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 As per
JNTU-Kakinada
Syllabus Regulation
2016

Computer
Programming
 About the Author

E Balagurusamy, former Vice Chancellor, Anna University, Chennai and Member, Union Public Service
Commission, New Delhi, is currently the Chairman of EBG Foundation, Coimbatore. He is a teacher, trainer,
and consultant in the fields of Information Technology and Management. He holds an ME (Hons) in Electrical
Engineering and PhD in Systems Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee. His
areas of interest include Object-Oriented Software Engineering, E-Governance: Technology Management,
Business Process Re-engineering, and Total Quality Management.
A prolific writer, he has authored a large number of research papers and several books. His best-selling
books, among others include:
∑ Programming in ANSI C, 7/e
∑ Fundamentals of Computers
∑ Computing Fundamentals and C Programming
∑ Programming in Java, 5/e
∑ Programming in BASIC, 3/e
∑ Programming in C#, 3/e
∑ Numerical Methods
∑ Reliability Engineering
∑ Introduction to Computing and Problem Solving using Python, 1e

A recipient of numerous honors and awards, E Balagurusamy has been listed in the Directory of Who's
Who of Intellectuals and in the Directory of Distinguished Leaders in Education.
 As per
JNTU-Kakinada
Syllabus Regulation
2016

Computer
Programming

E Balagurusamy
Chairman
EBG Foundation
Coimbatore

McGraw Hill Education (India) Private Limited

CHENNAI

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 McGraw Hill Education (India) Private Limited

Published by McGraw Hill Education (India) Private Limited

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Computer Programming
Copyright © 2017 by McGraw Hill Education (India) Private Limited.
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McGraw Hill Education (India) Private Limited

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 Contents

Preface xiii
Roadmap to the Syllabus xvi

Chapter 1 Introduction to Computers and Programming 1.1—1.30

1.1 Introduction 1.1
1.2 Computer Systems 1.2
1.2.1 Input Devices 1.3
1.2.2 CPU 1.5
1.2.3 Output Devices 1.6
1.2.4 Memory 1.8
1.3 History of C 1.12
1.4 Data Types 1.13
1.4.1 Integer Types 1.14
1.4.2 Floating Point Types 1.15
1.4.3 Void Types 1.16
1.4.4 Character Types 1.16
1.5 Programming Languages 1.16
1.5.1 Machine Language (Low Level Languages) 1.16
1.5.2 Assembly Language (Symbolic Language) 1.16
1.5.3 High-Level Languages 1.18
1.6 Development of C Algorithms 1.19
1.6.1 Characteristics of Algorithms 1.20
1.6.2 Advantages of Algorithms 1.20
1.6.3 Disadvantages of Algorithms 1.20
1.7 Software Development Method 1.22
1.7.1 Analysing the Requirements 1.23
1.7.2 Feasibility Analysis 1.23
1.7.3 Creating the Design 1.24
1.7.4 Developing Code 1.24
1.7.5 Testing the Software 1.25
1.7.6 Deploying the Software 1.25
1.7.7 Maintaining the Software 1.25
1.8 Applying Software Development Method 1.25
Key Terms 1.27
Just Remember 1.28
Multiple Choice Questions 1.28
vi Contents

Answers 1.29
Review Questions 1.29

Chapter 2 Basics of C 2.1—2.90

2.1 Importance of C 2.1
2.2 Basic Structure of C Programs 2.1
2.3 Programming Style 2.2
2.4 Executing a ‘C’ Program 2.3
2.5 Sample Programs 2.4
2.5.1 Sample Program 1: Printing a Message 2.4
2.5.2 Sample Program 2: Adding Two Numbers 2.6
2.5.3 Sample Program 3: Interest Calculation 2.8
2.5.4 Sample Program 4: Use of Subroutines 2.10
2.5.5 Sample Program 5: Use of Math functions 2.10
2.6 C Character Set 2.12
2.6.1 Trigraph Characters 2.13
2.7 C Tokens 2.14
2.8 Keywords and Identifiers 2.14
2.9 Operators and Expressions 2.15
2.9.1 Arithmetic Operators 2.15
2.9.2 Relational Operators 2.18
2.9.3 Logical Operators 2.19
2.9.4 Assignment Operators 2.20
2.9.5 Increment and Decrement Operators 2.22
2.9.6 Conditional Operator 2.23
2.9.7 Bitwise Operators 2.25
2.9.8 Special Operators 2.25
2.9.9 Operator Precedence 2.27
2.9.10 Precedence of Arithmetic Operators 2.29
2.9.11 Some Computational Problems 2.30
2.9.12 Type Conversions in Expressions 2.31
2.9.13 Operator Precedence and Associativity 2.34
2.10 Constants 2.36
2.10.1 Integer Constants 2.37
2.10.2 Real Constants 2.38
2.10.3 Single Character Constants 2.38
2.10.4 String Constants 2.39
2.11 Variables 2.40
2.12 Declaration of Variables 2.41
2.12.1 Primary Type Declaration 2.41
2.12.2 User-defined Type Declaration 2.42
2.12.3 Declaration of Storage Class 2.43
2.12.4 Assigning Values to Variables 2.44
 Contents vii

2.13 ANSI C Library Functions 2.50

2.14 Managing Input and Output Operations 2.53
2.14.1 Reading a Character 2.54
2.14.2 Writing a Character 2.56
2.14.3 Formatted Input 2.58
2.14.4 Points to Remember while Using scanf 2.65
2.14.5 Formatted Output 2.66
2.15 Case Studies 2.71
Key Terms 2.78
Just Remember 2.79
Multiple Choice Questions 2.80
Answers 2.84
Review Questions 2.84
Debugging Exercises 2.86
Programming Exercise 2.87

Chapter 3 Decision Making, Branching and Looping 3.1—3.70

3.1 Introduction 3.1
3.2 Decision Making with If Statement 3.1
3.2.1 Simple If Statement 3.2
3.2.2 The If.....Else Statement 3.6
3.2.3 Nesting of If....Else Statements 3.9
3.2.4 The Else If Ladder 3.11
3.3 Decision Making with Switch Statement 3.15
3.4 The ? : Operator 3.20
3.5 Decision Making with Goto Statement 3.22
3.6 Introduction to Looping Procedure 3.25
3.6.1 Sentinel Loops 3.26
3.7 The While Statement 3.27
3.8 The Do Statement 3.29
3.9 The For Statement 3.33
3.9.1 Simple ‘for’ Loops 3.33
3.9.2 Additional Features of For Loop 3.37
3.9.3 Nesting of For Loops 3.39
3.10 Jumps In Loops 3.43
3.10.1 Jumping Out of a Loop 3.43
3.11 Case Studies 3.45
Key Terms 3.56
Just Remember 3.57
Multiple Choice Questions 3.58
Answers 3.60
Review Questions 3.61
Debugging Exercises 3.65
Programming Exercises 3.66
viii Contents

Chapter 4 User-Defined Functions 4.1—4.52

4.1 Introduction 4.1
4.2 Need for User-Defined Functions 4.1
4.3 A Multi-Function Program 4.2
4.3.1 Modular Programming 4.4
4.4 Category of Functions 4.5
4.4.1 No Arguments and No Return Values 4.5
4.4.2 Arguments but No Return Values 4.7
4.4.3 Arguments with Return Values 4.10
4.4.4 No Arguments but Returns a Value 4.16
4.4.5 Functions that Return Multiple Values 4.16
4.4.6 Nesting of Functions 4.17
4.5 Elements of User-Defined Functions 4.19
4.6 Definition of Functions 4.19
4.6.1 Function Header 4.20
4.6.2 Name and Type 4.20
4.6.3 Formal Parameter List 4.20
4.6.4 Function Body 4.21
4.7 Return Values and their Types 4.21
4.8 Function Calls 4.22
4.8.1 Function Call 4.24
4.9 Function Declaration 4.24
4.9.1 Prototypes: Yes or No 4.25
4.9.2 Parameters Everywhere! 4.25
4.10 Recursion 4.26
4.10.1 Recursion versus Iteration 4.27
4.11 Passing Arrays to Functions 4.27
4.11.1 One-Dimensional Arrays 4.27
4.11.2 Two-Dimensional Arrays 4.31
4.12 Passing Strings to Functions 4.32
4.12.1 Pass by Value versus Pass by Pointers 4.32
4.13 The Scope, Visibility, and Lifetime of Variables 4.33
4.13.1 Automatic Variables 4.33
4.13.2 External Variables 4.35
4.13.3 External Declaration 4.37
4.13.4 Static Variables 4.39
4.13.5 Register Variables 4.40
4.14 Multifile Programs 4.42
4.15 Case Study 4.43
Key Terms 4.46
Just Remember 4.46
Multiple Choice Questions 4.47
 Contents ix

Answers 4.48
Review Questions 4.49
Debugging Exercises 4.51
Programming Exercises 4.51

Chapter 5 Arrays 5.1—5.44

5.1 Introduction 5.1
5.1.1 Data Structures 5.2
5.2 One-Dimensional Arrays 5.2
5.3 Declaration of One-dimensional Arrays 5.3
5.4 Initialization of One-dimensional Arrays 5.6
5.4.1 Compile Time Initialization 5.6
5.4.2 Run Time Initialization 5.7
5.4.3 Searching and Sorting 5.11
5.5 Two-Dimensional Arrays 5.12
5.6 Initializing Two-Dimensional Arrays 5.16
5.6.1 Memory Layout 5.19
5.7 Multi-Dimensional Arrays 5.25
5.8 Dynamic Arrays 5.26
5.9 Case Studies 5.26
Key Terms 5.38
Just Remember 5.38
Multiple Choice Questions 5.39
Answers 5.40
Review Questions 5.40
Debugging Exercises 5.41
Programming Exercises 5.42

