 
 consummated, the assurance of the public programme 
 being carried out as arranged, being guaranteed by the 
 fact of the actors being for the most part the employees 
 of Public Departments whose tenure of remunerative 
 service depended upon their proficiency in executing the 
 bidding of their political masters. From the Gas 
 Department, the Water Department, the Highway De- 
 partment, the Department of the Commissioners of 
 Public Buildings and of the County Commissioners, the 
 delegates were chiefly recruited ; with a liberal supply 
 of public contractors, and respectable expectants, in 
 addition. 
 
 The participation of the police in the primary elections 
 had been a subject as fruitful of complaint as had been 
 their part in the regular elections. Not as citizens did 
 they appear at the polling places but as violent partisans 
 of the party of their superior, clothed with official
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 125 
 
 authority which cdvered the acts of repeaters and ballot- 
 box stuflfers and sternly silenced the tongue which would 
 protest against such outrages. From the Mayor's written 
 promise to the Reform Committee, not to speak of his 
 many verbal ones, it would seem there was now some 
 reason for the people to expect to see a salutary change. 
 Vain delusion I The primaries of the night of the 11th 
 of January, 1881, brought out, like rats from their hiding 
 places, all the notorious political experts and ballot 
 manipulators, guided by the same hands which had so 
 often drawn them on in their nefarious work. Not only 
 were the police as active as ever in their efforts to aid and 
 further the corrupt methods of McManesism by which 
 thousands of citizens were prevented from casting their 
 votes, but there was about them a spirit of boldness and 
 audacity which seemed to denote that they had especial 
 reason to feel secure for their part in this wholesale 
 trampling upon men's rights. 
 
 Explanations from Mayor Stokley would now seem to be 
 clearly in order. The Mayor, however, appears to be not 
 in the mood for explanations ; nor for anything else so 
 far as Reformers are concerned, having, in some manner, 
 gotten out of humor with them. The Committee of One 
 Hundred, in the meantime, have been waiting for an 
 answer to their letter politely notifying him of his 
 nomination. Chairman Garrett's hand penned it, 
 and there was enclosed, in addition to the letter, the 
 Committee's Declaration of Principles, which Mr. 
 Garrett — after enjoying the pleasure of informing the 
 Mayor of their having made choice of him for 
 another term in his present high office — delicately 
 calls his attention to, observing in a half conciliatory way,
 
 126 THE FALL OP BOSSISM. 
 
 as if aware that this part of the message is not like] j to 
 be as agreeable as the first part, that the One Hundred 
 "have adopted a Declaration of Principles to which 
 they think every honest Reformer can subscribe and 
 they ask the assent of the several nominees to this as the 
 basis of action." Then, as a piece of diplomacy calcu- 
 lated to restore the Mayor's complacency — granting it to 
 have been disturbed — Chairman Garrett closes his letter 
 with a display of generous confidence upon the efiicacy 
 of reforming the party within the lines: "I need 
 scarcely add that in thus recommending you to the suf- 
 frages of your fellow-citizens we form no new party and 
 leave you perfectly free to accept the regular nomination 
 should you wish it to be conferred upon you." 
 
 The Committee's anxiety concerning the Mayor's 
 answer, therefore, does not arise so much from the con- 
 templation of violated etiquette — though it would perhaps 
 be better for their cause if it did — as it does from the 
 strange delay on the Mayoi's part to return the copy of 
 the Declaration of Principles with his sign manual 
 thereto attached. Weeks have passed since that Decla- 
 ration was forwarded to him and the voting public are 
 eager to know whether he will accept, over his own signa- 
 ture, the Reform Principles or not. More than this, the 
 Reform Committee's work in wards and divisions is 
 awaiting his decision; everything tarries for his answer. 
 Reform plans are at a stand-still. The One Hundred do 
 not meet because there is nothing for them to do until 
 the Mayor fulfills his part of the Reform compact. True, 
 Mr. Caven's reply has not yet been received, but about 
 his position on the Reform question there exists no doubt, 
 his public acts in Councils being for the Committee a
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 127 
 
 sufficient guarantee. Mr Hunter, meantime, has sent his 
 answer,* an answer which leaves no uncertainty as to his 
 attitude, and which is characterized by an honest 
 directness of speech that spreads enthusiasm through the 
 ranks of the Eeformers. "It must be distinctly under* 
 stood,'' he writes in closing, "that if once fairly before 
 the people as an Independent Citizen's candidate, 
 regardless of what other candidates may decide upon, or 
 who may hereafter be nominated by packed conventions, 
 under no circumstances will I decline or resign. With 
 entire confidence in the integrity and good judgment or 
 the voters of the city, and the ultimate success of the 
 popular movement by and for the people and with full 
 purpose to do my whole duty I fully indorse your Decla- 
 ration of Principles in whole and in part." 
 
 Plain and direct language, but how will it suit those 
 Republican "leaders" who lately so effectually handled 
 the primaries? Their delegates have been chosen and 
 their conventions are just at hand. To the One Hundred 
 these Conventions are objects of concern. They have 
 desired to effect Eeforms " within the Republican party." 
 Their primary step shall have been accomplished if the 
 Republican Conventions can be induced to accept their 
 two Reform candidates, Messrs. Caven and Hunter, about 
 whose fate at the hands of these nominating bodies there 
 is more uncertainty than exists in the case of Mayor 
 Stokley, who, it has for some days past been evident, will 
 be re-nominatea by the Mayoralty Convention. If there 
 exists any hope of reconciliation between the Reformers 
 and those who compose the followers of McManesism- 
 it lies in the chance of both agreeing upon these two 
 Reform candidates. The One Hundred have done their 
 
 *Se« appendix.
 
 128 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 utmost to meet the regular party, from whicli they have 
 been alienated, upon this basis. They have made con- 
 cessions beyond the limit of prudence for the sake of 
 their two favorite nominees. Largely on their account 
 have they agreed to support Mayor Stokley, even when 
 it was known that he was the secret back-room choice of 
 McManesism. 
 
 But what talk is this that now plays upon the fears of 
 the Eeformers, causing them to anticipate the worst? 
 It is that Caven and Hunter are both to be sacrificed 
 despite the overwhelming sentiment of the people in 
 their favor. Bossism laughs in its sleeve. Where are 
 the plans and hopes of the One Hundred now ? Yet 
 Mayor Stokley could save them if he were to hasten to them 
 with that Declaration of Principles and his sign manual. 
 But the Mayor is not to be seen ; has other business on 
 hand. Verbal promises are as good as signs manual. 
 The Committe must be satisfied with his verbal promises. 
 
 That the trap was cunningly devised and shrewdly 
 sprung who doubts ? The day of the Eepublican Con- 
 ventions, the 13th of January, was a day of laughter and 
 gibes on the part of Bossism. The Mayoralty Conven- 
 tion, which re-nominated Mayor Stokley, was a repre- 
 sentative one of its kind. It was composed of one 
 hundred and ninety-nine delegates, of which eighty- six 
 were miscellaneous office-holders from the various De- 
 partments, nine were members of the City Councils, five 
 were police magistrates, four were constables and twenty- 
 three were policemen.* Thus was the fruitful work of 
 
 *" An analysis of the personnel of the Convention which nominated 
 Stokley will show that it was largely packed by otlice-holders and police- 
 men. A summary of the occupations of the delegates shows that there 
 were2» policemen, 4 constables, 9 members of City Councils, 5 police 
 maKistrates and 86 office-holders of oue sort or auother."— raj/r/urt'a 
 Sunday Times, Jan. 16, 1881.
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSTSM. 129 
 
 the primaries exemplified. The Chairman of the Con- 
 vention was selected by Mr. Gas Trustee Leeds, — an 
 intimate political associate of Mr. Gas Trustee McManes — 
 who personally directed the burlesque political perform- 
 ance, dignified by verbal usage as the " Mayoralty Con- 
 vention." Not with entire harmony, however, did the 
 occasion pass oflF. The delegates of Mr. Keim, to the 
 number of thirty-four, declined to vote, thus expressing 
 their displeasure over the afi^air; and reserving their 
 power for a Dissenting Convention of their own, if upon 
 reflection it be deemed wise. No! — they did vote once; 
 led by the deep-voiced Magistrate Thomas South they 
 voted with a vigorous and combined yell against making 
 Mayor Stokley's nomination unanimous; and after 
 accomplishing their object rushed out, led by the plucky 
 Magistrate South, to condole with each other and neu- 
 tralize their disappointment in a convenient beer saloon 
 over foaming glasses of lager. 
 
 Meantime, in the Convention for the nomination of a 
 candidate for Receiver of Taxes, Bossism likewise carried 
 the day with a high hand, and similar things were 
 enacted. The name of the nominee is not John Hunter 
 but George G. Pierie^ a young man whose greatness in 
 statesmanship has not yet been tested and is therefore 
 conjectural ; but whose original avocation as a newspaper 
 man and secretary to a Mercantile Board, would seem to 
 indicate that McManesism, despite its unfortunate ex- 
 perience in the November election in its effort to defeat 
 Controller Pattison, has still a fondness for gentlemen 
 associated with journalism, which fact, upon reflection, 
 seems strange and unfathomable. 
 
 In the City Solicitor's Convention, which is a faithful
 
 130 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 duplicate of the other two, Bossism re-nominates Mr. 
 Solicitor West, leaving Mr. Cavea to fare as did Mr. 
 Hunter at the hands of the Receiver's assemblage ; thus 
 leaving untouched the One Hundred's two most impor- 
 tant candidates and taking their third, whom they could 
 have very well spared. Truly, it has been a great day 
 for Bossism, and never will wine bottles pop more 
 musically in club rooms and other favorite haunts, than 
 to-night when the leaders and plotters of this day's work 
 come together for mutual congratulation. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 IlfEVITABLE CONSEQUENCES I 
 
 Now on the very day of the Republican Nominating 
 Conventions it happened affairs with the Reform Com- 
 mittee had reached a crisis. The long-expected reply 
 from Mayor Stokley had, on the day before, reached the 
 hands of Chairman Garrett, and forthwith a call was 
 issued for a meeting of the Executive Committee on the 
 following day. Thus it came about that when the work 
 of the Conventions was finished the news of the rejection 
 of Messrs. Caven and Hunter reached Chairman Garrett 
 and such members of the Executive Committee as he had 
 been able to get together on short notice, as they sat in 
 council in the law otEce of their Secretary, Ellis D. 
 Williams, deliberating over the contents of the Mayor's 
 letter. The belief that the Mayor, after obtaining from 
 the Reformers their written approval of his administra-
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 131 
 
 tion (for Chairman Garrett's letter of notification prac- 
 tically amounted to that), had changed his attitude to- 
 ward them was growing more widespread daily, as we 
 have seen. Mr. Garrett and his fellow Committeemen 
 had had their fears but they exhibited unusual judgment 
 and, despite various suspicious circumstances in connec- 
 tion with the Mayor's recent Reform professions — not the 
 least of which was the activity of the police at the pri- 
 maries — refrained from any expression of opinion on the 
 question until they could learn from the Mayor himself 
 what was his real position. 
 
 That question was now no longer a secret. The 
 Mayor's letter* only too surely confirmed the existing 
 impression. It had evidently been written after assur- 
 ances were received that he was certain of renomination 
 by the Republican Convention and could safely afford to 
 be more independent toward the Reformers, even to the 
 extent of ignoring their request to indorse their Declara- 
 tion of Principles. The letter shrewdly evaded all the 
 material parts of Chairman Garrett's communication; the 
 Mayor, with nice discrimination, confining himself to 
 lofty acknowledgements of the compliments conveyed in 
 the Reform message, and brushing aside such prosaic 
 matter as a request for the indorsement of Reform prin- 
 ciples as a trifle he was not expected to notice. 
 
 For the first time now, perhaps, Chairman Garrett and 
 his associates as they perused the letter in this hastily 
 called meeting realized the gravity of the position in 
 which they were placed. The tone of the letter was so 
 different from that of the former communication from 
 the same source, the style was so formal compared with 
 *See appendix
 
 132 THE FALL OP BOSSLSlCl. 
 
 the Mayor's recent display of excessive affability that 
 the Keforraers, notwithstanding the warnings they had 
 lately received, were taken by surprise and knew not 
 what course to pursue. After occupying several hours 
 in discussion it was determined to hold another meeting 
 on the next day in order that the matter might receive 
 fuller consideration from the entire Executive Com- 
 mittee; and a notification went forth, accordingly, to 
 the various members, more than one-half of whom had 
 not participated in this informal deliberation, to assemble 
 on the following afternoon at the rooms of the Board of 
 Trade for this specific purpose. This meeting, in the 
 absence of Chairman Little, was presided over by 
 Citizen James A. Wright, one of the Vice-Presidents 
 of the General Committee. As if the complications 
 arising from the Mayor's letter were not enough, there 
 was also received the letter of President Caven,* penned 
 a few hours before, in which, while still avowing his 
 fealty to Reform principles and to the Reform movement, 
 he respectfully declined the Reform nomination for City 
 Solicitor, frankly staling that he had delayed answering 
 President Garrett's letter of notification until after the 
 Republican Conventions in order that he might know 
 when he replied whether he was or was not to be the 
 choice of the Republicans for the same office. The re- 
 nomination of Mr. Solicitor West led him to believe that 
 there was little prospect of the election of any one whom 
 the Reformers might put up for this office as an Inde- 
 pendent candidate, though his belief in the final success 
 of his friend John Hunter as the Reform candidate for Re- 
 ceiver of Taxes amounted almost to a positive conviction. 
 
 *See appendix.
 
 THE FALL OF B0SSL<3M. 1?,^ 
 
 Had Mayor Stokley's letter answered the expectations 
 entertained by the Reformers when they placed him in 
 nomination, it is probable that Mr. Caveu's declination 
 would have caused much solicitude and been the subject 
 of more than one meeting for conference and of no little 
 anxious discussion. That letter, however, was a revela- 
 tion so startling that everything else was dwarfed into 
 insignificance by comparison and Mr. Caven's course, in 
 the then anxious state of the Reform mind, caused less 
 of a sensation than it would under other circumstances 
 have produced. The thing of present moment was 
 Mayor Stokley's intentions. Looking into his former 
 and his later acts these would seem not hard to make 
 clear. First and most conspicuous among the things 
 apparent was the fact that the Mayor had not signed the 
 Declaration of Principles. In this fact what a field for 
 conjecture, and for far-reaching conclusions I The 
 affixing of his name to that paper would have been 
 a simple act; three or four scratches of a pen would have 
 done it; — so the physical labor involved could hardly 
 have been the cause of the failure. John Hunter, an 
 older and busier man, found not only time to affix his 
 signature thereto, but also to write a spirited letter, 
 breathing in every sentence confidence, resolution and 
 courage. Yet, strangely enough, Mr. Hunter did not 
 receive the Republican nomination ! 
 
 To the Reform Executive Committee belongs the task 
 of reconciling these several apparent inconsistencies. 
 They will try their best for obvious reasons. There must 
 be a sub-committee appointed to wait on the Mayor and 
 ascertain his intentions. Perhaps the letter of notifi- 
 cation has not been explicit enough, and it may be well
 
 134 TEE TALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 to inform the Mayor verbally — but very politely — that 
 Reform candidates are expected to sign the Declaration, 
 of which the Mayor has a copy. Such a course at the 
 worst can do iio more than give them a clear under- 
 standing of his true position and that after all is the 
 thing now important to know. 
 
 Accordingly the Committee is appointed, Chairman 
 Garrett and Fi'ancis B. Reeves constituting it. The Ex- 
 ecutive Committee, Avhich has been in session from the 
 middle of the afternoon until night, now adjourns to 
 assemble again on the next afternoon, that of Saturday, 
 February loth, to hear the report of the Committee 
 of two, and take whatever action may seem necessary 
 forthwith. 
 
 We have seen the Reform Committee up until this 
 stage, in its attitude toward Mayor Stokley, somewhat 
 uncertain and irresolute, a prey to fears and annoying 
 doubts which would not be silenced, as to whether it had 
 not by that act which made him its nominee sacrificed 
 its better judgment, at the whisper of a few personal 
 friends ot" the Mayor on the Committee, — who happened 
 to be influential members, — yet always justifying itself 
 by the hope that future events would prove its course 
 to have been wise. That the selection of Mr. Stokley in 
 the first instance was not in accord with the judgment 
 of the Executive Committee however it may have been 
 with the General Committee, it is only necessary to recall 
 as proof, the fact that the manner in which his name 
 was presented for nomination before the meeting of the 
 latter Committee on the 20th of December, was different 
 from that in which the names of Messrs. Caven and 
 Hunter were presented and therefore, under the Com-
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 135 
 
 mittee's rules, irregular. The selection of the latter two 
 candidates was made upon the recommendation of the 
 Executive Committee whose business it was to submit to 
 the General Committee at its stated meetings a report 
 embodying among other things the names of persons 
 whom the former Committee had decided worthy of 
 nomination for particular offices; and this report the 
 General Committee had the right to accept or reject as 
 it might in its judgment deem proper. Whether by 
 reason of doubts as to the wisdom of nominating Mayor 
 Stokley or whether on account of a desire to postpone 
 the Mayoralty matter until the sentiment of the people 
 on the subject could be more clearly ascertained, the 
 Executive Committee in its report submitting the names 
 of the two candidates stated, for Eeceiver of Taxes and 
 City Solicitor, made no mention of the Mayoralty matter 
 nor of Mayor Stokley. Not until after this report had 
 been accepted and the nomination of the two Reformers 
 in question effected, was the effort made on behalf of 
 the Mayor, Mr. Drexel arising in the meeting of the 
 General Committee and presenting the name of Mr. 
 Stokley, who was chosen amid universal confusion cul- 
 minating in the withdrawal from membership of Rudolph 
 Blankenburg, — facts which would seem to indicate that 
 the nomination was more hastily than judiciously 
 made. 
 
 Having thus sown the seeds of error, the Committee 
 was now called upon to reap the crop. The time had 
 come when stern facts demanded that the mask of self- 
 delusion should be worn no longer, when the wearers 
 were perforce compelled to cast the pleasing thing aside 
 a.nd face realities. Honeyed words and compliments had
 
 136 THE FALL OF BOSSISM, 
 
 ceased to possess, in Mayor Stokley's case, the virtues 
 they once enjoyed, the Mayorial susceptibilities having 
 become suddenly obtuse since the Republican conven- 
 tions. To make themselves understood now, the Re- 
 formers were obliged to adopt the most pointed and direct 
 forms of speech, where formerly the Mayor readily inter- 
 preted their meaning when conveyed to him by similes. 
 This change in the Mayor, Chairman Garrett and Francis 
 B. Reeves, arriving in his presence on their weighty mis- 
 sion, witnessed with pain not unmingled with embarrass- 
 ment. The Mayor's reception, compared with his past 
 treatment of them, was cold and formal. Present in an 
 oflBcial capacity, they affected not to notice his changed de- 
 meanor, but sought to win his good graces and to impress 
 him with the sincerity of their motives, hoping to win 
 him back to his former self. They reminded him of their 
 Declaration of Principles, and of the rule of their organi- 
 zation requiring all their candidates to sign the Declara- 
 tion. Would the Mayor not now comply with that rule 
 and affix his signature to that important document? No, 
 the Mayor would not. Brusquely enough he stated his 
 refusal, too. He had put his signature to all the papers 
 he proposed to; the committee must be content with 
 what he had already written them ; they were disposed 
 to exact too much from him. He should do no more, 
 and it might as well be so understood, once and for all 
 time. 
 
 Enough, enough Mayor Stokley I You will not have 
 men plead with you and if you would, these men will 
 not. Rather will they seek a desperate and heroic reme- 
 dy, in which pleading and cajoling will not be a part. 
 You have aroused them. Mayor. See you not the flame
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 137 
 
 you have kindled in the mild eyes of Chairman Garrett, 
 not now mild and benign behind gold-rimmed spectacles, 
 but deep and stern with sudden-born determination. 
 And cool-headed Francis B. Eeeves, ever deep, of even 
 temperament, deliberate, and inclined to much medita- 
 tion ; — he it is Mayor who must be called author of that 
 inflexible regulation, or rule, or by-law, or what you 
 please, which puts you to the test at this moment, with 
 your emphatic " I will not sign the Declaration"; where- 
 in the subtle consequences of injustice to old William 
 Conway is seen strangely ; for on the mind of Francis B. 
 Reeves the old man's story left its impress deeply, caus- 
 ing him to affirm as a positive conviction that a non-par- 
 tisan police-force is essential to the rights of citizens and 
 that he who is chosen Mayor should pledge himself in 
 advance to maintain such principles when in power. 
 
 From the Mayor's presence Messrs. Garrett and Eeeves 
 go direct to the meeting of the Executive Committee, for 
 the time has come for the members to assemble. Memor- 
 able, eventful meeting I No longer to appeal to pleasing 
 hopes and possibilities ; no longer to temporize and look 
 forward to unpledged expectations. That was popular 
 once, but popular it is no longer. After Chairman Gar- 
 rett submits his report, nothing becomes less popular. 
 The minds of the members are instantly swayed by one 
 controlling purpose. Read the journals, portraying the 
 scene, on that occasion I There will be found matter of 
 thrilling interest. Twenty members were on their feet 
 at once, as Chairman Garrett, having finished his report, 
 sat down, all eager to catch the presiding officer's ear, and 
 all shouting, with slight lingual variation, the same thing. 
 " Mr, Chairman, I move the name of Mayor Stokley be
 
 138 THE FALL OF BOSHISM. 
 
 withdrawn !" Chairman Little, amid the din and confusion 
 cannot put all the motions; isindoubt whether he can put 
 any, until they have been written out in the form of reso- 
 lutions. Luckily some cool-headed member proposes a re- 
 cess, in order that the members with resolutions to offer on 
 the subject may consult together and agree upon something 
 which shall cover the matter to the satisfaction of all. 
 Ten, or at most fifteen minutes suffice to enable them to 
 epitomize their sentiments in a draft which, being read 
 and approved by all, is handed to Dunbar Lockwood, 
 whose courageous defense of principles heretofore has, 
 by common consent, given him the position of leader in 
 an emergency ; and the meeting coming to order again, 
 Mr. Lockwood presents the screed which then and there 
 in sober language establishes itself as historical : "Where- 
 as the Citizen's Committee of One Hundred, at a meet- 
 ing held on the 20th day of December, 1880, adopted a 
 Declaration of Principles, and a resolution to the effect 
 that the candidates to be nominated by the Committee 
 be required to indorse in writing the principles thereof, 
 and nominated William S. Stokley for Mayor of the city 
 of Philadelphia; and. Whereas his nomination was made, 
 under what appeared to be a well-founded belief that he 
 affirmed and accepted our principles ; and, Whereas, in 
 his written reply to the letter of notification he omits 
 entirely to indorse our Declaration of Principles and 
 verbally has distinctly declined to subscribe to it, there- 
 fore Resolved, that we now withdraw our nomination of 
 William S. Stokley for the said office." 
 
 Read the account of what followed there in Tlie Times 
 of next day, January 16, 1881, if you would know where 
 fearless and determined Reform work began, and where
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 139 
 
 half-hearted and consciously-restricted effort left off! 
 where the fetters of social influence which had for weeks 
 held captive men's true convictions and impulses were 
 flung aside, and stern, uncompromising principle came 
 unto its own : 
 
 " The vote was called and the result was the unani- 
 mous adoption of the resolution. It was then decided 
 that the resolution and the action taken upon it, be re- 
 ferred to the General Committee of One Hundred at its 
 meeting, in the Board of Trade Rooms, to-morrow after- 
 noon, with a recommendation for similar action. The 
 passage of the resolution without opposition was a sur- 
 prise to some of the most active opponents of Mayor 
 Stokley. Speaking of the matter afterward, one of them 
 said: 'I was very much surprised at two things, — first 
 that there was a full committee present, and second that 
 there should be such unanimity in passing the resolution 
 withdrawing Mayor Stokley's name.' " 
 
 Having risen above petty influences and asserted the 
 superiority of principle, the Reformers do not stop with 
 the rejection of Mayor Stokley. They have been 
 aroused ; have begun, as it were, to purge themselves. 
 There have been lingering prejudices in favor of reform- 
 ing within party lines. No longer shall this fallacy delude 
 them. With shame do they now look upon the fact that 
 their Constitution and Declaration of Principles are in 
 reality too narrow for true principles to abide there. Too 
 much care has heretofore been exercised to preserve the 
 distinctions of party. They have thought that Reform's 
 true mission was to reform the Republican party, and do 
 it, too, only with Republican material. Now do they 
 plainly see that principle is older and vastly more im- 
 portant than party, and that if they would do Reform's
 
 140 THE FALL OF BOSSISM, 
 
 work truly, they must cast aside party considerations, as 
 so much rubbish. Of this, hear what TIiq Times says in 
 the same account: 
 
 " After the Mayoralty matter was disposed of several 
 other resolutions were passed calling for a revision of the 
 Declaration of Principles in order to make ifc more 
 thoroughly non-partisan and in effect inviting the cooper- 
 ation of the Democrats. These resolutions likewise 
 will come up in the meeting of the General Com- 
 mittee to-morrow for indorsement. * * * In a talk 
 yesterday with Joseph L. Caven who had declined the 
 nomination for City Solicitor he said: 'I will take an 
 active and aggressive part in the campaign if they nomi- 
 nate a non-partisan ticket — that is a ticket that shall 
 satisfy me that the candidates are good men — men who, 
 if elected, will be faithful to the public interests. That is 
 what my letter meant. I am for John Hunter for 
 Receiver of Taxes all the time.' '"" * * On the same 
 subject Controller Pattison, representing the Democratic 
 side of the house said : 'The wisest course to be pursued 
 by the Democratic party, in my judgment, is to name such 
 a ticket as Mr. Steel for Mayor, John R. Read for City 
 Solicitor, and John Hunter for Receiver of Taxes. Such 
 a ticket as this would command the respect of all good 
 citizens without regard to party. I would be willing to 
 go into the contest and do my best toward electing such 
 inen.' " 
 
 Significant words! And doubly significant coming 
 from such men, whose help. Reformers, you shall need 
 before this struggle is ended. Therefore doubly welcome 
 that it is in this decisive moment pledged I
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 PARTY LINES "WEIGHED AND FOUND "WANriNG. 
 
 Behold, now, in the rooms of the Board of Trade, on 
 this January day, 17th in the calendar, some exciting 
 scenes. It is afternoon, within a few minutes of the hour 
 of three o'clock, at which time the General Committee 
 is expected to meet. Already the members have as- 
 sembled, save a few who, even now, are arriving in twos 
 and threes, their faces and their quick, expressive gestures 
 denoting matter in anticipation of unusual importance. 
 In small groups they stand within the large room, carry- 
 ing on excited conversation, mostly in an undertone. 
 One there is present whose appearance seems to cause a 
 sensation, nevertheless an agreeable one; for, as he moves 
 through the room the conversation stops, the little groups 
 suddenly break up and, with surprised exclamations mem- 
 bers generally move in the new-comer's direction, grasp 
 him by the hand, and with hearty greeting bid him wel- 
 come. Not less pleased seems the subject of this recep- 
 tion, who is a rather tall, broad-shouldered man, with a 
 large head, a broad, white forehead, a mass of dark brown 
 hair rather inclined to be curly, a full brown beard and 
 mustache, the luxurious, bushy growth of which might 
 suggest the hardy Russian, and a pair of quick, expressive 
 steel-blue eyes. Rudolph Blankenburg this is, uncom- 
 promising champion of principle, whose convictions on 
 the unwisdom of selecting Mr. Stokley as the Reform 
 candidate for Mayor, having passed through a crucical 
 test and proved to be of finest metal, are this day to le- 
 ceive a triumphant vindication. Clear-sighted Mr. Blank- 
 enburg I Plainly did you foresee and predict, in this same 
 (141)
 
 142 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 room, nearly one month ago, consequences which, within 
 the last half week have made themselves only too surely 
 manifesc. Earnest was your protest there against the 
 Mayor's nomination, and vigorously did you oppose, 
 almost single-handed, the specious arguments, verbal and 
 written, which were urged in his favor, and, having failed 
 to save your associates from error, you remained true to 
 yourself and gave them your resignation. Stern and 
 inflexible champion of right 1 Time has been a prompt 
 and impartial umpire in your case, Citizen Blankenburg, 
 and no longer shall it be necessary for you to pursue 
 alone, and amidst many discouragements, your earnest 
 work for the cause of principle in your own way, alien- 
 ated from those whom you set out with, so full of hope 
 and of zeal in your efforts on behalf of people's rights. 
 And not back to the One Hundred do you go to accept 
 their action as wise and confess yourself in error, but they 
 do come to you, take you by the hand, and manfully ac- 
 knowledge that they were wrong and you were right. 
 
 From Citizen Blankenburg and his enthusiastic recep- 
 tion the eye wanders to the next most noticeable person- 
 age, who is a little, wiry man, moving about briskly, not 
 to say excitedly, and greeting with unusually good spirits 
 everybody present. A clean-cut, close-shaven face, with 
 a very straight, thin body, clothed in neat-fitting Quaker 
 garb of broadcloth, and with head crowned with broad- 
 brimmed, shining beaver hat, and hand holding a roll of 
 foolscap — such is Oliver Evans, member of the Reform 
 Committee and intimate j^ersonal friend of Mayor Stokley. 
 Mr. Evans takes the hand of every body, makes himself 
 unusually affable; sometimes taps the foolscap signifi- 
 cantly, and once is heard predicting that he "shouldn't
 
 THE FALL, OF BOSSISM. 14S 
 
 wonder if there would be an old-fashioned Quaker row," 
 but never once allows his face to lose its pleasant smile 
 or his manner to lose for an instant its appearance of ex- 
 cessive spirits. Such unusual good humor does not appear 
 to blend well in every instance with the moods of mem- 
 bers, some of whom are in a serious frame of mind and 
 regard Mr. Evans curiously, if not suspiciously, particu- 
 larly as he now and then betrays indications of having 
 some capital scheme on hand, the bare contemplation of 
 which seems to please him immensely. 
 
 The hour of three arrives. Chairman Garrett's gavel 
 falls, and instantly hats are drawn off, members crowd 
 into seats and the buzz of conversation ceases. The min- 
 utes of the last meeting are read and listened to with 
 impressive silence. As the reading concludes the tall 
 form of Dunbar Lockwood arises, and his voice is 
 heard addressing the chair ; makes a motion to the effect 
 that Eudolj^h Blankenburg be received back into the 
 Committee's membership, which motion is eagerly sec- 
 onded and passes unanimously, amidst a vigorous clap- 
 ping of hands, which causes Mr. Blankenburg's face to 
 flush with pleasure as he bows his acknowledgments. 
 
 Some resignations are received; resignations of James 
 Dobson and of Messrs. Griffith and Loeble ; the letters 
 not specifying any reason for withdrawing, though 
 Mr. Dobson is known to be a strong friend and supporter 
 of Mavor Stokley, and for that reason members are apt 
 to ascribe to recent events the cause of his action. 
 
 Meantime, on a front seat, with the roll of foolscap 
 held in»conspicuous view, and anon, with a slight display 
 of nervousness tapping one of the broadcloth encased 
 knees, with face turned intently toward Chairman Gar-
 
 144 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 rett and with mind on the alert during the preliminary 
 proceedings, sits Oliver Evans, his manner more than 
 ever betokening the presence of some unusually absorb- 
 ing subject of contemplation. Near him sits, also, Citizen 
 B. B. Comegys, likewise a strong friend of Mr, Stokley, 
 and recently a delegate to the Republican Convention, 
 where Mr. Comegys had the pleasure of helping make 
 Mr. Stokley the party nominee; and near Mr. Comegys 
 and Mr. Evans sits still another friend of Mr. Stokley in 
 the person of Citizen William Sellers. None of these 
 gentlemen are members of the Executive Committee, 
 otherwise there would, perhaps, be a minority report 
 ready for presentation here to-day, dissenting from the 
 action of that Committee at its meeting two days before. 
 A favorable opportunity now arrives, and Mr. Evans 
 quickly decides that the time for action is at hand. He 
 catches the Chairman's eye, arises and addresses him. A 
 hush, solemn and sepulchral, falls upon the assem- 
 blage, and every eye is turned upon Citizen Evans and 
 his foolscap. The trim, neat, little man, in his Quaker 
 garb, and with his smooth-shaven face, advances to a 
 point in front of the Secretary's desk, then turns with a 
 slight, respectful cough, half facing the Chairman and 
 half facing his fellow Committee-men; adjusts a pair of 
 steel-rimmed spectacles, and, with something betwixt a 
 bow and a half benevolent glance towards the assembled 
 members, unrolls his foolscap. Methodically does he 
 straighten out the paper in his hands, for his coolness 
 has now all returned, and as he smooths it into convenient 
 form for his eye he begins a preliminary harangue to the 
 assemblage, which harangue is opened by the observation 
 that he has "a paper to read," and that "at the same
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM." 145 
 
 time, lie feels that the tone and temper of the Committee 
 is against wliat he is about to say." As he is a plain 
 man he talces it for granted that his words will not be 
 misunderstood. In the first place, it appears to him, it 
 will be a very vacillating course for the Commiteee to 
 pursue if it takes back the nomination of Mr. Stokley. j 
 
 Here the speaker is suddenly interrupted by Citizen 
 Joshua L. Baily, who arises and addresses the Chair. 
 With deference to the speaker, Mr. Baily would ask 
 if the subject of his address has yet been brought 
 regularly before the meeting. 
 
