the most
valuable men in Congress in matters pertaining to the tariff. When
I was a candidate for re-election to the House he visited my district
and made several very able speeches for me at my request, and, with
his wife, was my guest in Springfield for several days. At that
time Republicans were for a high protective tariff, and it was not
considered then, as it seems to be in these days of so-called
insurgency, a crime for a Republican to stand up and say that he
was in favor of high tariff duties. In any event, Judge Kelley
did me much good in the speeches he made in my district.
We occupied apartments in the same house in Washington--on F Street
near the Ebbitt House, at which hotel we took our meals. F Street
is now the heart of the business centre, but it was then one of
the principal residence streets, and many Representatives and
Senators lived in that vicinity. The only objection I had to living
in the same house with Judge Kelley was that he was always preparing
speeches, and when he got ready to deliver a speech he would insist
on reading it all over to me; and as his speeches were generally
two or three hours long, and always on the tariff, in which I did
not take an extraordinary amount of interest, I became pretty tired
of hearing them.
On one occasion when he was making quite an eloquent speech in the
House, he was interrupted by a member from Kentucky, whose name I
do not remember. He had already answered him once or twice and
then gone on. He was interrupted again, and this time he answered:
"Oh, don't interrupt me when the glow is on." The "glow" did happen
to be on at that time, and naturally he did not desire to be
interrupted.
In the same Pennsylvania delegation there were two members named
Charles O'Neill and Leonard Myers, who were very short in stature.
For some reason or other, some wag dubbed them "Kelley's ponies."
They heard of it and became very angry, and on every occasion, when
there was half a chance, they watched to see how Judge Kelley voted
and would then vote the opposite.
They were both good men and good Republicans, and O'Neill served
the same number of terms as Judge Kelley--fifteen--but O'Neill
remained his full fifteen terms and retired from Congress. Judge
Kelley was serving his fifteenth term when he died in Washington, in
1890.
Samuel J. Randall was one of the prominent Democrats of his day;
but strange to say he favored a protective tariff. He also se
|