Chapter 6 Strings 6.1—6.34

6.1 Introduction 6.1
6.2 Declaring and Initializing String Variables 6.2
6.3 Reading Strings from Terminal 6.3
6.3.1 Using scanf Function 6.3
6.3.2 Reading a Line of Text 6.5
6.3.3 Using getchar and gets Functions 6.6
6.4 Writing Strings to Screen 6.11
6.4.1 Using printf Function 6.11
6.4.2 Using putchar and puts Functions 6.14
6.5 Arithmetic Operations on Characters 6.15
6.6 Putting Strings Together 6.16
6.7 Comparison of Two Strings 6.18
6.8 String-Handling Functions 6.18
6.8.1 strcat() Function 6.18
x Contents

6.8.2 strcmp() Function 6.19

6.8.3 strcpy() Function 6.20
6.8.4 strlen() Function 6.20
6.8.5 Other String Functions 6.22
6.9 Table of Strings 6.24
6.10 Case Studies 6.26
Key Terms 6.30
Just Remember 6.30
Multiple Choice Questions 6.30
Answers 6.31
Review Questions 6.31
Debugging Exercises 6.33
Programming Exercises 6.33

Chapter 7 Pointers 7.1—7.42

7.1 Introduction 7.1
7.2 Understanding Pointers 7.2
7.2.1 Underlying Concepts of Pointers 7.3
7.3 Initialization of Pointer Variables 7.3
7.3.1 Pointer Flexibility 7.4
7.4 Declaring Pointer Variables 7.5
7.4.1 Pointer Declaration Style 7.5
7.5 Accessing the Address of a Variable 7.6
7.6 Accessing a Variable Through its Pointer 7.8
7.7 Chain of Pointers 7.10
7.8 Pointer Expressions 7.11
7.9 Pointer Increments and Scale Factor 7.12
7.9.1 Rules of Pointer Operations 7.13
7.10 Pointers as Function Arguments 7.13
7.11 Functions Returning Pointers 7.16
7.12 Pointers to Functions 7.17
7.12.1 Compatibility and Casting 7.19
7.13 Pointers and Arrays 7.19
7.14 Pointers and Character Strings 7.23
7.15 Array of Pointers 7.25
7.16 Dynamic Memory Allocation 7.26
7.17 Allocating a Block of Memory: Malloc 7.27
7.18 Allocating Multiple Blocks of Memory: Calloc 7.29
7.19 Releasing the Used Space: Free 7.33
7.20 Case Studies 7.33
Key Terms 7.38
Just Remember 7.38
Multiple Choice Questions 7.39
 Contents xi

Answers 7.40
Review Questions 7.40
Debugging Exercises 7.42
Programming Exercise 7.42

Chapter 8 Structures and Unions 8.1—8.59

8.1 Introduction 8.1
8.2 Defining a Structure 8.1
8.3 Declaring Structure Variables 8.2
8.3.1 Accessing Structure Members 8.4
8.4 Structure Initialization 8.5
8.5 Arrays of Structures 8.8
8.5.1 Arrays Within Structures 8.11
8.5.2 Structures Within Structures 8.13
8.6 Structures and Functions 8.15
8.6.1 Passing Structure Through Pointers 8.17
8.6.2 Self Referential Structure 8.18
8.7 Pointers and Structures 8.18
8.8 Unions 8.21
8.9 Bit Fields 8.23
8.10 Typedef 8.25
8.11 Command Line Arguments 8.37
8.11.1 Application of Command Line Arguments 8.48
8.12 Case Study 8.50
Key Terms 8.53
Just Remember 8.53
Multiple Choice Questions 8.54
Answers 8.54
Review Questions 8.55
Debugging Exercises 8.57
Programming Exercise 8.58

Chapter 9 Data Files 9.1—9.22

9.1 Introduction 9.1
9.2 Defining and Opening a File 9.2
9.3 Closing a File 9.3
9.4 Input/Output Operations on Files 9.4
9.4.1 The getc and putc Functions 9.4
9.4.2 The getw and putw Functions 9.8
9.4.3 The fprintf and fscanf Functions 9.10
9.5 Error Handling During I/O Operations 9.12
9.6 Random Access to Files 9.14
Key Terms 9.20
xii Contents

Just Remember 9.20

Multiple Choice Questions 9.21
Answers 9.21
Review Questions 9.21
Debugging Exercise 9.22
Programming Exercise 9.22

Appendix 1 C99/C11 Features A1.1—A1.8

Solved Question Paper Nov-Dec 2015 (Set 1— Set 4) SQP1—SQP32
Solved Question Paper May 2016 (Set 1— Set 4) SQP1—SQP29
 Preface

INTRODUCTION
Computers plays an increasing important role in today’s world and a sound knowledge of computers has
become indispensable for anyone who seeks employment not only in the area of IT but also in any other
field as well. Computer programming is dedicated to the understanding of computer language, and writing
and testing of programs that computers’ follow to perform their functions. The programs are created using
programming languages and C is the most prevalent, efficient and compact programming language. C
combines the features of a high-level language with the elements of the assembler and is thus close to both
man and machine. The growth of C during the last few years has been phenomenal. It has emerged as the
language of choice for most applications due to its speed, portability and compactness of code. Thus, many
institutions and universities in India have introduced a subject covering Computer Programming.
This book is specially designed for first-year students of Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University
Kakinada (JNTU K) and would enable them to master the necessary skills for programming with C language.
The text has been infused with numerous examples and case studies to empower the learner. Furthermore, the
book also covers design and implementation aspect of data structures using standard ANSI C programming
language.

SIGNIFICANT FEATURES
∑ New! Completely in sync with the syllabus of JNTU Kakinada (2016 Regulation)
∑ New! Incorporates all the features of ANSI C that are essential for a C programmer.
∑ New! Solutions to latest 2015 (Nov/Dec) and 2016 (May) JNTU Kakinada question paper is placed
at the end of the book (All 4 sets)
∑ New! 149 Multiple Choice Questions incorporated at the end of each chapters help students tests
their conceptual understanding of the subject
∑ 22 Case Studies in relevant chapters with stepwise solution to demonstrate real-life applications
∑ New! Updated information on C99/C11 features
∑ New! Topics like ANSI C library functions, Negation, Swapping Values, Recursion v/s Iteration are
covered in detail
∑ Learning by example approach ensures smooth and successful transition from a learner to a skilled
C programmer
∑ Enhanced student-friendly chapter design including Outline, Introduction, Section-end Solved
Programs, Case Studies, Key Terms, Just Remember, Multiple Choice Questions, Review Questions,
Debugging Exercises, Programming Exercises
∑ Special box feature highlighting supplementary information that complements the text.
xiv Preface

PEDAGOGICAL FEATURES
∑ 134 Solved C Programs demonstrate the general principles of good programming style
∑ 171 Review Questions helps in testing conceptual understanding
∑ 28 Debugging Exercise helps in participating coding contests
∑ 179 Programming Exercises simulate interest to practice programming applications

CHAPTER ORGANIZATION
The content is spread across 9 chapters. Chapter 1 introduces computer systems, programming languages
and environment, software development method, and algorithms. Chapter 2 gives an overview of C and
explaining the keywords, identifiers, constants, variables, data types and various case studies on these.
Chapters 3 comprises of decision-making, branching and looping methods. Chapter 4 covers the functions
which are used in C language. Chapter 5 focuses on arrays while Chapter 6 deals with strings. Different
types of pointers and its types are discussed in Chapter 7. Chapter 8 presents structures and unions while
Chapter 9 covers file types and their management. Appendix 1 covers C99/C11 features in detail. In addition
to all this, Solved Question Papers of Nov/Dec 2015 (4 sets) and May 2016 (4 sets) are also given in this
book.