 " I was just about to ask the speaker that question 
 myself," Chairman Garrett replies. 
 
 Citizen Evans does not desire to violate the order of 
 proceedings and announces affably that he will proceed 
 at once to read the contents of the paper, that course alone 
 being in order. No objection being made, he again adjusts 
 his spectacles, and amidst an almost painful silence 
 reads : 
 
 "The undersigned members of the Citizen's Committee 
 of one Hundred regard it as their duty to express their 
 dissent from the act of the majority of this Committee in 
 withdrawing the name of Hon. William S. Stokley. 
 
 "We believe, and must earnestly express that belief, 
 that Mr. Stokley's faithful discharge of official duty 
 during the period in which he has held this office entitles 
 him to the highest respect and largest confidence of his 
 fellow citizens, and is a sufficient guarantee (without any 
 further declaration than he lias already made) that liis 
 re-election to the office he now holds will be promotive of 
 the best interests of the City, and for these reasons we 
 intend to give him our support and votes and commend 
 him to those of the citizens of Philadelphia."
 
 146 THE FALL OP BOSSISM. 
 
 Having read the paper, Mr. Evans did not, or affected 
 to not, notice the sensation it produced. His manner 
 was calm, his faculties entirely collected as he looked up 
 and faced the astonished Committee. " This paper," he 
 observed in a formal way, "already contains some signa- 
 tures. 1 will place it on the table here where all other 
 members who wish to sign can come forward and do so." 
 
 Citizen Evans steps briskly up and lays the foolscap 
 before the Secretaries, when it is forthwith pounced upon 
 by eager newspaper men, and its contents copied. Mean- 
 time there was confusion. Eead the account of the pro- 
 ceedings published by The Times on the next day, begin- 
 ning with the scene that followed when the brisk and 
 dapper little Mr. Evans took his seat. 
 
 Times, January 18. — "Now a storm seemed to be rising 
 in the back of the hall. Twenty members were on their 
 feet at once, all shouting the same thing, ' Who are the 
 signers of that paper? Let us have the names! Let us 
 have the names 1 Read the names!' shouted Mr. Lock- 
 wood, standing up straight in his place near the front. 
 ' There can't be many names,' said Mr. Arrott. ' Eead the 
 names/ repeated Mr. Lockwood. 
 
 "Mr. Evans coughed slightly, and again took the floor. 
 'The names,' said he, ' are A. J. Drexel, Oliver Evans, 
 B. B. Comegys and William Sellers.' 
 
 "A general laugh greeted this announcement. 'I 
 knew it,' said a member on a back seat. On motion of 
 Francis B. Reeves the matter was laid over to come up 
 further on in regular order. 
 
 " The Chair then called for reports from special com- 
 mittees. The report of the committee on Ward Organiza- 
 tion came first. It recommended for indorsement the 
 following candidates for Councils: Seventeenth Ward, 
 William Dickson and William Dunlap for Select and 
 Common Council respectively; Twenty-fourth Ward,
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 147 
 
 John Carson for Select Council; Twenty-ninth ward, 
 B. B. Comegyg for Select Council and Messrs. Simmons 
 and Smithers for Common Council. 
 
 " The reading of the letters from the three nominees of 
 the Committee for the three important city offices came 
 next. The letter of Mayor Stokley was received with 
 silence. The letter of John Hunter brought out the 
 most vociferous applause heard in any meeting of the 
 Committee since its organization — that passage of the 
 letter in which he stated that ' no matter what other 
 candidates may do, I will neither decline nor resign,' be- 
 ing received with a vigorous clapping of hands and cries 
 of ' good I good !' The closing passage of the letter was 
 also heartily applauded. 
 
 " Next came the letter of Mr. Caven declining the 
 nomination for City Solicitor. When its reading was 
 finished Mr. Barbour moved that the declination be ac- 
 cepted with regret. This motion was supplemented by a 
 resolution which Mr. Simpson offered and which passed 
 unanimously, to the effect ' That this Committee re-affirm 
 their indorsement of the life and public conduct of Joseph 
 L. Caven ; that we regret that he feels it his duty to de- 
 cline our nomination, and that we believe and re-affirm 
 the belief that to him the City of Philadelphia owes a 
 debt of gratitude that it will never be able to repay.' 
 
 " The Committee now came to the gravest part of the 
 business that had brought it together — the report of the 
 Executive Committee throwing Mayor Stokley overboard 
 and embodying resolutions for the amendment of the De- / 
 claration of Principles, so as to invite the co-operation of / 
 the Democrats. On both these questions there was a 
 struggle, but it ended in the carrying of each in accord- 
 ance with the recommendations of the Executive Com- 
 mittee by a majority so overwhelming that it was almost 
 unanimous. Before reaching that part, however, there 
 were sharp words and an animated discussion generally. 
 
 "The report of the Executive Committee, presented by 
 Chairman Little, recommended, 'First, That the last 
 clause of the Declaration of Principles be altered, by 
 erasing the words 'while we are Eepublicans and are
 
 148 THE FALL OF BOSHTSM. 
 
 Beeking to reform the management of the Republican 
 Party,' making it read ' our efforts are on behalf not of 
 party but of the whole people, and we ask the co-opera- 
 tion of our fellow-citizens in the belief that these princi- 
 ples are indispensable to good municipal government and 
 that no man who cannot heartily adopt and support them 
 is worthy of our suffrages. Second. Whereas, The 
 Citizens Committee of One Hundred at a meeting held 
 on the 20th day of December, 1880, adopted a Declara- 
 tion of Principles and a resolution to the effect that the 
 candidates to be nominated by the Committee be re- 
 quired to indorse in writing the principles thereof, and 
 nominated William S. Stokley for Mayor of the City of 
 Philadelphia; and. Whereas, His nomination was made 
 under what appeared to be a well founded belief that he 
 approved and accepted our precepts ; and Whereas, In 
 hia written reply to the letter of notification he omits 
 entirely to endorse our Declaration of Principles, and 
 verbally has distinctly declined to subs^cribe to it ; there- 
 fore, Resolved, That we now withdraw our nomination of 
 William S. Stokley for the said office. Third. Whereas, 
 The action of the Philadelphia Conventions and the re- 
 fusal of Mayor Stokley to accept the Committee's Declar- 
 ation of Principles have absolved us from all obligation 
 to work within Republican lines; therefore Resolved, 
 That should a satisfactory coalition ticket be formed, 
 this Committee will heartly accept a union of all the 
 elements of opposition to the Republican ring, irrespec- 
 tive of party. Resolved, That we ask the co-operation of 
 a similar committee of members of the Democratic Party 
 favorable to reform, with whom we shall be glad to work 
 to that end. Resolved, That the Chairman of the Com- 
 mittee of One Hundred appoint a committee of five to 
 confer with such committee when formed with a view to 
 carrying into effect such purpose. The Executive Com- 
 mittee further report progress in suggesting names of four 
 persons for Gas Trustees as instructed at the last meeting 
 of the Committee of One Hundred.' 
 
 "No sooner had Mr. Little finished reading than 
 Chairman Garrett arose. He said that before taking a
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 149 
 
 vote on the matter it would perhaps be propfel' for him to 
 say a word with reference to the conference with Ma3'or 
 Stokley. A special committee, of which he was a mem- 
 ber, had called on the Mayor, Saturday morning, to 
 ascertain whether or not he would indorse their Declara- 
 tion of Principles. The Mayor had distinctly and im- 
 periously refused to do so. He informed the Committee 
 that he had 'put his signature to all he intended to;' 
 under the circumstnaces the Executive Committee had 
 nothing else to do but withdraw his name. 
 
 " Chairman Garrett sat down amid silence. Oliver 
 Evans was on his feet in an instant. He desired to know 
 of Mr. Garrett whether the Committee that had waited 
 on the Mayor had not given him to understand that his 
 answer was satisfactory and that it would be all right. 
 
 " Mr. Garrett, rising, with every eye fixed upon him, 
 said, * I will state that such is not the case.' 
 
 " Instantly there arose another burst of applause. Mr. 
 Evans sat down quickly, looking a little confused. But 
 as the applause died away he jumped to his feet again. 
 
 " ' Then Mr. Chairman,' said he, 'I have to state that 
 the Mayor misunderstood the Committee.' 
 
 " This speech was greeted with loud laughter from mem- 
 bers on the back seats. The tide was evidently against 
 Mr. Evans and in favor of Mr. Garrett. Stout Mr. Bar- 
 bour, seated near the aisle about half-way back, capped 
 the climax and made the room roar when he shouted, 
 'Mr. Chairman it has been stated that the Mayor did 
 not mean that letter he sent to us ; he only sent it for 
 funl' 
 
 " Citizen James Graham now added his name to the 
 list of speakers. Seeing there was some misunderstand- 
 ing as to the position of Mayor Stokley, he suggessted 
 that a committee be appointed to confer with him with a 
 view to reaching an understanding. It was manifestly 
 wrong to withdraw the Mayor's name as a candidate 
 without more evidence as to his unwillingness to sub- 
 scribe to the Declaration of Principles. The very word- 
 ing of the resolution of the Executive Committee reject- 
 ing Mayor Stokley showed it was unjust. The resolution
 
 150 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 stated in One place that there was 'a well founded belief 
 that the Mayor was in sympathy with the principles of 
 the Committee. Did not that on its iace condemn the 
 action of the Executive Committee? Mr. Graham be- 
 lieved in giving the Mayor a chance. Let a committee 
 be appointed by the general Committee to confer with 
 him. 
 
 "Again a dozen members were on their feet instantly. 
 As many more were shouting from their seats, ' That has 
 been done I that has been done!' In the midst of the 
 confusion Chairman Garrett ruled that Mr. Joshua L. 
 Kaily had the floor. 
 
 " Mr. Baily, speaking as one who voted in the Committee 
 at that meeting of the 20th of December, for Mayor 
 Stokley's renomination, desired to say that his vote was 
 based not upon Mr. Stokley's record of nine years as 
 Mayor, but upon his letter addressed to Mr. Garrett and 
 upon the assurances he had understood Mr. Garrett to 
 add that Mayor Stokley was in sympathy with their 
 principles. Furthermore his vote was given with the 
 added condition, moved by Mr. Francis B. Eeeves and 
 distinctly accepted by Mr. Drexel, that Mr. Stokley 
 should accept their Declaration of Principles. 
 
 " ' It has been charged,' continued Mr. Baily, 'that the 
 Committee of One Hundred is not a representative 
 body. It might be well to inquire, apropos of this accu- 
 sation, into the character of the late Republican Conven- 
 tion which met at Horticultural Hall and re-nomi- 
 nated Mr. Stokley.' He had been informed that of the 
 one hundred and sixty members of that Convention who 
 voted for Mr, Stokley's re-nomination eighty-six, or a 
 clear majority, were office holders. Twenty-three of 
 them belonged to the police force; nine were police 
 magistrates ; four were constables ; eleven were members 
 of Councils, and nearly forty were men employed in vari- 
 ous departments of the City Government. They knew 
 their bread and butter depended upon their supporting 
 Mr. Stokley for Mayor. 
 
 " ' In the remainder of the number you will find many 
 ex-oifice- holders and ringsters; you will find ten saloou
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 151 
 
 keepers who at this juncture, at least, you would not ex- 
 pect to find among the supporters of Mayor Stokley 
 (laughter)* unless they knew that their interests were 
 safe under his administration.' 
 
 " Mr. Baily would say, however, that there had been 
 many good men in that Convention. Such as he saw sitting 
 before him f and who he was certain would commend 
 the respect of every gentleman present. ' Ten such men 
 might have saved Sodom once, but they cannot save that 
 Convention from the stigma of having been packed in the 
 interest of Mayor Stokley and the ring which has so long 
 dominated in our City Offices, loading us with debt and 
 legislating the peoples money into their own pockets.' 
 He did not desire to say anything derogatory to the police. 
 They had their bidding to do and they did it. 
 
 " Mr. Comegys arose as Mr. Baily sat down. He had 
 heard such statements about that Convention before. He 
 was sorry to hear them. He defended the Convention 
 and said it was made up af good citizens as zealous for 
 good government as any people could be. 
 
 "Henry Winsor here jumped into the breach. The 
 question was whether they should or should not indorse 
 the resolutions of the Executive Committee. He could 
 not consistently support Mayor Stokley after what had 
 happened. 
 
 " Mr. Ellison was opposed to the resolutions. Mayor 
 Stokley had made a good record as Mayor and he should 
 be nominated again. At least he should not be cast over- 
 board until he was given a chance. He did not know 
 Mr, Stokley personally. But some things he had asked 
 for had been promptly granted. 
 
 " Eudolph Blankenburg said that Mr. Stokley's nomi- 
 nation had been 'sprung' upon the Committee. Mr. 
 Graham wanted his amendment looked up — about the 
 appointment of a new committee to confer with Mr. 
 Stokley. Nobody had seen it. Mr. Graham himself 
 
 *The Maj-QT had, a few weeks before his nomination by the Bepublican 
 CouvenUon, been rigorously enforcint; the law which compelled salooa 
 keepers to keep closed doors on Sundays. 
 
 tMr. Comegys.
 
 152 THE PALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 could not tell what had become of it and thought there 
 had been negligence somewhere. Chairman Garrett in- 
 formed him that it had not been seconded, A member 
 arose and seconded it. Then the question was called. 
 The amendment provided that a committee be appointed 
 to get Mayor Stokley to indorse his letter of the 20tii. 
 Mr. Wood said it would be an insult to ask him to do 
 this. 
 
 " ' He has been asked and he has refused,' said Mr. 
 E,eeves. 
 
 " ' Then,' said Mr. Graham, after a moment's deep 
 cogitation, ' I'm against him.' 
 
 "'Do you withdraw your amendment?' asked Chair- 
 man Garrett. 
 
 " ' I do,' said Mr. Graham, sitting down with a resigned 
 aspect. 
 
 " After this episode every yote Mr. Graham cast was 
 uncompromisingly against Mr. Stokley. 
 
 " The vote was then called on the main resolution em- 
 bodied in the Executive Committee's report — that dis- 
 placing Mr. Stokley. A storm of * ayes ' announced that 
 it had gone through with such a majority that there was 
 little left of it. Messrs. B. B. Comegys, Oliver Evans 
 and William Sellers alone voted against it. Mayor Stok- 
 ley was accordingly no longer the nominee of the Com- 
 mittee of One Hundred. 
 
 " Then came the matter of voting on the resolution to 
 amend the Declaration of Principles so as to secure 
 Democratic co-operation. There ensued a lively debate 
 on the question of the passage of the main amendment — 
 that inviting a Democratic committee to work with them. 
 Many of those who had helped vote Mayor Stokley off 
 the ticket were opposed to uniting with the Democrats. 
 Mr. Winsor was one of them. There was danger in that 
 direction, he thought, and they would make a mistake by 
 giving themselves to the Democrats. Oliver Evans, who 
 had been silent along time said that if the resolution did 
 not mean for the Committee to surrender itself to the
 
 'THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 153 
 
 Democrats he did not understand language. The reading 
 of the resolution again was called for. This was done. 
 Mr. E. Dunbar Lockwood developed into one of the 
 staunchest supporters of the amendment. Enough time 
 had been wasted, he urged, trying to reform within party 
 lines. That amendment meant nothing more than to 
 invite the best element of the Democrats to co-operate 
 with them. In that way they might expect to gain a 
 triumph. But never while they held out and tried to re- 
 form strictly inside their own ranks. Mr. Simpson was 
 also staunch in this direction. It would be an insult to 
 the Democratic party if they were to go to them and ask 
 them to help elect a ticket and give them no part in that 
 ticket. 
 
 "Finally the invitation to the Democrats was rendered 
 less glaring by an amendment offered by Mr. Corson. 
 He moved that the words 'and other citizens ' be added 
 after the word * Democrats.' 
 
 " ' What other citizens are there outside Republicans 
 and Democrats?' asked one. 
 
 " 'Greenbackers,' answered Mr. Corson; and everybody 
 laughed. 
 
 " Mr. Comegys had another amendment to -offer. He 
 moved that the word 'Democrats' be stricken out and 
 'other citizens' supplied instead. This was lost. Mr. 
 Corson's amendment to the main amendment was adopted. 
 
 "Again Mr. Simpson came fiercely to the front in favor 
 of the main, or original amendment. It had no partisan 
 significance, he said, and it was a waste of time to carp 
 over it. 
 
 "Mr. Audenried thought it was most embarrassing. The 
 Executive Committee had worked hard to get up these 
 amendments and if the General Committee would only 
 trust ther , he thought, they would come out all right. 
 Chairmaa Little, of the Executive Committee, likewise 
 favored the amendment. So did Mr. Gregg. A vote was 
 taken, and the amendment was carried with the additionl 
 amendment of Mr. Corson, inviting ' Democrats and 
 other citizens' to helj) elect the ticket. 
 
 "The chief work of the meeting now being over, several
 
 154 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 resolutions were offered relating to further action. On 
 Mr. Theodore Justice's motion the question of filling 
 vacancies was left to the Executive Committee. Mr. 
 Reeves presented an amendment, which was accepted, 
 to the effect that no nominations be offered to the 
 General Committee hereafter until the nominees had 
 subscribed to the Declaration of Principles. 
 
 " Mr. Blaukenburg now came forward with the following 
 resolution, which was passed, Messrs. Comegys, Sellers 
 and Evans alone voting against it : 
 
 " ' Whereas, It is a notorious fact that police officers 
 have been tlie chief managers of the late primary elections 
 in many of our wards; therefore, Resolved, That we in- 
 vite communications and testimony bearing on the fact 
 from all citizens possessing the same, said communications 
 to be sent to the Secretary of the Executive Committee, 
 Ellis D. Williams.' 
 
 " The last resolution offered related to the United States 
 Senatorship contest at Harrisburg. It was submitted by 
 Mr. Reeves : ' Resolved, That the action of a considerable 
 number of the Republican members of the Legislature 
 in declining to go into caucas for the purpose of perpetu- 
 ating ring rule has our unqualified approbation, and that 
 we regard it as a hopeful sign that the rights of the peo- 
 ple are about to'be respected in preference to the personal 
 domination of a self-constituted dictator.'* This reson- 
 ion passed unanimously, and the Committee adjournedlu 
 
 •Senator J. Dcumltl Cameioo.
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE TAX DEPARTMENT. 
 
 In the name of party there have been some pretty bad 
 things done since politics first began to have place among 
 the affairs of men. Dishonesty has prospered, vice has 
 flourished and bad men have been helped on their vyay to 
 perdition, or to some other unclassified destination, with 
 money stolen from the people. Gigantic have been the 
 frauds hatched under the heat of party prejudice and 
 under the protective influence of ignorance; appalling 
 have been the wrongs to men and to humanity imposed 
 under the cry of "fealty to party." Bad laws have been 
 enacted through the well-meaning but misapplied zeal of 
 good men, and sore injustice has been inflicted upon 
 tliousands by the fact that worthy persons have been 
 pleased to cast their votes not in accordance with the 
 promptings of reason, but at the whisper of an empty 
 sentiment. That the professional politician is a man to 
 be considered apart from the rest of humanity experience 
 conclusively proves. A creature of circumstances he re- 
 quires no qualification of fitness in his vocation, save that 
 of cunning mingled with a certain degree of caution. 
 He may be unable to write his own name or to know how 
 to express his meaning in a style that would not scandal- 
 ize established literary standards, but cunning and 
 cautious he must be if he would be successful in his call- 
 ing. In addition he must possess a degree of combative- 
 ness and bluster to intimidate the unduly law-abiding 
 and over-scrupulous who may sometimes be disposed to 
 protest against his methods. With these qualifications 
 he may be safely relied upon to make his way in the 
 (155)
 
 156 THE PALTi OF BOS8I8M. 
 
 world, and especially will he be euccessful in communi- 
 ties where men are occupied with diversified pursuits and 
 so deeply immersed in the business of money-getting 
 that they have no time to watch this man of cunning 
 and caution who is entrusted with the handling of the 
 proceeds of the taxes and, to an extent, with the manage- 
 ment of public affairs. 
 
 Under such circumstances did the Gas Trust develop in 
 Philadelphia into a formidable political machine. Under 
 the same circumstances was the office of Collector of 
 Delinquent Taxes created whereby a public official de- 
 rived, by virtue of a cunning provision of the law, the 
 sum of $200,000 as yearly compensation for the work of 
 collecting some millions of dollars of annual taxes which 
 the collecting system of his superior, the Receiver of 
 Taxes, was not supposed, with its multifarious duties in 
 connection with gathering in the bulk of the current 
 taxes, to be capable of reaching. 
 
 We have said this Tax Collecting Department was the 
 source of some great scandals. That it was so not with- 
 out cause a few facts will demonstrate. The Receiver of 
 Taxes who was the Chief of the Tax Collecting system 
 of the City and the man upon whom the entire responsi- 
 bility for the proper conduct of the department rested, 
 was elected by the people. His salary was $2,500 a year. 
 No other official connected with the department was 
 elected, the force of deputies and clerks being selected 
 by the Eeceiver, in whose hands alone, under the law, 
 the power of appointing his assistants was vested. In 
 the relation which the subordinate sustains to his super- 
 ior it is not in accordance with general experif nee to find 
 the former receiving a higher salary than the latter ; and
 
 THE rAI>L OF BOSSISM. 157 
 
 especially has it been the common belief, that the 
 amount of compensation for services in public as well as 
 in private business is proportioned to the degree of re- 
 sponsibility involved in a given position. Nevertheless, 
 it remained for the political " leaders " of Philadelphia 
 whose power in the State Legislature was almost as 
 supreme as it was in the City Councils to furnish a 
 strange and unaccountable departure from a universally 
 accepted rule in business, through what was known as 
 the Delinquent Tax Law. While this law gave the Re- 
 ceiver the power to appoint the Delinquent Collector and 
 in other respects rendered him subordinate to the Re- 
 ceiver it gave the former a salary, derived from commis- 
 sions on Taxes he collected, which amounted to eighty 
 times the salary of the Receiver and four times the salary 
 of the President of the United States. Looking into the 
 lawful, surface system of compensation between these two 
 men we see the subordinate receiving a salary which en- 
 ables him to live like a prince in his own mansion, with 
 fast horses and other equipages of suddenly or easily ac- 
 quired wealth, while his superior, through whose favor he 
 enjoys these luxuries, receives as compensation a pittance 
 which will not only preclude any possibility of his ob- 
 taining the means by which to purchase a house but will 
 in reality prevent him from living in any but a frugal man- 
 ner in an unpretentious dwelling for which he pays rent. 
 Such is the logical view of this compensation system 
 as derived from the standpoint of the law's provisions. 
 In considering the glaring incongruities mentioned, the 
 question naturally arises, what could have been the 
 motive in securing the passage of such a law. It is not 
 in accordance with general experience to find political
 
 158 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 personages so disinterested and self-sacrificing as to lend 
 their efforts to the business of creating for a single subor- 
 dinate official an office with emoluments so enormous as 
 to absolutely carry it beyond the range of comparison 
 with other public positions, even to the most important 
 known in the land, and place it, in respect of the profits 
 which a single term will yield, not on the plane of a 
 public ofiice but rather on that of a princely heritage.* 
 The Philadelphia politicians who originated and secured 
 the enactment of this law were not noted either individu- 
 ally or as a class for their readiness to further any whole- 
 sale scheme for the enrichment of a particular individual, 
 from entirely disinterested motives. Nothing was under- 
 taken by them that had not for its prime object actual 
 financial profits. Their power in politics, in shaping 
 results in the elections, gave them a prestige which no 
 party follower dared dispute. Public oiBcials were their 
 creatures as certainly as though they constituted a regu- 
 lar business firm and those they elected to oflSce were 
 merely their agents doing their work on salary or on 
 commission. They originated laws, creating new offices 
 in some instances and increasing the compensation of 
 
 *"The office of Collector of Delinquent Taxea is worth $200,000 a year 
 to the man who holds it, or as much as the President of the United 
 States receives la four years. The Tax Receiver appoints tlie Delinquent 
 Collector, so the grand scramble now between th 'roosters' of the 
 Kepublican and Democratic parties is to secure the whole of tliis big 
 prize fi)r one or the other, ana, failing in this, the indication are that the 
 old Pilgrim-ring tactics will be aciopted of maliing a Chinese fight 
 against each other with asecret understanding that no matter which one 
 is elected Receiver the profits of the Delinquent Tax office sliall be 
 'pooled,' and divided among those in the 'pool.' * * * if John 
 Hunter should exliibit such strength as to endanger the success of the 
 Republican nominee it is rumored that the Republican 'ringsters' will 
 then turn in and elect the Democratic candidate for Receiver, the con- 
 sideration being, of course, that they shall have a share in the 'pool.' 
 * * * It is needless to say that John Hunter is the lion in the path of 
 those who wish to get control of this big ' pool.' "—TaggarVa Sunday 
 Times, Jan. 23, 1881.
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 159 
 
 old ones in others, and then placed their own representa- 
 tives in charge as readily as if it were a matter in which 
 the people had absolutely no concern.f 
 
 tForthepastsevenoreight years the control of the Tax Department 
 has been entirely in the hands of Jamos Mc:^ranos and liis political col 
 leagues of the Gas Trust. The most pliant and subservient of the family 
 members of McManeism were chosen for the positions of Receiver of 
 Taxes and Collector of Delinquent Taxes. Tor three years these ofBces 
 had been in charge of two half brothers whose fortunes had been ad- 
 vanced from humble beginnings to this stage through their shrewdness 
 in keeping sight of the main chance in politics and in cultivating the 
 friendship of the political leaders. Thomas J. Smith, upon being placed 
 by McManesism in the olHce of Receiver of Taxes, appointed, with the 
 approval of the same political agency, his half brother William J. 
 Donohugh to be Collector of Delinquent Taxes. After the term of 
 Eeceiver Smith expired he was provided by McManesism with a place 
 in the Gas Trust, succeeding a superannuated Trustee who stepped out to 
 give him place. The ex-Receiver did not need this position of profit and 
 trust however to sustain him comfortably, as he retired from the Tax Of- 
 fice a very rich man, the ownerof aflne house on a fashionable street and 
 the partner in a large and flourishing mercantile establishment. Mean- 
 time James McJIanes and his friends had placed his successor in the 
 Tax Office in the person of Albert C. Roberts. The latter, atthe instance 
 of McManesand his political co-partners, continued the half brother 
 Donohugh as Collector of Delinquent Taxes and the recipient of this 
 $200,000 annual compensation. The manner in which each retiring 
 official was taken care of by the political chief and his friends is perhaps 
 the best commentary on the close relationship between the Gas Trust 
 and the Tax Department. If we follow Receiver Roberta to the end of 
 his term we shall find that he also was taken up by James McManes 
 as soon as he stepped out of the Tax Receivership, and transformed into 
 a Gas Trustee. This change, of course, involved the consent of the City 
 Councils which under the law elected the Gas Trustees, but inasmuch as 
 Trustee McKanes controlled the Councils at this time as completely aa 
 he did a,ny other department of the City Gorernment, whatever he willed 
 was speedily performed. 
 
 There came a time afterward when the sentiment of the people over 
 the scandalous mismanagement of the Tax Department became aroused 
 and a bill was drawn up by a member of the Legislature who ac. 
 knowledged no allegiance to McManesism, Edward I>aw, of the Eighth 
 Philadelphia District, providing for the abolition of the oflTice of Delin- 
 quent Collector. The half brother Donohugh, who had been in the office 
 for five or six years and had grown not only rich but to a degree indepen- 
 dent of popular sentiment, had the audacity to appear in the Legislature 
 and lobby against the bill which was defeated.
 
 CHAPTEK XVIIT. 
 
 ISSUES AND EXPEDIENTS. 
 
 The Democrats will hold their Convention on the 27th 
 of the month. Already there is much speculation over 
 the probable result. The rejection of Mayor Stokley at 
 the eleventh hour by the Eeform Committee has intensi- 
 fied public interest in an already interesting political 
 prospect. It has done more also ; it has struck deep to 
 the root of men's positive approval or condemnation ; has 
 stirred the public mind to its depths and compelled the 
 recognition, by the humblest man, of a political crisis in 
 which there can be no neutral or indiflferent position. 
 So much has been said about this Business Men's Com- 
 mittee that it cannot be ignored by those whom it op- 
 poses. Abuse it shall receive from its foes, praise from 
 its friends, and the people shall be umpire. Therein 
 does the professional politician find cause for fear, inas- 
 much as the judgment of men cannot be manipulated as 
 he has been used to manipulating election returns, and left 
 to itself is dangerously liable to be right. 
 
 Meantime party sentiment among both Republican 
 and Democratic preceptors has received a shock. Does 
 not this action oif the Eeform Committee mean party 
 treachery ? Republicans themselves they have cast off 
 the candidate of their party, and furthermore, they have 
 invited a "union of all elements of opposition * * * 
 irrespective of party!" Democratic politicians, who 
 might be supposed to find cause for congratulation over 
 this defection in the ranks of their rivals, seem to forget 
 to avail themselves of the opportunity therefor, in their 
 (160)
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM, 161 
 
 indignation against the Committee. Tliis indignation 
 would seem unaccountable were it not for the unmis- 
 takable evidence of a thorough understanding upon a 
 basis of financial profit, between Republican and Demo- 
 cratic politicians;* which understanding is apt to be 
 rudely disturbed if the Reformers succeed in establishing 
 their treasonable doctrine among the peojjle. That such 
 doctrine has already taken root there is decided evidence. 
 Democrats like Citizen Ashmead and Citizen Conway 
 have been, since Mayor Stokley was rejected, in con- 
 sultation with the Reform Committee, and a certain 
 element of young Democrats, not heretofore known in 
 politics, have come forward and are demanding of their 
 party the nomination of Republican John Hunter for 
 Receiver of Taxes. In this fact lies a new source of 
 trouble for McManesism. Than to make terms with the 
 Democratic " leaders " nothing could be easier or less 
 unusual ; but to exact a guarantee that those leaders shall 
 keep the party members well in hand is another and 
 more diflScult thing. Readily would they accomodate 
 their Republican professional brethren if they could ;f 
 
 * "Mr. Blankenburg who has taken a warm antl active part in the 
 reform movement was asked t)y an Inq\iirrr reporter Jast evening what 
 he thought of the stand taken by the DenioiTata. ' Democratic and Re- 
 publican rings have clasped hands,' answered Mr. Blankenburg, and 
 are woriiing in delightful harmony. The Democracy will place a weak 
 ticket iu the field fur the purpose of aiding sstoklt-y who would never 
 have dared to refuse to sign the Declaratiorj of Principles of llie Com- 
 mittee of the One liundred.had he not been successful inconsummatiuga 
 bargain wiih the Democrats to nominate a straight ticket and not coalesce 
 with the Reform movement. Tnere has been a dicker lietween the Re- 
 publican and Democratic lingslers, and the contract has been signed, 
 sealed and part of the goods delivered the balance to be delivered iu the 
 event of Btokley's election.' ^' —Inquirer January 30, 18sl. 
 
 t " Having been 'seen' by the Republican Managers for a straight 
 ticket they had everything 'cut and dried' in that direciion umil the 
 secret of the deal leaked out and then ensued such an upheaval of the 
 workers as has never belore been seen. * * * Without any canvass 
 whatever it was evident on night before last that one-half the wards
 
 162 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 but it must be confessed there is abroad a spirit of in- 
 subordination in their OAvn party as well as in the Re- 
 publican party and every day it becomes more evident 
 that " party ties " grow looser and less effective.* The 
 Hunter fallacy is spreading " among all degrees and con- 
 ditions of men," and no antidote that has yet been pre- 
 scribed has been successful in counteracting its influence. 
 Worse than all it carries with it another effect : belief in 
 Hunter involves a belief likewise in his utterances and 
 he has recently charged at a meeting of the Councilmanic 
 Committee on the investigation of the Gas Trust that the 
 Trustees are defrauding the people out of cue thousand 
 dollars a day ; and has furthermore declared his ability to 
 prove the charge provided he is permitted to have the aid 
 of certain papers and records of the Trust ; an accusation 
 which Trustee McManes answers in certain Billingsgate 
 language, which answers nothing, coupled with the decla- 
 ration that Councilman Hunter cannot hereafter have 
 access to the office lecords of the Trust without a written 
 order from the Chairman of the Investigating Committee, 
 the volatile Bardsley.f Davis Page also made an asser- 
 
 ■were for John Hunter for Kecelver of Taxes. * * * Notwithstanding 
 the fact that a number of wards have instructed thiir deligates for 
 Hunter the bosses, with the machinery at their bacl^s will so twist and 
 interpret the rules that McGrath will have nearly two-thirda of the 
 C!onvention to-morrow."— Jiuejiinff Star, January 26. 
 
