CIVIL WAR RADICAL SLAVERY ABOLITIONIST CONGRESSMAN PA CAND VP AUTOGRAPH SIGNED !

Description

WILLIAM DARRAH KELLEY
“Pig-Iron Kelley”
(1814 - 1890)
CIVIL WAR RADICAL ANTI-SLAVERY ABOLITIONIST,
CIVIL WAR REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMAN FROM PHILADELPHIA PENNSYLVANIA,
FRIEND OF PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN
&
VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE IN 1868!
Kelley advocated arming black troops, promoted equality and voting rights for freed slaves, and voted for conscription.
He spoke in favor of military Reconstruction measures, such as the bill establishing the Freedman's Bureau. In a speech he gave in support of the bill in 1864, Kelley declared, "
Humanity, the spirit of the nineteenth century, and Christian civilization demand its immediate passage
." Kelley was an outspoken champion of the freed slaves and of black suffrage. In 1865, arguing in response to a proposed Reconstruction bill, he introduced an amendment that would have extended suffrage to all male citizens, regardless of race, capable of reading
the Constitution, etc. The bill and the amendment were defeated!
HERE’S KELLEY'S SIGNATURE REMOVED FROM A 19
th
CENTURY AUTOGRAPH ALBUM, and SIGNED:
“Wm D. Kelley~
Philada Pa”
The document measures 4¾” x 1¾” and is in very fine condition.
A RARE ADDITION TO YOUR CIVIL WAR PENNSYLVANIA POLITICAL HISTORY AUTOGRAPH, MANUSCRIPT & EPHEMERA COLLECTION!
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE HONORABLE
W. D. KELLEY
Kelley, William Darrah
(12 Apr. 1814-9 Jan. 1890), congressman, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of David Kelley, a watchmaker and jeweler, and Hannah Darrah. William Kelley's father, who was financially ruined when William was still a boy, died in 1816. By the time he was thirteen, Kelley was apprenticed with a jeweler. When his indenture expired in 1834, he moved to Boston, where he became an enameler and spent his leisure hours studying, debating, and writing for local papers. In 1838 he returned to Philadelphia to read law and was admitted to the bar in 1841. Kelley was appointed prosecutor of the pleas for Philadelphia in 1845 and rose to the position of judge of the court of common pleas two years later. In 1851, when the judgeship became an elective office, he was elected to a ten-year term.
Although Kelley had been a Democrat, the repeal of the Missouri Compromise in 1854 caused him to abandon the party and become one of the founders of the new Republican party in Pennsylvania. That year he made a famous speech in Philadelphia entitled "Slavery in the Territories," in which he proclaimed his antislavery views. He resigned his judgeship in 1856 to run for Congress in the Fourth Pennsylvania District. After losing that contest, he returned to private practice but ran again in 1860. Kelley was victorious this time, and he served in Washington for over twenty years.
He was also a delegate to the 1860 Republican National Convention in Chicago that nominated Abraham Lincoln for the presidency. In September 1862 Kelley joined an artillery company but never saw active service. Returning to his congressional seat, he was an avowed enemy of slavery and voted for every bill that supported the war effort and emancipation. He also advocated arming black troops, promoted equality and voting rights for the freed slaves, and voted for conscription. He was vocal in his criticism of General George B. McClellan's hesitant policies. He spoke in favor of military Reconstruction measures, such as the bill establishing the Freedman's Bureau. In a speech he gave in support of the bill in 1864, Kelley declared, "Humanity, the spirit of the nineteenth century, and Christian civilization demand its immediate passage." Kelley was an outspoken champion of the freed slaves and of black suffrage.
In 1865, arguing in response to a proposed Reconstruction bill, he introduced an amendment that would have extended suffrage to all male citizens, regardless of race, capable of reading the Constitution. The bill and the amendment were defeated. He also argued forcefully against segregation on Philadelphia's streetcars.
Although early in life Kelley had been an outspoken "free trader," the failure of the Walker Tariff in 1846, which eliminated the principle of protection, persuaded him to support protective tariffs. He was keenly aware of the crucial role iron and steel played in Pennsylvania's economy. Because one of his most frequent topics was the need for high protective duties on steel and pig iron, he earned the nickname "Pig Iron Kelley." He supported the Morrill Tariff of 1861, and he defended the "greenback," or paper currency, during and after the war. In fact, he was one of the few congressmen who supported both inflation and protective tariffs. Convinced that such tariffs kept precious metals, especially gold, from being drained from the economy, he therefore opposed the resumption of specie payments unless accompanied by a protective tariff. Kelley also believed that an increased money supply would improve the economy of the financially ruined South and assist homesteaders in the West. Contraction, he felt, would inevitably lead the Treasury to bankruptcy. Among his more famous speeches were "Contraction the Road to Bankruptcy," delivered in the House on 18 January 1868, and "Farmers, Mechanics, and Laborers Need Protection--Capital Can Take Care of Itself," which he gave on 25 March 1870.
During his congressional career, Kelley served on the Committees on Agriculture, the Navy, and Indian Affairs. He served on the Committee on Ways and Means for twenty years and was its chairman from 1881 to 1883. He was briefly involved in the Crédit Mobilier scandal in 1872. Officers of the Crédit Mobilier holding company had been skimming substantial profits in construction of the Union Pacific Railroad, which was federally subsidized. The Crédit Mobilier began selling discounted stock to members of Congress in an effort to prevent a congressional investigation. Although evidence came to light that Kelley had purchased stock in the Union Pacific Railroad, he was never censured by Congress.
Kelley was married twice, first to Isabella Tennant, with whom he had one daughter. The year of their marriage is unknown. After his first marriage ended, in 1854 he married Caroline Bartram Bonsall, with whom he had eight children, three of whom survived to adulthood. One of his daughters, Florence Kelley, later became famous as a reformer, particularly in the movement to combat high infant mortality rates.
He died in Philadelphia. During his younger years, Kelley was considered one of the most electrifying and certainly one of the loudest orators in the House. Genial and unusually accessible, he carried on a voluminous correspondence while daily meeting dozens of office seekers and lobbyists. While the Wood Tariff Bill was being argued in the House in 1878, as many as forty men would come crowding into Kelley's private rooms in Washington, exhorting his support. He was, perhaps, best known for his detailed knowledge of all matters pertaining to tariffs and protection and held a lifelong commitment to using tariffs to protect the wages of workingmen. Because of his long tenure as a congressman, Kelley became affectionately known as the "Father of the House."
Bibliography
Kelley's papers are in the collections of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. He published many of his speeches and writings, including Speeches, Addresses, and Letters on Industrial and Financial Questions (1872), Lincoln and Stanton (1885), and The Old South and the New (1880). For information on his congressional career, see Ira V. Brown, "William D. Kelley and Radical Reconstruction," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 85 (July 1961); and Floyd William Nicklas, "William Kelley: The Congressional Years, 1861-1890" (Ph.D. diss., Northern Illinois Univ., 1983). Frank G. Carpenter, Carp's Washington (1960), discusses Kelley's commitment to protective tariffs. A detailed description of Kelley's involvement in the Crédit Mobilier scandal is in Edward Winslow Martin, Behind the Scenes in Washington (1873). Kelley's obituaries are in the Washington Evening Star, 10 and 11 Jan. 1890, and the New York Times, 9 Jan. 1890. He was also memorialized in the House of Representatives on 12 Jan. 1890.
[SOURCE: American National Biography]
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