CD RESOURCES
The supplementary CD provided along with the book would help the students master programming language
and write their own programs using Computer programming concepts and data structures. The CD comprises
of the following resources:
∑ New! 2012, 2013, 2014, Jan/Feb 2015 solved question papers
∑ New! Lab Programs as per the new syllabus
∑ Two major programming projects—Inventory and Record Entry & two mini projects—Linked List
and Matrix Multiplication
∑ 100 Programming Exercises and 200 Objective Type Questions aligned as per the new syllabus
∑ 5 Solved Model Question Papers
∑ 79 Additional Solved Programs
∑ Additional content on Matrix Operation

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A number of reviewers took pains to provide valuable feedback for the book. We are grateful to all of them
and their names are mentioned as follows:
S. Krishna Rao Sir CR Reddy College of Engineering, Eluru, Andhra Pradesh
Narasimha Rao Kandula Vishnu Institute of Technology, Bhimavaram, Andhra Pradesh
K. Phani Babu, Chundru Raja Ramesh Sri Vasavi Engineering College, Tadepalligudem, Andhra
Pradesh
 Preface xv

Rama Rao Adimalla Lendi Institute of Engineering and Technology, Jonnada,

Andhra Pradesh
S. Rama Sree Aditya Engineering College, Peddapuram, Andhra Pradesh
M V S S Nagendranath Sasi Institute of Technology & Engineering, Tadepalligudem,
Andhra Pradesh
S. Satyanarayana Raghu Engineering College, Dakamarri, Andhra Pradesh
S C Satapathy Anil Neerukonda Institute of Technology and Sciences,
Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh
Ch Vijaya Kumar DVR & Dr. HS MIC College of Technology, Kanchikacherla,
Andhra Pradesh

E Balagurusamy

Publisher’s Note
McGraw Hill Education (India) invites suggestions and comments, all of which can be sent to
info.india@mheducation.com (kindly mention the title and author name in the subject line).
Piracy-related issues may also be reported.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
you will yet be a great general over men when you grow up to be a
man yourself.” A few years ago an aged man entered Mr. Kelly’s
crowded office at 117 Nassau street, and sent in his name with the
rest. When his turn came he was admitted. “Do you not know me,
Mr. Kelly?” said the old man. “No,” was the reply, “I do not recall
you.” “Do you remember when you were a boy the fight you had
with that big swarthy fellow in Creamer’s factory yard, when one of
the men told you you would one day become a great general over
men? Well, I was that very man, and didn’t I tell the truth, sir?” Mr.
Kelly remembered the occurrence and his visitor too, immediately,
whom he had not seen for many years, and laughed heartily over
the reminiscence of his youth as he shook the old man’s hand.
He worked industriously at his new occupation, and is said to have
displayed mechanical skill of no mean order. In due time he set up in
business for himself, made friends rapidly, and secured an excellent
line of custom. He became a prosperous young man, and was
remarked upon for sobriety, modesty of deportment and attention to
business. It was not long before he found himself able to branch out
on a more extensive scale, for his friends were numerous and willing
to lend him a helping hand when the needs of his business made it
expedient to ask credit. While yet a very young man, his success
was sufficiently assured to justify him in establishing a soap-stone
and grate factory at 40 Elizabeth street, and he also opened an
office where he took business orders, in a frame building on Broome
street, next door to the church over which Dr. Maclay at that time
presided, and of which Dr. Cohen, in subsequent years, became the
pastor. Among his customers were Thomas O’Conor, father of
Charles O’Conor, the lawyer; John A. Dix, afterward Governor of New
York; Horace F. Clark, and many other influential people. John Kelly
had now become a prosperous man. His first care was for the
beloved mother who had shaped the days of his youth in the ways
he should walk, but who departed this life in the most edifying
sentiments of piety when he was quite a young man, scarcely
twenty-one years of age. His next care was for his younger brother
and five sisters, towards whom he acted as a father, and for whose
education and welfare he was now able to provide in a suitable
manner. His own early struggles for education had taught him to
appreciate it highly in others, and he secured to his brother and
sisters advantages which disciplined their youthful years and
qualified them for the duties of after life. Later on he took his
brother into partnership with him, but that brother and all his sisters,
save one, Mrs. Thomas, who lives near Mexico, in Oswego County,
New York, died many years ago. Mr. Kelly, as already mentioned,
owed to his mother’s care the blessing of right training in his youth,
and the consequent formation of his character in the practice of the
Christian virtues. An old New Yorker who knew his mother, has told
the writer she was a thorough disciplinarian, and taught her children
to love the truth in all things, and that the beginning of wisdom is
the fear of the Lord. His mother died before her son’s brilliant
success began; she who had equipped him for the battle stayed not
to enjoy its triumphs.
At this period of his life John Kelly had not a dream of ever
entering upon a political career. In this respect he resembled another
distinguished New York statesman, the late Daniel S. Dickinson, who
began life as a mechanic, became a woollen manufacturer, and,
beyond being an earnest Democrat, passed several years with no
inclination whatever for the field of politics. It was true, however,
that even from his boyhood John Kelly displayed rare capacity to
lead others, and he now found himself, in spite of preoccupation in
the manufacturing business, constantly called on by neighbors
seeking his advice and instinctively following him. He was once
asked by a newspaper reporter if he ever sowed wild oats in his
youth. “That may be called a leading question,” he replied; “I was in
a gambling-house once in my life, but it was on business—not to
gamble. And I never was in a house of assignation in my life. I don’t
know what the inside of such a house is.” “It is charged against you,”
the reporter said, “that you attend church very regularly, and that
you do it for effect.” “Well,” Mr. Kelly said, “that’s a queer charge to
make against any one. I had a good careful mother who sent me to
the Sunday-school regularly. I have been to church regularly ever
since. Under such training, no doubt, I ought to be a great deal
better Christian than I am. I suppose I have been very wicked
sometimes, and yet I can’t recall any time when I have been wilfully
bad.”[3]
“During Tweed’s ascendancy in New York politics,” said the well
informed Utica editor, in the article already quoted from, “Mr. Kelly
retired from Tammany Hall. Between him and Tweed the bitterest
hostility always existed. It is pleasant to believe that Kelly’s superior
virtue made him distasteful to the burly champion of corruption. But
that does not account for their feud. During the glow of his guilty
glory, Tweed’s ambition was to secure the endorsement of men of
unimpeachable character. By turning back a page in political history,
we might show how well he succeeded. But he could not make
terms with John Kelly, for Mr. Kelly would accept no position but that
of ruler. William M. Tweed swore a solemn oath that John Kelly never
should control Tammany Hall—and we all know what came of it.”
Shortly before his death, while he was a prisoner in Ludlow Street
Jail, Tweed was interviewed by a New York Herald reporter, and gave
with undeserved freedom his impressions of the leading men he had
known in politics. “Whom,” said the reporter, “do you regard as the
most successful city politician of New York in the thirty years of your
experience?” “John Kelly,” said Tweed. “He was always a plodder—
always saving something and learning something. He stood well with
the Church—rather a high class man in the Church—and got his
support there. I never did but one thing for him; twenty years ago I
helped him beat Walsh for Congress.” “When you came to politics,”
asked the reporter, “did you ever remotely entertain the idea of such
proportions as the Ring afterwards assumed?” “No,” said Tweed.
“The fact is, New York politics were always dishonest—long before
my time. There never was a time when you couldn’t buy the Board
of Aldermen, except now. If it wasn’t for John Kelly’s severity, you
could buy them now.”[4]
The reporter of the World, with an odd sort of unconscious humor
in his interview, not unlike Tweed’s commercial valuation of piety as
an investment, so naively suggested by the words, “rather a high
class man in the Church,” bluntly told Mr. Kelly that it was not only
complained against him that he attended Church, but that he
aggravated the matter by attending it very regularly. No wonder
Kelly should have thought that a “queer charge” to make against
him.
An old citizen of New York, acquainted with him from his youth, is
authority for the statement that Kelly was as fully a leader of the
young men of his neighborhood when he first grew up, as he
became of the Tammany Democrats at a later day. He was of a
social disposition, and while always temperate in his habits, he
would go occasionally, after getting through with his day’s work, to
the Ivy Green, a famous hostelry in those days in Elm street, kept by
Malachi Fallon, who went to California in 1849, and which was
afterward kept by John Lord. The Ivy Green, like Stonehall’s in
Fulton Street, was a popular gathering place for politicians and their
friends. John Clancy, Peter B. Sweeny, Matthew Brennan, David C.
Broderick, and many other active young fellows, who afterwards
became prominent in politics, were in the habit of visiting the Ivy
Green, and John Kelly would sometimes call there for a chat with the
boys. Less frequently, but once in a great while, Kelly and Broderick,
the latter being a warm friend of Kelly’s, also dropped in at the
Comet, another place of resort of the same kind, kept by Manus
Kelly on Mott street, where they would meet the same jolly crowd
that frequented the Ivy Green, and whither came quite often the
celebrated Tom Hyer, Yankee Sullivan, and other champions of the
manly art of self-defence. “But,” said the writer’s informant, “none of
these fighting men ever intermeddled with Kelly or Broderick. The
best of them would have had his hands full if he had done so.” Poor
Broderick, who afterwards became a United States Senator from
California, finally fell in a duel in that State.
Young Kelly was very fond of athletic sports. He was a good
oarsman, was often on the water, and pulled a shell with the best.
There was a crack company called the Emmet Guards in New York,
when Kelly was a young man. He was first lieutenant of this
company during the captaincy of James McGrath, upon whose death
he was elected captain, and being fond of military matters, he
brought his company to a high state of efficiency. Captain Kelly
retained the command until he was elected Alderman in 1853. The
Old Volunteer Fire Department was then in its zenith. He was a
member of it, and one of its leading spirits. While he was in the Fire
Department an incident occurred which has exercised a restraining
influence over him through life. At a fireman’s parade, while he was
in line of March, a burly truckman attempted to drive through the
ranks. Kelly was near the horses and kept them back. The driver
sprang to the ground, and made a furious attack on the young fire
laddie. He received in return a blow from Kelly’s fist which ended the
battle by rendering the truckman insensible. He was borne to a
neighboring doctor’s office, and was resuscitated with much
difficulty. For two or three days the truckman was disabled. Kelly,
who had acted strictly on the defensive, nevertheless was greatly
distressed for his antagonist. He had been unaware of the almost
phenomenal force of his own blow, and his tremendous hitting
power was first fully revealed to him by the effect of his fist on the
truckman. To one of his intimate friends he declared that he deeply
regretted this affair, but that, perhaps, it had served a good purpose,
for he was now unalterably resolved never again as long as he lived
to strike any man with all his force, no matter what the provocation
might be.
His herculean strength and known courage have sometimes been
seized upon by opponents for disparaging paragraphs in the
newspapers, just as the combativeness of Andrew Jackson, in his
earlier days, was often commented upon to his detriment. But as
there was nothing mean or domineering in the temper of Jackson,
any more than there is in Kelly, only the high and unconquerable
spirit that felt “the rapture of the strife,” Old Hickory did not suffer in
popular esteem on account of his early scrimmages. In 1828 Dr.
James L. Armstrong, one of his old opponents in Tennessee,
gathered up and published as a political nosegay a list of nearly one
hundred pistol, sword and fist fights in which Jackson had been
engaged between the ages of 23 and 60. Jackson replied to this by
promising to cudgel Armstrong on sight. The courage of some men
is so conspicuous that they are recognized at once as heroes. In his
admirable life of Nelson, Southey relates many acts of apparently
reckless intrepidity on the part of the hero of Trafalgar; but, as it
was with Jackson, so was it with Nelson, his conduct was not the
result of real recklessness; it was not the courage of the bull-dog,
the maddened bull or the enraged lion, but rather the play of a spirit
which rose with the occasion, the exhibition of a will not to be
appalled by dangers common natures shrink from. It was such a
courage the poet had in view when he made Brutus say—