 *"The Democratic leaders cry ' a straight ticket!'' the masses of the 
 party are for John Hunter."— liid. 
 
 t"Mr. McManes denies Mr. Hunter's allefrations that the City has been 
 defrauded of cue thousand dollars aday and suiiplements his denial with 
 the threat that Mr. Hunter cannot go to the Trust Office any more as 
 formerly. This we take it means that the doors are to be barred unless, 
 as was subspquently resolved, Mr. Bardsley, who has the reputation of 
 being the right hand man of the Trustees gives him a written permit. 
 It looks very much as if Mr. Hunter was probing the Trust to the quick. " 
 Star January 25. 
 
 "Mr. McManes says the statements of Mr. Hunter are malicious lies. 
 The best backing Mr. Hunter has is the delay the Gas Trust puts in the 
 way of an investigation."— jBecord January 25.
 
 THE PALL OF BOSSTSM. 163 
 
 tion in the same meeting concerning certain profitable 
 transactions which the Trustees have conducted in coal 
 tar, the proceeds of which should have gone into the 
 public treasury, but which appears to have gone instead 
 into the pockets of the Trustees, the efifect of which upon 
 the Trust and its apologists is conducive to the encour- 
 agement of examples of the lingual accomplishments of 
 the fishwoman. 
 
 As political issues among the people, Gas Trust mis- 
 management and Tax Department mis-management are 
 daily becoming stronger and more invincible; being issues 
 of grandest proportions which touch the Taxpayer's 
 pocket. Other issues appeal to his patriotism, his manhood, 
 his honesty and his regard for justice. Coercion in the ex- 
 ercise of the right of the ballot is a potent influence in send- 
 ing him into this fusion, partyless movement of the Re- 
 formers without regard to the question whether he or 
 they be Kepublican or Democrat since all things now are 
 based on principles which have for their watchword 
 " down with dishonesty and corruption!" So rings out 
 now this cry, among people of both parties, of Coalition. 
 In Coalition alone, of all things good for counteracting 
 the tendencies toward evil in party, does falsehood find 
 its most powerful foe and the public welfare its greatest 
 friend. There will you find the nucleus around w'hich 
 clusters a sentiment which to partisan prejudice and 
 
 "The books, papers, accounts, contracts and aU the records of the Gas 
 Trust should always be open to any member of the City Councils and 
 especially should they bo open to one oliicially instructed to <-xamine 
 them. They are the witnesses wliich must decide wnethcr Mr. Iluiiipr ia 
 a malignant or reckless dofamor or whetlier he is iiitelliirentlv truthful; 
 but when Mr. Hunter slmuicl bo mo-taded to invi/stiyate wlictluT the 
 Oas Trust isclean in its iiiip(irt;int ollice. the accuser is d('ni)unci'<i as a 
 malicious falsifier and notiii- is given that he can no longer examine the 
 affairs of the Trust unless siJecially permitted to do so by Mr. Burdsley." 
 —Times January 25,
 
 164 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 crafty self-interest is rank poison. Coalition springing 
 from the people is the triumph of right over wrong, the 
 ringing declaration of honest men that rascality and 
 systematic dishonesty shall not be tolerated in high 
 places once they become to the eyes of all clearly mani- 
 fest. Eascals alone, as Coalitionists, cannot be success- 
 ful, for to succeed requires first_ and unequivocally a 
 foundation built upon principle; and second, that quality 
 of earnestness which impresses right-minded men as 
 being disinterested and founded upon conviction ; two 
 requirements which the professional politician who goea 
 into business to plunder the public is scarcely capable of 
 understanding, or, if he does understand, is lacking in 
 the essential quality of honesty of motive which lack ia 
 sure to bring him to grief in the end. 
 
 The Committee of One Hundred having resolved that 
 "should a satisfactiory Coalition ticket be formed this 
 Committee will heartily accept a union of all the elements 
 of opposition to the Republican ring, irrespective of 
 party," and having asked for "the cooperation of a simi- 
 lar Committee of members of the Democratic party 
 favorable to Eeform with whom we shall be glad to work 
 to that end," the first element of the Democratic orga- 
 nization to take the initiative in the matter are those old 
 professional traders, who, through all the reverses of 
 their party and the triumphs of the Republicans have 
 managed to thrive and grow rich without any visible 
 occupation. These political worthies at once raise an 
 outcry against any aifiliation of their party with Re- 
 formers. They fly to the party manual and read there- 
 from the party rules which prohibit the nomination for 
 a party office by their party Conventions of any one who
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISil. 165 
 
 is not a member of their party. So this talk of having 
 the Democratic Convention for the nomination of a 
 Receiver of Taxes, nominate John Hunter they consider 
 the wildest folly. The man who must be nominated for 
 Receiver of Taxes, according to their dictum, is William 
 V. McGrath, Democratic politician, who has been in his 
 day City Treasurer and State Treasurer, and whose eleva- 
 tion to the oflfice w'ould scarcely be viewed in the light 
 of a great calamity by that Republican centre of despot- 
 ism, the Gas Trust. 
 
 This is the tone of the friendly and philosophic Demo- 
 cratic politicians. The Committee of One Hundred 
 having found this element of the Democrats practically 
 allied with the Republican ring are forced to the expe- 
 dient of strategy. They have lately threatened to with- 
 draw the nomination of Mr. Hunter for Receiver of 
 Taxes and allow the old parties to settle the contest for 
 the three city offices between them while they confine 
 their efforts to the election of Reformers to the City 
 Councils. Well do all keen observers see that with this 
 middle, or Reform element removed from the contest tor 
 the city offices the Democrats would be largely out- 
 numbered by their Republican opponents and those 
 offices would be filled by the Republican candidates. 
 The Executive Committee of the Reform Organization 
 has held a meeting and it has, been given out that a 
 resolution was passed "recommending the propriety" of 
 such a course to the General Committee. The strategy 
 works well. It brings speedy protest from honest Dem- 
 ocrats against the withdrawal of Councilman Hunter. 
 Everywhere there are si ens of a revolt of Democratic
 
 166 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 \ party followers against their party leaders.* Democratic 
 clubs, social and political, are meeting and passing 
 resolutions indorsing Mr. Hunter's candidacy. The 
 Young Men's Democratic Association, with John Cad- 
 walader. President, embracing what Republican and 
 Democratic professional politicians sueeringly term 
 " young men of blue blood," has already met and put 
 forth its official declaration in favor of Hunter. 
 The Americus Club, the leading Democratic organization 
 of the City, has a good majority ia its membership 
 favorable to Hunter. Nor is old William Conway silent. 
 His name heads a list of "Democratic citizens anxious 
 for good municipal government" who have issued a call 
 to certain conservative Democrats for a meeting at the 
 rooms of the Board of Trade on Monday, January 24th, 
 at 12 o'clock noon " for consultation."! 
 
 And here, likewise, the universal demand of the people 
 for the election of Hunter to be Chief of the Tax 
 Department finds approval. Citizen Conway is present 
 and Davis Page, and George M. Dallas, and others to the 
 number of nearly a, score, representing the most honor- 
 
 *" When Thomas J. Barger yesterday morning was visited by the 
 'workers,' summoned from every section of the City, to receive the orders 
 to be carried out at the primaries, he was assured by one and all that Mr. 
 McGrath could carry very few, if any of the 689 precincts in the City; 
 and that the party sentiment was to a very large degree in favor of John 
 Hunter. Precinct politicians who had always cried ' down coalition ! ' 
 declare that they could no longer keep the people in the traces."— Times, 
 January 25. 
 
 t" Late on Saturday last the following invitation was sent to a number 
 of prominent Democrats: 'Dear sir:— Tlie undersigned Democratic 
 citizens, anxious for good municipal government, earnestly request your 
 presence on Monday, January ■2tth, at 12 o'clock noon at the Board of 
 Trade rooms, (Mercantile Library,) Tenth Street above Chestnut, for 
 consultation. Very respectfully, William Conway, J. B Baker, Charles 
 A. Borda, Arthur M. Burton, John Samuel.'"— 2'tmes, Jaa. 25,
 
 THE FALL OF B0S3ISM. 167 
 
 able element of the Democracy.* Of aggressive Coun- 
 cilmaa Page, colleague of Mr. Hunter in Common 
 Council, and also on the Committee on the investigation 
 of the Gas Trust, nothing need be said, because we already 
 know him, — know on which side his voice will be raised 
 in praise and which in condemnation. Citizen George 
 M. Dallas is somewhat more of a stranger to the observer 
 of these stirring municipal contests, being better known 
 in State and National conflicts in which, as a conservative 
 leader of opinion, he has long stood as an acknowledged 
 power. He, you will especially find, in contests affecting 
 the Judiciary, being a keen-sighted lawyer, and having 
 old-fashioned, reliable ideas about the selection of men 
 who shall sit on the Supreme or the Lower Bench. An 
 example, is he, of that class whom the political traffickers 
 of both parties are apt to sneer at as being of " blue 
 blood ; " one of his ancestors, of the same name, having 
 been the Nation's Vice-President. Old William Conway, 
 victim of police partisanship and abuse, is already a 
 familiar figure with his bent form and his snow-white 
 hair. And there, too, is another whom we know, a 
 youngish, looking man, whose face, with its reddish 
 moustache and thoughtful, observant eyes indicate not 
 only unusual character but cool and deliberate judgment. 
 Fitting it is that Francis B. Reeves, author of that 
 non-partisan police clause in the Commitee of One 
 
 *" Among those present were Dr. Edward Morwitz, George M. Dallas, 
 William Conway, Arthur M. Burton, John Samuel, William H. Brown, 
 Joseph B. Baker, Charles A Burda. Chttrlf s Heury Jones, S. Davis Page, 
 Wiliiam Drayton, ex-Couucilman John TuUy. ex-Councilmau Charles 
 Durr, Thomas S. Stewart and tJ. Davis Dullield. Mr. Htewart was 
 elected Chairman and Mr. Brown Secretary. Mr. Conway said the 
 object of the meeting was to interchange views as to the proiier men to 
 be nominated for Mayor, City Solicitor and Receiver of Taies. * » « 
 After Mr. Dallas' resolutions were unanimously carried tho meeting 
 adjourned to meet on Friday, at iiooa."— Timet, Jan'y io.
 
 168 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 Hundred's Constitution, which clause has led to the 
 rejection of Stokley, should not only be the only Re- 
 publican and member of the Reform Committee present 
 but that he should be here with old William Conway, 
 whose case, as a sufferer from police persecution at the 
 polls, was the source of the inspiration which led Mr. 
 Reeves to originate a clause so important to the cause of 
 Reform. Upon Citizen Conway's invitation is Mr. 
 Reeves present to hear and to be heard, provided he 
 cares to say anything. Stout Dr. Morwitz is here too, 
 proprietor and publisher of the German Democrat, and 
 likewise a conservative man who is not found in such 
 gatherings usually save when there is in hand important 
 business. Such business they have to transact to-day ; 
 the spirit of the hour being revealed when Citizen S. 
 Davis Duffield, conservative lawyer, arises and makes a 
 speech in which he condemns the party leaders for 
 refusing to hear the cry of reform and cooperate with 
 the Committee of One Hundred in selecting candidates. 
 Citizen Dallas next arises, not to speak much, but to offer 
 a resolution which says a good deal, representing that 
 " it is for the best interests of the Democratic party as 
 well as of all taxpayers and citizens of Philadelphia that 
 the evils prevailing in the administration of the office of 
 Receiver of Taxes should be terminated and that the 
 best means which can be adopted for the defeat of those 
 now in municipal power is the indorsement by the Dem- 
 ocratic party of John Hunter for Receiver of Taxes ; " 
 which resolution passes by a unanimous vote. This 
 much and no more they do now, being cautious and wary, 
 as ones who know the subtle character of those who yet 
 hold in hand the destiny of their party, and who must
 
 THE FA 1,1. Ob' aotHilSM. 169 
 
 be restrained in their attempt to commit that party to 
 dishonor for a few paltry dollars, by quiet, politic means 
 if possible; if not, then by the rude and indiscrimi- 
 nate methods of the stern-willed people. If the 
 party leaders have wisdom they will heed the warning 
 here given; if they have only cunning and short-sighted- 
 ness they will not. The party primaries will be held to- 
 night and in the results there achieved will be found the
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 TROUBLED DEMOCRATIC LEADERS. 
 
 The Democratic leaders are sorely tried. The doctrine 
 of a "straight ticket" seems to be growing more un- 
 popular hourly with their party members. The prepos- 
 session in favor of the Republican Councilman Hunter 
 spreads like contagion. Work as they will to stem the 
 tide the leaders are powerless. Lately they have begun 
 to lose their temper and to say hard things against their 
 party followers, which seems ungrateful ; and to also de- 
 nounce in vigorous language the Reformers who must be 
 blamed for the present disaffection. 
 
 They have done their best to placate their discontented 
 followers. In star-chamber council they have met and 
 agreed upon a ticket which is expected to win back to 
 the party household the dissatisfied ones. John Cad- 
 walader, esteemed young lawyer of Revolutionary 
 ancestry, shall be their candidate for Mayor; and Fur- 
 man Sheppard, eminent advocate at the bar, who in 
 times past was elected by the Reformers Prosecuting 
 Attorney, shall be the Democratic choice for City Solici- 
 tor, while William V. McGrath must be, at all hazards, 
 the candidate for Receiver of Taxes. Thus has the word 
 been given to the party members in advance of the 
 holding of the primaries so they shall know how to elect 
 their delegates in a way that shall suit their leaders. 
 Yet the party is woefully demoralized; — or at least 
 mutinous and revolutionary. Against the selection of 
 Citizen McGrath it protests fiercely and seeing nothing 
 is to be gained by protesting, it boldly throws off the
 
 THE FAT.I. OP BOSSISM. 171 
 
 party shackles and emerges defiant and belligerent as a 
 co-worker with Reformers and passes resolutions in local 
 Ward organization in favor of Citizen Hunter. 
 
 Thus does the fire of Revolution simmer and dart out 
 anon angry tongues of flame, up to the very eve of the 
 primaries; old William Conway's Board- of-Trade meeting 
 being an example thereof, and the Young Men's Demo- 
 cratic Association with its resolution of indorsement of 
 Hunter, John Cadwalader presiding, being another il- 
 lustration. Behold the complications which this latest 
 act of the leaders in taking up Citizen Cadwalader as 
 their candidate for Mayor involves! The leaders, cry 
 "a straight ticket!" and place at the head of such 
 ticket Mr. Cadwalader himself, who is lending his 
 influence not to the formation of a straight ticket but of 
 a ticket which shall satisfy the people and have on it as 
 the candidate for Chief of the Tax Department Citizen 
 Hunter, And in the same attitude stands able advocate 
 Sheppard, who, like his professional brother, Cadwalader, 
 would rather see his party do right than be the successful 
 candidate for any office. By winning to their support 
 such men do the leaders hope to silence their turbulent 
 followers; for Messrs. Sheppard and Cadwalader are 
 influential and conservative, both representing untold 
 strength as friends but formidable opposition as foes. 
 
 So the leaders will placate them if they can. How 
 the effort will succeed they shall soon know. There 
 stands on the minute book of the Young Men's Demo- 
 cratic Association that resolution of unanimous endorse- 
 ment of John Hunter, President Cadwalader himself 
 voting for it. Shrewd must the leaders be now if they 
 win him away. Selectman King's name likewise is on
 
 172 THE rAT;L OF BOSSISM. 
 
 men's tongues.* Some, there are, among Democratic 
 leaders, who advocate him for Mayor. Outrageous I Do 
 not the Democratic leaders know that this man in 
 Councils for twenty years has been " the people's man ; " 
 has sternly thrust aside partisanship and acted, not as a 
 Democrat, not as a Republican, but as a public servant 
 faithful to the interests of his masters? 
 
 The Gas Trust and McManesism generally must needs 
 speak hurried words of protest to their Democratic allies 
 against this latest name. Fully as bad for their interests 
 would be the election of Selectman King to the Mayor- 
 alty as the election of Citizen Hunter to the Receivership 
 of Taxes! both having waged fierce warfare against 
 McManesism in Councils, one of the results of which is 
 the present investigation of the Gas Trust. Unlucky 
 are these two names for McManesism ; if party methods 
 or party machinery in either party afford a means for 
 counteracting a movement that will advance the political 
 powers of these men there is no time to be lost in 
 searching it out. 
 
 In the meanwhile with Hunter and the turbulent 
 Democracy and their primaries how fares it? The Con- 
 ventions are only two days off. The list of delegates 
 thereto the wise Democratic leaders withold from the 
 public though journalistic emissaries have made repeated 
 efforts to get them. The crisis is too grave to run any 
 risk. The leaders hope there have been delegates enough 
 
 *" The James Page Library Company which claims to be the oldest 
 Democratic Society in the state and is composed of the best class of 
 citizens, held a special meetincr last night. William P. Fodell, the 
 Hecreiary. offered a resohuion suggesting the names of Samuel G. King 
 to the Democratic Convontjon as a suitable candidate for Mayor and 
 John Hunter for Receiver of Taxes. The resolution was unanimously 
 adopted."— I^mea January 26, 1881.
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 173 
 
 elected to the Convention to nominate a Receiver of 
 Taxes to insure the nomination of McGrath. Yet they 
 are doubtful. Such independence among Democrats 
 they never before experienceed. Stories of Democratic 
 defiance of their leader's expressed wishes are numerous ; 
 the Hunter doctrine seems to have turned their heads. 
 They even spoke lightly in many cases of the name of 
 McGrath. More than this, solicitors of votes for McGrath 
 delegates were in some cases insulted and threatened 
 with arrest. Serious does this result of the primaries 
 look to the Democratic leaders as well as to a disinter- 
 ested public. Serious too does it look to McManesism. 
 
 Though without access to the lists the public never- 
 theless hears enough to draw some plausible inferences. 
 Industrious journalistic investigators have been doing 
 some figure work. They have been analyzing the situa- 
 tion as they have been able to learn about it in the various 
 wards. One, after a careful inquiry, is able to state that 
 Hunter has seventeen more delegates than McGrath and 
 ir5 therefore certain, unless the delegates be bought* away 
 from him, to receive the nomination. And this investi- 
 gator further goes on to say that " the instructions given 
 to the workers on Monday night that Hunter must be 
 defeated at the primaries could not be carried out for 
 there was encountered an unexpectedly strong feeling in 
 favor of the Reformer's candidate." 
 
 *'Allhoiigli * • Mr. Knnterhns aclearmajority of the Convention and 
 it is undoubtedly true that, the mass of the iJeoiocratic party is enthu- 
 siastic in his support, the leaders yesterday blandly announced that he 
 would not have a dozen votes in the Convention significantly adding 
 'today is not Thursday,' which remark was supplemented by that of a 
 well-known Democrat who once aspired to Congressional honors : ' Why 
 the majorltv of those delegates could be bought in a lump for $2,500.' ' — 
 I^ess, Jan. 26, 18S1,
 
 174 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 So that feeling continues to develop, witli leaders and 
 bosses wildly throwing out their arms in a mad endeavor 
 to check it, but with such sorry result that they must 
 continually be running hither and thither, stumbling 
 over each other in dark places like men panic-stricken.
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTIONS. 
 
 To the Conventions as the cardinal point about which 
 the destiny of the city revolves, dependent on the might 
 of individuals sent there by various conflicting elements, 
 each set to endeavor to make its assemblage of delegates 
 do a particular thing, all men's thoughts tend. The city 
 is all in a state of ferment, the pent up excitement of 
 days finding itself near the venting point, the signal for 
 the outflow to be found in the result of the Tax Receiver's 
 Convention. Meantime there have been several exciting 
 incidents to still further agitate the flood of human feel- 
 ing within the past four and twenty hours. First, a 
 letter from Citizen Sheppard declining to be a candidate 
 for City Solicitor ; then a similar letter from John R. 
 Read, who was taken up by the party leaders in citizen 
 Sheppard's place, likewise declining ; and third, a letter 
 from citizen John Cadwalader declining to be a candi- 
 date for Mayor; and last, a letter from Citizen Isaac J. 
 Wistar, declining the honor of the Temporary Chairman- 
 ship of the Mayoralty Convention, since Citizen Cadwal- 
 ader is no longer a candidate. Citizen McGrath alone is 
 left, of all the candidates originally agreed upon, as the 
 candidate of the leaders for Tax Receiver. But how the 
 plans of those leaders have altered ! Where they, after care- 
 ful, patient work against tremendous disadvantages, had 
 succeeded in bringing out of almost inextricable con- 
 fusion some patch-work plans, to be laid with careful 
 hands before the Conventions, the rotten texture parts 
 and all is chaos again. 
 
 (175)
 
 176 THK FALTi OF BOSSISM. 
 
 But the hour for the meeting of the Conventions in 
 their respective places is ten o'clock, and what work has 
 been done by the leaders to restore something like order 
 out of indescribable confusion has been done in the 
 night and in the early morning hours. Long before the 
 arrival of the first delegate the massive Assembly build- 
 ing on Tenth street below Chestnut, where the Convention 
 to nominate a Receiver of Taxe3, will be held, becomes 
 about its base, a rallying point for the people. Sidewalks 
 are thronged; the mass even bursts over and encroaches 
 on the street, blocking cars and vehicles which require a 
 squad of police before the way can be opened again. 
 Delegates, as they pass in and up the broad stairway, 
 guarded by policemen, are hailed by the motley assem- 
 blage ; some in a spirit of encouragement, or banter, others 
 in a spirit of denunciation. All are promptly in their 
 places, and journalists call it a "respectable-looking 
 gathering." Bland Thomas May Peirce, fresh from 
 "Peirce's Business College," and mock auctions and 
 intricate mathematical calculations — flying to politics as 
 a pleasing diversion from too much figure- work — shall 
 call the Convention to order, by virtue of his appointment 
 by the City Executive Committe as Temporary Chairman' 
 
 Chairman Peirce loses little time in a preliminary 
 harangue; he has had too much experience for that. He 
 appoints his secretaries, tellers and doorkeepers, and 
 directs them to take their places. This done, the roll call 
 follows and delegates come forward as their respective 
 wards are called and lay upon the Secretaries' tables their 
 credentials. 
 
 So far everything has progressed smoothly. The 
 keenest observer would fail to detect on the surface of
 
 The fall of bosstsm. 177 
 
 this placid, quiet looking gathering the fierce antagonisms 
 that are raging beneath. What delegates are here for 
 McGrath and a "straight" ticket and what ones for 
 Hunter and coalition is a question which surface indica- 
 tions have not yet revealed. 
 
 Til us have Convention proceedings been so far. Yet— 
 hear! What are those words the bland and pleasant- 
 looking Chairman Peirce is now speaking? " The Con- 
 vention will proceed to the election of a permanent 
 Chairman I" 
 
 A signal, quick as a lightning flash, is this for the 
 mask of peace and quiet to be thrown aside. Now shall 
 it be known who is the mightier in this Convention! — 
 Hunter, the Republican Reformer, or McGrath, the 
 "straight" Democratic candidate. Each side has its 
 favorite for the important office of Permanent Chairman, 
 in the election of which will the result of the Convention's 
 work be clearly foreshadowed. Involuntarily do the 
 Hunter men turn to each other as a McGrath man springs to 
 his feet and nominates for Permanent Chairman, Samuel 
 G. Thompson, member of the bar, and son of a former 
 eminent Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, who comes 
 as a delegate from the Seventh Ward. Almost instanta- 
 neously does a Hunter man arise and nominate Citizen 
 George Bull, also a member of the bar and a near Ward 
 neighbor of John Hunter in West Philadelphia, hailing 
 from the Twenty-Seventh Ward. Delegates Joseph F. 
 "Wall and Thomas Carlin are likewise nominated by 
 enthusiastic brother delegates .biL't they withdraw and 
 leave the contest between Citizen Thompson and Citizen 
 Bull. 
 
 Breathless is the suspense as the names of delegates
 
 178 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 are called and their votes recorded. Nervous do tlie 
 leaders of both sides appear when the monotonous voices 
 of the Secretaries ring out as they slowly go over the list. 
 When the last name is reached there is a buzz of excite" 
 ment and an involuntary crowding together of heads by 
 impromj^tu tally-keepers in order to compare records. 
 There is scarce time to satisfy them on this point before 
 the temporary Chairman's gavel again raps for silence. 
 The Secretaries have completed their work. For Citizen 
 Thompson there are eighty-four votes ; for Citizen Bull 
 sixty-six, 
 
 A cheer, loud and tumultuous, bursts forth from the 
 McGrath men. The suspense is ended and they have 
 won. Citizen Thompson, smiling and bowing is escorted 
 to the Chair amid enthusiasm by a special Committee. 
 
 Citizen Thompson, tall and majestic looking, having 
 been introduced by Temporary Chairman Peirce, there is 
 occasion for more applause which, having presently sub- 
 sided, the Convention on motion of a delegate accords 
 the retiring Chairman the honor of a seat on the platform; 
 which the bland and experienced Citizen Peirce acknowl- 
 edges with a bow as he composedly steps down and makes 
 himself comfortable near the Secretaries tables on the 
 platform steps, being not fastidious as to the literal 
 rendering of the honor. 
 
 The new Chairman being expected to adhere to custom 
 and make a speech, does so briefly ;* tells the delegates 
 
 *" After thanking the convention Mr. ThoiTipson said: "We liave 
 come here to-day to nominate a candidate for one of tlie most important 
 oitices in the gift of the people. That oliice lias been so administered 
 that it is surrounded with suspicion. That suspicion snould lie dissipated 
 by the selection of a man for Receiver of Taxes who is known to be pure 
 and upright. We should nominate such a man and then if defeat cornea 
 we shall know that we have done our full duty and the fault will uot be 
 ours.' "—Kmes, Jan. 28, 1881.
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 179 
 
 that the object which has called them together is an 
 important one; that their nominee for Receiver of Taxes 
 should be one who is known to be pure and upright, 
 whereat the Hunter men join with the McGrath men in 
 cheers. Having completed his speech Chairman Thomp- 
 son announces with official air that the first thing in 
 order is the appointment of a Committee of seven on 
 Resolutions. Delegate Richard Vaux of the Eighth Ward 
 is a notable figure as he arises to move that such Com- 
 mittee be appointed. He, of all the one hundred and 
 fifty delegates present would attract the interest and 
 curiosity of the stranger. With lion head clothed with 
 heavy masses of silver hair, which in younger years 
 was chestnut brown and with bushy whiskers of 
 the same color and luxuriant growth, he looms up 
 in the Convention like a restless lion among drowsy 
 mates. The long silver hair, falling over fore-head 
 and shoulders like a shaggy mane, shakes defiantly as he 
 stands there, the eyes of all upon him. His black broad- 
 cloth dress surmounted by old fashioned standing collar 
 and black silk stock proclaim him of that class of gentle- 
 men which in later days has been termed "of the olden 
 school." A life long Democrat has Citizen Vaux been; 
 a Jeffersonian and Jacksonian Djinocrat who would part 
 with his life rather than with his right to the claim of 
 being a Jacksonian Democrat. Pleasant memories has 
 he of Jacksonian power and prestige,"having been in 
 younger days an attache to the American Lcgatioa at the 
 Court of St. James and being reputed as the only Ameri- 
 can who ever danced with the Queen. Power and prestige 
 has he enjoyed of late years in his native city, also 
 having filled for a term the office of Mayor. One of the
 
 180 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 most influential of the party leaders in City and State, 
 Citizen Vaux is here to-day in the interest of his old 
 friend Citizen McGrath and a " straight " ticket. 
 
 Delegate Vaux, having made his motion, the Chairman 
 is about stating it to the Convention, when the watchful 
 Hunter men see their opportunity to be heard and Dele- 
 gate William Henry Jones, lawyer, is their spokesman. 
 lAmiddt wild confusion Delegate Jones arises; — cries and 
 yells of disapprobation from the McGrath men ; Cheers 
 from the friends of Hunter! Vigorous rapping with 
 Chairman Thompson's gavel finally restores a fair degree 
 of order, when he proceeds to read a preamble and reso- 
 lution: " Whereas, Mr. John Hunter, the nominee of 
 th3 Eeform Association of Philadelphia for Receiver of 
 Taxes, Las by his labors in behalf of the Taxpayers 
 commended himself to our citizens without distinction 
 of party; therefore, Resolved, That this Convention deem 
 it inexpedient to place in nomination a candidate for the 
 position of Receiver of Taxes and recommend the Demo- 
 cratic voters of Philadelphia to cast their votes for John 
 Hunter at the coming election." 
 
 Now Bedlam seems to be breaking loose; groans, hisses 
 and yells of indignation from the friends of a " straight " 
 ticket, and wild, tumultuous cheers from the friends of 
 " Hunter and Reform." While the disorder is at its 
 height and the entire Convention seems to be on its feet 
 swinging arms and writhing in a paroxysm of excite- 
 ment, the lion voice of Citizen Vaux is heard and the 
 lion head is seen to be shaking its mane, the eyes flashing 
 with rage and impatience as the McGrath leader raps 
 fiercely on the back of his seat for order. That powerful 
 voice is enough and at once the tumult is stilled, dele-
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 181 
 
 gates sinking into their seats with eyes rivited on a certain 
 roll of foolscap which Citizen Vaux holds in one of his 
 hands. With elegant diction and abundant dramatic 
 gestures does the Democratic leader read stirring reso- 
 lutions the tenor of which is that the people demand a 
 Keform in the Tax Department and that the Democratic 
 party recognizing that demand shall require the candi- 
 date nominated by the Convention to pledge himself in 
 the most unequivocal manner "to carry out the most 
 radical reforms in said office and to remove the abuses, 
 extortion and corruption asserted now to exist in that 
 Department of our City Government." 
 
 Citizen Yaux sits down amidst cheers from enthusiastic 
 supporters of McGrath. The Chairman, proceeding to 
 carry out the previous motion, appoints, as the Committee 
 to receive and pass upon resolutions, Richard Vaux, 
 W. T. Ladner, Joseph F. Wall, George W. Thompson, 
 Dr. C. E. Kamerly, J. P. McFadden and William Henry 
 Jones. The Committee at once goes through the form of 
 retiring to consider the resolutions but returns almost 
 immediately, Mr. Vaux handing up to the Secretaries 
 his resolutions, just read, as the ones reported by a 
 majority of the Committee to the Convention for adoption, 
 while Citizen Jones submits his resolution as a minority 
 report. 
 
 Citizen Vaux's resolutions at once pass the Con- 
 vention without opposition. Aggressive Dr. Kamerly 
 moves that Citizen Jones' resolution be laid on the table. 
 Now confusion again appears. The Hunter delegates 
 spring up as by magic, gesticulating and protesting while 
 the McGrath delegates seek to cry them down. The 
 Chair tired of pounding with the gavel toys with it '^
 
 1S2 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 moment and contemplates the turbulent scene. Then, 
 with impartiality, recognizes Citizen George Bull, leader 
 of the Hunter delegates. Mr. Bull trusts Citizen Jones' 
 resolution will not be laid on the table. (Cheers and 
 shouts from the Hunter delegates.) "We have been 
 over- ridden by rings long enough" shouts Citizen Bull. 
 " The Democratic party is in favor of Reform, and the 
 best way, the only way to effect Reform is to indorse the 
 nomination of John Hunter, a man who has proved 
 faithful to every trust." 
 