“Set honor in one eye, and death i’ the other,

And I will look on both indifferently.”

On several occasions in his career John Kelly has exhibited this

heroic quality. Through his agency, at a stormy political convention in
New York, when several of the most notorious partisans of Tweed,
while clutching to retain the power which had been wrested from
their fallen chief, were beaten at every point, a resort to brute force
was threatened, and several of the vilest desperadoes in the city
were despatched from the hall to waylay Kelly and take his life as he
passed along the street. Some of his friends divined the purpose of
the would-be-assassins, and admonished Mr. Kelly of their
movements. A carriage was sent for, and he was urged to get into it
and be driven home, in order to avoid the bravos. Augustus Schell,
Horace F. Clark, and several other friends tried to persuade him to
enter the carriage. Mr. Kelly replied that he generally went home by
a certain route, pointing to the street where the thugs were in
hiding, and it was his intention to go that way then. If anybody
wanted to kill him, the opportunity would be given, as he would
neither seek nor avoid such miscreants. “My friends,” he quietly
remarked, “if you run away from a dog, he will be very apt to bite
you.” He went out of the hall and approached the corner, keeping his
eyes steadily fixed on the sinister group gathered there like beasts of
prey, passed on, and was not molested. Determined to take his life,
but deterred by cowardice when Kelly confronted them, the villains
made a plan to secrete themselves in a small unoccupied frame
house on Lexington Avenue, between 33d and 34th streets, on the
following morning, and to shoot him as he went down town to
business. An old man living in the neighborhood, by the merest
accident overheard a part of the muttered plot of the conspirators,
and saw them early next morning enter the deserted house. He was
a friend of Mr. Kelly, and suspected that he was to be attacked. He
went out, and meeting Mr. Kelly, told him of his suspicion, and
pointed out the house in which the men were concealed. John Kelly
crossed the street, and proceeded deliberately to enter the house
and room from which the Ring desperadoes in dumb astonishment
watched his approach. Thinking they had been betrayed—for it must
have flashed upon them that Kelly would not have the madness to
do such a thing unless he had assistance at hand—the terrified
assassins fled from the rear of the house as he entered at the front.
He went into the room they had just quit, and saw four men running
through a vacant lot as fast as their legs could carry them into the
next street. Alone and absolutely unassisted, save by the cool
judgment and unflinching courage which eminently distinguish his
character, he adopted this hazardous line of conduct as the most
effective way of confounding a gang of murderous ruffians, and
stamping out their cowardly plots. He succeeded. The Ring men
beset his path no more.
Those acquainted with John Kelly are aware that there is a
humorous side to his character, and that he possesses mimic powers
of a high order. It is not generally known, but it is a fact however,
that when he first grew up to manhood he was one of the organizers
of an Amateur Dramatic Association, which had its headquarters in a
hall at the corner of Elm and Canal Streets, and which sent forth
several professional actors who afterwards attained eminence on the
stage. Charles Place, Samuel Truesdale, Mr. Godwin, John Kelly and
other well known citizens of New York were members of this
company; and several great tragedies, notably some of the now
neglected ones of Shakespeare, were essayed by these aspiring
youths. “Many of Mr. Kelly’s friends,” said a writer in September,
1880, in a New York weekly paper called The Hour, “will be surprised
to learn that he once, in the character of Macbeth, sturdily
challenged Macduff to ‘lay on’; that as the sable-clad Hamlet he was
accustomed to win applause as he expressed the wish that his ‘too,
too solid flesh would melt’; and that his passionate outbursts as the
jealous Moor in ‘Othello’, were wont to bring down the house.
Equally astonished will they be to hear that, in the versatility of his
genius, he was as much a favorite in ‘Toodles’ and other of Burton’s
eccentric comedy parts as in the higher walk of tragedy.”
In Kelly’s younger days religious persecution and hostility to
foreigners had begun to be shown in not a few localities. This
intolerant spirit, which had lain dormant in America from the days of
Washington to the end of Monroe’s administration, broke forth with
great fury in several parts of the country after the close of the “era
of good feeling.” The fathers of the Republic were liberal men who
kept this spirit at a distance. Archbishop Carroll of Baltimore, the
friend of Washington, was chosen by a unanimous resolution of
Congress, and in compliance with the desire of the clergy and laity
of all denominations, to deliver the first anniversary address upon
the father of his country after his death. The address was delivered
February 22, 1800, and is still preserved. Bishop Cheverus of Boston,
afterwards Cardinal Archbishop of Bordeaux, France, was the warm
personal friend of John Adams, and when the Bishop was about to
build a church in Boston, the first name on the list of his subscribers
was that of President Adams. When Bishop Dubois, the friend of
Lafayette, was driven into exile by the French Revolution, he found a
place of refuge in Virginia, a home in the private residence of James
Monroe, afterwards President, friends in his host and Patrick Henry,
and, having no church of his own, a chapel in the capitol at
Richmond which the legislature of Virginia placed at his disposal to
be used for the offices of religion. These halcyon days of Christian
charity and toleration in America were now about to be rudely
interrupted. In 1831, the same Dubois, then Bishop of New York,
had the mortification to see his church of St. Mary’s, in that city, set
on fire by an incendiary and burned down. The first Catholic college
in the State of New York was built in the neighborhood of Nyack, on
the Hudson, in 1833, by this prelate. Religious bigotry incited by Rev.
Dr. Brownlee and other enemies of the Catholics, soon applied the
torch to the structure and reduced it to ashes. In 1834 the Ursuline
Convent at Charlestown, Massachusetts, was burned and sacked.
Two or three years later an anti-Catholic mob formed the design of
burning St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. A pious churchman,
Bishop Dubois was also a man of courage. If the civil authorities
would not stay the fury of the mob, he determined to protect
himself, and defend his church from destruction. John Kelly, then a
well grown youth and a favorite of Bishop Dubois, was selected by
him on account of his prudence and extraordinary courage as a sort
of aid de-camp to Lawrence Langdon, the leader of a large body of
citizens who assembled in the vicinity of the Cathedral for defense.
The streets were torn up for a considerable distance; paving stones,
wagons and omnibuses were used for barricades; armed men filled
the Cathedral, and the walls of the adjoining grave-yard glistened
with swords and bayonets. The Bishop enjoined the utmost
forbearance upon his people, and gave them positive orders not to
begin the assault, and to avoid collision with the mob until the
Cathedral might be attacked. Conspicuous in carrying out the orders
of the leader, and in directing the movements of the defending party,
and maintaining constant communication between Langdon and his
followers, was young John Kelly of the Fourteenth Ward. The mob
approached through Broadway, a dense body extending for several
blocks, marching in solid line and filling the street from one side to
the other. They turned into Prince Street and approached the
Cathedral. Kelly carried the order at this moment for the defenders
to lie down in the grave-yard and keep perfectly quiet. It was night,
and the mob marched on until stopped by the barricades, when they
found the whole neighborhood in a state of siege. The ample
preparations to receive them disconcerted the church-burners, and
the silence of the defending party, of whose presence they had
become aware, made the incendiaries wary and apprehensive. They
faltered and lost heart, and slunk away in the direction of the
Bowery, terrified from their wicked design by the intrepid courage of
one old Bishop. They passed along the sidewalk adjoining the burial-
ground in lines six deep, with frightful oaths upon their lips, while
the men in the city of the dead remained as still and motionless as
the tenants of the tombs below, but every finger was on a trigger,
and every heart beat high with resolve to defend St. Patrick’s
Cathedral and the graves of their fathers from sacrilege and
desecration. Driven by cowardly fear from the church, the mob
crossed to the Bowery, wrecking the houses of several Irishmen, and
the tavern called the Green Dragon, on the way, and finally their fury
was let loose on the private residence of Mr. Arthur Tappan, the
famous abolitionist, whose windows and doors they broke, and
otherwise injured his property. Thus by the prudence of the
Cathedral defenders in avoiding collision with the mob, a terrible
sacrifice of life was escaped, and young John Kelly, inspired by the
counsel of the Bishop and his own coolness and sagacity, played a
prominent part in preventing bloodshed and saving the Cathedral.
The prejudice against foreigners, an outgrowth of that aversion
which the old Federal party leaders manifested towards Frenchmen,
Germans and Irishmen, indeed to all foreigners except Englishmen,
continued to increase in bitterness after the close of the “era of good
feeling.” A political party was at last organized on a platform of
disfranchisement of the Irish and “the Dutch,” the latter being a
commonly used misnomer for the Germans. This party took the
name of Native Americans. It advocated laws prohibiting Irish and
German emigrants from landing on these shores, and practical denial
of the right of suffrage, or of holding office, to those already here.
For some years this unwise and unstatesmanlike policy of exclusion
and proscription seriously checked the tide of emigration from
Europe. Had the Native Americans prevailed, instead of the fifty odd
millions of population in the United States to-day, there would have
been less than twenty millions, and the wealth and greatness of the
country would be diminished in like proportion. Instead of being,
perhaps, the greatest nation in the world, the United States would
occupy the position of a fourth or fifth-rate power, a little but not
much ahead of Canada on the north, and the South American
governments on the south.
As the greater number of the foreign population were Roman
Catholics, a sectarian element was infused into the new party, and
with bigotry superadded to a widespread jealousy of foreigners, the
Native American party soon signalized itself by burning down
Catholic churches and colleges, and by bloody chance-medleys and
deliberate riots with German and Irish adopted citizens. In the year
1844 these disturbances reached a climax. A terrible riot occurred
that year in Philadelphia, in which many lives were sacrificed, and
the Catholic church of St. Augustine was laid in ashes by the mob.
The scenes in that city bore resemblance to some of the godless
excesses in Paris during the reign of terror. To be a foreigner was to
brave death, to be a Catholic to court martyrdom in free America.
It was at this juncture the Native American party in the city of
New York again threatened the destruction of St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
The New York Courier and Enquirer, and Evening Express fanned the
passions of the people to white heat by appeals to sectarian and
race prejudices. But there was a man then at the head of the
Catholic Church in New York who possessed many of the qualities for
which Andrew Jackson was distinguished. Bishop Hughes belonged
to the tribe of the lions. He perceived that it was the favorite policy
of the Native Americans to make New York city an anti-foreign
stronghold. There, Catholics and adopted citizens were powerful;
crushed there, it would be an easy matter to prostrate them
everywhere. In the month of May, 1844, the Native American leaders
in New York, invited their brethren of Philadelphia, who had most