 Citizen Bull gets no farther, for at this point there is 
 a sudden interruption, and Delegate Soper, a lank man 
 of excitable temperament is seen standing up on one of 
 the rear seats, gesticulating frantically and shrieking in 
 a voice by no means agreeable. He " rises to a point of 
 order; " the Convention "is not assembled to discuss the 
 merits of John Hunter." Nevertheless the Chair rules 
 that the " point" is not well taken, which ruling is much 
 easier to announce than is the effort to induce Delegate 
 Soper to sit down. Citizen Bull, tired of frequent in- 
 terruption, finally takes his seat with an unfinished 
 speech burdening hxs brain. 
 
 No sooner is he seated than the commanding form of 
 Citizen Vaux is seen to arise and the aggressive Jack- 
 sonian leader makes his way forward to a point near the 
 Secretaries' table, where he turns and faces the Conven- 
 tion. His face is stern, his eyes flash with unusual fire. 
 "One of the first principles of Democracy is free speech," 
 he thunders ; " every delegate should have a full chance 
 to be heard. Let there be the fullest discussion. Tiien 
 vote as your good sense and consciences dictate." 
 
 Wild cheers greet this rebuke from the McGrath cham-
 
 THE FALL OP BOSSLIT.f. 183 
 
 pion. The Chairman, sharing the lion-like Vaux's views, 
 announces, as the noise subsides, that every delegate who 
 has anything to say shall have an opportunity to be heard. 
 Citizen Vaux's speech has a good effect. It silences 
 those who would shout down the Hunter men, and en- 
 courages those of the latter who have anything to say to 
 take the floor. Citizen John Grim, next in leadership 
 among the Hunter delegates, to Citizen Bull, and being 
 also of the same Ward as Councilman Hunter, claims the 
 attention of the delegates for a moment to make an eloquent 
 plea for Hunter. " I was born a Democrat," shouts Citizen 
 Grim. " I love the principles of the Democratic party and 
 for that reason I second the remarks of Mr. Bull. (Great 
 applause from the Hunter men.) I and my Democratic 
 neighbors in the Twenty-fourth Ward elected John 
 Hunter to Councils and we have never been ashamed of 
 our work. It is said he is not a Democrat. Nevertheless 
 he has always worked and voted with the Democrats 
 against the ring." (Kenewed applause from the Hunter 
 delegates.) 
 
 Citizen Vaux, shrewd and politic as well as daring and 
 audacious, agrees with the remarks of Citizen Grim; 
 pays a flattering tribute to Councilman Hunter but 
 is not prepared to admit that there are not men in the 
 Democratic party equal to him in ability and integrity. 
 
 Blunt Dr. Kamerly, zealous for the cause of McGrath, 
 assails Delegate Jones' resolution. The resolutions ^have 
 no right in the Convention. " We arc here to nominate 
 a Democrat not to indorse a Reformer. We don't want 
 a Reformer to Reform u-;, we can Reform ourselves." 
 
 Delegate Henry A. Gildea, fellow-delegate with John 
 Grim, from Councilman Hunter's Ward, reminds the 
 7
 
 184 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 Convention that the question at issue is the breaking up 
 of the Republican ring. Here is the Democrats' oppor- 
 tunity. With John Hunter they can annihilate Repub- 
 lican Bossism and corruption because Hunter possesses 
 the confidence of the entire community. Ringing 
 speeches in favor of Hunter are also heard from Delegates 
 M. F. Wilhere, Michael O'Rourke, John B. Geisz, Wil- 
 liam Lynch and Albert Lawrence. 
 
 The speech-making is scarcely ended before a new 
 cause for excitement appears. There is a sudden stir at 
 one of the doors and a door-keeper comes forward hastily 
 with a written message which he hands to Citizen Grim. 
 The Convention at once relapses into quiet and holds its 
 breath; realizing intuitively that the message conveys 
 matter of importance. Delegates crowd around Citizen 
 Grim who waves them off and mounts a bench holding 
 the message aloft in his hand. 
 
 "Fellow-delegates," he shout*", "I have just received 
 word that the Mayor's Convention has unanimously 
 nominated Samuel G. King, notwithstanding a letter 
 from Mr. King saying he would not be a candidate unless 
 Mr. Hunter was on the ticket with him for Receiver of 
 Taxes." 
 
 Inspiring news ! Indescribable is the scene now J 
 Hunter delegates mounting benches, waving arms, hats' 
 anything, — cheering until the massive walls seem to 
 crack. Weak, uncertain McGrath delegates seem for the 
 moment to be carried away; to be moved by the popular 
 tide. But Citizen Vaux has them well in hand; not new 
 to him are such scenes, no novice is he in leading men 
 through such a crisis. Well does he know that when 
 this thunder-storm of enthusiasm passes away and the
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 185 
 
 Hunter delegates get control of themselves there will be 
 a calm again. Judicious practical action is all that is 
 needed to save the day. The party rules are ample and 
 convenient. So Citizen Vaux allows the friends of the 
 Reform Councilman to shriek themselves hoarse, and 
 cautions with impatient gestures and motion of the head 
 those among his followers whose eyes he can catch, to be 
 quiet and abide their time. 
 
 The storm ends finally and the Hunter men still 
 panting with excitement resume their seats. The time 
 for the McGrath men to act is now at hand. Cold and 
 passionless Dr. Kamerly arises as if all oblivious of 
 storms and human tumults, and demands a vote on bis 
 motion to lay Delegata Jones' resolution on the table. 
 The motion is put to a vote and carried, eighty-two 
 McGrath men voting for it and sixty-six Hunter men 
 against it. 
 
 Though again defeated on a test vote the Hunter men 
 are fertile in resources and they have courage and pluck. 
 Delegate Albert Lawrence moves that the Convention 
 adjourn until three o'clock. " Let the delegates go out 
 and meet their constituents," shouts Delegate Lawrence 
 impetuously, '' and they v/ill come back and indorse John 
 Hunter." Delegate Geisz, likewise zealous for John 
 Hunter, amends the motion by prolonging the time of 
 re-assembling until ten o'clock next day. 
 
 For the third time defeated on a direct vote the Hunter 
 men still strive to prevent the Convention from nomi- 
 nating Citizen McGrath. Delegate Bull moves the ap- 
 pointment of a Committee of Five to proceed to the 
 Mayor's Convention and secure the letter of the sterling 
 Councilman King. The Chair rules his motion out of
 
 186 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 order. Delegate Bull tlien asks for time. He and Ms 
 friends came there instructed by their constitutents to 
 vote for the indorsement of Councilman Hunter. They 
 would be thankful to the Convention if it would allow 
 them twenty minutes for consultation. 
 
 No ! The Chair declares that nothing is now in order 
 but the nomination of candidates. Now is Citizen 
 Vaux's opportunity. Experienced, sly old man, not un- 
 deserved does he wear the title of " leader." He takes 
 the floor which is the signal for silence on the part of all. 
 No one can say, Citizen Vaux premises, that the Chair 
 has nDt presided fairly over the Convention ; nor can any 
 one say that the friends of Mr. Hunter have not had the 
 fullest opportunity to be heard. It is now in order to 
 put in nomination a candidate for Receiver of Taxes. 
 If the party were to go outside its ranks to nominate a 
 Receiver it would violate its principles. Under the 
 American system of government there must be two 
 parties. The Goverment could not be maintained without 
 two parties. Attempts to form third parties have always 
 failed and always will fail. " We are not," says Citizen 
 Vaux, "called upon as citizens to nominate a citizen but 
 as Democrats to do a duty to the Democratic party.'' 
 Citizen Vaux then, with an elegant peroration in which, 
 he pays a high tribute to the man whose name he is 
 about to present, nominates amidst the cheers of his 
 followers William V. McGrath. To old Dr. Kamerly 
 shall the honor belong of seconding the nomination 
 which he does in his brief practical way. 
 
 Under the party rules the friends of Councilman 
 Hunter were prevented Irom placing their candidate 
 before the Convention, he not being a member of the
 
 THE FALL OF B09SISM. 187 
 
 Democratic party. Delegate N. V. B. Stafford presents 
 the name, merely as an honorary act, of Citizen B. K. 
 Jamison, Conservative Democrat and prominent banker. 
 
 As the vote is being taken and the Secretaries reach 
 the name of Delegate Josiah Abrahams, who is the first 
 Hunter delegate on the list, Citizen Abrahams arises and 
 electrifies his associates by announcing that " under the 
 instructions of my cont'tituents to vote for the indorse- 
 ment of John Hunter I decline to vote." Fifty-seven 
 other Hunter delegates including Delegates Bull and 
 Grim, take the same course. Eight of tlieir number 
 desert them and vote for Citizen McGrath who is declared 
 to be the Convention's nominee amidst cheers and con- 
 fusion which fairly rival pandemonium. The Chair 
 appoints a committee of seven headed by Citizens Vaux 
 and Kamerly, to notify Citizen McGrath of his nomina- 
 tion and declares the Convention adjourned. 
 
 Not yet, however, are the Hunter men adjourned. 
 Fifty-six delegates at once, as the McGrath men pass out 
 of the hall, gather around their leaders, Delegates Bull 
 and Grim. They will not abide by the result of this 
 day's work; they have a duty to perform yet to their 
 constituents, who are Democrats a« honorable and true 
 as any that ever bore the name. Yet they do not wish to 
 have Citizen McGrath as their candidate ; they say he has 
 held office often enough and that besides he is too friendly 
 with those who constitute the Democratic and Republi- 
 can "ring." The man whom they desire at the head of 
 the Tax Department is Citizen Hunter, a man who has 
 never sought office, who is not a politician but an honorable 
 business man whose care for the interests of the people 
 in the City Councils prove him to be one wlio will zeal- 
 ously seek to check extravagance and reform public abuses.
 
 188 Tnr, fall of bossism. 
 
 The Hunter delegates will heed the voice of their con- 
 stiluents notwithstiinding the thing that has been done. 
 Tliey will organize at once a Convention of their own, 
 which shall not be cramped and hindered by convenient 
 party rules, and place in nomination Citizen Hunter, and 
 go forth among the Democratic people, who are not so 
 susceptible to the influence of the wily Citizen Vaux, for 
 approval. 
 
 Zealous Maurice F. Wilhere, who is a young Democrat 
 and an independent one, joins in a motion with Citizen 
 Grim that Citizen Bull act as Chairman and the motion 
 being ratified by enthusiastic shouts, Mr. Bull is escorted 
 to the platform and is about to take the Chair. 
 
 Alas for perverted humanity I Before Chairman Bull 
 has time to sit down the janitor of the hall, burly and 
 ugly of visage, rendered uglier by the hard lines of craft 
 and unnatural zeal, with its barter a.'id sale aspect, rushes 
 forward and orders the delegates to clear the hall. Door- 
 keepers and police come to his assistance with such sur- 
 prising promptness as to cause remark. It is in vain 
 Chairman Bull and Delegates Grim and Wilhere offer 
 the janitor money for the use of the hall for only a half 
 hour. He is not to be conciliated ; the McGrath men 
 have seen to that, and Mayor Stokley's policemen will 
 be only too glad to render him their assistance. So, 
 roughly and with violent language does the burly janitor 
 mount the i)latform, seize Chairman Bull by the shoulder 
 and press him vigorously toward the steps, while the 
 police among the other delegates lend him their aid. 
 And the delegates, being not fighters but peaceable men, 
 desiring only leave to perform their duties to their people, 
 seeing how useless it is to argue, move unresistingly 
 toward the door.
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 ON TO INDEPENDENCE HALL I 
 
 Cuffed and pushed and hustled by " Ring " policemen 
 and corrupted hall-tenders the fifty-seven Hunter dele- 
 gates reach the street where impatient and excited people 
 to the number of hundreds are awaiting them ; awaiting 
 to propound eager questions, to cheer them and to groan 
 at their opponents as their varying emotions excite them. 
 Cries and shouts of applause now greet them, — cries of 
 " Hurrah for Hunter I Down with the Ring I Down 
 with McManesism and McGrathism 1 Down with 
 BossismI" Crowds of people passing along Chestnut 
 street hear the tumult, stop to see what the matter is, 
 and increase the already large throng. 
 
 Anxious questions are asked, some of which the ex- 
 cited delegates answer, others of which they do not hear, 
 or if hearing do not take time to reply to. They pause on 
 the sidewalk, as if momentarily bewildered, the crowd 
 pressing on them. Chairman Bull being completely 
 hedged in and turning helplessly to his followers. Dele- 
 gates Grim and Wilhere struggling through the mass to 
 reach him. Before they have time to exchange a word 
 a voice arises from somewhere among the surging crowd 
 which causes Chairman Bull to turn suddenly as if pos- 
 sessed of an idea, the delegates struggling after him. 
 " To the Rooms of the Committee of One Hundred I 
 All Hunter Delegates to the Rooms of the Committee of 
 One Hundred I " 
 
 Enough 1 Enough ! Without pausing to question the 
 source of the invitation they press on up Tenth street to 
 (189)
 
 190 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 Chestnut and almost diagonally across, where, in the 
 second story of a building on the opposite side, the One 
 Hundred's headquarters are. Better a Convention there 
 than a curbstone Convention in the midst of a tumult- 
 uous crowd. 
 
 The street [door of the Committee's headquarters is 
 open, and through it, and along the hall, and up the 
 stairway. Chairman Bull forces his way, his delegates 
 after him, through the mass of enthusiastic Hunter 
 people, Democratic and Republican, who have gotten 
 there before them. Instantly the lower hall and stair- 
 way is a, struggling mass of people and a hundred times 
 as many more are pressing up to the entrance outside. 
 Suddenly, with a readiness of comprehension derived 
 from long experience with Conventions, two hugh Demo- 
 cratic sympathizers assuming authority by virtue of nec- 
 essity, improvise themselves into doorkeepers and rushing 
 to the entrance force back the incoming crowd and close 
 the door. Yet there are several hundred inside who 
 cannot be gotten out having crowded upstairs after the 
 determined Chairman Bull. 
 
 Meantime Chairman Bull followed by his excited dele- 
 gates bursts into the main Committee room, the door of 
 which is open, where sit two members, Messrs. Corson 
 and Barber, who have been engaged on certain " clerical 
 work," but who are now on their feet, speechless with 
 astonishment at the unceremonious intrusion, not under- 
 standing it. In a moment, however, everything has been 
 made clear, and the use of the rooms are graciously 
 accorded the eager visitors. Committeeman Corson busying 
 himself throwing open the door of a large ante-room 
 into which no one shall be admitted save delegates and
 
 THB FALL OF BOSSISM. 191 
 
 representatives of the press, ■vrhile Committeeman Barber 
 makes himself useful as door-keeper. 
 
 Short work is it for the Coavention to organize. 
 Chairman Bull has already found a chair and a table, 
 but no gavel, which is not necessary considering the 
 Convention is all of one mind and will do its work with- 
 out unnecessary wrangling. Messrs. Maurice Wilhere 
 and Albert Lawrence are appointed Secretaries, while 
 William Revell and Robert Bowen are authorized to 
 keep doors. Next all persons not delegates are requested 
 to withdraw from the rooms to the hall and staircase 
 with the understanding that they shall return when the 
 Convention gets through its work. 
 
 A Committee on Resolutions having been appointed 
 they report, after a brief retirement for deliberation, a 
 resolution to the effect that " It is the sense of this Con- 
 vention in consideration of the faithful services and 
 independent action of John Hunter, that he be indorsed 
 as the choice of the Democratic Convention for Receiver 
 of Taxes." 
 
 Amidst ringing cheers the resolution passes ; Hunter 
 is indorsed by a unanimous vote. Party ties have been 
 broken. Orator John H. Fow, of the bar, attracted to 
 the scene by the general excitement mounts a chair and 
 presents a resolution calling upon Democrats generally to 
 rise above party feeling and finish the work which the 
 Reform element of the Republican party has begun, 
 which resolution also passes " with rousing cheers." 
 Before the Convention adjourns Delegate John L. Grim 
 moves that a committee of seven be appointed by the 
 Chair to notify Councilman Hunter of the Convention's 
 action. Delegate Grim himself, Maurice Wilhere and
 
 192 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 Messrs. Wall, Gibbons, Geisz, Thompson and Lawrence 
 are appointed as that Committee. Ar^ the Convention is 
 breaking up and the enthusiastic people are crowding 
 into the room the cool-headed Delegate Grim raps on the 
 table for order, having an announ(;ement to make. " I 
 will state for the benefit of the members of the Committee 
 on notification," he shouts, "that Mr. Hunter will be at 
 the City Council Chamber in Independence Hall at three 
 o'clock to continue his investigations into a matter which 
 we hope he shall be able to prosecute in a more enlarged 
 sphere after the February elections." 
 
 Again has a popular chord been struck and forthwith 
 there are more cheers. Well have the people watched 
 the course of this Gas Trust investigation in which the 
 fearless Councilman Hunter, with his Reform colleagues, 
 Messrs. Cavea and Page, are doing so much under tre- 
 mendous disadvantages to bring to light transactions 
 done in the darkness of back-room council. 
 
 The time wackts only ten or fifteen minutes till three 
 and the Committee on notification will set out at once, as 
 it will require about five minutes to reach theHali where 
 they well know Conncilman Hunter is always prompt 
 with the hour. Instinctively does the excited throng 
 know their intentions, and at once there is a rush for the 
 street which already is crowded by an impatient assem- 
 blage. They will go along, these indiscriminate voters 
 and taxpayers and workers at many trades and occupa- 
 tions, and witness the notification, not alone because they 
 sympathize with the Eeformers whose cause is their 
 cause, but also to see the noted Councilman Hunter whom 
 so many have heard about through the newspapers. 
 
 So, moving down the stairway, the Committee, walking
 
 THE FALL OF B0S6ISM. 193 
 
 two and three abreast and followed by other delegates, in 
 impressive procession, reach the street and yet once more 
 are greeted with cheers and shouting and noisy demon- 
 stration. Following them a grand moving mass of 
 people of all grades and conditions, tumultuous and en- 
 thusiastic, the procession moves down Chestnut street to 
 the place, half way between Fifth and Sixth streets, 
 where, fronted by a broad sidewalk adorned by a statue 
 of Washington, which, every 30th of May, soldier-hands 
 wash and scour white and clean, stands the rambling 
 old building with its two stories and a half, its old- 
 fashioned hard brick-facing with brick "brought from 
 England," and its dull white, time-worn belfry tower a 
 landmark whose history shall grow more vived through 
 the ages. No longer around its portals stand patriots and 
 statesmen, but instead mainly political dependents, 
 loungers and idlers, waiting to do the bidding of their 
 petty bosses, to dance as their masters pipe as a willing 
 occupation. 
 
 The throng presses into the Hall, Committee Chairman 
 Grim and Maurice Wilhere leading, and up the oaken 
 stairway to the first landing. Above them, in the Select 
 Council Chamber, the Committee on the investigation 
 of the Gas Trust has assembled but is not yet come to 
 order. From the second story windows the members 
 have heard the shouts of the aroused ones and have 
 gazed out upon them, far-sighted President Caven 
 realizing that the long-prophesied day of retribution 
 for Bossism is rapidly approaching, with a pertinent 
 observation as to the significance of the uprising; 
 the adherents of McManesism with sneering criti- 
 cism, yet with visibly disturbed countenances. Keen-
 
 194 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 sighted Controller Pattison, who is there with certain 
 books and memoranda of his Department to aid in the 
 investigation, gazes out and recognizes many of his con- 
 stituents who see him also and hail him with wild cheers. 
 Davis Page, peering out from behind near-sighted specta- 
 cles discovers, among the moving mass, supporters and 
 friends and is likewise cheered. 
 
 But where is the lion of the hour, — the faithful Coun- 
 cilman Hunter? In close carriage from his suburban 
 West Philadelphia home he was drawing near the hall, 
 oblivious of what had happened when his ears caught 
 the wild sounds on the street and looking out his eyes 
 saw the mighty throng moving along and shouting his 
 name, having by this time reached the Ledger building 
 at Chestnut and Sixth Streets. Hastily ordering his 
 driver to turn down Sixth Street Councilman Hunter 
 there alighted and quickly entered the hall by the back 
 way, reaching the Council Chamber before the mob 
 entered the front door. 
 
 As Chairman Grim's Committee reaches the first 
 landing with the enthusiastic people blocking up stair- 
 way and wide rotunda below and streaming out into the 
 street, choking up doorway and sidewalk, the shouts and 
 cheers for Hunter grow louder. Presently there is a 
 movement above and the subject of all this wild demon- 
 stration is seen descending with uncovered head and visible 
 agitation. No sooner does he appear than the old hall 
 resounds, and shouts and exclamations from the struggling 
 mass below indicate that there is a disposition to get eyes 
 upon him. 
 
 Chairman Grim, his straight black hair disordered and 
 his coal black eyes flashing with inward excitement,
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 195 
 
 waves his hand and shouts for order. Instantly, if as by 
 magic, there is a hush, and tlie sea of faces cast upward, 
 which a moment ago was so turbulent becomes c?lm and 
 still. 
 
 Impressive is the scene. Mr. Hunter, his face 
 wearing an expression of solemnity, his head slightly 
 bowed as he awaits the pleasure of the Committee, has 
 accidently placed himself in juxtaposition with suggestive 
 things. Directly over his head hangs the old cracked 
 Liberty Bell whose tones were heard a little over a 
 century ago resounding throughout that same hall, as 
 throughout the world, in stirring proclamation of 
 the Independence of the fathers of men who to-day 
 have risen in their might likewise against the 
 oppressions of tyrants; and on the wall to his 
 right, on impressive canvas, full-length, with noble 
 features rendered more striking by the moderate 
 light that struggles through the old-fashioned win- 
 dow, is a uniformed portrait of France's noblest gift 
 to America, the Marquis de Lafayette. To the left, on 
 the opposite wall, likewise full-length on canvas, is a 
 picture of the City's founder, the benevolent Penn. 
 Surrounded thus by things replete with the eloquence 
 of history, Councilman Hunter receives through 
 Chairman Grim, the announcement of the Convention's 
 action. 
 
 No longer now are the people silent. Touched by the 
 impre^siveness of the scene and perhaps stirred by a 
 realizing sense of the wrongs inflicted upon them, the 
 descendents of a race of giants, by petty masters who 
 dare not show their faces here at this moment, no sooner 
 does Chairmaa Grim's voice cease, than their hardly
 
 196 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 repressed feelings break forth again and cheer after cbeer 
 echoes throughout the old Hall, coupled with en- 
 thusiastic shouts of "Hunter and Reform 1 Down with 
 the bosses of both parties I Down with the Gas Trust ! 
 Down with McManesism I Hurrah for Hunter and 
 Reform I " 
 
 Brief, modest man, Councilman Hunter gazes upon 
 the scene, smiling and bowing. When the tumult ceases 
 somewhat he speaks briefly, being as he says "no speech- 
 maker," " Gentlemen I thank you for your nomination. 
 If elected to the office of Receiver of Taxes I shall en- 
 deavor to perform my duty as I have ever tried to do in 
 public life." 
 
 Brief words, but not less welcome to the excited throng 
 for that ! Amidst the cheers which arise Mr. Hunter 
 bows and takes bis way up to the Council Chamber to his 
 official duties. Yet not now does the occasion end. A 
 stir among the up-gazing people and cheers again break 
 forth and cries of " Pattison I Pattison I three cheers for 
 Pattison ! " betoken new cause of excitement. The tall 
 form of the young Controller is seen on the upper 
 landing, and in response to the cries of the throng he 
 descends to the first landing, gazing steadily upon the 
 scene, awaiting the ending of the storm of applause. 
 
 When the noise subsides sufficient to enable his voice 
 to be heard the Controller addresses them, and his open- 
 ing sentence is occasion for a fresh demonstration. 
 "Fellow-citizens, one hundred years ago there was a 
 revolution started here for an imposition which was of 
 far less magnitude than that which the Democratic Con- 
 vention attempted to put upon you to-day. (Cheers.) 
 The American people brought a King to his feet for a
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 197 
 
 less offense than that which you have suffered at the 
 hands of the bosses of both parties in this city. Assert 
 your manhood and independence. Be like freemen and 
 not like slaves. Yet, it will do no good for me to stand 
 here and talk to you. Go to your homes, talk with your 
 neighbors, organize in your wards and as sure as the sun 
 shines to-morrow John Hunter will be the next Receiver 
 of Taxes." (Wild and prolonged cheers.) 
 
 Now below was a scene, the like of which, since the 
 days of the Revolution, perhaps, had not been witnessed- 
 The cheers and wild shouts within, mingling with the 
 cries and wild shouts of the constantly accumulating 
 mass without, produced an emergency which the keenest 
 sighted political observer had not foreseen. Who could 
 have expected the feelings of men to run so high, even 
 getting to a pitch that is dangerous ! For there is talk of 
 invading that Council Chamber and of seizing the friends 
 of the Gas Trust who are serving on that investigating 
 committee and treating them with violence, which talk 
 reaches the ears of the ones threatened and causes them 
 to retire from landing to Council Chamber, behind locked 
 doors, with a sudden pallor of countenance which would 
 seem to show that they appreciate the gravity of the 
 situation. In a timely moment, however, the danger 
 becomes apparent to Mayor Stokley, whose office in one 
 end of that long, rambling building, the centre of which 
 is Independence Hall itself, has been penetrated by the 
 wild sounds, which, to his ears, for reasons other tlian 
 strictly official ones, are not pleasant, and a formidable 
 squad of police drives away the mob and clears the 
 Hall.
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 THE PLAY OF FLOOD AND STORM 1 
 
 Say ye this Reform Committee came into existence 
 prematurely, that it has no mission to fulfill, is self-con- 
 stituted and that "the times arK^ot ripe for it? " — say ye 
 so while the air is ringing with men's savage cries and 
 execrations; while "citizens and taxpayers,"' knowing no 
 degree or party except the people, are banding together 
 and, under the impassioned oratory of impromptu 
 leaders, finding matter wherewith to fill up to completion 
 sweepinc and exhaustive, an arraignment against the 
 political tyrants which, at the appointed time and tribunal, 
 shall be presented, not for wordy wrangling or for sleek 
 and specious mustering of verbal rubbish to cover up and 
 divert, but for stern and summary action from which there 
 shall be no appeal. A foretaste do the tyrants get of what 
 13 coming* in this upsweeping wavef that roars and 
 clamors about the base of old Independence Hall, which 
 may yet see a day of Restoration when its emblems of 
 purity and patriotism may shine with a whiteness not 
 entirely without significance. 
 
 *" The Democratic Stalwarts have by this time learned that it is easier 
 to manipulate the delegates of a political convention than a hundred 
 thousuud tii^payers all tagei lor reform."— ^■uemn^r Star, Ja.n. 28, 1881. 
 
 f'There * * * Is a great eround-swell amongr the people for coali- 
 tion with the Business Men's Kepublican Committee, in favor of a city 
 ticKeteoiupost-d of meu whose antecedents, without regard to their poli- 
 tics, piove ihem lo be earnest and energetic advocates for reform of all 
 municipal abuses. Individual members of their (Democratic) party 
 began verv soon to declare their purpose to 'vote for John Hunter for 
 Tax Receiver.no matter what ticket he Is on* * * • These men 
 found their nelchbors sayinc; the same thing— found it repeated among 
 their fellow workmen in the workshop, and on the street, and in the 
 borsecars. Theirvoice became ageneral expression, which swelled and 
 grew in force dav hy day, and between morning and night and night and 
 mornintf."— ieciocr. Jan. 28, IS8J- 
 
 (198)
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 199 
 
 Startling and grandly extemporaneous have been the 
 things occurring within the past eight and forty hours. 
 First those " Independent Democrats," led by Citizens 
 Ashmead and Conway, assemble in the Board of Trade 
 Rooms, this time in numbers so large that the place is 
 packed* and forthwith proceed to adopt resolutions 
 "declaring Samuel G. King, Edward R. Worrell and 
 John Hunter to be the candidates of the Democratic party 
 for Mayor, City Solicitor, and Receiver of Taxes; " and 
 furthermore do they begin to prepare for the contest, 
 authorizing, by unanimous vote, the appointment of a 
 Committee of Thirty-one, composed of one member from 
 each ward, to conduct the campaign. And a committee 
 consisting of Citizens George W. Biddle, William Con- 
 way, Samuel R. Marshall, J. Davis Duffield and James 
 Tully, has been appointed to meet a sub-committee of 
 the ComoQittee of One Hundred for conference. 
 
 Next, the Committee of One Hundred has met and, in 
 vigorous, business-like way passed resolutions, one to the 
 effect that " we heartily endorse the manly letterf of Mr. 
 Samuel G. King to the Democratic Convention insisting 
 upon Mr. John Hunter's nomination for Receiver of 
 Taxes on the same ticket with him ; " and that " if Mr. 
 Samuel G. King accepts the nomination for Mayor and 
 indorses our Declaration of Principles we shall give him 
 
 *" A large meetiiig of Democratic citizens interested in municipal re- 
 form wass held at the Boardof Trade Rooms, yesterday at noon. Among 
 those present were, George W. Biddle, Isaac J. Wistar, George Biddle. 
 Samuel K. Marshal 1, Charles W.Carrigan. James Tully, Henry Budd, Jr., 
 Roberto. Howell, James C. Shedwick, Thomas S. Stewart, Col. Charles 
 H. Gibson, William H. Browne, W'illiam Henrv, Clement M. Husband, 
 Arthur M Burton, L. P. Ashmead, William Conwav, A. R. Boileau, 
 Henry Ingersoll. J. Davis Duffield, John H. Fow, John I. Rogers, William 
 H. Het rick. Frank M. Cody. E. Q. Michener. William Henrv Jones, Henry 
 Randall and Adam S. Hartranft. Thomas B, Stewart presided. "—Z^7n««, 
 Jan. 29. 1S81. 
 
 fSee appendix.
 
 200 THE FALL OF B0SSI8M. 
 
 our earnest and unqalified support." Other resolutions 
 authorize Chairman Garrett to appoint a committee of 
 five " to conduct the coming campaign in the most 
 thorough and vigorous manner for John Hunter as 
 Receiver of Taxes and for such other candidates as have 
 been or may be indorsed by the Committee ;" which Com- 
 mittee Chairman Garrett appoints at once, with Citizen 
 John Field chairman, and experienced Reform worker 
 George H. Earle and Ellis D. Williams, Rudolph Blanken- 
 burg and J. Alexander Simpson, Jr., as his colleagues. 
 In the meantime in the way of preparing for a conference 
 with the Democrats, the step has already been taken, 
 a committee of five, consisting of Citizen James A. 
 Wright, chairman, E. Dunbar Lockwood, Francis B. 
 Reeves, William Brockie and Amos R. Little, having 
 been awaiting for the past ten days, the action of the 
 Democrats that they may meet representatives from that 
 party and arrange for coalition. 
 
 Last, among the things great and startling to McManes- 
 ism and the political tyrants generally, comes the news 
 of a breach in the Democratic City Executive Com- 
 mittee, the chief official organization of the party, wield- 
 ing all the machinery for carrying on the usual election 
 contest, directing the canvass, selecting the speakers and 
 having chief authority in the campaign. Yet, wonder of 
 wonders 1 The disaffection over the result of the Dem- 
 ocratic Tax Receiver's Convention reaches this principal 
 Democratic representative body and, as a result, there has 
 been a stormy meeting, twenty-six out of forty members, 
 being all who could be got to vote for resolutions in- 
 dorsing Citizen McGrath. Others have resigned for the 
 reason that they intend to support Councilman Hunter,
 
 THE FALL OF B08SISM. 201 
 
 Citizen George Bull being one and the most conspicous 
 of those withdrawing.* 
 
 So the tide sweeps on, mounting higher and higher 
 with each succeeding flow and sweeping one after another 
 the outposts of " the old parties" from their foundations, 
 the " party lines " snapping like rotten hemp, and the 
 once jealously guarded political fields being strewn with 
 the wreck of such, and with the remnants of partisanship, 
 falsehood and predjudice. Diverging from wave-swept 
 Independence Hallf and the Board of Trade Rooms, into 
 the outer wards the flood pours. Democratic Ward Com- 
 mittees, cousKituent partsof City Executive Committee, — 
 each of the former having a representative in the latter, 
 thus composing it, — imitating the example of the central 
 organization and holding stormy meetings, the result of 
 which is either the indorsement of Councilman HunterJ 
 
 *"The Democratic City Executive Committee has been made 'solid for 
 Mulhooly' by the resignation ol' most of the members who opposed tue 
 nomination of McGrulh. Mr. E. Coppee Mitchell sliU remains a.s Chair- 
 man, but he will probably resign before many days and join the other 
 honest Democrats in the revolt against the dictation of corrupt bosses." 
 —Times, January 29, lasl. 
 
 t'Tndeppndenco Hall was an appropriate place for the spontaneous 
 ratilicatiou of tne nomination ot Mr. John Hunter, which took place 
 yesterday. The convention lield there in 1770 violated 'rules' and re- 
 fused to obey the ' bosses,' and the times are proiiitious for another revo- 
 lution organized in the same place."— Xerfj/ec, January 28, 1881. 
 
 f'The Democratic Candidate for Common Council in the Fourteenth 
 Ward, Mr. Addison B. Burk, has declined the nomination on the ground 
 that he, in common with a great majority of liis party will support John 
 Hunter for Receiver of Ta.xi^s. He therefore declines to allow his name 
 to be associated on tlie ticket with the Democratic nominee for that 
 office, whom he will have to oppose."— i-'rew, January 31. 
 
 "The Democratic E.icecutive Committees of the First, Tenth, Thir- 
 teenth, Twenty-fourth, Twenty-fifth and Twenty-seventh Wards, last 
 evening, indorsed King for Mayor, Worrell for City Solicitor, and 
 Hunter for Keceiver of Taxes."— Ibid, January 31. 
 
 "TheM.achine Democrats are losing their adherents daily. In addi- 
 tion to the resignations from the Campaign C'ommittee * * * John 
 M. Campbell of the Fifih Ward has declined to act with that body and 
 has declared that he favors the election of John Hunter for lieceiver o^ 
 'Xftxe3"—/6td.— January 31.
 
 202 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 or the breaking up of the Committees through impromptu 
 resignations, the out-going ones hastening to join hands 
 with Reformers and to organize Committees, neither 
 Democratic nor Republican but Citizen's Committees. 
 The party leaders, all powerless, gazing with scared 
 panic-stricken faces upon the storm whose dimensions 
 they can measure not, whose effects, with dim bewildered 
 vision, they foresee only to fear, do nothing but gather 
 up shreds and patches here and there of " pre-arranged 
 plans," and endeavor, in a weak and feeble way, to piece 
 them together, to hide the rents and, like Chinese fort- 
 resses, to deceive the eye with painted images. Puny 
 and weak are the leaders now, even Citizen Vaux's lion 
 voice being no more than a whisper in the din and roar 
 of the tumult, and James McManes's wonted grasp on 
 the party machinery being weak and powerless as tbatof 
 a hand palsied. 
 
 "The Sixth Ward Democratic Executive Committee has indorsed 
 King, Worrell and Hunter and the representative to the City Execntive 
 Committee has been instructed to tender to the Committee of One Hun- 
 dred and to the Independent Democratic Committee of Thirty-one, the 
 cooperation of the Sixth Ward Democracy for the Reform ticket." — 
 Inquirer, January 31" 
 
 "The bosses of the Democratic City Committee who indorsed the 
 straight-out ticket evidently forgot that they were acting in a represent- 
 ative capacity ana that in adopting such a resolution they were flying in 
 the faces of a majority of their constituents. * * * Fully three- 
 fourths of the best men of both political parties are for Joha Hunter for 
 Receiver of Taxes"— <Stor, January 31,
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 THE DEMOCEATIC COMillTTEE OF THIRTY-ONE. 
 
 Organization is now, with Reform Democrats, the order 
 of the hour. Citizen George W. Biddle's Committee of 
 Five "on conference" has met Citizen James A. Wright's 
 Committee of Five, and between the Independent Dem- 
 ocrats and Chairman Garrett's Committee there has been 
 effected a satisfactory understanding; one of the results of 
 which is the formation of the Democratic Committee of 
 Thirty-one, Citizen Isaac J. Wistar, Chairman, and 
 Citizens Ashmead, Dallas, Bull and old William Conway, 
 among others, member?. Note also on the list* many 
 young Democrats, not long emerged from Law Schools, 
 
 *The members of the Democratic Reform Committee of Thirty-one and 
 the alternates were as follows:— First Ward, William Wiler; Second 
 Ward, Charles F. Iseminger; Third Ward, W. J.Jackson; Fourth Ward, 
 Joseph P. Kennedy; Fifth Ward, William Conway; Sixth Ward, T. A. 
 Sloan . Seventh Ward, Isaac J. Wistar ; Eighth Ward, Charles H. Krum- 
 bhaar; Ninth Ward, John Tracy ; Tenth Ward, John O. James; Eleventh 
 Ward, Charles Forrest; Twelfth Ward, William Ayres; Thirteenth 
 Ward, Thomas J. Ashton ; Fourteenth Ward, William McCarty ; Fif- 
 teenth Ward, A. D. Guilbert; Sixteenth Ward, L. D. Belair; Seventeenth 
 Ward, James Tully; Eighteenth Ward, John H. Fow; Nineteenth Ward, 
 Dr. John Moffett; Twentieth Ward, Robert C. Howell; Twenty-first 
 Ward. Benjamin F. Harvey; Twenty-second Ward .Thomas A MacKel- 
 lar; Twenty-third Ward, R. L. Wright; Twenty-fourth Ward, Chas. M. 
 Warnock; Twenty-fifth Ward, Michael O'Rourke; Twenty-sixth Ward, 
 A. J. Diamond; Twenty-seventh Ward, George Bull; Twenty-eighth 
 Ward, Charles F. Cobb; Twenty-ninth Ward, F. M. Cody; Thirtieth 
 Ward. James J. Loughrey ; Thirty-first Ward, John Scott. 
 
 Alternates:— Robert S. Patterson, Edward Wiler, R. England, William 
 Smith, George M. Dallas, Thomas M. Keely, H. C. Olmstead, L. P. Ash- 
 mead, R. P. Pendegrast, W. G. Hughes, W. S. Geary, F. P. Nicholson, 
 Henry D. Welsh, P. Armbruster, John I. Rogers, F. JI. Walsh, John 
 Smith, Joseph F. N. Snyder, Joseph Wall, John A. Mehan, John McVey, 
 C. R. Bockius, John L. Grim, J. S. Painter, Robert E. Pattison, Albert 
 Brothers, Samuel Drake, William F. Ziegler, William HaU." 
 
 (.203)
 
 204 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 or even now going through their novitiate yet not with- 
 out decided convictions as to the objects of political 
 parties, which convictions do not entirely agree with those 
 of Citizen Vaux and other Democratic leaders, — a fact 
 significant of trouble for the future. One there is whom 
 it is timely Jto mark well; tall, slender, and though 
 young, with smooth, almost boyish face, of distinguished 
 features, with Roman nose, high, shapely head, full, 
 high forehead and dark eyes, extremely penetrating. 
 The Fourth Ward does this young man represent, where 
 the name of Joseph P. Kennedy, young attorney-at-law, 
 has lately fallen rudely upon the ears of the Ward Dem- 
 ocratic "leaders " who scornfully resent his appearance 
 in the political sphere and must needs resort to snubs and 
 studied slights to teach him to know his place and to not 
 interfere with them, experienced and able lieutenants of 
 the Democratic and Eepublican bosses, whose work in 
 the interests of their masters has rendered that Ward of 
 all others hopeless of Reform and a symbol of reproach 
 among men of all political professions. Yet their snubs 
 and affronts have fallen lightly; the high-spirited young 
 man seeming to grow only more bold and energetic in 
 his efforts to tear down their rotten political household 
 and to re-establish in its stead the long-abandoned prin- 
 ciples of honest Democracy. Quiet and unassuming is 
 he in appearance and manners ; listening well to others, 
 observiig closely, saying little, yet usually saying words 
 which have point and meaning. 
 
 Concerning Citizens Ashmead, Conway, Dallas and 
 Bull we already know something. So do we know about 
 Alternate Robert E. Pattison of the Twenty-Seventh 
 Ward ; as also Alternate John L. Grim of the Twenty-
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 205 
 
 Fourtli. Others there are not conspicuous in th im- 
 mediate events which have preceeded this uprising yet 
 long prominent in Reform work in one capacity or 
 other, as, for example, Citizen Charles H. Krumbhaar, 
 able young lawyer and ex-Councilman from the Eighth 
 Ward, whose name has heretofore been familiar to the 
 public through association, not altogether pleasant to 
 the recollection of McManesism, with Tax Office inves- 
 tigations. 
 
 The Committee of Thirty-one is thus not without per- 
 sons of experience. Those who are young and taking 
 their first lessons in politics are apt and will quickly 
 learn, especially since it becomes apparent that the un- 
 trammeled Democracy of the city are looking up to them, 
 clamorous and eager to be led on to the culmination of 
 this mo7ement which has been consecrated by the genius 
 of Independence Hall. So, out of the Thirty-one are 
 extracted several convenient gentlemen to officiate as 
 Secretaries; and headquarters are secured where day 
 after day, during the process of organization in the wards, 
 the Committee members shall report. Surely has the 
 way been opened for Democratic Reformers to aid their 
 Republican allies, a fact which may well cause the polit- 
 ical bosses of both parties moments not wholly free from 
 uneasiness.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 EXIT CANDIDATE McGeATH 1 
 
 Eight days have passed since the Democratic Con- 
 ventions. Citizen Vaux, heading the Committee ap- 
 pointed to notify Citizen McGrath officially of his 
 nomination, has discharged that duty through the 
 medium of a formal letter ; but as yet there has been no 
 word from the nominee. Meantime people are beginning 
 to shake their heads and to exchange significant glances. 
 It is even rumored that Citizen McGrath, seeing his 
 party so hopelessly divided and seeing also certain defeat, 
 will decline the nomination. Citizen Vaux himself, and 
 other wise ones of the party, are strangely silent; and 
 may be, under the circumstances, somewhat chagrined. 
 Others, less wise and experienced, ai-e not silent but 
 rather garrulous, saying much on the subject that betrays 
 uneasiness, which state of mind of the party followers 
 soon becomes apparent to the newspapers and at once 
 becomes matter of discussion and speculation. Thus, 
 more aggravating becomes what is already an annoying 
 uncertainty. In Citizen McGrath's case, particularly, 
 taking into consideration the condition of his party, 
 are delays dangerous. The election will come oflf on 
 Tuesday, the 15th of February not much over two weeks 
 from the time of his nomination, and already nearly a 
 week has gone and his supporters are yet in the dark as 
 to his intentions. To the City Executive Committee, the 
 responsible directing power in the contest, this silence is 
 especially trying. Already has the strength of this 
 organization been severely tried by the withdrawal of 
 (206)
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 207 
 
 those members who have declared in favor of Hunter, 
 and the Ward Commiltees are all breaking up for a 
 similar reason. 
 
 Yet the City Committee has to guide it a cool and 
 sensible head. Chairman Mitchell will not for the 
 friendship of a living man jeopardize the true interests of 
 his party. Accordingly, brushing aside personal considera- 
 tions and seeing before him only the stern course of official 
 duty, he decides that Citizen McGrath must relieve the 
 party from embarrassment by declaring his intentions. 
 For this purpose he has called a special meeting of the 
 Committee and notified all the nominees of the Conven- 
 tions to be present, provided they accept their respective 
 nominations. To this meeting come Citizen King, the 
 nominee for Mayor, and Citizen Worrell, the nominee for 
 City Solicitor, but not Citizen McGrath. Instead, there 
 comes a letter to Chairman Mitchell from Citizen Vaux 
 apprising him of the fact that Citizen McGrath has 
 written a letter of declination which letter Citizen Vaux 
 will make public through the newspapers of the next 
 day. So ends the candidacy of Citizen McGrath, and 
 fitly ends it in view of such defiance of the public will in 
 the Tax Receiver's Convention, which made him, 
 against the advice of the wisest heads in the party, 
 the nominee. But rot yet is the work of Chairman 
 Mitchell's Committee finished. The regular ele- 
 ment of the party is now without a candidate for 
 the most important of the three City otfices. The 
 party lines being all broken and even the semblance of 
 party boundaries obliterated there is nothing left for the 
 leaders to do but to go with their followers who have 
 already rallied around the banner of " Hunter and
 
 208 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 Reform." Hard may the inward struggle be before they 
 can reconcile themselves to fall into line behind the once 
 rejected and despised Reform candidate ; but the case is 
 desperate and will brook no delay. No sooner is the 
 declination of Citizen McGrath oflacially announced to 
 the meeting than Committeeman William W. Ker arises 
 with a resolution providing for the indersement of Citi- 
 zen Hunter which resolution passes by a vote wanting 
 only two of being unanimous; and having started thus 
 abruptly on the road to Reform the Committee, with 
 enthusiasm begotten of the sudden transition from 
 extremes no doubt, go further and appoint a sub-com- 
 mittee with Chairman Mitchell at its head, to confer with 
 the Committee of One Hundred with a view to co- 
 operation.
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 THE CRUMBLING OF POLITICAL FOUNDATIONS. 
 
 The condition of the Republican organization in the 
 city is now not difficult to understand. Deserted by the 
 masses of the Republican party, menaced by the Demo- 
 crats likewise, both the Reform and the Regular elements 
 of the party; who have allied themselves with those out- 
 going Republicans, McManesism stands alone and prac- 
 tically powerless. Old friends and co-partners in the 
 business of place-seeking and spoils-gathering, have 
 suddenly, by the force of circumstances, been trans- 
 formed into foes, virulent and rapacious. In the new 
 acquisition to the ranks of the Reformers, carried over in 
 the wake of the City Committee, shall the Republican 
 leaders find their bitterest source of regret. There may be 
 numbered men who for years have been growing opulent 
 through their secret connection with those leaders, not- 
 withstanding their opposite politics, and now shall they 
 turn and sting the hand which for so long a time has fed 
 them. How much of ingratitude's blackness here is 
 owing to uncontrolled and uncontrollable circums':ances, 
 and how much to inclination, willful and deliberate, is 
 not in the power of man to show. That a good end is 
 served by a falling out among thieves, however, is 
 perhaps more than enough to counterbalance any con- 
 sideratioijs of treachery and ingratitude which, after all 
 appear blackest when viewed in the abstract. 
 
 Of the surprises that await the people in these ex- 
 citing political times the action of the City Committee is 
 simply one of many. Each day bears in its young, 
 (209)
 
 210 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 opening hours some rumor or prediction, and lol before 
 the sun has set they are fulfilled. Even Citizen Keiui, 
 who, was believed to be in the political field with 
 his clubs ajid organizations " to stay," must do his part 
 in the business, and with pen and ink likewise produce 
 a teapot commotion, in letter of withdrawal, having been 
 prompted to this course, as he tells Citizen E. Joy Morris, 
 Chairman of the Committee on Notification, to whom the 
 letter is addressed, by reason of a fear that " in view of 
 the compact organization of both parties * * * it will be 
 impossible to get a fair expression of the popular will." 
 Not new to men, Mr. Keim, is this trouble in the will's 
 " expression." Eather has it been a fault of some years' 
 standing, constantly increasing in magnitude and effect 
 until thou, a Republican loyal to party and to thy belief 
 in the efficacy of " reform within the lines," dost feel the 
 injustice of thy party's so-called leaders and must step 
 out, a victim of false promises and pledges,* to make 
 room for the more adaptable Stokley whether the " pop- 
 ular will " desires it or not. So the Mayoralty struggle 
 shall be between Candidate Stokley and Candidate King 
 alone; the one representing the selfish and detestable 
 purposes of cunning ringsters, and the other the earnest 
 and honest objects of the people. Meantime aggressive 
 Reform, in many ways and places, is making itself felt 
 and where it moves and acts there is ever the same scared, 
 self-betraying patch-work defense. At Harrisburg the 
 legislature is meeting and a bill, supported by the One 
 
 *" Some weeks ago I received a * * * nomination from the Union 
 League of America and afterward the Kepublican party of this city gave 
 naesuch Indorsement at the primary election that my filends firmly 
 believe I had the majority."— ^fr. KeAm's Letter to E. Joy Morris, Feb. 
 3d, 1881,
 
 THE FATuh OF BOSSISM, 211 
 
 Hundred, has been introduced, providing that the office 
 of Delinquent Tax Collector, with its seven hundred aud 
 twenty dollars a day emoluments, shall be abolished. 
 To Harrisburg goes the Gas Trust Automaton, Donohugh, 
 to plead before Gas Trust Legislators, and to make various 
 specious representations in order that the bill shall not 
 pass; Automaton Donohugh, as he interprets the law of his 
 appointment, having more than a year's time yet to serve 
 and not wishing to be cut out of his office and princely 
 fees. 
 
 Which plea of the sleek and well- fed creature of 
 James McManes is well received by the McManes Legis- 
 lators who are disposed to do as the Automaton wishes 
 until the revolt in Philadelphia attains such proportions 
 that for the safety of the ticket McManesism is com- 
 pelled to issue new orders. Accordingly it is willed that 
 not only shall the Legislators turn in and appear to sup- 
 port the bill but that Tax Receiver- Expectant Pierie shall 
 write a public letter urging the passage of the act. This 
 letter Candidate Pierie writes, accompanying it with a 
 flourish of anxiety for the fate of the measure, his sudden 
 prepossession for which excites the sarcasm of Editor 
 McClurc, who grimly advises him not to run so 
 fast on his Eeform mission or he may crack his 
 head against the craniuins of other suddenly-fledged 
 Reformers, bent on the same errand, and sustain painful 
 injury. Alas Candidate Pierie! Too good a maa art 
 thou to be thrust forward as a shield to McManesism 
 against the just wrath of the people in this troublous 
 hour. Not versed in the ways of political guile art thou, 
 being neither cunning nor 'hnscrupulou^i, but a modest 
 well-esteemed newspaper man, fond of tliy quiet hour, thy
 
 212 
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 fragrant tobacco and genial companionship. Strange are 
 the ways of these men who would have thee one of them 
 and strange are the things they would have thee learn, 
 being beyond the forbearance of a nature honest and 
 frauk &i thine. Not aptly wouldst thou learn the science 
 of making forty votes count four thousand, or of ex- 
 panding thy two or four per cent, commission on tax 
 collections to twelve or fourteen. Therefore the kind 
 fates shall spare thee Candidate Pierie* thy day of 
 salvation being that which others may call thy day of 
 discomfiture, since man's discerning power, is, by imme- 
 diate persoual surroundings, sometimes impaired. 
 
 In proof of which variableness in man's mental vision 
 note the prevailing rumor of the hour, which is to the 
 effect that this Reform upheaval is viewed complacently 
 from the pinnacle of his stronghold in Washington by 
 the young political proprietor of the S;ate of Pennsyl- 
 vania, the imperious Cameron ; who, though owing much 
 to McManesism, has suddenly and with vindictive purpose 
 turned his back on the Philadelphia political leader for 
 reasons not remotely connected with the Chicago Con- 
 vention ; on which occasion Delegate McManes declined 
 in most emphatic fashion to support the pet candidate of 
 Delegate Cameron for the National Presidency, leading 
 a faction of the Philadelphia Delegation in the interest 
 of Candidate Blaine despite the endeavors of Delegate 
 Cameron and his fellows to render the entire state 
 
 *" Mr. Pierie owes it to himself and to his friends, who value his good 
 qualities and name, to retire from the contest and let the bosses face the 
 Morni they have iirovokeU. lie cannot carry five wards of tlie thirty- 
 one against Jolin Hum. ^r and itis duuhtl'ul whether he can carry one. 
 Tlie contest is now a sinijie-handeirone, not between George G. Pierie 
 and Jolin Hunter, but between ihe confederated bosses of both parties 
 and the people." — yiOTCi-, Feb. 5, ISSl.
 
 THE FALI. OF BOSSISM. 213 
 
 Delegation a unit for tlie third term soldier candidate, 
 Grant. Hence, from an unexpected and quasi-secret 
 source do the Reformers, unaccountably to themselves, 
 receive aid ; the agitation culminating in the appointment 
 of a Councilmauic Committee to investigate the Gas 
 Trust, being conspicuous evidence of an unseen 
 power, through whose stealthy influence long-waiting 
 Reform obtains a substantial advantage. For the 
 Cameron tool in this secret onslaught against Chief 
 McManes is sly and treacherous, being ready at any 
 moment to sink his former political master, whose for- 
 tunes, he imagines, are already waning, to please another 
 master, whose fortunes, he erroneously believes, are in 
 the ascendant. 
 
 Not without sympathy do we view the case of 
 the once iron-handed McManes. The gratitude of 
 the people should be his, at least, for that one bold 
 stand taken by him, who knows so well the artful ways 
 of politics, against the arrogant and self-seeking King- 
 worshippers who would have carried the nation far toward 
 imperialism, had they been permitted, in that Convention 
 at Chicago. Bravely there stood the Philadelphia politi- 
 cal Chief, flanked by his section of the divided Pennsyl- 
 vania Delegation, the threats and the blandishments of 
 the arrogant Cameron moving him not save to more 
 obstinate resistance. What better reason, — if somewhat 
 unusual for him^could Delegate McManes give for his 
 opposition to the candidate of Cameronism than that 
 "the people of his city were opposed to a third term? " 
 Well might he, for such cause, fight and, if necessary, 
 die; yet, fighting and living, this meteor-like flash of the 
 divine in his nature seems not less nobl?. So now, for
 
 214 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 his resolute action, must treachery show its horrid visage, 
 skulking along in the ill-fitting garb of Reform, half- 
 hesitatingly, in conscious self-abasement, seeking to make 
 overtures to the One Hundred whereby it shall be ad- 
 vanced as the power of McManes recedes. Not yet, 
 however, are the Eeformers ready to accept this new 
 disciple, even the most violent opponents among them 
 of the old political leader shrinking with unaffected 
 detestation from the cringing specimen of traitorous 
 man, who, by the grace of Cameron on the one 
 hand, and of the Reform Committee on the other, would 
 fain be the iron-willed McManes' successor. Look to 
 matters well ye Reformers as ye tear down, that the 
 fawning hand of treachery does not lay the foundation 
 of a new structure of evil, even worse than that already 
 demolished. Well have ye said that McManes ye know, 
 and his ways ye know, there being about him not that 
 secret deceit which would have you believe he is not 
 what he is or is what he is not. Clearly defined is his 
 nature and unfamiliar is it to the mask of hypocrisy ; 
 not requiring those who set out to fight him, to seek him 
 in ambush, but in the open field, under colors which at 
 least represent truth and not falsehood. 
 
 Not remarkable then is it that the Reformers should 
 be heard expressing a certain measure of respect for their 
 foe as a brave fighter, while for the tool and puppet of 
 Cameron, who would win the favor of his master, first, 
 by espousing the cause of third-termism, and turning a 
 deaf ear to the voice of his constituents as a delegate and 
 next by laboring zealously in secret ways to satisfy the 
 private grudges of that master that his own interests 
 might be advanced thereby, there is nothing but rank
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 215 
 
 contempt. So moves on this strange political struggle 
 nearer and nearer to the point of culmination ; super- 
 fluous candidates dropping out and superfluous issues and 
 organizations merging with, essential ones, in accordance 
 with the laws of fitness, and all adding to the force of the 
 onsweeping current which hut yesterday was no more 
 than a babbling stream. Bossism, terror-stricken, has 
 ceased to prate about " party lines" and "party fealty," 
 finding no audience, and has. as a last resort, betaken 
 itself to the polling places there to secretly confer with 
 election officers with a view to a repetition of the old 
 method of " counteracting " Eeform majorities by means 
 of a convenient system of political arithmetic. Yet 
 least of all is there a chance of success here for, to the 
 polling places is the vigilance of the Reform Committe 
 mainly directed, as the quiet mustering of a well-orga- 
 nized private detective force attests. Moreover is en- 
 ergetic Chairman John Field and his Campaign Com- 
 mittee busy taking note of all the various election ofiicers, 
 to whom they have sent circulars setting forth in clear 
 terms their ofiicial duties and also calling attention to 
 the legal penalties for neglect or violation of the pro- 
 visions of the election law;* and they have also issued 
 a proclamation, copies of which may be seen on the walls 
 and fences throughout the city, oifering rewards in money 
 for the detection of any election ofiicer who violates the 
 law and of any illegal voter ; $10 in the case of the 
 
 ' *" Chairman Field, of the Campaign Committee of One Hundred, Is 
 » * * about to send circulars to every election poll in the city. Every 
 official at each poll will get a circular which will set forth his duties * * * 
 as well as the penalties for ne^h'cting them and for violating the law. 
 * * * While tho circular is not worded in terms of warnmi; but is rather 
 a plain statement of duty, no one reading it can fail to understand the 
 intentions of the Reforniers."— 2Tinkw, Feb. 10, 1681,
 
 216 THE FALL OF BOSSISM; 
 
 former, and $5 in that of the latter. More than this has 
 a special committe consisting of Chairman Garrett and 
 Mr. Keeres waited on Mr. District Attorney Graham 
 and received satisfactory assurance that every case of 
 violation of the election law, brought to his attention 
 shall be investigated "as speedily as the cause of justice 
 will permit." 
 
 Nor yet do all the precautions for securing "a fair 
 expression of the popular will," cease. For there is 
 now on foot a unique system originated by Secretary 
 Ellis D. Williams, of the Executive Committee, of can- 
 vassing the city through the modest agency of postal 
 cards; two hundred thousand of which are sent out 
 enclosed in envelopes, to voters who may, if they are 
 disposed, fill up certain blank space as to the number of 
 their ward and division and as to their names and places 
 of residence and drop the card into the nearest letter-box, 
 the printed address of "Eobert E. Corson, Secretary, 
 927 Chestnut Street," being sufiicient surety as to its safe 
 return ; which brief performance on the part of the voter 
 is requested on condition that he favors the election of 
 John Hunter for Receiver of Taxes. Astonishing result I 
 The cards return so fast that at the Post-Office there is a 
 deluge of extra matter and hard-worked carriers groan 
 under bundles which are a new and somewhat startling 
 revelation to them as to the possibilities of the service ; 
 which experience is, happily for them, terminated by the 
 sympathetic Reform Committee, a messenger being 
 secured to go to the Post-Office twice a day and relieve 
 the overburdened disbursing department- at the Com- 
 
 *" Of the two bundFPrt thoiisanfl postal carols which were sent out with 
 as many Iviutc and Huuter circulars about sixty thousand have already 
 com« back. Tea lliousau<l siguatures of inen declanug for the Keforw
 
 l-HE FALL OF BOSSISM. 217 
 
 mittee's expense. Some " enthusiastic citizens " sending 
 in reply cards so large that they have to be carried from 
 the Post- Office on the messenger's shoulder, — "as large 
 as a page of Tlie Tlmes,'^ — on which their Eeform senti- 
 ments have been written in huge characters that " he 
 who runs may read." Meantime at the Committee 
 headquarters a corps of clerks is necessary to take charge 
 of and to classify the cards, each with its ward and 
 division, that the name and polling-place of every voter, 
 may be registered. Thns, before election day, do the 
 Reformers systematically get in communication with the 
 people. Still more, do they so clearly ascertain the 
 strength of the Reform Candidate Hunter in the wards 
 and divisions that they are enabled a week before the 
 day of final action to approximate, upon a reliable basis, 
 the number of votes that will be polled for Hunter in 
 the city. Well may the politicians view this latest 
 evidence of Reform sagacity as a startling revelation. 
 Well, likewise, may the hordes of ballot-box stuffers, 
 personators and repeaters, standing expectantly by, 
 awaiting the signal which shall tell them to proceed to 
 their nefarious work, experience a sudden shock which 
 silences their bravado and bluster as they see the obstacles 
 which, in monumental proportions, now seem to confront 
 them. Never before did they see so many strange faces 
 peering into their rendezvous and with close, watchful 
 glances taking note of their every movement. 
 Finally does the Reform Committee appeal to the 
 
 ticket came in yesterday in five lots. Had they aU been broug-ht up from 
 the Post-Office at once by the Committee's messenger he would have had 
 a wheelbarrow full. Some enthusiastic citizens have put postage stamps 
 on sheets of pasteboard as large as u ))age of The Times, written their 
 Reform sentiments in characters an inch and a half long aud mailed the 
 buge cards to Mr. Corson, the Secretary.' —Timet, Feb. 10.
 
 218 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 people through the pulpit, clear-headed Francis B. 
 Eeeves suggesting in Executive Committee the idea of 
 sending circulars to clergymen of all denominatioHS, re- 
 questing them to preach a sermon on the duty of citi- 
 zens on election day ; which request has a happy effect 
 and in the church also these days one hears earnest pro- 
 test* against political corruption. 
 
 •"The Rev. J. MacLeod, pastor of the Southwestern Presbyterian 
 Church, Twentieth and Fitzwater Streets, preached a timely sermon 
 yesterday morning ou the question 'For whom shall we vote?'** * * 
 Mr. MacLeod gave a synopsis of his three preceding discourses in which 
 he had endeavored to apply the teachings and principles of the gospel to 
 men's duties as Christian citizens. 'If corruptand incompetent men are in 
 office how far are citizens professing and calling themselves Christians re- 
 sponsible?' on this questioujhe quoted the remarks of a writer to this effect . 
 'There never has been a time when the Christian influence was not 
 strong enough, in this country, to carry any measure upon which Christ- 
 ians would vigorously unite.' ' Either this is true,' said the preacher, 
 'or not true. Upon asking my good friend. Judge Allison, what he 
 thought of the statement, the Judge pronounced it, without hesitation, 
 in Ilia opinion, entirely correct.' "—Inquirer, Feb. 7, 1881.
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 CONCENTRATING "POLITICAL METHODS." 
 
 Needless is it now McManes, political Chief, to 
 attempt to stay the inevitable result. The day of reckon- 
 ing has begun to dawn and thy political household is 
 doomed. Men say thou gazest with not regretful eye 
 upon the impending fate of thy candidate, Stokley ; being 
 somewhat nettled over the act of his witty Solicitor, the 
 versatile Rufus Shapley, whose recently published politi- 
 cal satire " Solid for Mulhooly," — which, in popular form 
 has portrayed the methods of thyself, as " Mulhooly,' 
 and of thy followers under various burlesque titles, — has 
 placed in the hands of the One Hundred a potent weapon 
 for arousing the active interest of the people, which they 
 have not been slow to use.* A boomerang has thy 
 "Solid for Mulhooly" proved, Mr. Shapley, having been 
 written by thee, Rumor says, at a time when thou wert 
 unduly convinced that thy client was going to turn his 
 back on his former political associates and become 
 Reformer, and thou wouldst in friendly spirit put out thy 
 book to help him on his way. Alas I that lawyer should 
 
 *" The undersigned commend to the attention and patronage of their 
 feUow citizens the entertainment to be given at the Academy of Music 
 on Monday evening, February 14th. Besides the musical selections fur- 
 nished by Carl Sentz's orchestra the main feature thereof is the reading, 
 by Professor S. K. Murdoch, the well-known elocutionist, of the political 
 satire recently published, "Solid for Mulhooly," aa a vived picture, 
 sadly true, of the methods and cliaracter of the men who, having pos- 
 sessed themselves of the machinery of the party, have succeeded in 
 grasping the city by the throat. * * * John Field, Francis B. 
 Reeves, Joshua L. Bailv, Philip C. Garrett, Ellis D. Williams, Robert 
 R. Corson. John C. Watt, George D. McCreary, John McLaughlin, 
 Rudolph Blankenburg, Amos R. Little, Joseph Parrish, E. Dunbar 
 Lockwood, Alex. Simpson, Jr., Henry M. Wetherill, Jr., Joel J. Baily, 
 Theodore Justice, John J. Ridgway, Jr., Thomas G. Morton, John E. 
 Gi&eS."—AdvertUement, Feb. 12, 1881. 
 