distinguished themselves in the deplorable events in that city, to visit
New York, and to bring with them emblems of the horrible scenes in
Kensington at the time of the burning of the church of St. Augustine,
the better to fire the New York heart. A delegation of Philadelphians
promised to accept the invitation and carry on the emblems. A public
reception, and a procession through the streets, were to take place.
It became evident that the purpose of this sinister movement was to
re-enact in New York the scenes which had just disgraced
Philadelphia. Bishop Hughes took decisive action. He admonished
Catholics to keep away from public meetings and unusual gatherings
of the populace, and, to avoid in a special manner, all disturbers of
the peace. That great man, in looking over the city for prudent and
conservative persons to aid him in carrying out his policy of
forbearance, found no one on whom he more implicitly relied, and
who proved more effective in the emergency than John Kelly. Bishop
Hughes and John Kelly’s father were natives of the same county and
neighborhood in Ireland. Between the Bishop and his fellow
countryman’s son a warm friendship existed. They were both
endowed with minds of singular originality and power, both natural
leaders of men, both possessed a remarkable hold on the respect
and affections of the people. Among the Whigs, at this perilous
juncture, Bishop Hughes also found several powerful supporters,
chief among whom were William H. Seward, Horace Greeley and
Thurlow Weed. As the time drew near for the Native American
demonstration, popular excitement and fears of a terrible riot
increased. Bishop Hughes now called on the Mayor of the city,
Robert H. Morris, and advised him not to allow the demonstration to
take place. “Are you afraid that some of your churches may be
burned?” the Mayor asked. “No, sir, but I am afraid that some of
yours will be burned,” the Bishop said; “we can protect our own. I
came to warn you for your own good.” “Do you think, Bishop, that
your people would attack the procession?” “I do not; but the Native
Americans want to provoke a Catholic riot, and if they can do it in no
other way, I believe they would not scruple to attack the procession
themselves, for the sake of making it appear that the Catholics had
assailed them.”
“What, then, would you have me do?” asked the Mayor. “I did not
come to tell you what to do,” the Bishop said. “I am a Churchman,
not the Mayor of New York; but if I were the Mayor, I would examine
the laws of the State and see if there were not attached to the police
force a battery of artillery, and a company or so of infantry, and a
squadron of horse; and I think I should find that there were; and if
so, I should call them out. Moreover, I should send to Mr. Harper, the
Mayor-elect, who has been chosen by the votes of this party. I
should remind him that these men are his supporters; I should warn
him that if they carry out their designs there will be a riot; and I
should urge him to use his influence in preventing the public
reception of the delegates.”[5]
This characteristic stand of Bishop Hughes had its effect. No public
reception of the church burners took place, but for nearly two weeks
the Cathedral was guarded every night, and the mob which
threatened its destruction was kept at bay. During those dark days
Bishop Hughes found John Kelly to be one of the most prudent
young men in the Cathedral parish, energetic in danger, conservative
in conduct, and always responsive to the call of duty. His manly
bearing then may be said to have laid the foundation of that
enduring confidence in his judgment, and respect for his character,
which the Bishop ever afterwards felt and expressed. Mr. Kelly was
not a zealot, and there is not a tinge of bigotry in his nature. He was
then, as he is now, a true liberal, and has always declared that
religion and politics should be kept as wide apart as the poles. But
he is the foe of intolerance, and while despising the arts of the
demagogue, no man in New York has done more to uphold foreign
citizens in their rights, and to emancipate the ballot-box from
persecution on the one hand, and fraudulent voting on the other.
The Native American party finally developed into the notorious
Know-Nothing movement, the party of grips, and signs, and dark-
lanterns. In many of the election districts of New York no foreigner
dared approach the polls. The primaries were even worse, and were
conducted in defiant disregard of the election laws. In John Kelly’s
ward, which was a fair illustration of every other ward in the city,
any Irishman or German risked his life by going to the polls. Gangs
of repeaters and thugs, as far as they could, kept all foreigners from
the primaries. These tools of the Know-Nothing leaders would fill the
room where the election was held, take possession of the line, crowd
out their opponents by threats or violence, return again and again,
force their way, after passing the spot where the votes were
received, once more into the line, and repeat the farcical act of
voting a second and third time, keeping up the villany until relieved
by another squad of repeaters, who continued to enact the same
scenes until the close of the polls. A friendly police force connived at
these rascalities, and openly backed up the repeaters and ballot-box
stuffers whenever a determined citizen, in the exercise of his rights,
resisted expulsion from the line, or attempted to defend himself from
assault. So great became the terror these law-breakers inspired, that
opposition to them was practically at an end. This state of affairs
was more humiliating, since the majority of voters in the Fourteenth
Ward were known to be Democrats. John Kelly protested against
these outrages as a private citizen, and at a meeting of Democrats
declared his intention of attending the next primary election in the
Fourteenth Ward, then near at hand, and exercising his right of
voting at all hazards. Those who knew the man knew this was not
an idle boast, but many tried to dissuade him from the rash attempt,
which, if persisted in, would likely enough cost him his life.
The primary election was to take place in a hall, long since
removed, in the march of the city, which then stood on the corner of
Grand and Elizabeth Streets. The part of the room for the inspectors’
seats was protected by a high partition, and a box desk, like a bank
teller’s window, with a hole only large enough for a voter’s hand to
be put through in handing his ballot, to the receiving inspector, was
placed at one side of the partition. A narrow path in the main room,
fenced in by high rails, to allow but one voter to approach at a time,
afforded the only means of access to the polls. When the voter
handed in his ballot, that was the last he saw of it, as the partition
effectually shut off observation from without. As a matter of fact it
was the practice of the inspector to throw the vote into a waste
basket, on the floor at his feet, if it was not of the approved sort.
This mode of taking the vox populi had long been in practice, and
was not only an open evasion of the statute, which provided for the
presence of watchers for the several parties, whose legal right it was
to see that all had a fair opportunity to vote, but it was adopted with
the deliberate purpose of protecting the swindling inspectors from
detection while engaged in the nefarious work of making way with
legal ballots. On the day of the election John Kelly was early on the
scene, and was accompanied by a large number of the lawful voters
of the ward, who appointed him as their watcher at the polls. He
and his friends forced their way into the hall, and as the black hole,
behind which the frauds were practiced, was there in violation of the
statute, it was straightway demolished, in order to secure at least a
semblance of fairness to the voting about to take place. The Know-
Nothings were at first struck dumb with astonishment at this bold
step on the part of the Democrats. To defend themselves from
violence was as much as the latter had previously attempted. Rage
soon took the place of surprise, and a furious attack was made on
those who had removed the box screen from about the inspectors’
desk. John Kelly, who had been recognized as a Democratic watcher,
was also set upon by the gang of ballot-box stuffers. A fierce scuffle
ensued. But the Democrats outnumbered the Know-Nothings, and
drove them from the hall. The leaders of the latter party, uttering
vows of vengeance, declared they would soon return with
reinforcements, and make short work of Kelly and his party. They
repaired to the ship-carpenters’ quarters at the foot of Delaney
street, and soon the news of their discomfiture was spread abroad
among the thousands of mechanics in that part of the city. These
mechanics were, for the most part, engaged in ship building, for
those were the days when New York’s famous clipper ships whitened
the seas and brought back cargoes of commerce from all parts of
the world. The ship carpenters constituted a formidable body of
athletic men, whose influence at elections was cast on the side of
the Know-Nothings. It was not long before a body of these
mechanics, over a thousand in number, was drummed up in Delaney
street and vicinity, and marshalled by notorious Know-Nothing
bullies, the crowd started for the hall in Grand street to inflict
condign punishment upon John Kelly and the Fourteenth Ward
Democrats, who had shown the unprecedented audacity of
interfering with the usual Know-Nothing methods of carrying
elections in that ward. In the meantime the Democrats had not been
idle, but had recruited their own ranks to prepare for the threatened
attack. Soon the two parties came into collision, and a desperate
encounter took place. But for a second time the victory remained
with the Democrats. The Know-Nothings, unaccustomed to serious
opposition, were not prepared for it now, and advanced in a
promiscuous manner, expecting to bear down opposition and to have
everything their own way. The Democrats presented a compact
front, and fought in companies of ten each. The hall was cleared a
second time of the assailing party. A great multitude was now
gathered in the streets threatening to tear down or burn the
building, when the Democrats suddenly sallied forth with the
precision of veterans, and struck the Know-Nothing mob at a dozen
different points simultaneously. The mob being gathered from all
parts of the city greatly exceeded the Democrats in numbers, but
the sub-divisions of tens on the part of the latter worked so well that
their onslaught became irresistible. Soon the mob were flying in all
directions, some seeking refuge in stores, others in private houses,
and the rest were pursued into and through the Bowery with great
impetuosity. “The hour was come and the man.” None knew it better
than the Know-Nothing Dirk Hatteraicks of New York. The effect of
that day’s work in the Fourteenth Ward was felt all over the city of
New York for years afterwards, and its immediate consequence was
to break the backbone of Know-Nothingism in the ward in which it
occurred. Thereafter Democrats, whether native or foreign born,
were not afraid to appear at election places. The moral effect was
salutary. The timid were reassured, the indifferent were roused into
interest in public affairs, and fair elections became more frequent in
New York city. The one strong man who had worked this revolution
was John Kelly. The Irish and German population looked upon him as
their deliverer, and from that day forth the Know-Nothing power on
the East side of the city dwindled into insignificance, and no further
attempts to stifle the voice of the majority took place. Kelly became
identified in the minds of the adopted citizens of all nationalities, but
especially of the Irish, who were chiefly aimed at, as their champion.
Henceforth it was not possible for this strong man, this born leader
of his fellows, to follow the bent of his inclinations and remain in a
private station. He was elected to the Board of Aldermen, and next
to the Congress of the United States. The Know-Nothings, by their
excesses in New York, had raised up an adversary to their oath-
bound secret organization who was destined to accomplish as much
in the Empire State for equal rights to all citizens, native and foreign-
born, as Alexander H. Stephens, in a similar contest, wrought out in
Georgia, and Henry A. Wise, by his great anti-Know-Nothing
campaign accomplished in Virginia.

FOOTNOTES:
[1] Utica Observer, Sept. 16, 1879.
[2] Utica Observer, Sept. 16, 1879.
[3] New York World, Oct. 18, 1875.
[4] New York Herald October 26, 1877.
[5] Clarke’s Lives of the Deceased Bishops, vol. ii., pp. 111-112.
 CHAPTER III.
THE GREAT COMMONER OF GEORGIA—SPEECH OF A. H. STEPHENS
—HENRY A. WISE OF ACCOMAC—HENRY WINTER DAVIS—HIS
CHARACTER—JOHN KELLY MEETS HIM IN DEBATE—KELLY’S
STANDING IN CONGRESS—HIS CHARACTER DESCRIBED BY
LEWIS CASS, BY A. H. STEPHENS, AND JAMES GORDON
BENNETT—THE ERA OF KNOW-NOTHINGISM—KELLY’S PART IN
ITS OVERTHROW.
The future historian of the United States, when he comes to treat
of that extraordinary movement in American politics called Know-
Nothingism, will not do justice to the subject unless he assigns the
post of honor in the work of its overthrow as a national organization
to Stephens of Georgia, Wise of Virginia, and Kelly of New York. A
glance at the great work accomplished by these three men is all that
can be attempted in this memoir.
“True Americanism,” said Alexander H. Stephens in his memorable
Anti-Know-Nothing contest in Georgia in 1855, “as I have learned it,
is like true Christianity—disciples in neither are confined to any
nation, clime or soil whatever. Americanism is not the product of the
soil; it springs not from the land or the ground; it is not of the earth,
or earthy; it emanates from the head and the heart; it looks upward,
and onward and outward; its life and soul are those grand ideas of
government which characterize our institutions, and distinguish us
from all other people; and there are no two features in our system
which so signally distinguish us from all other nations as free
toleration of religion and the doctrine of expatriation—the right of a
man to throw off his allegiance to any and every other State, prince
or potentate whatsoever, and by naturalization to be incorporated as
a citizen into our body politic. Both these principles are specially
provided for and firmly established in our Constitution. But these
American ideas which were proclaimed in 1789 by our ‘sires of ’76’
are by their ‘sons’ at this day derided and scoffed at. We are now
told that ‘naturalization’ is a ‘humbug,’ and that it is an impossibility.
So did not our fathers think. This ‘humbug’ and ‘impossibility’ they
planted in the Constitution; and a vindication of the same principle
was one of the causes of our second war of independence. Let no
man, then, barely because he was born in America, presume to be
imbued with real and true ‘Americanism,’ who either ignores the
direct and positive obligations of the Constitution, or ignores this,
one of its most striking characteristics. An Irishman, a Frenchman, a
German, or Russian, can be as thoroughly American as if he had
been born within the walls of the old Independence Hall itself. Which
was the ‘true American,’ Arnold or Hamilton? The one was a native,
the other an adopted son.”[6]
Mr. Stephens had declined to be a candidate for Congress in 1855,
and the Know-Nothings taunted him with cowardice, because, they
said, if he should run he knew he was doomed to defeat. His letter
on Know-Nothingism to Judge Thomas, from which the preceding
extract is quoted, was denounced furiously by the Know-Nothings,
who loudly predicted that the letter would prove to be his political
winding-sheet. These taunts were published throughout the country,
and induced Mr. Stephens to change his mind, and re-enter the field
as a candidate for the Thirty-fourth Congress. In a speech at
Augusta, Georgia, in which he announced this purpose, he said: “I
have heard that it has been said that I declined being a candidate,
because a majority of the district were Know-Nothings, and I was
afraid of being beaten. Now, to all men who entertain any such
opinion of me, I wish to say that I was influenced by no such
motive. I am afraid of nothing on earth, or above the earth, or under
the earth, except to do wrong—the path of duty I shall ever
endeavor to travel, ‘fearing no evil,’ and dreading no consequences.
Let time-servers, and those whose whole object is to see and find
out which way the popular current for the day and hour runs, that
they may float upon it, fear or dread defeat if they please. I would
rather be defeated in a good cause than to triumph in a bad one. I
would not give a fig for a man who would shrink from the discharge
of duty for fear of defeat. All is not gold that glitters, and there is no
telling the pure from the base until it is submitted to the fiery ordeal
of the crucible and the furnace. The best test of a man’s integrity
and the soundness of his principles is the furnace of popular opinion,
and the hotter the furnace the better the test. I have traveled from a
distant part of the State, where I first heard these floating taunts of
fear—as coming from this district—for the sole and express purpose
of announcing to you, one and all, and in this most public way to
announce to the other counties, without distinction of party, that I
am again a candidate for Congress in this district. The
announcement I now make. My name is hereby presented to the
district; not by any convention under a majority or a two-third rule—
but by myself.
“I know, fellow-citizens, that many of you differ with me upon
those exciting questions which are now dividing—and most
unhappily, too, as I conceive—dividing our people. It is easy to join
the shouts of the multitude, but it is hard to say to a multitude that
they are wrong. I would be willing to go into one of your Know-
Nothing lodges or councils, where every man would be against me,
if I could be admitted without first having to put myself under
obligations never to tell what occurred therein, and there speak the
same sentiments that I shall utter here this night. Bear with me,
then, while I proceed.[7] It is to exhibit and hold up even to
yourselves the great evils and dangers to be apprehended from this
‘new,’ and, I think, most vicious political ‘monster,’ that I would
address you; and against the influences of which I would warn and
guard you, as well as the rest of our people. While the specious
outside title of the party is that ‘Americans shall rule America,’ when
we come to look at its secret objects as they leak out, we find that
one of its main purposes is, not that ‘Americans shall rule America,’
but that those of a particular religious faith, though as good
Americans as any others, shall be ruled by the rest.
“But it is said the ‘proscription’ is not against a religious but a
political enemy, and the Roman Church is a political party, dangerous
and powerful. Was a bolder assertion, without one fact to rest upon,
ever attempted to be palmed off upon a confiding people? The
Roman Church a political party! Where are its candidates? How
many do they number in our State Legislatures or in Congress? What
dangers are they threatening, or what have they ever plotted? Let
them be named. Was it when Lord Baltimore, a Catholic, established
the colony of Maryland, and for the first time on this continent
established the principle of free toleration in religious worship? Was
it when Charles Carroll, a Catholic, signed the Declaration of
Independence? But it is said that great danger is to be apprehended
from the Catholics because of a ‘secret order’ amongst them, known
as Jesuits. ‘No one,’ says a Know-Nothing writer, ‘knows, or possibly
can know, the extent of their influence in this country. One of them
may eat at your table, instruct your children, and profess to be a
good Protestant, and you never suspect him. Their great aim is to
make their mark in America. Perjury to them is no sin, if the object
of it be to spread Catholicism or acquire political influence in the
country.’ Whether this be true of the Jesuits or not I cannot say. But
I submit it to the consideration of candid minds how far it is true of
the new order of Know-Nothings, which is now so strenuously
endeavoring to make its mark in America, and to gain political
influence in the country, not only by putting down all foreigners, and
all native-born citizens who may be of Catholic faith, but also all
other native-born citizens who will not take upon their necks the
yoke of their power. Do not hundreds and thousands of them go
about daily and hourly, denying that they belong to the order, or that
they know anything about it? May they not, and do they not ‘eat at
your table,’ attend your sick, and some of them preach from your
pulpits, and yet deny that they know anything about that ‘order’
which they are making such efforts to spread in the land? I do not
say all of them do this; but is it not common with the ‘order,’ thus by
some sort of equivocation and slippery construction, to mislead and
deceive those with whom they converse? There is nothing worse
that can be said of any man or any people indicating a destruction of
morals or personal degradation, than that ‘the truth is not in him.’ It
is the life and soul of all the virtues, human or divine. Tell me not
that any party will effect reformation of any sort, bad as we now are
in this land, which brings into disrepute this principle upon which
rests all our hopes on earth, and all our hopes for immortality. And
my opinion is that the Protestant ministers of the Gospel in this
country, instead of joining in this New England, puritanical,
proscriptive crusade against Catholics, could not render a better
service to their churches, as well as the State, in the present
condition of morals amongst us, than to appoint a day for everyone
of them to preach to their respective congregations from this text,
‘What is truth?’ Let it also be a day set aside for fasting, humiliation
and prayer—for repentance in sackcloth and ashes—on account of
the alarming prevalence of the enormous sin of lying! Was there