 (219)
 
 220 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 have so bad a client ! Hadst thou known the Mayor 
 would continue in his old course thou wouldst have 
 postponed thy book until a more auspicious time.* As 
 it is, thou doest thy best, and art loyal ti the Mayor 
 notwithstanding the disappointment to thy former ex- 
 pectations; and may be found now, night after night, 
 facing torchlight audience, and with thunderous eloquence 
 pleading the cause of thy headstrong candidate, — though 
 carefully avoiding any reference to Mulhooly, — as 
 zealously as if thy heart was in the work and thy own 
 best judgment did not disapprove of thy client's act. 
 
 Yet, whether the Gas Trust Chief is lukewarm on the 
 subject of Candidate Stokley or not matters not; little 
 could he do for his cause, indeed, against such raging 
 storm of popular excitement as now sweeps over the old- 
 time city, accompanied by flood and reverberations of 
 aroused human nature before which the specious 
 voices of hireling apologists of crime and cor- 
 ruption, in explanation, in excuse and in misrepresenta- 
 tion as they seek a hearing among the once despised and 
 ridiculed voters to plead the cause of their masters, are 
 drowned effectually. Nor are those masters free from the 
 little arts that may cajole or conciliate ; or from that 
 which may deceive or possibly counteract. First do we 
 find the order hastily sent to Harrisburg to the Gas 
 Trust puppets in the Legislature, commanding them to 
 
 *"The veil which has concealed the authorship of the political satire, 
 " Solid for Mulhooly." has been lifted and revealfd the person of Rufus 
 E; Shapley and it iis a curious result that, like Frankenstein, he should 
 have created a monster he could not control. * * * ISIr. Shapiey wrote 
 the lampoon which has now earned for its author a national reputation, 
 In which the boss of the Gas Trust was impersonated in the character of 
 Mulhooly. * * * The threat of McManes to defeat the ticket if the 
 Mayor indorsed the principles of the Committee of One Hundred forced 
 Mr. Stoklev unwillingly into a position ot antagnism to the Com- 
 mittee."— Jfinw, Feb. 20, 1831.
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 221 
 
 join at once the small handful of Reform jmembers in 
 support of the bill abolishing the obnoxious office of 
 Collector of Delinquent Taxes, in hope that this evidence 
 of Reform on the part of the ringsters may placate the 
 people and give promise of a more encourageing result 
 in the election.* Vain expedient 1 The newspapers of 
 the city are full of jeers and of rasping sarcasm at the 
 spectacle of this latest device which becomes, so far as 
 its effect on the popular uprising is concerned, simply an 
 incident of the campaign, furnishing Reform orators a 
 text whereby they may show how boasted " leaders " may 
 be compelled to bow in subjection to the people even 
 before the rod of discipline is felt on their hapless 
 shoulders. 
 
 Next do they try misrepresentation, and "by order of the 
 Republican City Executive Committee," is there set afloat 
 among the people, through the columns of several organs, 
 a carefully prepared canard, purporting to show that 
 Candidate John Hunter evades the payment of his taxes, 
 that his property is largely involved, and that such real 
 estate as he has is assessed for less than its full valuation ; 
 which canard has the effect of bringing a reply from the 
 Assessment Board and from Candidate Hunter himself, 
 showing the baseless character of the publication, 
 whereupon the party " leaders " are left in a worse con- 
 dition than before having added the title of "slanderer" 
 to the list of characterizations by which men already 
 know them. 
 
 *" The sudden eagerness of certain members of the State Assembly, 
 connected with the political ' bosses ' in this city: to pass a bill to reform 
 the * * * Collection of Taxes In Philadelphia, is strong evidence that 
 the bosses are badly scared and in order to save themselves are, like 
 drowning men, clutching at straws. Their movement, while being a 
 clear confession of weakness, comes too Isxte.— Sunday Mercury, i'eb. 
 13. 1881.
 
 222 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 Of the degree of desperation to which these con- 
 federated rascals had been wrought up as they saw the 
 unmistakable signs of a revolution which was certain to 
 sweep them out of their ill-gotten power and prestige, 
 and of the positions of public trust they had so shame- 
 fully abused, this latest device was perhaps the best 
 illustration that had appeared since they first began to 
 know such a thing as popular antagonism. One after 
 another the specious pretenses and counterfeit principles 
 upon which their power was built had been torn away 
 by the clear logic of such men as Caven, Page, Ridgway, 
 Steel and Walter, until, on the eve of this election, they 
 stood upon the rotten fabric of their temple of sham and 
 falsehood, self-confessed culprits, stripped of the artificial 
 raiment which for so long a time had deluded the people, 
 with the choice either of surrendering peaceably or of 
 prolonging, for a brief time, their existence by a recourse 
 to a sort of guerilla warfare which, while it could not 
 save them from impending disaster, would give them the 
 dubious satisfaction of indulging sundry short-lived 
 revenges. The latter alternative they chose. Candidate 
 Hunter being a conspicuous object of their hate. So 
 upon his fair name and business reputation they concoct 
 this slander that he evades payment of his taxes and that 
 by concealment and subterfuge he obtains from the Board 
 of Revision reductiors in the valuation of his property. 
 Strange fatuity of "skilled politicians!" The madness 
 which is the reputed fore-runner of destruction by the 
 gods is now upon them. Not wise is this latest act but 
 simplest kind of folly, productive of Avhat men call an 
 "eggregious blunder."* Had they been susceptible to 
 
 *" Of all the many lame devices of the bosses to deceive the people and 
 flefeat John Hunter for Tax Beceiver decidedly the lamest is the widely
 
 THE PALIi OF BOSSISM. 228 
 
 the teachings of experience they might have saved them- 
 selves. Councilman Hunter, even at the moment the 
 calumny was put forth, stood as the example of a man pros- 
 perous under vilification. There was a time, when, in his 
 own Twenty-fourth ward he was up for re-election to 
 Councils, upon which, by strategy and fraud, this same 
 agency of corruption endeavored to defeat him but only 
 succeeded, through the same propensity for blundering, in 
 sending him into Councils by a trebled majority ; having 
 first, with smirking deceit, given him the regular party 
 nomination and professed to be laboring for his re-election 
 until a time within four and twenty hours of the election, 
 when, in the arbitrary spirit of despotism, they throw 
 him off the ticket, substituting a more subservient man, 
 and give the word to their hirelings at the polls to see 
 that Candidate Hunter is defeated ; which act so arouses 
 the people that they turn out, Democrat and Republican 
 alike, and re-elect Councilman Hunter by a larger 
 majority than has ever been known in the Ward. So, 
 shall they now, learning nothing from the past, repeat 
 their blunder with tenfold more disastrous effect as the 
 end shall prove. 
 
 Such chance as now remains of breaking the force of 
 the storm raging about them lies in money. If there 
 
 distributed sheet with the caption 'John Hunter's Back Taxes.' * * * 
 The statements are not only false but worse; they display a malignity 
 that cannot well be conceived by fair-minded men. Public opinion is 
 expressing itself In regard to the publication so unmistakably that 
 Instead of injuring IMr. Hunter at the polls it will add thousands'to his 
 already well-assured large majority."— i'uenmfif Ular, Feb. 14. 
 
 " Mr. Hunter has thought it worth while— without necessity as we 
 ttlr.k— to dignify an anonymous attack upon his business standing by 
 giving it reply in any pan. The anonymous manufacturersoftheattack 
 Bay that Mr. Hunter is not so rich a man as some people think he is. 
 That certainly would be drt^adfnl if it were true; but, whether he is rich 
 or not so very rich, he is the right man to set the Tax Ollice to rights." 
 —Zedger,, Feb. 14.^
 
 224 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 lurks anywhere in the intricate labyrinths of their 
 political methods an exjiedient, however trivial, it will 
 be reached. Their ponderous coffers are overflowing with 
 gold, not procured as " voluntary contributions " from 
 bankers and merchants and such deluded and interested 
 ones alone, but wrung by the stern mandate of authority 
 from the lean pockets of policemen and luckless em- 
 ployees in the various public Departments, that the 
 ballot may be debauched, and that official corruption, 
 fraud and mis-management, may be perpetuated. Ill 
 goes it with these men, policemen, clerks and messengers, 
 and such, in public Departments if they refuse to con- 
 tribute, not even such small amount as their circum- 
 stances might prompt, but such large amount, equivalent 
 in some instances almost to a monthly salary, as their 
 political masters shall fix.* Secretly do these employees, 
 
 *" The policemen have been assessed $20 per man and the officers more 
 than this, li is asserted that an extra assessment of $:iO more per man 
 lias been made, but if so it has been kept so quiet that the public cannot 
 get the i)roof. But $20 per man will yield nearly $30,000 and, besides this, 
 the Bcievvs have been applied to the clerks and letter-carriers in the 
 Post-Office, to the employes in tlie Custom. House and Mint, and to all 
 th(;se in the t'ity Departments. * * * The total will aggregate $200,000. 
 * * * The legitimate expenses of the 'regular' Kepublicans will not 
 amount to ?10,000. 
 
 "This election will without doubt be the most corrupt one ever held 
 in Philadelphia for it is desperation with the ' ring bosses ' and they will 
 fight the Reform movement to the death with money wrung from tlie 
 pockeisof their thousands of ollicial slaves and retainers. Itis doubtful 
 if they will spend more than $1(10,000 of this fund, but will pretend that 
 it was all spent and pocket the balance. * * * Nobody knows how much 
 they collect or now much they spend. They are never called on to 
 account for it, and if a balance of ,f50,000 or $100,000 is left over they can 
 divide it among themselves and tiobody U any the wiser."— Tactraj-t's 
 Sunday Times, Feb. 13, 1881. 
 
 "The use if money in elections beyond defraying all necessary 
 expenses has reached a fearful eitentin this country and, unless checked, 
 civil rights in this land will be ultimately destroyed by the power of 
 wealih concentrated in the hands of a few capitalists and corporations. 
 Therecent extortion of upwards of $:ii),000 from the policemen of this 
 city to prevent a reform in the municipal administration is the latest 
 instance of this atrocious method of employing money unlawfully to 
 defeat the voice (if llir jioople in the clioice of municipal officers, and 
 should he nscntcd by the 'laxjiayirs ol all parties as an offence a«aiiist 
 tlieir frcLduiu and w'cliixrti." —iSnnday Mtrcuri/, Feb. 13, 1881.
 
 THE FALL OT" BOSSISM. • 225 
 
 or rather these "white slaves," groan beneath their humhle 
 roofs, screening, in soma cases, sad wan: and poverty, and 
 touching instances of hidden sacrifice, that their " free 
 city" must continue prostrate and helpless under the 
 power of such human leeches, who have drained, and 
 are draining, so much of its red life-blood, causing it to 
 flow in sparse and sluggish streams so pitiful to eyes 
 which have beheld in the realms of the seemingly for- 
 gotten past the sturdy. Titan-like image of a young city, 
 rearing its head through a halo of glory to the sky, the 
 theme of wonder and of inspiring praise throughout 
 human civilization, in the young Western world. Secretly, 
 too, do these men bemoan to the One Hundred their 
 unhappy condition, imploring them, as they value human 
 rights and liberty to rescue them from the remorseless 
 thrall in which, through the indifference of their quiet, 
 ease-loving citizen brothers, they have languished. Not 
 unresponsive nor ineffectual do their voices fall upon the 
 ears of the Reformers. Carefully have the wisest heads 
 of the Reform organization been considering this question 
 of the corrupt use of money by the ringsters whose con- 
 dition has now reached the desperate stage of veritable 
 outlaws, and in thunder tones of warning does the 
 Reform Committee speak.* Through the newspapers and 
 
 ♦CITIZEN'S CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE, 
 
 929 Chestnut Street, 
 
 PUILADELPHIA, FEB. 11th, 1881. 
 
 PROCLAMATION ! I 
 
 The Committee of One Hundred announces that it is pledged to the 
 Citizens of Philadelphia to prosecute every electioi officer who fails to 
 do his duty and every illetral volt r lit theonniinf; election. 
 
 Those who are now bniui; solicited or directed to do wrong, or those 
 inteniiing to do so, froiu any reason whatever, will tiKe notice that 
 punishment shall swiftly follow any oll'ense against the purity of the 
 ballot. 
 
 JOHN FIELD, 
 
 Chairman of Campaign Committee. 
 PHILIP C. <iAKRF;TT, 
 —Advertisement, Chairman Com. of One Hundred-
 
 226 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 through circulars and hand-bills, in several languages, 
 are the workers of corruption admonished ; while private 
 detectives gather information and make their reports 
 daily at the Reform headquarters. Such activity and 
 earnestness among the Reformers is beginning to 
 produce a like effect upon miscellaneous citizens who 
 likewise transform themselves into detectives and make 
 report of what they hear to Chairman Field's Committee ; 
 which activity is believed to be viewed with consternation 
 by those contemplating wholesale fraud. 
 
 Well is it that the Reformers have thus become argus- 
 eyed ; for the ringsters have concentrated all their re- 
 sources and among them are many that are difficult to 
 detect,* or if detected, hard to counteract. Meantime, 
 journalism at this time is wide awakef and through such 
 medium, likewise, are the despoilers of men's rights 
 warned, not without cause, as may appear. 
 
 "To THE Citizens of Philadelphia.— Overwhelming evidence of 
 stupenciuous corruption of eleciiou officers by the lavish use of money 
 has come to the Ijnowledge of this Committee. To punish offenders and 
 to maintain the sacred purity of the ballot we earnestly, request that any 
 citizen in possession of information of fraud or corruption of any bind 
 will forward it at once to John Field. Chairman of the Campaign 
 Committee, No. 929 Chestnut Street. 
 
 PHILIP C. GARKETT, 
 
 Chairman Com. of One Hundred." 
 —A dvertisement. 
 
 * JOHN HUNTER! 
 
 NOT 
 
 HUNT OR HUNTHR. 
 " The tickets, ' Stokley, West and Hunter' * * * have in many cases Mr. 
 Hunter's name purposely mis-spelled. Examine your tickets. This is a 
 trick of the bosses. 
 
 JOHN FIELD, 
 —Advertisement. Chairman Citizen's Campaign Committee." 
 
 t" The exposure by The Times of the attempt to debauch Democrats 
 in the First Ward suggests what has been going on all over the city. An 
 essential part of the campaign has been an unremitting effort to sneak in 
 the 'ring' nominees by the help of Democrats who may be willing fo 
 sellout. The first attempt was made in the Democratic Conventions, 
 when the Republican ' bosses ' insisted on straight-out Democratic nomi- 
 nations and would not listen to anything i^lae?'—Ch,ronicleSerald, Feb. 
 15, 1881.
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 THE NEW DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 Well is it ye Reformers that at the polls on this election 
 day, 15th of February, year 1881, ye have your watchers, 
 not hired detectives alone but private citizens, many of 
 them of your own organization ; sleek lawyer, banker, 
 merchant, manufacturer and mechanic, closing office and 
 workshop and turning out in twos and threes to do work 
 for the cause of free government and men's sacred rights.* 
 Well is it that ye have, through your circular and 
 postal card device, canvassed the city and gathered 
 knowledge uf your strength even in remote precincts; 
 and well is it too that ye have this day, sitting at head- 
 quarters, prepared for emergency your Campaign 
 Committee, zealous John Field at its head, ready on a 
 moments notice of fraud or intimidation of voters in any 
 of the divisions, where Reform scouts and detectives are 
 argus-like, noting men's movements, to communicate 
 with the Court Judges, sitting as Committing Magistrates, 
 that warrants may be issued and bailiffs dispatched 
 forthwith, and long-existing barriers to a free ballot thus 
 removed. 
 
 All day, throughout the city, on curbstone and corner, 
 and other wonted lounging places, holiday-like, has the 
 murmur of excited men been heard; anxious inquiries 
 for news from wards and divisions ; speculation over in- 
 cidents which, thick and fast, are borne hither and 
 
 *" In one of the largest wholesale houses on Market street is posted 
 the following notice: ' This store will be closed on Tuesday, Feb. loth, 
 BO that all connected with it naay assist in rescuing the city from ring 
 rule with which it has been so long oppressed ! "Sunday I'ress and 
 Mirror of the Times, Feb. 6th, 1881. 
 
 ^227)
 
 228 THB FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 thither on the wings of Eumor, and predictions over the 
 day's results as varied as the winds in this uncertain 
 February weather. Among the people there is an ap- 
 pearance of enthusiasm and of confidence not witnessed 
 on such occasions for many a day. Long have they been 
 going to the polls hopeful and jubilant, placing in the 
 ballot boxes votes for honest officials and pure government 
 which votes have gone for naught, having never been 
 counted. Yet now is the order of things somewhat 
 changed. Sullen and defiant, srruggles Bossism, the hydra- 
 headed, its secret schemes and compacts and bread-and- 
 butter dependencies no longer representing an infallible 
 counteracting force in its disgracefully corrupt system. 
 The counteracting scheme today is itself counteracted. 
 Hopeful Reformers, flying from one Ward to another 
 behind fleet horses, in random vehicles, are hearing much 
 that is encouraging, their brother Eeformers being in- 
 variably found in high spirits and seeming to enjoy 
 right well the new experience with politics, particularly 
 as the people themselves are furnishing an example of 
 the majesty of citizenship which is pleasant to contem- 
 plate. A new experience is it, generally ; to the peace- 
 able voter is it new not alone because of his feeling that 
 his vote is likely to be counted, but from the fact that he 
 is enabled to walk up to the ballot box and vote for whom 
 he pleases without being hustled away by the police as a 
 law breaker. For the police are to-day, it is observed,, 
 less active than usual in their zeal for the party ticket, 
 and in most instances observe the strict letter of the law 
 and keep a proper distance from the polling places.* 
 
 *" No policetuan has a right to be nearer to a polling place than thirty 
 feet. Policemen make it H practice to get as close as they please, and 
 they are 'ery rarely disturbed. Insist on obedience tolbelawaud Oiake 
 the police stand iisi,cK,"~Chronicle--Heratd, Feb. 15.
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 229 
 
 So through the day the work of revolution goes on. 
 High is the flood rising, and with ominous lapping 
 sounds are the strong, aggressive currents doing their 
 legitimate work. What latent power lurks in thousands 
 of little slips of paper 1 Fluttering into sundry square 
 boxes there is being told in mute "sign language" as we 
 regard language, the story of years of public corruption 
 and mismanagement. Words after all are weak ; speech 
 inefficient; action alone powerful. Strong, forcible, nay 
 invincible, are these tiny slips of paper, fraught as they 
 are with destiny, endowed with a power which brings the 
 proudest to the dust, which hurls the most arrogant from 
 their seat of authority, and sternly commands obedience 
 to its will. Such majesty does the ballot possess, being 
 not tampered with. Degraded and abused by modern 
 political methods it loses its sovereign attribute and 
 becomes the creature and the jest of political tricksters 
 who well may afford to laugh the peoples' wishes to scorn. 
 All sufficient is it for good, being rightly used ; all-power- 
 ful for evil, being perverted. 
 
 Seeing which rejuvenated majesty of the ballot once 
 more appear the aflrighted minions of the bosses desert 
 their masters and seek to make terms or compromises with 
 Reformers by which they may secure their own preserva- 
 tion. Hundreds thus turn against their patrons even with 
 the money of those patrons distending their pockets. Com- 
 promise or no compromise they will turn, for apt and 
 ready are they at worshipping the "new king" once his 
 presence becomes known to them, and never shall king 
 witness more fawning and flattery than accompanies 
 these time-serving new recruits. Even Candidate 
 Hunter, the especial object of abuse and vilificatioOj
 
 230 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 shall find his maligners appear before him within four' 
 and-twenty hours with smirking and scraping and obse- 
 quious bowing to "tender congratulation," accompanied 
 by assurance that he of all others is the one whose success 
 they desired ; which pure and simple hypocracy may ever 
 be relied upon as having its origin in a not entirely dis- 
 interested or gratuitous motive as subsequent develop- 
 ments almost invariably prove.* 
 
 This desertion of the sinking ship of Bossism was one 
 of the noteworthy things of the contest ; foreshadowing 
 beyond preadventure the election's result. Behold now, 
 as evening advances, the streets alive with moving 
 throngs of people, with 'parading processions of citizens 
 bearing transparancies and banners with inspiring 
 mottoes, as "A Government of the people, by the 
 the people and for the people," "The will of the people 
 is supreme," "No more pollution of the Ballot," and vari- 
 ous other patriotic sentiments ; which transparancies and 
 moving throngs of people are rendered striking and im- 
 pressive by torchlight illumination. Through long lines of 
 applauding citizens, ever increasing in number and in en- 
 thusiasm, the soldiers of the ballot carry thus impressively 
 the news throughout the city; news of the defeat of 
 Bossism and of the atrocious Gas-Trust-Tax-OfSce combi- 
 nation, with all its despotic power and far-reaching influ- 
 ences for corruption. 
 
 *" Now a quiet word to our bosses. * * * You wiU be arraigned before 
 the bar of public opinion in the outraged Republican party lor deliber- 
 ately sacrificing it in your desperate and hopeless efforts to shield your 
 guilt in its ruin. The very hounds you have fed in your bounty with ill- 
 gotten spoils will be the first to turn. * * * How will you answer to the 
 thousands of hungry office-holders who, debauched by your patronage 
 until unfit for the sober duties of an honest livlihood, will be converted 
 by hunger I an easy transition)into a horde of incarnate furies? * * * 
 The settlement you have to make with the people at large can be done by 
 a restitution of your bonds, lands, houses andstocks. The Courts of law 
 will talte car© of that,"— SMnctuy Transcript, Feb. 6, 18S1.
 
 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 231 
 
 At tlie rooms of the One Hundred this night there are 
 scenes which recall what we read of patriotic demonstra- 
 tions attending the signing of the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence. There have the Committee assembled "around 
 a long table," telegraphic instrument before them, the 
 atmosphere electrical, the appearance and surroundings 
 of the assembled ones betokening the intensity of sup- 
 pressed excitement. Not long suppressed I The hour is 
 past eight and soon the instruments begins to click. News 
 it brings which causes that pent up excitement to break 
 forth with thrilling effect, in tumultuous cheers. In front 
 of the head-quarters on the street a crowd gathers. A 
 transparancy has been thrown out from the windows, 
 upon which, with magic lantern, the Committee tells the 
 story of victory. King and Hunter have been elected, 
 the former with nearly six thousand majority. Hunter 
 with a majority of more than twenty thousand I The 
 only candidate of the Regular Republican Conventions 
 who has been elected is City Solicitor West, whose candi- 
 dacy the One Hundred did not oppose, leaving Reformers 
 free to exercise their choice between him and Candidate 
 Worrell. 
 
 Meanwhile the cry arises for the two successful Reform 
 candidates, Hunter and King. The first is soon found 
 and brought to the One Hundred headquarters, being re- 
 ceived with cheers and the wildest demonstrations of 
 enthusiasm from the people on the street as well as from 
 the Reformers within. 
 
 Mayor-elect King is not so easily found. Friends 
 search for him, but cannot find him ; no one has seen 
 him since the afternoon. Finally he is found ; a shrewd 
 newspaper man discovers him, at eleven oiclock at night.
 
 232 THE FALL OF BOSSISM. 
 
 not in the midst of tlie noise and tumult, but peacefully 
 asleep at his home, unconscious of the news which has 
 set the city wild. The tapping at his door finally arouses 
 him, not to inquire about the result of the election, but 
 to ask "what in the world" the visitor wants. " You are 
 elected Mayor, sir, and the people are clamoring for you," 
 says the visitor. " You don't say so ! " responds the aston- 
 ishea man. 
 
 To the headquarters of the One Hundred the Mayor- 
 elect goes, showing no trace now of sleepiness, and is there 
 received officially by the Campaign Committee's Chair- 
 man, John Field, Chairman Garrett having gone home. 
 After Mr. Field's brief speech of congratulation,the Mayor- 
 elect responds, likewise briefly, and satisfactory words 
 does he utter for the ears of the long misused policemen. 
 "The police force under my administration," says the 
 Mayor-elect, " shall be non-partisan, and no man shall 
 be removed without good and sufficient cause." 
 
 (the end of volume I.)
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Died suddenly on the 16th of August, 1883, in Ke-w York, 
 Charles "Wheeler, of Philadelphia. Mr. Wheeler, accom- 
 panied by his sou and a friend, was on his way from his 
 summer residence at Newport to Philadelphia, the party 
 having landed from a Newport boat on the morning of 
 the fatal day. Being anxious to catch a train for Phila- 
 delphia they started on a run for the ferryboat, before 
 reaching which Mr. "Wheeler staggered and fell. He was 
 taken up and carried into the nearest building where he 
 died in about ten minutes, the cause of his death being pro- 
 nounced by the physicians apoplexy. The news of the 
 event, when it reached Philadelphia, produced a shock 
 throughout the entire community. Mr. "Wheeler was identi- 
 fied with many business interests in Philadelphia, being 
 Vice-President of the Central National Bank, one of the 
 principal members of the iron firm ot ^lorris Tasker & Co., 
 and being besides Director in many Iron and Insurance 
 Companies in which he was financially concerned. He was 
 one of the earliest members of the old Citizens' Municipal 
 Reform Association, and later, of the Citizens' Committee of 
 One Hundred, by which his loss was severely felt. He was 
 a man greatly respected by ail who knew him; his modest 
 disposition united with large benevolence rendering him 
 an object of admiration and esteem by people of all classes. 
 Of his exceptional character Mr. Henry C. Lea, one of his 
 oldest and most intimate associates in the work of He form 
 thus writes: 
 
 "The cause of Reform in Philadelphia has sustained a 
 severe loss in the recent and sudden death of Mr Charles 
 Wheeler. American citizenship had no worthier represen- 
 tative than him. The large and successful business enter- 
 prises which he couducted, which serve so generally as an 
 excuse for neglecting political duties, never prevented him 
 
 (I)
 
 Tt APPENDIX. 
 
 from taking' his share in the effort to elevate the standard of 
 public life. He was one of the few men who in 1871 ad- 
 dressed themselves to the apparently hopeless task of 
 arousing public opinion to the necessity of non-partisan 
 action in municipal affairs ; and from that time forward he 
 served as Treasurer to the Municipal Keform Association, 
 taking an active part in its struggles, undismayed by defeat, 
 never discouraged by ill-success, and ever ready with his 
 purse and his counsel to carry on the contest against the 
 powers which controlled so absolutely the politics and the 
 government of the city. "When, in November, 1880, the 
 second election cf Mr. Pattison, the Democratic candidate 
 for the Controllership, showed that the harvest was ripe for 
 the sickle, and the Committee of One Hundred was organized 
 to take advantage of the opportunity, Mr. Wheeler's co- 
 operation was regarded as a matter-of-course and was freely 
 given up to the period of his untimely death." 
 
 Extracts from Minutes, Committee of One Hundred, August 
 19, 1883: 
 
 At a special meeting of the Citizens' Committee of One 
 Hundred held this day at 927 Chestnut street, to take action 
 on the death of Charles Wheeler * * * the Chair appointed 
 the following Committee to draft resolutions to submit to the 
 meeting, viz: Messrs. John Field, George H. Earle, Robert 
 E. Corscn, John McLaughlin and Rudolph Blankenburg. 
 
 The Committee reported as follows : 
 
 "The sad intelligence of the death of Charles Wheeler, 
 who has been so long and so prominently connected with 
 us in the Reform movement having reached us, the members 
 of the Committee of One Hundred wish to put on record: — 
 
 " FiKST. Their high appreciation of his long and active 
 service in the work ot Reform, with rare modesty, and with- 
 out personal ambition. He was always ready with wise 
 counsel, active personal service and open-handed liberality 
 to promote the objects of our Association. 
 
 " Second. That as a public spirited citizen he was ever 
 ready to encourage all projects that looked to the advance- 
 ment of the interests of his native city. 
 
 "Third. That h(^ bad endeared himself personally to each 
 o«f us, as a cherished friend, and we shall ever rejoice in our 
 recollection of him as a most unselfish and noble citizen. 
 
 " Fourth. That our heart-felt sympathies are tendered to 
 the stricken household, the widow and children. In this sad 
 and sudden bereavement we can only commend them for 
 Qomfort to the ' loving Father who doeth all things well,'"
 
 APPENDIX. Ill 
 
 Mr. Blankenburg, in seconding the resofutions, spoke of 
 the valuable services of Mr. Wheeler in the Committee of 
 One Hundred and of his many virtues as a citizen. 
 
 Messrs. McLaughlin and Corson followed, speaking of the 
 services rendered by Mr. Wheeler in the cause of Reform, 
 not only as a memljer of the Committee of One Hundred, 
 but formerly as a member of the Municipal Keform Associa- 
 tion. Messrs Robert Purvis and William Arrott also spoke 
 of th« many excellent qualities of the deceased. 
 
 The resolutions were adopted by a rising vote. 
 
 On motion, it was resolved that a copy of the Resolutions 
 be transmitted to the family of the deceased. It was also 
 resolved that the Committee attend the funeral. 
 
 From Minutes Executive Committee of Citizens' Municipal 
 Reform Association, September 5, 1883. 
 
 At a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Citizens' 
 Municipal Reform Association, comprising Henrv C. Lea, 
 R. Rundle Smith, Wm. Henry Rawle, Edward R. Wood, 
 Henry B. Tatham, George H. Earle, John J. Ridgway, Jr., 
 John McLaughlin, Henry C. Thompson, T. Morris Perot, 
 Chairman and L. P. Ashmead, Secretary, the following re- 
 solutions, offered by Henry C. Lea, were unanimously 
 adopted: 
 
 Whereas, The Executive Committee of the Citizens' Mii- 
 nicipal Reform Association has lost, in the death of Charles 
 Wheeler, one of its oldest and most efficient members; 
 therefore 
 
 Resolved, First. That the intimate association which we 
 have enjoyed with him since the organization of this Com- 
 mittee in 1871 has deeply impressed us with a sense of his 
 unbending rectitude, of his delicate sense of honor, of his 
 steadfastness of purpose, of his unselfish public spirit, of 
 the cheerful readiness with which, amid large private enter- 
 prises, he could always find time and attention for public 
 duties, of the soundness of his judgment, and the wisdom of 
 his counsel. 
 
 Second. That we shall always cherish his memory as 
 that of a highly-prized friend and associate, whose loss is 
 irreparable, not only to tho^e who had the advantage of his 
 personal acquaintance, but to the community at large, 
 whose caute he served so ably and unobtrusively. 
 
 THfKD. That a copy of these resolutions be sent to the 
 family of the deceased, with the assurance of our profound- 
 est sympathy with their bereavement.
 
 ly APPENDIX. 
 
 PBESIDENT CAVEN" ON THE CONTEOLLEKSHIP. 
 
 The time is within three clays of the Presidential election 
 of 1880. The unorganized Reformers, Republican and Dem- 
 ocratic, while enthusiastic over their National tickets are, 
 with reference to their local affairs somewhat downcast. The 
 term of Mr. Pattison's administration as City Controller, 
 which position he has filled with signal satisfaction to 
 the Taxpayers for the past three years, is expiring and 
 though he has been re-nominated by his party, there is a 
 •jvide-spread fear among the Reformers that amidst the con- 
 tention and strife over National issues voters will not have 
 the presence of mind to discriminate in the matter of this 
 important office, and that the ringsters will thus succeed in 
 getting a weak and subservient man elected as Controller. 
 In this emergency Councilman Hauter and other Republi- 
 cans appear and canvass among citizens of the Republican 
 party in the interest of Controller Pattison's re-election. 
 The final eff"ort in his behalf is a widely advertised Inde- 
 pendent Republican meeting held on the 30th of October, three 
 days before the Presidential election, in Horticultural Hall. 
 The getting up of this meeting had not been unattended with 
 difficulty, chief of which was the securing of a presiding 
 officer and speakers. At first the efi'ort was made to obtain 
 as Chairman Citizen Eli K. Price, the "Nestor of the Phila- 
 delphia bar" but he declines. Finally tlie originators of'the 
 affair get hold of Edward T. Steel, President of the Board of 
 Education. Courageous in the expression of his convictions, 
 unalterably opposed to the ringsters and to the obnoxious 
 methods of his party, Mr. Steel, regardless of probable con- 
 sequenccG, accepts. He it is who was lately the superin- 
 tendent of the census system in the Philadelphia district, 
 which post he accepted at the personal request of President 
 Hayes after an emergency had arisen through the incompe- 
 tence of the former incumbent who had, by yielding to the 
 pernicious influence of the Gas Trust, degraded the work to 
 such a depth of political quagmire that universal protest 
 went up from the people so loud as to call for Presidential
 
 APPENDIX. V 
 
 interference, which interference was in the form of offi- 
 cial decapitation ; Mr. Steel having agreed to take charge 
 of the important work and finish it on condition that he was 
 allowed to appoint his own subordinates without the inter- 
 ference of professional politicians, a condition to which the 
 President readily assented. 
 
 Having agreed to preside at this meeting in the interest of 
 a Democratic office-holder, though well knowing it is an un- 
 popular position to assume in view of the crisis in the affairs 
 of his party, Mr. Steel hears of threats from some 
 of his official associates in the School Board, to the 
 effect that he is to be deposed from the Board's Presi- 
 dency, which threats do not deter him ; only render him 
 more determined to act according to his convictions. Messrs. 
 Caven, Eidgway and Walter have agreed to appear and make 
 speeches, which is another unpopular thing to do but one 
 also involving conviction and they likewise demonstrate 
 their fearlessness and independence by fulfilling their 
 promises. The speech of Mr. Caven, who is the speaker of 
 the evening, is pviblished next day in the newspapers, with 
 others, and makes a deep impression, on the public mind, 
 being quoted, and commented on for days, especiallj'' that 
 part devoted to an analysis of the opposition candidate for 
 Controller. Plain and fearless words does he speak; 
 words which betoken the apprehension of one who has 
 labored long and faithfully for the good of his city and its 
 people and who sees both now approaching the gravest crisis 
 he has known in his political experience. Hence his words 
 of warning. Let all who would be enlightened on the local 
 situation at this time read his speech. He said: 
 
 "Fellow Citizens:— As a Republican I propose, on 
 next Tuesday, to vote for Garfield, because the best interests 
 of the country demand that no change be made in the Na- 
 tional administration; as a Republican I propose, at the 
 same time, to vote for Robert E. Pattison for Controller, 
 because the best interests of Philadelphia demand that no 
 change be made in the administration of that office. Three 
 years ago I voted for the Republican nominee for the office 
 of Controller, but Robert E. Pattison, then unknown to us,
 
 VI Appendix. 
 
 was elected. In the discharge of my duties as President of 
 Common Council I was brought in intimate official relations 
 with Mr. Pattison. I found him honest and capable, and 
 desirous of administering his great trust with a lidelitj' that 
 knew neither Republican nor Democrat, and to say that he 
 has done this is to convey but a faint idea of the change 
 he has brought abotit in that office. The office of Controller 
 is in no sense political —it is judicial, and should have been 
 treated in the recent nominations by the Republicans as the 
 Democrats treated the nomination of Judge Finletter for 
 Court of Common Pleas No. 3. It is the duty of the Con- 
 troller to administer the laws and ordinances of the city as 
 he finds them and as they are passed either by the Legisla- 
 ture or Councils; he must neither add to nor detract from 
 them. 
 
 " Vain would be all the efforts of your Councilmen to guard 
 the expenditure of the public moneys by carefully-worded 
 ordinances if your Controller disregards either their letter or 
 spirit. In the discharge of his judicial duties he has the 
 power to administer oaths and to inquire as to the correct- 
 ness of every bill he is called on to approve. How well Mr. 
 Pattison has discharged these high functions I am here to 
 tell you. It is within the recollection of those who hear my 
 voice that this office was used as a source of profit ; that with 
 an ease unparalleled every bill, no matter how atrocious, was 
 approved and the warrant countersigned. Now when a hill 
 comes from the head of a department, accompanied by a war- 
 rant for the Controller's signature, before approving he first 
 carefully examines the appropriation bill to see whether the 
 terms of the ordinances have been complied with; then he 
 examines the bill to see whether it bears evidence of fair 
 dealing on its face, and if it is the least suspicious every fact 
 is carefully inquired into and if found improper it is returned 
 to the department whence it came, for examination and ex- 
 planation. Many bills have thus been returned by Mr. Pat- 
 tison which never came back, or if they did they were so re- 
 duced and changed as almost to defy identification. This 
 careful and deliberate examination of every bill that came 
 before Jilr. Pattison has acted as a restraining influence upon 
 the expenditures of all the departments and made them care, 
 ful in their contracts, and has givento the taxpayers a greatly 
 increased return for their money. 
 
 " When I was active on the floor of Councils, conducting 
 some investigations 1 deemed necessary for the public wel- 
 fare, there was not that freedom of access to books and 
 papers so necessary to the successful prosecution of my 
 duties as now. On the contrary, information, I believe, was 
 often communicated from the Controller's office to those in-
 
 APPENDIX. VII 
 
 terested, the cause of justico thereby defeated and the City 
 made to sufl'er loss. All this has been changed; every book, 
 every paper, every account is o en and free to all for inspec- 
 tion and examination, and to say that this has saved thou- 
 sands of d(jllar3 to the taxpayers is but stating the case 
 mildly. The statements of the present Controller of the 
 finances of the city have been the only intelligent and reli- 
 able ones I have ever seen emanate from that office. By 
 them and with his cooperation Councils have been enabled 
 to intelligently consider and adopt a tax rate sufficient to 
 carry the municipality through the year without a deficiency 
 until the act of 1879 was passed, which makes a deficiency 
 impossible. Case after case has come to my knowledge of 
 the thorough impartiality of the Controller in the discharge 
 of his duties, whereby the city has eaved thousands of 
 dollars. 
 
 "The Controller has been properly called the watchdog of 
 the Treasury. Silence him or give him political anodynes that 
 he may sleep at his post and your Treasury is soon depleted. 
 The annual expenses of tho City, exclusive of interest and 
 sinking fund on our loans is over $7,000,000. Be careless in 
 the distribution of this money and your expenses will soon 
 run to $10,000,000 annually a-s they did a few years ago. Mr. 
 Pattison has been such a faithful guardian of this vast sura 
 that, as a public oflicer, knowing whereof I speak and assum- 
 ing the direct responsibility of my utterances, I Bay to you 
 it is your absolute duty to retain him in his present position. 
 The framers of the new Constitution .«eperated the Munici- 
 pal from the General election so that the cities of the State 
 could elect their municipal officers without regard to party 
 politics. It was a great over.-^ight that the office of Con- 
 troller was not named, as in fact it is a municipal office, so 
 that it might be filled at the Spring election. But we Repub- 
 licans can remedy this mistake on next Tuesday and elect a 
 Controller regardless of party. It is not a new thing for mo 
 to appear on this platform and advocate the government of 
 this City above party politics and I am here again to reassert 
 these very same principals that have ever regulated my 
 public life. 
 
 " My attention has been called to a speech published in 
 one of the dailies purporting to have been delivered by 
 General Wagner, whicn, perhaps, if passed by unnoticed 
 may do infinite harm to the cause of good government in 
 this city. The paper i)ul)li.shiug the speech contained the 
 following head line : ' Wagner on Pattison.' It might prop- 
 erly _ have added ' Wagner the Recorder of i)eeds on 
 Pattison,' for it was not surely Wagner, the Chairman of the 
 Finance Committe of Councils who delivered the speech.
 
 VIII APPENDIX. 
 
 Wagner, the Chairman was intimate with Controller Patti- 
 son during the first year of the Controller's term and co- 
 operated with him and myself in every financial measure 
 looking to the hest interests of the City. Wagner the 
 Recorder of Deeds, I regret to say, differs from Wagner, the 
 Chairman, and finds fault where he once praised; he 
 condemns where he once approved, and what is worse, he 
 gives currency to a statement relative to the financial bill of 
 187U whice he must know, to say the least, is incorrect. 
 
 " Mr. Pattison needs no defense for the conduct of his 
 office— it speaks for itself; but that no one may he misled by 
 Wagner the Recorder, let me say that the Controller ap- 
 proved the Coroner's bill upon a schedule of fees originally 
 approved by the law officer of the city, under whose advice 
 he acted. "Juilge Thayer in delivering the opinion of the 
 court on the Coroner's case uses the following language : 
 ' The high character of the Controller for capacity, integrity 
 and impartiality in the discharge of his public duties is of 
 itself a sufficient guarantee that those statements were made 
 in perfect good faith.' Fault is found because the Controller 
 objected to certain bills and afterward approved of them. 
 As a faithful officer, when he was in doubt he took the 
 opinion of the law officer of the City, as it was his right and 
 duty to do, and if he asked his opinion, or hesitatod on ten 
 titues twenty-three Ijills, before paying, it is to his credit and 
 for our protection. Wagner, the Recorder, further asserts 
 or insinuates, that the Controller sold $800,000 of loan too 
 much. Councils ordered a ten million loan to be created 
 and sold to fund the floating debt, and it was impossible to 
 tell what the floating debt would be until the end of the 
 year, and the Controller had no more to do with the sale of 
 the loan than Wagner, the Recorder. And so Wagner, the 
 Recorder, continues to labor heavily through a three colupan 
 speech and tells us, or rather would convey the impression 
 that Messrs. Bardsley and Rowan were the authors of the 
 bill of ISrO. Mr. Wagner, the Recorder, had but to refer to 
 the journals of Councils to find that a sub-committee of the 
 Finance Committee of Councils, prepared the essential 
 features of the bill— and the truth is that Messrs. Bardsley 
 and Rowan constituted themselves a committee to go to 
 Harrisburg and so change the bill as to require the tax rate 
 to be fixed before the annual appropriations were considered. 
 This change, with certain additions and alterations, was sub- 
 sequently agreed to by Councils, but the essential features 
 of the bill, to-wit, the restraining clause whereby Councils 
 are obliged to bring their expenses within their income, was 
 t)repare'd by one of the Sub-Committee of Finance. This 
 'i '.'. was prepared after consultation with the City Treasurer,
 
 APPENDIX. IX 
 
 City Controller and other gentlemen outside Councils, and 
 every one who took any interest in it deserves to be com- 
 mended rather than censured. 
 
 On Thursday morning last, Joel Cook, the regular Repub- 
 lican nominee for the office of Controller, permitted himself 
 to be forced off the ticket, and his place is now filled by E. 
 Harper Jeffries. Had Joel Cook remained on the ticket and 
 been elected to the office, my judgment is that the office 
 woold have been more carefully administered under liim 
 than under E. Harper Jeffries if he should be elected. 
 Much as I respect Mr. Cook as a man I am not hiiud to the 
 fact that he was nominated and then forced off" the ticket by 
 the very men against whom you threaten increasing warfare 
 and these same men gave the nomination to ]V[r. Jetiries, 
 whose letter of acceptance, with unseemly haste, appears in 
 the same column with Mr. Cook's letter of declination. Mr. 
 Cook has manfully and boldly told bis story. He met, he 
 says, Messrs. McManes, Rowan, Leeds and Roberts, at the 
 Gas office, and the alternative of either getting off the ticket 
 or of contributing to a large corruption fund was presented 
 to him. As an honest man he chose the former and behold ! 
 before the ink is dry on his declination, E. Harper Jeffries 
 has written his letter of acceptance, and Messrs. McManes, 
 Leeds, Rowan and Roberts are the men then who give the 
 command and ask GO, 000 Republican voters to blindly follow 
 them. Could any of these four men, I ask in parenthesis, 
 be now elected to any office within the gift of tbe people? 
 They would each be defeated and leave 20,000 votes to spare. 
 Have you, my Republican fellow-citizens, and you, and you 
 been consulted in this matter ? No, thpse dear, kmd men 
 think so much of you, love you so dearly, th( y would not 
 even trouble you to select a man for ^Ir. Cook's place. He 
 was even selected before you or I dreamed of Mr. Cook de- 
 clining. Great heavens ! Republicans, will you endure this 
 abject slavery longer or will you rise in your might, as men, 
 rebuke this assumption of power and take the reins of gov- 
 ernment in your own hands ? 
 
 "Do you believe that these men who thus put up and take 
 down candidates at pleasure will permit Mr. Jetiries to run 
 the office as it is now run and scrutinize and examine bills as 
 they are now scrutinized and examined? Do you not believe 
 that if I was to go to the Controllpr's office, i'f under Mr. 
 Jeffries, for information relative to the expenses of some of 
 the departments that information of my errand would be 
 immediately conveyed to the Gas Trust? Do you believe that 
 if it becomes necessary to examine the accounts of the Gas 
 Trust it would be as throughly done under Jeffries as under 
 Pattison? Do you believe that the public would have as full
 
 X ArPENDIX. 
 
 information through the newspapers of the different depart- 
 ments under Jeffries as under Pattison ? I do not and there- 
 fore I am against a change, especially such a change as ia 
 presented to us. One of the most potent arguments against 
 me when I was before the people as a candidate for Mayor 
 was that I could do more good to the city as President of 
 Common Council than as Mayor. Applying the same argu- 
 ment with ten thousand times the force 1 say to you that it 
 will be a greater benefit to the city to keep Mr. Pattisoni 
 where he is and Mr. Jeffries where he is — in private life. 
 
 "We hear mutterings and rumblings of a political storm 
 that will be on us after the Presidential election — a storm 
 that promises to sweep away the Gas Trust with all its vast 
 patronage, closed doors, unvouched accounts and great pol- 
 itical power. If you want the storm to do any good, if you 
 desire that the forked lightning shall clear the political at- 
 mosphere, then I beseech you do not permit the citadel of 
 the Treasury — the Controller's Office — to pass into the hands 
 of the Bing or your victory then, if indeed it should be a vic- 
 tory, will be as the vines of Sodom and the fields of Gomor- 
 rah." 
 
 THE BUILDING COMMISSION AGITATION. 
 The early part of the year 1871 found all Philadelphia 
 aroused. The Legislature, on the 5th of August of the pre- 
 ceding year, had passed the Act creating "a Commission to 
 erect Public Buildings in Philadelphia." The enactment of 
 this measure was a new and startling experience to the peo- 
 ple of the City of Independence. Its provisions were so 
 arbitrary and gave such extraordinary power to a small 
 clique of men. consisting chiefly of irresponsible politicians 
 who could not be elected to any office by a direct vote of the 
 people, that had the Act been passed in 1850 instead of 1870 
 it would have been productive of a riot. It gave its 
 appointees such power, in a certain direction, over the people 
 of Philadelphia that, under the most charitable view of the 
 matter, the mind must go back to the despotic system of the 
 Hessian princes to find a proper comparison. They might 
 levy taxes at will and spend the proceeds without being ac- 
 countable in any way to anybody but themselves. In the 
 words of the resolutions adopted at a citizens' mass meeting 
 in March, 1871, to take steps toward securing the repeal of 
 the obnoxious Act, the Commission " was created, not at the
 
 APPENDIX. XI 
 
 request of thf pooplc, but of those who hoped to obtain po- 
 sitions under it. No term of years is desi;i;nated for the ser- 
 vice of its members, who may render their office virtually 
 perpetual at their pleasure. It has power to enlarge its 
 numbers and to fill all vacancies, so that a temporary major- 
 ity may obtain exclusive control over its organization. It is 
 authorized to levy taxes at its discretion and to expend them 
 without check or supervision, so that there is no safeguard 
 to prevent the money of the people from being used for the 
 worst purposes of corruption and extravagance." 
 
 Such is. the description of the obnoxious Act as ofiicially 
 declared by the citizens of Philadelphia in public meeting 
 assembled in the Academy of Music on the night of the 24th 
 of March, 1871. The Legislature at this time is diyided — the 
 Senate Democratic, the House Republican. Senator Robert 
 P. Dechert, Democrat, of the First Philadelphia District, 
 has introduced a bill providing for the repeal of the objec- 
 tionable measure. For the purpose of aiding him in his fight 
 against the combined power of Democratic and Republican 
 corruption in the Legislature this Citizens' Meeting is held. 
 The Chairman is authorized to appoint "a Committee of 
 forty representative citizens, with power to increase their 
 number and fill vacancies, to visit Harrisburg for the pur- 
 pose of laying these resolutions before the Legislature and 
 Governor, and of conveying to them the desire of our com- 
 munity for the enactment of the bill introduced by Senator 
 Dechert, wherein the question of the Public Buildings will 
 bo restored to the City Councils, to whose jurisdiction it 
 rightfully belongs, and who will duly obey the wishes of the 
 people."* 
 
 *The following citizens were appointed as tbe Committee to visit 
 Harrisburg: Matthew Biiird, Lindley Smyth, J. Gillinghaiu Foil, James 
 Ii. Claghorn, Wm. E. LiUletun, Uenry C. Gibson, Ileury C. Carey, N. B. 
 Browne. George Wliitiiey, Jlenry Winsor, .Setti 1. Comly, Caleb Cope, 
 Clement Biddle, Thoma.s Webster, Charles Gilpin, James C. Hand, Alex- 
 ander Henry, Edward C. Kniglit, K. Itundle fSmith, Edward Ploopes, 
 Chris. J. Hoffman. L. P. Ashmead, J. K. Findrav, W. Russell West, 
 Richard Walmsley, W. W. Kurtz, Le Koy Kramer. Edward Armstrong, 
 J.Dickinson Logan, M. D., Cieorge Day, James Page, Itichard Vaux, 
 George W. Bjddlo, George S. Repplier, Charles A. Biddlu, JohnJCampbell,
 
 XII APPENDIX. 
 
 A large delegation of the Committee goes to Harrisburg 
 five days later; is received with much ceremony by the 
 Democratic Senate on the evening of its arrival, and is 
 similarly received by the Republican House on the following 
 day. Engages in protracted interviews with members of both 
 bodies, and represents earnestly to them " the monstrous na- 
 ture of the powers, hitherto unparalleled in this country," 
 which have been conferred upon the Commission, "without 
 the excuse of a single petition or application therefor on the 
 part of the citizens of Philadelphia." Which truthful rep- 
 resentations " fasten the attention of all the members and 
 elicit from some of them strong expressions of denunciation, 
 heightened by the statement that the obnoxious Act had 
 been passed without being printed, and on the same day 
 through both houses," thus giving little chance for examina- 
 tion and none for remonstrance. 
 
 Having thus been enlightened with reference to legislative 
 methods by sympathetic members, the Committee next seeks 
 an audience with the Governor — the eccentric Gearj^; 
 who, " after courteously listening," states in reply that he 
 had held the bill for several months before signing it, and 
 only did so finally on the urgent representation of a number 
 of individuals who visited Harrisburg for the purpose. The 
 Governor sympathizes with the committee ; is free to admit 
 that an attempt to exercise such powers over the people of 
 the rural districts could not be practiced with impunity; 
 that the principles of the Act involved very serious danger, 
 afi"ecting our form of government, and that it was "a mon- 
 ster" hardly to be tolerated! 
 
 The Committee returns home in hopeful spirits; reports 
 that "representing as it did a community so earnestly anx- 
 ious for the repeal * * * it found no one who ventured fully 
 
 Townsend Ward, John O. James, Benjamin Marshall, John C. Bullitt, 
 R. Nebinger, Kdward Morwilz, JohnT. Montgomery, Wm. D. Wetberill, 
 John Hulme, James E. Gowoii. James Magee, Wm. M. Baird, Jolin 
 Bobbins. Samuel J. Randall, Charles T. Parry, T. Hor.^c^! Brown, 1). B. 
 Thomas, Ilenrv C. L.ea. (Uiarles Wheeler. Joseph T. Thomas, Wm. V. 
 Pettil. A. J Beaumont, John L. ijawson, Jolin iJ. Parser, J. H. Collins, 
 lidward Peniugion, Jr.
 
 APPEinjix. xin 
 
 to defend the Act, and feels confident that the mission with 
 which it was entrusted has not been without effect." 
 
 "Which confident state of mind finds nothing to disturb it 
 until May, the dead-lock between the two houses on the sub- 
 ject of the Apportionment Bill having created a delay in the 
 interim, which prevents the consideration of Colonel Dech- 
 ert's repealing act. On the 3d of May, Colonel Dechert, who 
 is doing Herculean work in the matter, succeeds in making his 
 repeal bill the order of the day for Friday, May 5th. Again is 
 the Committee, or rather a delegation of the committee, found 
 atHarrisburg, consisting of Charles Wheeler, Thomas "Web- 
 ster, Francis "Wells, Townsead "Ward, George Bull, "W. 
 Kussell West and Henry C. Lea. There do they find that 
 Kepresentative Samuel M. Hager, of the Eleventh Phila- 
 delphia District, and amember of the Legislative Committee 
 on Municipal Corporations, has introduced a bill "practi- 
 cally identical with that of Colonel Dechert, except that it 
 contained a section requiring Councils, within a year, 
 to proceed to provide suitable accommodations for the 
 Courts and public offices." Mr. Hager appears "earnestly 
 desirous of abolishing the Commission," and gets Colonel 
 Dechert's consent to engraft his new section on the latter'a 
 bill as an amendment. 
 
 On the day of the special order, Friday, 5th of May, the re- 
 pealing act passes the Democratic Senate. "The Democratic 
 party in the Senate recognizing the injustice which had been 
 inflicted on Philadelphia," and having resolved to support 
 the measure. The four Kepublicans voting with the Demo- 
 crats for the bill are Messrs. Evans, of Chester, White of 
 Indiana, and Billingfelt and Warfel, of Lancaster, "to 
 whom, in the name of the citizens of Philadelphia, the Com- 
 mittee desires to express thanks." Furthermore does the 
 Committee call attention to the debt of obligation " due by 
 the City of Philadelphia to Colonel Robert P. Dechert for 
 the vigor and ability with which ho pressed the measure to a 
 successful result." 
 
 Thus far the people's cause has progressed smoothly.| Yet 
 there may be trouble yet in the Republican House, i The
 
 XIV APPENDIX 
 
 Committee, as it afterward reports, sees " witli some sur- 
 prise a member of the obnoxious Commission. Mr. H. \V. 
 Gray, with an agent actively canvassing against the bill. 
 On its final passage (in the Senate) notwithstanding the 
 almost unanimous vote he openly declared that it could not 
 pass the House of Representatives, and subsequent events 
 showed that he spoke from accurate knowledge." 
 
 The Peoples' Committe returns home, this time with spirits 
 not hopeful, for the bill, instead of passing the House, has 
 been referred to the Committee on Municipal Corporations. 
 Yet the Philadelphians do not despair. On the following 
 Monday 8th day of May, they return, reinforced by other mem- 
 bers, the new ones consisting of Lewis Wain Smith, Wm. Bet- 
 tie, Edward Bettle,Jr., Meyer Asch, Edward Penington, C.H. 
 Needles, E. Tracy, Robert E. Corson, T. Horace Brown, L. 
 T. Dixon, C. Rogers and Dr. George Bailey. An Executive 
 Committee is aijpointed, 'consisting of Messrs. Wells, 
 Webster, Wheeler, Lea, Bull, Smith and Ward. Which 
 Executive Committee is speedily advised that a "ring" had 
 been formed by certain members of the House and such 
 arrangements made by the aforesaid "ring" as rendered the 
 success of the people of Philadelphia in their endeavors to 
 secure their rights, dependant on the payment of money. 
 
 A startling proposition to citizens of a Republic seeking at 
 the seat of Legislation simply a vindication of their Repub- 
 lican rights ! With hot indignation do they refuse to buy 
 the justice which Philadelphia has the right to demand. 
 
 On Wednesday, 10th of May, the Peoples' Committee have 
 a hearing before the Legislative Committee on Municipal 
 Corporations; when the various reasons for the abolition of 
 the despotic Commission are briefly stated- Which reasons 
 are "replied to by Mr. Commissioner Gray, who did not 
 hesitate openly to urge the continuance of the act by which 
 he and his colleagues were legislated into office against the 
 wishes of a vast maiority of their fellow-citizens." Further- 
 more does Mr. Commissioner Gray "denounce severely the 
 factious minority of his colleagues to whom he attributes all 
 the opposition which has arisen against the Commission ; '
 
 APPENDIX. XV 
 
 and scornfully does he " ridicule the fears of the 'fossils' ho iv 
 dread lavish expenditure and increased taxation, declaring 
 that the plans of the Commission would not cost more than 
 Five millions of dollars to execute."* 
 
 On Thursday, 11th of May, the Committee on Municipal 
 Corporations again take the matter up for consideration, the 
 Peoples' Committee having again returned to insist upon a 
 recognition of their city's rights. Again does "Mr. Com- 
 missioner Gray energetically urge that his Commission shall 
 not be abolished aspersing with some vehemence the motives 
 and actions of those who demanded that the right of self- 
 government should be restored to Philadelphia." 
 
 Meantime Representative Robert Johnston of the Seventh 
 Philadelphia district, Chairman of the Committee on Munic- 
 ipal Corporations, has added anamendent to Col. Dechert's 
 bill providing that the question of abolishing the Commis- 
 sion be referred to the people to be decided by popular vote; 
 which amendment is declared out of order by a vote of 10 to 
 8. Another evidence of monarchial assumption on the part 
 of the political managers; through their creatures 
 in the Legislature, they thus deny the people the right to 
 exercise their free will in the matter of the management of 
 their own aflairs. 
 
 Colonel Dechert's bill then comes up for action and quick 
 work do its opponents make of it; deciding by a large vote 
 to report it to the House with a negative recommendation. 
 
 "This result," says the People's Committee in its report, 
 "maybe said to have surprised no one. Indeed, the next 
 morning, a gentleman prominent in political life was heard 
 to assert openly, in the Hall of the House of Representatives 
 that a specified sum per head had been paid for votes on the 
 majority side of the Committee." 
 
 Wiser, if less cheerful, the Peoples' Committee return 
 home. Senator Dechert remains and continues the fight ; 
 
 The total amount of the cost of the Public Buildings at the close of 
 the year 1S82 was $8,6'20,t)ll.6i The luost rational estluaate of the total 
 cost of the Buildings when completed is $15,0uO,(X»0, 
 
 9
 
 XVI appendix; 
 
 repeatedly introducing new bills to the same effect all of 
 which meet with a similar fate. Reform in Philadelphia, 
 meantime, turns its face in a new direction. From the 
 Peoples'Committee with its Building-Commission Abolition 
 mission springs into life the Citizens' Municipal Reform 
 Association, which agitates fiercely among the people the 
 question of the necessity of a new Constitution, having 
 clearly from its recent legislative experience, discovered that 
 the present Constitution is full of glaring defects. So in the 
 election contests for Legislative Representatives does this 
 new Constitution scheme become an issue. The Reform As- 
 sociation finally proves successful. In due time does the 
 Legislature enact a measure providing for the assembling of 
 a Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia; the delegates 
 thereto to be elected by direct vote of the people, the same 
 as members of the Legislature. 
 
 The Constitutional Convention meets and pursues its 
 work; is aided therein by the Executive Committee of the 
 Municipal Reform tAssociation with which through 
 its working Committees, it confers daily; new Consti- 
 tution finally completed and officially promulgated that the 
 people may familiarize themselves with it before submitting 
 it to a vote on the question of adoption or rejection. Con. 
 sternatiou among politicians and ringsters in Philadelphia 
 and elsewhere. The new document, if adopted, sweeps 
 away many old and flagrant abuses. It abolishes the fee 
 system of remunerating public officers, substituting fixed 
 salaries; it destroys future oi)portunities of securing the 
 enactment of obnoxious laws without first affording the 
 people a chance of knowing fully the nature of such laws, — 
 requiring the title of a bill to state fully and clearly its 
 real character ; it abolishes special legislation by which a 
 clique of self-interested politicians may get together and 
 secure the passage of a measure for their own particular 
 benefit, or for the benefit of a particular locality ; it separates 
 Municipal or local elections from County, State and Nation, 
 al elections, in order that the selection of officers for the
 
 APPENDIX. XVII 
 
 management of local affairs may be effected free from the ex- 
 citement and turmoil of a State or National contest; thus 
 depriving ring politicians of the means of rushing into local 
 ('ffice bad men on the strength of the general excitement 
 over larger electoral affairs. 
 
 Political bosses and their ollowers, seeing such radical 
 reforms in the draft of the new organic law, form a plan for 
 falsifying the count when the question is submitted to the 
 people; resort to fraud to secure its rejection. Phila- 
 delphia bosses clasp hands with Pittsburg bosses, and by 
 methods intricate and secret the preparations for such falsi- 
 fication of the people's will are made throughout the State. 
 "When the returns come in at the close of the day of election 
 the political conspirators are panic-stricken; the vote 
 is so overwhelmingly in favor of the new Constitution 
 that the intended fraud is found to be impossible though 
 all the power of a powerful combination of corruptionists 
 has been exerted in the effort. Thus was the majesty of the 
 peoples' will vindicated ; from which hour Reform set its face 
 forward, moving at times with slow uncertain tread yet 
 always onward in its own way as ultimate results in city and 
 State have shown. 
 
 THE GAREETT-STOEXEY CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 (Series I.) 
 
 The Committee of One Hundred having been organized 
 and being anxious to secure the election of John Hunter to 
 the office of Receiver of Taxes and of Joseph L. Caven to 
 the office of City Solicitor, is uncertain of its own strength ; 
 believes if it can induce the Republican party to break away 
 from the Gas Trust, which has controlled the party only to 
 corrupt it in order to advance its own selfish ends, that the 
 party organization will be purified, the Gus Trust over- 
 thrown and the Public Departments rescued from the hands 
 of unscrupulous men ; is not yet ready, so far as a 
 majority of the members is concerned, to go outside its own
 
 XVIII APPENDIX. 
 
 party to further the work of Beform, believing such course 
 unnecessary. Mayor Stokley has lately been making Keform 
 professions and showing evidences of a desire to free himself 
 from the influence of the Gas Trust, which heretofore, on 
 three successive occasions, has elected him to office ; the 
 majority of the One Hundred view the Mayor's Reform 
 advances with satisfaction, seeing in him a powerful factor 
 for the destruction of the Gas Trust, for the Mayor has many 
 loyal Bepublican followers who are sternly opposed to 
 McManesism. If the Republican Conventions can be 
 induced to nominate Hunter and Caven as well as Stokiey, 
 the Committee of One Hundred will indorse them all and go 
 into the contest with every certainty of success. At this 
 stage of affairs Chairman Garrett writes the following letter 
 to Mayor Stokley : 
 
 Philadelphia. December 20, 1880. 
 
 Hon. "Wiiii-iAM S. Stokley. 
 
 "Dear Sir :— As the Executive Committee of the Business 
 Men's Organization may be called to-morrow to consider 
 the subject of suitable men for the Mayoralty, I would like 
 to have such information as you may feel free to communi- 
 cate on the following points: r «, 
 
 " Do you continue to favor the transfer of the management 
 of the Gas Works from the Trustees to the direct control of 
 the city. 
 
 "If Councils should pass an ordinance to thafeflfect would 
 you sign it? ,,,,,, ^ 
 
 " If State Legislation should be asked to prolongthe Trust 
 would you oppose it? 
 
 " Concerning the legislation proposed m the Municipal Bill 
 for the better government of the city— framed by the State 
 Municipal Commission— are you in favor of that bill, or an 
 equivalent bill that will effect substantially the same con- 
 centration of Executive responsibility in the administration 
 of city affairs? , . , . . 
 
 "Please advise me, also, whether you think it right to permit 
 party considerations or political friends to influence your 
 
 official action. •, ■. i. 
 
 " If it should come properly before you to speak or to use 
 your influence in the matter would you aid or oppose the 
 Recorder's Bill and the Delinquent Tax Bill ?
 
 APPENDIX. XIX 
 
 ' Your replies to the foregoing are for my individual infor- 
 mation as a member ol the Business Men's Committee. But 
 I would like very much your cousent to make them known 
 as being authoriaed by you if that should become advisable. 
 
 PHILIP C. GARRETT." 
 
 Mayor Stokley, on the same day, having received tho 
 letter, replies as follows, the time intervening from the date 
 of these letters until the meeting of the Republican Con- 
 ventions being twenty-four days : 
 
 Philadelphia, December 20, 1880. 
 " Mr. p. C. Garrett. 
 
 *' Dear Sib: — While I dislike very much to say anything 
 or write anything that may look like a bid or a pledge to 
 secure any one's favor or nomination for the Mayoralty and 
 ■would very much prefer to stand upon my administration of 
 the oflSce of Mayor fyr nine years, I have no hesitation in 
 sending you, individually, the within replies to points you 
 place before me in your letter of this date : 
 
 " I. Upon the question of the transfer of the control of the 
 Philadelphia Gas Works to the city I answer yes and refer 
 you to my record. 
 
 " II. I would sign an ordinance taking possession of the 
 "Works ; and in 1868, in Select Council, I introduced an ordi- 
 nance to that effect, which I had passed, but was over-ruled 
 by the Supreme Court. I am still of the opinion that I was 
 right. 
 