ever such a state of general distrust between man and man before?
Could it ever have been said of a Georgia gentleman, until within a
few months past, that he says so and so, but I don’t know whether
to believe him or not? Is it not bringing Protestantism, and
Christianity itself, into disgrace when such remarks are daily made,
and not without just cause, about Church communicants of all our
Protestant denominations—and by one church member even about
his fellow-member? Where is this state of things to lead to, or end,
but in general deception, hypocrisy, knavery, and universal
treachery?
“Was ever such tyranny heard of in any old party in this country as
that which this new ‘order’ sets up? Every one of them knows, and
whether they deny it or not, there is a secret monitor within that
tells them that they have pledged themselves never to vote for any
Roman Catholic to any office of profit or trust. They have thus
pledged themselves to set up a religious test in qualifications for
office against the express words of the Constitution of the United
States. Their very organization is not only anti-American, anti-
republican, but at war with the fundamental law of the Union, and,
therefore, revolutionary in its character, thus silently and secretly to
effect for all practical purposes a change in our form of government.
And what is this but revolution? Not an open and manly rebellion,
but a secret and covert attempt to undermine the very corner-stone
of the temple of our liberties.
 “Whenever any government denies to any class of its citizens an
equal participation in the privileges, immunities, and honors enjoyed
by all others, it parts with all just claim to their allegiance. Allegiance
is due only so long as protection is extended; and protection
necessarily implies an equality of right to stand or fall, according to
merit, amongst all the members of society, or the citizens of the
commonwealth. The best of men, after all, have enough of the old
leaven of human nature left about them to fight when they feel
aggrieved, outraged and trampled upon; and strange to say, where
men get to fighting about religion they fight harder, and longer and
more exterminatingly than upon any other subject. The history of
the world teaches this. Already we see the spirit abroad which is to
enkindle the fires and set the fagots a blazing—not by the Catholics,
they are comparatively few and weak; their only safety is in the
shield of the constitutional guarantee; minorities seldom assail
majorities; and persecutions always begin with the larger numbers
against the smaller. But this spirit is evinced by one of the numerous
replies to my letter. The writer says: ‘We call upon the children of the
Puritans of the North, and the Huguenots of the South, by the
remembrance of the fires of Smithfield, and the bloody St.
Bartholomew, to lay down for once all sectional difficulties,’ etc., and
to join in this great American movement of proscribing Catholics.
What is this but the tocsin of intestine strife? Why call up the
remembrance of the fires of Smithfield but to whet the Protestant
appetite for vengeance? Why stir up the quiet ashes of bloody St.
Bartholomew, but for the hope, perhaps, of finding therein a
slumbering spark from which new fires may be started? Why
exhume the atrocities, cruelties, and barbarities of ages gone by
from the repose in which they have been buried for hundreds of
years, unless it be to reproduce the seed, and spread amongst us
the same moral infection and loathsome contagion?—just as it is
said the plague is sometimes occasioned in London by disentombing
and exposing to the atmosphere the latent virus of the fell disease
still lingering in the dusty bones of those who died of it centuries
ago. Fellow citizens, Fellow Protestants, Fellow Americans—all who
reverence the constitution of your country—I entreat you, and I
envoke you to give no listening ear to such fanatical appeals.
“When the principles of the Constitution are disregarded, when
those ‘checks and restraints,’ put in it as Mr. Madison has told us, for
‘a defence to the people against their own temporary errors and
delusions,’ are broken down and swept away, when the whole
country shall have been brought under the influence of the third
degree of this Know-Nothing order, if that time shall ever come,
then, indeed may the days of this Republic, too, be considered as
numbered.
“I wish to say something to you about this third degree, the union
degree, as it is called. For under this specious title, name or guise,
the arch-tempter again approaches us, quite as subtly as under the
other of ‘Americans shall rule America.’ The obligation taken in this
degree is ‘to uphold, maintain and defend’ the Union, without one
word being said about the Constitution. Now, as much as we all, I
trust, are devoted to the Union, who would have it without the
Constitution? This is the life and soul of it—this is its animating spirit.
It is this that gives it vitality, health, vigor, strength, growth,
development and power. Without it the Union could never have been
formed, and without it it cannot be maintained or held together.
Where the animating principle of any living organism is extinguished,
this is death, and dissolution is inevitable. You might just as well
expect that the component parts of your bodies could be held
together by some senseless incantations after the vital spark has
departed, as that this Union can be held together by any Know-
Nothing oaths when the Constitution is gone. Congress is to be done
away with, except in so far as its members may be necessary, as the
dumb instruments for registering the edicts of an invisible but all-
powerful oligarchy. Our present Government is to be paralyzed by
this boa-constrictor, which is now entwining its coils around it. It is
to be supplanted and displaced by another self-constituted and
secretly organized body to rise up in its stead, a political ‘monster,’
more terrible to contemplate than the seven-headed beast spoken of
in the Apocalypse.
 “I have seen it stated in the newspapers by some unknown writer,
that my letter to Col. Thomas will be my political winding-sheet. If
you and the other voters of the Eighth Congressional District so will
it, so let it be; there is but one other I should prefer—and that is the
Constitution of my country; let me be first wrapped in this, and then
covered over with that letter, and the principles I have announced
this night; and thus shrouded I shall be content to be laid away,
when the time comes, in my last resting-place without asking any
other epitaph but the simple inscription carved upon the headstone
that marks the spot—‘Here sleep the remains of one who dared to
tell the people they were wrong when he believed so, and who
never intentionally deceived a friend, or betrayed even an
enemy.’”[8]
Thus spoke Alexander H. Stephens, Georgia’s greatest statesman,
of the pernicious tendencies of the Know-Nothing party. On that
speech he ran for Congress and was elected by three thousand
majority. Know-Nothingism was thus slain in Georgia. Since the
death of Mr. Stephens some scribbler with a talent for forgery has
taken the quotation marks from the paragraph about the Jesuits in
the foregoing speech, affixed Mr. Stephens’s name to it, and sent it
on its rounds through the press as the declared opinion of the dead
statesman concerning the followers of Loyola. Mr. Stephens quoted
the paragraph from a Know-Nothing writer, not to approve the attack
on the Jesuits, but for the opposite purpose of showing it applied to
the Know-Nothings themselves. No man in this country could use the
weapon of retort with more effect than Alexander H. Stephens, and
his remarks on the paragraph in question afford a favorable instance
of his power in that line. That this stupid calumny on the great man
who battled so nobly for the equal rights of Catholics and
Protestants, Jews and Gentiles, foreign born and native Americans,
should have been palmed off on the public, is less surprising than
that it should have found its way into certain Catholic newspapers, in
the columns of at least one of which the present writer read it
shortly after the death of Mr. Stephens.
 The ever memorable conflict in Virginia of 1855, between the
Know-Nothings and Democrats, was led on the part of the latter by
the gallant Henry A. Wise. That conflict was one of great national
magnitude. If the Know-Nothings, theretofore victorious, had then
succeeded, it is likely a civil war precipitated by religious fanaticism
would have followed, not to be conducted between the States, as
later unfortunately occurred, but between citizens of the same cities,
and towns and neighborhoods throughout the Union, with a fury to
make humanity shudder—in every sense of the word a civil war. The
Virginia election of that year was, therefore, watched with intense
interest by the whole American people, and a feeling of feverish
excitement was everywhere visible. Henry A. Wise, the
uncompromising enemy of the Know-Nothings, was named as the
Democratic candidate for Governor of Virginia. Never was such a
canvass before. He went everywhere, pouring out fiery eloquence in
the Western Mountains, in the Blue Ridge that milks the clouds,
upon the Potomac, lovely River of Swans, on the Rappahannock, the
Piankatank, Mob Jack Bay, James River, Elizabeth River, down to the
North Carolina line; and wherever he went this second Patrick Henry
stirred the people’s hearts as they had not been stirred before. One
of the best stump speeches ever heard in this country was made by
Mr. Wise at Alexandria. He had declared hostility to the Know-
Nothings in a letter to a citizen of Virginia, written September 18,
1854.