 " III. I would decidedly oppose any prolonging of the 
 Trust. 
 
 "IV. I was in favor of the Municipal Bill and assisted 
 the Commission in framing it, and any bill concentrating 
 Executive responsibility will receive my approval. 
 
 "V. I always have been opposed to policemen holding 
 any other office and shall dowhatever is within my authority 
 to limit their participation in political matters to the exercise 
 of their rights as citizens. 
 
 "VI. Jso person or consideration of any kind whatever 
 shall ever influence me in the discharge of my official duties 
 contrary to what I deem to be right. 
 
 " VII. I always was opposed to the Recorder's Bill and 
 after its passage by the Legislature I used my infiuenco with 
 tho Governor to have it vetoed. 
 
 "The Delinquent Tax Bill ought to be repealed ormodified 
 so as to return the excessive fees or emolument into the City 
 Treasury. 
 
 "I have no objection to your making use of this letter in 
 any way you deem proper, except that I neither desire nor 
 have anv wish one wa" O" another as to its publicity. I am 
 yours respectfully, W. S. JSTOKLeY."
 
 XX , APPENDIX. 
 
 THE QARRETT-STOKLEY CORRESPONDENCE: 
 (series II.) 
 
 Mayor Stokley as the Candidate of the Committee of 
 One Hundred. Having been nominated or rather recom- 
 mended at a meeting of the General Committe in the Rooms 
 of the Board of Trade, Chairman Garrett writes a letter of 
 notification, calling the Mayor's attention to the fact that he 
 is expected to sign ihe Committee's Declaration of Principles 
 as evidence of good faith, which letter is as follows : 
 
 Philadelphia, December 23di, 
 Hon. "W. S. Stoklet. 
 
 "Dear Sir: — Recognizing in your opposition to the Gas 
 Trust, your resolute eflbrts to enforce laws difficult of enforce- 
 ment, your maintaiuauce of an efficieut non-partisian police 
 and in the assurance contained in your letter of December 
 20th, that you are seeking faithfully to serve the City as its 
 Chief Executive and to reform existing abuses so far as in 
 you lies, the Committee of One Hundred have recom- 
 mended you to the Republican party and to their fellow- 
 citizens generally for re-election to the same high office; a 
 conclusion of which I now have the honor, officially, to 
 inform you, with the assurance that should you accept this 
 nomination they propose to iise their best eflbrts to secure 
 your election. They have adopted, also, a Declaration of 
 Principles, to which they think every honest Reformer can 
 subscribe, and they ask the assent of the several nominees 
 to this as a basis of action. I need scarcely add that, in thus 
 recommending you to the sufi'rages of your fellow-citizens we 
 form no new party, and leave you perfectly free to accept the 
 regular nomination should you wish it to be conferred upon 
 
 ^^^' PHILIP C. GARRETT." 
 
 The Gas Trust has, in the meantime, became aroused. 
 .Tames McManes goes to Mayor Stokley and gives him to 
 understand that he must either turn his back on the Re- 
 formers and help crush them out or join his fortunes with 
 them and incur the enmity of the Trust one of the efi'ects of 
 which will be his defeat in the Republican Mayoralty Conven- 
 tion. Mayor Stokley wavers and finally decides to renew his 
 affiliation with the Gas Trust. Accordingly he delays answer- 
 ing Chairman Garrett's letter until within one day of the
 
 APPENDIX. XXI 
 
 Eepublican Conventions when he sends this letter, omitting 
 entirely any reference to the request to indorse the Declara- 
 tion of Principles: 
 
 Philadelphia, January 12, 1880. 
 P. C. Gaekett, Esq., Chairman. 
 
 " Sir : — I am grateful to the Committee of One Hundred for 
 the public testimonial of their approval of my course as 
 Mayor of the City of Philadelphia and for their endorsement 
 and recommendation of me to the Kepubiican Convention 
 for re-nomination. So flattering a mark of regard and of 
 confidence from the respectable and influential citizens that 
 compose your Committee toiaches me deeply and inspires me 
 to continue a course of public policy which has already met 
 with your generous sanction. The views which I have 
 heretofore expressed regarding municipal interests and the 
 direction which should be given to legislation to conserve 
 those important interests, are too well known to the citizens 
 of Philadelphia to require even passing comment from me. 
 It would be neither modest nor profitable for me to urge my 
 own claims to re-election. The argument in favor of that 
 course must be found in the judgment of my fellow-citizens. 
 During the nine years in which I have filled the ofiice of Mayor 
 of Philadelphia I have endeavored to do my duty in a plain, 
 straightforward manner, uninfluenced either by partiality or 
 adverse prejudice. With what success I have administered 
 the ofiice is before the citizens of Philadelphia for their dis- 
 passionate decision, and should I again be summoned to 
 perform the duties of Mayor I shall endeavor to conduct my 
 department of public afi'airs in the same spirit and by the 
 same policy which has heretofore guided me. I have the 
 honer to be, with just respect, your obedient servant. 
 
 WILLIAM S. STOKLET." 
 
 EDWAED T. STEEL AND THE MAYOEALTY. 
 
 The nomination of Mayor Stokley by the Committee of One 
 Hundred has caused dissatisfaction on the part of some of 
 the members. Eudolph Blankenburg resigns his member- 
 ship, believing that the Committee has failed in its Eeform 
 mission, as he is convinced that Mayor Stokley is affiliated 
 with the Gas Trust and that he will not aid in the cause of 
 Eeform. His choice for Mayor was Edward T. Steel, When 
 he presented Mr. Steel's name in the meeting, however, Mr.
 
 XXn APPENDIX. 
 
 Arrott, who is also opposed to Mayor Stokley, arose and 
 read Mr, Steel's letter of declination, as follows: 
 
 Philadelphia, Saturday, Dec. 18, 1880. 
 " Gentlemen :— Learning that there is a possibility of my 
 name, among others, coming before yon for consideration as 
 a candidate for the office of Mayor, I have written this letter 
 to be used in such event. I deem it due to you, who have 
 undertaken so difficult and arduous a task, to state in advance 
 that I would not be the candidate of a political party for a 
 municipal office. It has been represented to me by persons 
 like myself, who have been earnestly devoted to tbe restora- 
 tion of popular government in the city of Philadelphia, that 
 I could render a service by allowing my name to be used in 
 connection with the candidacy for the office of Mayor. 
 While I have sincerely hoped that no such duty would 
 devolve upon me. nothing less than a citizen's obligation to 
 assist in recovering to the people the management of their 
 public affairs would command me to step aside from my own 
 business to be a candidate or to discharge the duties of a 
 public office. 
 
 " The lleform movement demands the overthrow of a clique 
 of men who have usurped the government of the city. They 
 have accomplished this by quartering an army of men upon 
 the people, who are paid, as employees, from the municipal 
 treasury for the nominal service they render the city. These 
 appointees, dependent on this power for their places are 
 ruled with inexorableness and are forced to render services 
 often against their honest convictions, their rulers being 
 only harder masters to them than to the public. The first 
 duty of these subordinates is to take the place of Ward Ex- 
 ecutive Committees, elect themselves to nominating Con- 
 ventions, to become officers of elections and to entrench 
 themselves in every position where they can successfully 
 resist the efforts of the people to protect themselves by the 
 election of men interested in the public welfare. 
 
 " Under the power and discipliue established by this cabal 
 places that require skilled labor, education, scientific knowl- 
 edge or high moral qualities, become the prey of ignorant, 
 coarse and selfish men, for the money that goes with the 
 position or that may be improperly made in it. No depart- 
 ment has immunity from this powjr whether it be established 
 for the i^urpose of educating children, for the reform of the 
 fallen or for the support of the destitute. 
 
 "Instead of men in public offices having only the high 
 Btandard of duty necessarily required by the people, whose 
 fiingle interest is to have their afi'airs well managed, with 
 rare exceptions, every man holding a public office, no matter
 
 i.piiiE:;a)ix. ixni 
 
 now important its function, who must obtain a nomination 
 before reaching the people for their support, is forced to h;ive 
 his mind primarily directed to the approval of this utterly- 
 corrupt and selfish power. 
 
 "As much as I cherish the principles of the Republican 
 party, and houor it for its achievements, I am convinced it 
 is not able, as now constituted, to overthrow this oligarchy. 
 
 " The officials who have successfully continued to protect 
 the interests of the people in detiance of this power have 
 only done so by the support of citizens irrespective of 
 party. Messrs. Caven and Hunter would not be rendering 
 their great service to the public to-day by the unaided sup- 
 port of Republicans nor would the city have the invaluable 
 supportof Mr. Pattison by the unaided support of Democrats. 
 
 "Believing, as I have endeavored to explain, that this clique 
 cannot be overthrown within the lines of party, and to aid 
 in its destruction being the one obligation which has led me 
 to consider the proposition of candidacy, I could not accept 
 of it where I believe this end cannot be secured. I have the 
 honor to be very truly yours. 
 
 EDWARD T. STEEL. 
 
 JOHK HUKTER'S ACCEPTANCE. 
 
 John Hunter, having received notification of his nomina- 
 tion by the Reform Committee, replies one week before the 
 holding of the Republican Conventions, accepting the nomi- 
 nation in the following words : 
 
 West Philadelphia, January 6, 1881. 
 
 "To Philip C. Garrett, Esq., Chairman, Committee of 
 One Hundred. Dear Sir: — I have before me your letter 
 notifying me that your Committee have designated me as 
 their choice for Receiver of Taxes and also asking me in case 
 I accept, to accompany it with an indorsement of the Decla- 
 ration of Principles. 
 
 " My record in Councils is sufficient proof that I am in 
 sympathy with the popular movement. I am not seeking 
 office but, as one of the one hundred and fifty thousand tax- 
 payers of this city who has borne his full share of the 
 penalties and re.«ponsibilities entailed upon us by long years 
 of misrule ard of gross mismanagement of city aflairs, as a 
 citizen willing to be governed by the pojjular will, fully ex- 
 pressed at the polls, unfettered by iniquitous party rules I 
 am in your hands if, inyour judgment, it is deemed advi.^able 
 to place my name before the whole people as their candidate 
 for Receiver of Taxes. I promise if elected to conduct the 
 office in the best interests of the Taxpayer and in the most 
 ecouomical manner.
 
 XXIV APPENDIX. 
 
 " It must be distinctly understood that if once fairly before 
 the people as an Independent Citizens' Candidate, regard- 
 less of what oilier candidates may decide npon or who may 
 hereafter be nominated by packed Conventions under no 
 circumstances shall I decline or resign. With entire con- 
 fidence in the integrity and good judgment of the voters of 
 this city, and the ultimate success of the popular movement 
 by and for the people, and with full purpose to do my whole 
 duty, I fully indorse your 'Declaration of Principles' in 
 whole and in part and, thanking you for yonr kind letter of 
 approval of my official conduct, I am yours very re- 
 pectfully. 
 
 JOHN HUNTEB." 
 
 THE GABBETT-CAVEK COEEESPONDENCE. 
 
 Chairman Garrett, on the same day on which he writes his 
 letter of notification to Mayor Stokley, writes a letter to 
 Joseph L.Caven, notifying him that the Committee of One 
 Hundred has already placed him in nomination for City 
 Solicitor, which letter is as follows: 
 
 Philadelphia, December 23, 1880. 
 Joseph L. Cavbn, Esq. 
 
 Dear Sir : — In view of your able defense of the interests 
 of the Taxpayers of Philadfelphia during several years past 
 in Councils, the Committee of One Hundred have put you 
 in nomination for the important ofBce of City Solicitor, 
 believing no one more eminently capable of protecting the 
 rights of the city in the capacity of its legal defender. 
 
 In conveying to you, as I now have the pleasure of doing 
 officially, this resolution of the Committee, I think it right 
 to say that they have been uninfluenced by other considera- 
 tions than those of public welfare. 
 
 The Committee have coupled with their nomination a 
 Declaration of Principles to which, they are well assured, 
 you can subscribe ; yet it will strengthen their hands to have 
 the written indorsements of those by all their candidates. 
 
 "Whenever, therefore, it is your pleasure to signify your 
 acceptance of the nomination, it will be gratifying to receive 
 your approval of the Principles also. 
 
 '• 1 remain, with much respect, yours truly, 
 
 PHILIP C. GARRETT, 
 Chairman Committee of One Hundred. 
 Attest, Geobgk W. Farb, Jr., Secretary."
 
 APPENDIX. XXV 
 
 Councilman Caven, like Mayor Stokley, does not reply to 
 the letter of notification at once, — delays his answer until 
 the day after the Republican Conventions, for reasons 
 which he explains : 
 
 712 Walnut Street, January U, 1881 
 
 Philip C. Garrett Esq., Chairman, and Committee of 
 One Hundred. 
 •' Gentlemen : — In notifying me of my selection for the of- 
 fice of City (Solicitor, you at the same time enclose me a ' Dec- 
 laration of Principles.' By chis I am informed that you 
 ' are liepublicaus and are seeking to reform the management 
 of the Republican party,' and that through the medium of 
 this party you are endeavoring to improve our city govern- 
 ment. 
 
 " I have, therefore purposely delayed answering until it 
 could De publicly ascertained whether the recognized Re- 
 publican party of the city approved - disapproved of your 
 action. 
 
 " 1 am deeply sensible of the high compliment you have 
 paid me iu associating my name with the honorable' office of 
 City Solicitor. It is uo empty honor to be thus selected by 
 a body representing, as your Committee does, Philadelphia's 
 best business men, even after a struggle, but when such 
 selection is made without the slightest solicitation or etibrt 
 it is to me the best evidence of your confidence in and in- 
 dorsement of my public life. 
 
 " I propose, at tbe end of my present term to retire from 
 tli3 Councils of the city so that I may give my individual 
 time and attention to my personal ami professional interests 
 but in doing so I shall not neglect the duty every citizen 
 O'Ves to the public. 
 
 '• In an active service of eight years in Common Councils, 
 I have at times endeavored to carry out my views of public 
 service within party lines and liave as often failed. livery 
 reform that has been instituted and carried out for the better 
 government of the city during those eight years resulted 
 solely from the joint eflbrts ot Republicaus and Democrats 
 acting as citizens and nut as partisans. 
 
 "The recent eti'ort made by your Co/nmittee in the same 
 direction is but another evidence of tlie impossibility of im- 
 proving the public sarvice through party machinery. Al- 
 though I was quite conscious tliat the constant and well 
 known opposition to Mr. Hunter and myself to the ways of 
 the so-called bossas of the Republican party would render it 
 impossible for them to favorably consider your action with 
 regard to those two names yet, personally, I have been
 
 XXVI Appendis:. 
 
 •willing as a Republican, nay, under the circumstances I 
 could not refuse, to co-operate with you to the end in another 
 similar experiment. 
 
 That experiment failing, as I knew it would, you have no 
 further use lor my name, and I therefore decline your kind 
 nomination. But, in declining, permit me to assure you 
 tlierenever was a time in the history of our city when the 
 people were so ready and anxious to hurl from power the 
 men who have loaded them with a municipal debt of 
 $71,000 000, and at the same time grown rich while the people 
 have become poorer — the men who control the votes and 
 voice of a large portion of your Councilmen as the master 
 controls the slave — the men who will strike down the Coun- 
 cilman who dares to do right — the men who rob you of your 
 dearest rights as freemen the right to express your choice 
 through the ballot. In view, therefore, of the time and the 
 opportunity and of the rejection of the recognized Reform 
 part of your ticket by the bosses, it remains for you to re- 
 cast your lines on the basis of non-partisan public service, 
 and to enter upon the coming campaign with a firmer deter- 
 mination than ever that good men and true shall represent 
 you in Councils and fill your city offices and if, in the 
 changed condition of your noble, manly and unselfish work, 
 I can be of any further service — not as a candidate but as a 
 Taxpayer and a citizen — do not hesitate to command me 
 
 "I have the honor to be gentlemen, with great respect, 
 very truly. 
 
 "JOS. L. CAVEN." 
 
 THE DEMOCRATIC MAYORALTY CONVENTION. 
 
 In the Democratic Mayoralty Convention there comes to 
 the front a new element, — Democrats opposed to the pro- 
 fessional politician element of the party which has so long 
 ruled in such assemblages. They see a favorable time to 
 strike and rid the party of these obnoxious ones, a feat 
 which will not end in its effects simply with the result of the 
 Convention but which shall be decisive, settling the quest'ion 
 as to which of the two incompatible elements shall live and 
 thenceforth control the party organization in Philadelphia^ 
 Accordingly a plan is formed by which the conservative 
 ones settle upon Select-Councilman King as their candidate; 
 feel confident he is the one of all others most certain to 
 serve the double purpose of defeating the Republican can-
 
 APPENDIX. XXVII 
 
 didate Stokley and of keeping the old "ring" element of 
 the Democratic party in the back-ground. Candidate King, 
 understanding the sentiment of the people and feeling con- 
 vinced that if there is one thing it indicates with certainty 
 it is that John Hunter shall be placed at the head of the 
 Tax Department, knows full well that it will be useless for 
 his party to attempt to win the Mayoralty unless they 
 respect the wishes of the large body of the Independent 
 Kepublicans and support Mr. Hunter. He therefore in- 
 sists on writing a letter for presentation to the Convention 
 before which his name is to be offered declining the nomina- 
 tion for Mayor unless the Democratic Convention to nomi- 
 nate a candidate for Ueceiver of Taxes which meets at the 
 same hour shall make Mr. Hunter its nominee. This letter he 
 places in the hands of his friend, Delegate John M. Campbell 
 who shall read it, at the proper time, in the Convention. 
 Conservative Democrat is Delegate Campbell, his father 
 being ex-Judge Campbell, Postmaster-General of the Nation 
 under President Pierce, now, with his son, quietly en- 
 gaged in the practice of law. Meantime, Delegate David 
 "W. Sellers, well-known Counsellor-at-law has been agreed 
 upon as the Temporary Chairman of the Conveution, — al- 
 ready a victory for the Conservatives as he is a strong support- 
 er of King. Counsellor John I. Bogers, whom we afterward 
 come to know as an able member of the Independent Demo- 
 cratic Committee of Thirty-one, has been chosen by the 
 King men as the one to nominate their champion in 
 the Convention, it being understood that the nomination 
 shall be made directly after the reading by Delegate Camp, 
 bell of Candidate King's letter, before the opposition ele- 
 ment has time to develop its tactics. The plan works to 
 perfection. Delegate Sellers is made Temporary Chairman 
 and is afterward continued as Permanent Chairman. At 
 the proper time and before names of candidates have been 
 offered. Delegate Campbell arises and, after some pertinent 
 remajks, reads this letter from Candidate King :
 
 XXVIII APPENDIX. 
 
 Philadelphia, January 26, 1881. 
 To the President and members of the Democratic Mayoralty 
 Convention. 
 " Gentlemen : — Understanding that nij- name will be pre- 
 sented as a candidate for the oflice of Mayor of this city I 
 think it but due to you and to myself to state to you my 
 position. One of the most important offices within the gift 
 of the people is the office of Keceiver of Taxes. The office 
 is said to be worth a quarter of a million of dollars yearly. 
 Its perquisites are so enormous as to cause a frightlul de- 
 moralization in the ranks of both parties. The whole com- 
 munity cries out for a repeal of the iniquitous law whicl 
 gives large fortunes to a few individuals at the expense oi 
 the Taxpaj'ers. The great mass of our citizens, without any 
 distinction of party, call, in trumpet tones, for the election 
 of John Hunter, a truly honest man, who will, if elected, 
 return these immense sums of money to the City Treasury 
 and thereby lessen the burden of taxation. This will cause 
 a rejieal of the iniquitous law. These being my sentiments 
 I cannot consent to the use of my name unless John Hunter 
 be associated with me on the ticket. The use of the name 
 of any other man than John Hunter for the office of Re- 
 ceiver of Taxes at a crisis like this, an office so separated 
 from politics, would be suicidal, and would only bring re- 
 proach and disgrace on the parties who advocate or counte- 
 nance such a course. Your obedient servant. 
 
 " SAMUEL G. KING." 
 
 The letter is received with enthusiasm, delegates cheering 
 60 lustily that regular business has to be suspended for 
 several minutes. Before the applause subsides Delegate 
 Rogers arises, and being recognized by the Chair mounts 
 the platform and in an eloquent speech presents the name 
 of Councilman King, " his nicely rounded sentences effect- 
 ively spoken," causing renewed applause. He says : 
 
 •' The Democratic party, though casting 76,000 votes last 
 Kovember is nevertheless a minority party in Philadelphia, 
 and being such must of necessity and for its own success so 
 conduct itself as to insure the co-operation of those inde- 
 pendent citizens who prefer the common good to partisan 
 triumph, and who have so often joined with us in electing 
 upright and incorruptible Democrats to offices of trust and 
 responsibility. These public spirited men first turned to 
 the Ilepublican party for relief from the incubus of ring rule, 
 but in vain. That party has presented for the Mayoralty as
 
 APPEKDIX. XXIX 
 
 a fourth-term candidate a man who owes his political birth, 
 tuition, and advancement exclusively to his subserviency to 
 the behests of the Seventh gtreet cabal. The result is wide- 
 spread dissatislactiun ainon^ those Republicans who ac- 
 knowledge no taskmasters, who wear no busses' livery, and 
 who breathe the unofficial air of freedom. They put little 
 faith in Mr. Stukley's alleged afostacy from the friendships 
 and affiliations of bis entire political life. They deny, with 
 us, the vauntedperl'ectionof his police loice which, although 
 improved by nine years of discipline is justly chargeable 
 with numerous petty tyrannies and which, though blind to 
 the deeds of Kepublican law-breakers, becomes Argus-eyed 
 when Democratic victims are to be hunted down. These 
 taxpayers regardless of party ties now turn to us for the 
 encouragement and relief denied them in their own ranks. 
 They ask of us to-day our best and wisest decision, our 
 ablest and most acceptable candidate ; one whom they know 
 has been tested by experience and never found lacking in 
 those qualifications which would grace the Chief Magistrate 
 of our city." 
 
 "When the name of Councilman King is presented it is 
 received with such unbounded enthusiasm that be is nomi- 
 nated on the first ballot. The chairman then appoints a 
 committee headed by Delegate Campbell to notify Mr. King 
 of the Convention's action, and the adjournment takes place 
 with the Conservatives complete masters of the situation, 
 their opponents having been so eflectually taken by sur- 
 prise that they juelded without resistance. 
 
 Afterward, having received a letter of inquiry from the 
 Committee of One Plundred as to whether he is willing to 
 indorse their Declaration of Principles, Candidate King re- 
 plies in the following words, on the receipt of which the 
 Committee at once indorse his candidacy : 
 
 Philadelplda, Januar,y2d, 1881. 
 
 George "W. Fakk, Esq., Secretary Committee of One Hun- 
 dred : 
 " Deak Sir : — I have received your letter of the 28th instant, 
 and in reply would say that I indorse freely and most cor- 
 dially the Declaration of Principles adopted by your Coni; 
 mittee and will, if elected, faithfully carry them out. They 
 accord in every respect with my own sentiments— that part
 
 YXX APPENDIX. 
 
 of them particularly which refers to a non-partisan police. 
 If elected Mayor no man shall be appointed or removed by 
 me for political consideration, none shall be assessed for 
 political purposes. My past life as a member of Select 
 Council shows that your'Declaration of Principles has been 
 my rule of conduct as a member of that body. 
 "Your most obedient servant, 
 
 " SAMUEL G. KING." 
 
 COUNCILMAN HUNTER'S DECLARATION. 
 
 Republican and Democratic Conventions have been held 
 Both parties have rejected Councilman Hunter; yet in the 
 Democratic Tax Receivers' Convention there has been a 
 "bolt" and fifty-seven delegates have refused to abide by 
 the nomination of William V. McGrath, and in a body 
 through enthusiastic throngs of people, take their way from 
 the meeting place of the Convention to the headquarters of 
 the Committee of One Hundred, where they nominate Coun- 
 cilman Hunter. Revolution has begun. To Independence 
 Hall a Committee on Notification headed by John L. Grim 
 proceeds. Councilman Hunter being there as a member of 
 the Committee on Investigation of the Gas Trust. He is no- 
 tified amidst impressive surroundings and amidst the cheers 
 of the people. He makes a brief speech thanking the Com- 
 mittee and the 'bolting' Convention. Controller Pattison 
 also appears and makes a speech. This event greatly 
 strengthens the cause of the Committee of One Hundred, 
 who unite on Hunter and King. On the following day Coun- 
 cilman Hunter again writes to the Committee of One Hun- 
 dred : 
 
 Philadelpiiia, January 28. 
 To the Committee of One Hundred: 
 
 " Gentlemen: — The people of the city want, — First, full 
 and complete control of the Gas "Works, — free access to the 
 books, papers, incidental accounts and inner workings of 
 the department; the most economical arrangement by com- 
 petent officials and honest trustees, that the profits of the 
 Trust may go for the benefit of the gas consuming public 
 where thev properly belong. This can only be done by the 
 most euergetiQ and active work in the diflerent wards that
 
 APPENDIX. XXXI 
 
 intelligent Independent Councilmen may be elected who 
 alone can appoint practical business men as Gas Trustees. 
 Second, — the Tax Office and Delinquent Tax Office must be 
 placed under the control of the voters and taxpayers, that 
 all the emoluments of the officers over and above a fair 
 compensation may be returned to the City Treasury. A 
 man should be elected Tax Receiver who will, even without 
 repeal of the present Delinquent Bill, conduct the afi'airs of 
 the office in the best interests of the people, in the most 
 economical non-partisan manner and in accordance with the 
 spirit and intention of the provisions of the New Constitu- 
 tion making: all offices salaried. This can only be done by 
 combined determined eftbrts all over the city by the people, 
 regardless of party. I wrote you a letter placing myself in 
 your hands ' if in your judgment it was advisable to place 
 my name before the people as an independent citizens' can- 
 didate.' Since that letter was written both parties have 
 made nominations and the candidates are before the public. 
 I ask as a favor that you will to-day, at your meeting, deem 
 it advisable to make me a candidate before the voters of the 
 «ity. 
 
 " To the Independent Democratic Convention members who 
 indorsed me, to the dependent members of the Republican 
 Convention who favored me, but dared not say so, to the 
 many prominent men of all parties who have publicly ex- 
 pressed themselves as believing in my integrity, to the 
 thousands of taxpayers who do not know me, to the members 
 of Councils who have sat with me for years in deliberation 
 over city affairs — to you as a Committee of One Hundred, I 
 desire to express my thanks for the hearty approval of my 
 official course so far. 
 
 *' I propose in the future either as Councilman or Tax Re- 
 ceiver to do my whole duty to the best of my ability. I 
 have no favors to ask, except that the voters by an over- 
 whelming majority shall make it impossible for ringsters to 
 count out honestly elected Reformers. 
 
 "I am with you now and always, with time, money, and 
 influence to secure for this city what it deserves— the eco- 
 nomical administration of municipal aftairs, good and cheap 
 gas and water and plenty of it; good highways and com- 
 fortable, low priced facilities for traveling over theoi; tirst 
 class schools with well-paid teachers and practical intel- 
 ligent directors; a system of sewerage that will prevent as 
 much as possible the ravages of infectious diseases, and a 
 full and free expression of the will of the people that can- 
 not and will not be misunderstood. 
 
 " "With this as my platform and wishing you great success 
 in your efforts at reform, I am yours very truly, 
 
 JOHN HUNTER."
 
 XXXII APPENDIX. 
 
 VOTE OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF PHILA-^ 
 DELPHIA IN 1880. 
 
 The following exhibit of the vote of the City and County 
 of Philadelphia, in the Presidential election of November, 
 1880, illustrates, in a remarkable manner, the extent and the 
 influence of the Reform sentiment among the people at this 
 time; marking, as it did, a stage in the political history of 
 the city which was destined to become memorable. It 
 should be borne in mind that when this election came off, 
 the Committee of One Hundred had not yet come into ex- 
 istence, the election taking place on the 2d of November, 
 while the first meeting of citizens, called by E. Dunbar 
 Lockwood for the purpose of organizing such Committee, 
 was not held until thirteen days later, or on the 15th of 
 November. In the meantime the Philadelphia journals and 
 the NewYork Herald had been spreading before the people 
 daily startling disclosures with reference to mismanagement 
 and fraud in the Gas Trust. The vote of Philadelphia for 
 the Republican and Democratic candidates for the Presi- 
 dency, Garfield and Hancock; for the Republican and Demo- 
 cratic candidates for Auditor General, Lemon and Dechert;. 
 for the Republican and Democratic candidates for the Su- 
 preme Court, Green and Jenks, and for the Republican and 
 Democratic candidates for County Controller, Jeffries and 
 Pattison — the vote of the city for these respective candi- 
 dates shows a singular discrimination on the part of voters 
 in favor of certain candidates irrespective of party, which 
 fact is to be attributed to the aroused spirit of the people in 
 favor of a reform in their local affairs. The vote was as 
 follows : 
 
 FOR PRESIDENT: 
 Garfield, R— 97,220. Hancock, D— 76,330. 
 
 AUDITOR GENERAL : 
 Lemon, R— 95,819. Dechert, D— 77,584. 
 
 SUPREME JUDGE : 
 Green, R— 97,929. Jenks, D— 75,611. 
 
 COUNTY CONTROLLER: 
 Jeffries, 11—79,868. Pattison, D— 93,471,
 
 NAMES OF THE PRESENT MEMBERS OF THE 
 COMMITTEE OF ONE HUNDRED. 
 
 William Arrott. 
 J. T. Audenried, 
 Joel J. Baily. 
 Joshua L. Baily. 
 Robert V. Barber. 
 Thomas W. Barlow, 
 Henry Bettle. 
 Rudolph Blankenburg. 
 James Bonbright. 
 William Brockie. 
 George Burnham. 
 George L. Buzby. 
 J, Hays Carson. 
 Wm. H. Castle. 
 Saml. Castner, Jr. 
 George C. Child. 
 E. W. Clark. 
 Charles J. Cohen. 
 Robert R. Corson. 
 John F. Craig. 
 George V. Cresson. 
 Samuel Croft. 
 George H. Earle. 
 sGeo. H. Earle, Jr. 
 
 Henry C. Lea. 
 Edmund Lewis 
 Thos. Leaming. 
 Amos R. Little. 
 E. D. Lockwood. 
 Geo. D. McCreary. 
 Geo. L McKelway. 
 John McLaughlin. 
 Lewis C. Madeira, 
 Thos. J. Martin. 
 James S. Mason. 
 Theo. Megargee. 
 William Mencke. 
 Merle Middleton. 
 John T. Monroe. 
 Thos. G. Morton, M.D. 
 Aquila Nebeker, M.D. 
 Joseph Parrish. 
 T. Morris Perot. 
 James Peters. 
 Horace W. Pitkin. 
 Wm. Potter. 
 Robert Purvis. 
 Francis B. Reeves.
 
 LIST OF MEMBERS— Cbn^mwed 
 
 Wm. J. Exley. 
 G. W. Farr, Jr. 
 John Field. 
 Clayton French. 
 Philip C. Garrett. 
 D. R. Garrison. 
 Henry C. Gibson. 
 John E. Graeff. 
 James Graham. 
 F. Gutekunst, 
 Wm. Harkness, Jr. 
 Charles J. Harrah. 
 Thos. S. Harrison. 
 R. E. Hastings. 
 F. Oden Horstmann. 
 Wm. Hunt, Jr. 
 John A. Hunter, M.D. 
 John Hunter. 
 N. E. Janney. 
 Wm. H. Jenks. 
 Jos. de F. Junkin. 
 Theodore Justice. 
 W. W. Justice. 
 Godfrey Keebler. 
 
 Charles Richardson. 
 Sam'l. G. Scott. 
 Henry J. Scott. 
 David Scull, Jr. 
 Thos. M. Seeds. 
 W. Fred'k. Snyder. 
 E. A. Souder. 
 James Spear. 
 Charles Spencer. 
 William G. Steel. 
 John S. Stevens. 
 J. C. Strawbridge. 
 Henry C. Thompson. 
 John C. Watt. 
 Chris. Wetherill. 
 Edw. S. Whelen. 
 Geo. Whitney. 
 Ellis D. Williams. 
 Thos. V. Williams 
 Henry Winsor. 
 Walter Wood. 
 William Wood. 
 James A. Wright.
 
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