In that letter he said: “I am a native Virginian; my ancestors on
both sides for two hundred years were citizens of this country and
this State—half English, half Scotch. I am a Protestant by birth, by
baptism, by intellectual belief, and by education and by adoption. I
am an American, in every fibre and in every feeling an American; yet
in every character, in every relation, in every sense, with all my head
and all my heart, and all my might, I protest against this secret
organization of native Americans and of Protestants to proscribe
Roman Catholic and naturalized citizens. As early as 1787 we
established a great land ordinance, the most perfect system of
eminent domain, of proprietary titles, and of territorial settlements,
which the world had ever beheld to bless the homeless children of
men. It had the very house-warming of hospitality in it. It wielded
the logwood axe, and cleared a continent of forests. It made an
exodus in the old world, and dotted the new with log-cabins, around
the hearths of which the tears of the aged and the oppressed were
wiped away, and cherub children were born to liberty, and sang its
songs, and have grown up in its strength and might and majesty. It
brought together foreigners of every country and clime—immigrants
from Europe of every language and religion, and its most wonderful
effect has been to assimilate all races. Irish and German, English
and French, Scotch and Spaniard, have met on the Western prairies,
in the Western woods, and have peopled villages and towns and
cities—queen cities, rivalling the marts of Eastern commerce; and
the Teutonic and Celtic and Anglo-Saxon races have in a day mingled
into one undistinguishable mass—and that one is American. The
children of all are crossed in blood in the first generation, so that
ethnology can’t tell of what parentage they are—they all become
brother and sister Jonathans. As in the colonies, as in the revolution,
as in the last war, so have foreigners and immigrants of every
religion and tongue contributed to build up the temple of American
law and liberty until its spire reaches to heaven, whilst its shadow
rests on earth. If there has been a turnpike road to be beaten out of
the rocky metal, or a canal to be dug, foreigners and immigrants
have been armed with the mattock and the spade and if a battle on
sea and land had to be fought, foreigners and immigrants have been
armed with the musket and the blade.
“We can name the very hour of our birth as a people. We need
recur to no fable of a wolf to whelp us into existence. As a nation we
are but seventy-eight years of age. Many persons are now living who
were alive before this nation was born. And the ancestors of this
people about two centuries only ago were foreigners, every one of
them coming to the shores of this country to take it away from the
aborigines, and to take possession of it by authority either directly or
derivatively of Papal Power. His Holiness the Pope was the great
grantor of all the new countries of North America. Foreigners in the
name of the Pope and Mother Church took possession of North
America, to have and to hold the same to their heirs against the
heathen forever. And now already their descendants are for
excluding foreigners, and the Pope’s followers from an equal
enjoyment of this same possession. So strange is human history.
Christopher Columbus! Ferdinand and Isabella! What would they
have thought of this had they foreseen it when they touched a
continent and called it theirs in the name of the Holy Trinity, by
authority of the keeper of the keys of Heaven, and of the great
grantor of the empire and domain of earth? What would have
become of our national titles to northeastern and northwestern
boundaries, but for the plea of this authority, valid of old among all
Christian powers?”
Writing thus in September, 1854, Mr. Wise, although he had been
a Whig years before, was nominated for Governor by the Democrats
in December of the same year. In his famous Alexandria speech,
before discussing Know-Nothingism, he told the people some
practical truths explanatory of the decadence of the prosperity of
Virginia, of the causes producing it, and the remedies to be applied.
“You have,” he said, “the bowels of your Western mountains rich in
iron, in copper, in coal, in salt, in gypsum, and the very earth is so
rich in oil that it sets the rivers in flame. You have the line of the
Alleghany, that beautiful Blue Ridge which stands placed there by
the Almighty, not to obstruct the way of the people to market, but
placed there in the very bounty of Providence to milk the clouds, to
make the sweet springs which are the sources of your rivers. And at
the head of every stream is the waterfall murmuring the very music
of your power to put spindles in motion. And yet commerce has long
ago spread her sails and sailed away from you; you have not as yet
dug more than coal enough to warm yourselves at your own
hearths; you have set no tilt-hammer of Vulcan to strike blows
worthy of gods in the iron foundries. You have not yet spun more
than coarse cotton enough, in the way of manufacture, to clothe
your own slaves. You have had no commerce, no mining, no
manufactures. You have relied alone on the single power of
agriculture; and such agriculture! Your sedge patches outshine the
sun. Your inattention to your only source of wealth has scarred the
very bosom of mother earth. Instead of having to feed cattle on a
thousand hills, you have had to chase the stump-tailed steer through
the sedge patches to procure a tough beef-steak. You are in the
habit of discussing Federal politics; and permit me to say to you,
very honestly and very openly, that next to brandy, next to card
playing, next to horse-racing, the thing that has done more harm to
Virginia than any other in the course of her past history, has been
her insatiable appetite for Federal politics. She has given all her
great men to the Union. Her Washington, her Jefferson, her
Madison, her Marshall, her galaxy of great men she has given to the
Union. Richmond, instead of attending to Richmond’s business, has
been too much in the habit of attending to the affairs of Washington
city, when there are plenty there, God knows, to attend to them
themselves. * * “Puritanism,” said Mr. Wise, has disappeared, and
we have in place of it Unitarianism, Universalism, Fourierism,
Millerism, Mormonism—all the odds and ends of isms—until at last
you have a grand fusion of all those odds and ends of isms in the
omnium gatherum of isms called Know-Nothingism. Having swept
the North, the question was: How can this ism be wedged in in the
South? And the devil was at the elbow of these preachers of
‘Christian politics’ to tell them precisely how.” [At this point Mr. Wise
was interrupted by cat-calls, derisive cheers and other
manifestations of the Know-Nothing element of the meeting.] “There
were three elements in the South,” continued the speaker, “and in
Virginia particularly, to which they might apply themselves. There is
the religious element, the 103,000 Presbyterians, the 300,000
Baptists, the 300,000 Methodists of Virginia. Well, how were they to
reach them? Why, just by raising a hell of a fuss about the Pope!
“Cæsar’s kingdom is political, is a carnal kingdom. And I tell you
that if I stood alone in the State of Virginia, and if priestcraft—if the
priests of my own Mother Church dared to lay their hands on the
political power of our people, or to use their churches to wield
political influence, I would stand, in feeble imitation it may be, but I
would stand, even if I stood alone, as Patrick Henry stood in the
Revolution, between the parsons and the people. These men, many
of whom are neither Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Baptists,
Methodists, Congregationalists, Lutherans, nor what not—who are
men of no religion, who have no church, who do not say their
prayers, who do not read their Bible, who live God-defying lives
every day of their existence, are now seen with faces as long as
their dark-lanterns, with the whites of their eyes turned up in holy
fear lest the Bible should be shut up by the Pope! You tell the people
that Catholics never gave aid to civil liberty; that they never yet
struck a blow for the freedom of mankind. Who gave you alliance
against the crown of England? Who but that Catholic king, Louis XVI.
He sent you from the Court of Versailles Lafayette, the boy of
Washington’s camp, a foreigner who never was naturalized, but who
bled at the redoubt of Yorktown, when Arnold, a native, like Absalom
proved traitor.
“And, Sir, before George Washington was born, before Lafayette
wielded the sword, or Charles Carroll the pen for his country, six
hundred and forty years ago, on the 16th of June, 1214, there was
another scene enacted on the face of the globe, when the general
charter of all charters of freedom was gained, when one man, a man
called Stephen Langton, swore the Barons of England for the people
against the power of the King—swore the Barons on the high altar of
the Catholic Church at St. Edmundsbury, that they would have
Magna Charta or die for it. The charter which secures to every one
of you to-day trial by jury, freedom of the press, freedom of the pen,
the confronting of witnesses with the accused, and the opening of
secret dungeons—that charter was obtained by Stephen Langton
against the King of England, and if you Know-Nothings don’t know
who Stephen Langton was, you know nothing sure enough. He was
a Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury. I come here not to praise the
Catholics, but I come here to acknowledge historical truths, and to
ask of Protestants—what has heretofore been the pride and boast of
Protestants—tolerance of opinion in religious faith.