Unfortunately for the Governor, the first, second, and sixth charges had a background of facts, although the rest were ridiculous and trivial.By a vote of 43 to 12 he was removed from the governorship.The proceeding was not merely an impeachment of New York's Governor.It was an impeachment of its government.
Every citizen knew that if Sulzer had obeyed Murphy, his shortcomings would never have been his undoing.
The great commonwealth of Pennsylvania was for sixty years under the domination of the House of Cameron and the House of Quay.
Simon Cameron's entry into public notoriety was symbolic of his whole career.In 1838, he was one of a commission of two to disburse to the Winnebago Indians at Prairie du Chien $100,000 in gold.But, instead of receiving gold, the poor Indians received only a few thousand dollars in the notes of a bank of which Cameron was the cashier.Cameron was for this reason called "the Great Winnebago." He built a large fortune by canal and railway contracts, and later by rolling-mills and furnaces.He was one of the first men in American politics to purchase political power by the lavish use of cash, and to use political power for the gratification of financial greed.In 1857 he was elected to the United States Senate as a Republican by a legislature in which the Democrats had a majority.Three Democrats voted for him, and so bitter was the feeling against the renegade trio that no hotel in Harrisburg would shelter them.
In 1860 he was a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination.President Lincoln made him Secretary of War.But his management was so ill-savored that a committee of leading business men from the largest cities of the country told the President that it was impossible to transact business with such a man.These complaints coupled with other considerations moved Lincoln to dismiss Cameron.He did so in characteristic fashion.
On January 11, 1862, he sent Cameron a curt note saying that he proposed to appoint him minister to Russia.And thither into exile Cameron went.A few months later, the House of Representatives passed a resolution of censure, citing Cameron's employment of irresponsible persons and his purchase of supplies by private contract instead of competitive bidding.The resolution, however, was later expunged from the records; and Cameron, on his return from Russia, again entered the Senate under circumstances so suspicious that only the political influence of the boss thwarted an action for bribery.In 1877 he resigned, naming as his successor his son "Don," who was promptly elected.
In the meantime another personage had appeared on the scene.
"Cameron made the use of money an essential to success in politics, but Quay made politics expensive beyond the most extravagant dreams." From the time he arrived of age until his death, with the exception of three or four years, Matthew S.Quay held public office.When the Civil War broke out, he had been for some time prothonotary of Beaver County, and during the war he served as Governor Curtin's private secretary.In 1865 he was elected to the legislature.In 1877 he induced the legislature to resurrect the discarded office of Recorder of Philadelphia, and for two years he collected the annual fees of $40,000.In 1887 he was elected to the United States Senate, in which he remained except for a brief interval until his death.
In 1899 came revelations of Quay's substantial interests in state moneys.The suicide of the cashier of the People's Bank of Philadelphia, which was largely owned by politicians and was a favorite depository of state funds, led to an investigation of the bank's affairs, and disclosed the fact that Quay and some of his associates had used state funds for speculation.Quay's famous telegram to the cashier was found among the dead official's papers, "If you can buy and carry a thousand Met.for me I will shake the plum tree."Quay was indicted, but escaped trial by pleading the statute of limitations as preventing the introduction of necessary evidence against him.A great crowd of shouting henchmen accosted him as a hero when he left the courtroom, and escorted him to his hotel.
And the legislature soon thereafter elected him to his third term in the Senate.
Pittsburgh, as well as Philadelphia, had its machine which was carefully geared to Quay's state machine.The connection was made clear by the testimony of William Flinn, a contractor boss, before a committee of the United States Senate.Flinn explained the reason for a written agreement between Quay on the one hand and Flinn and one Brown in behalf of Chris Magee, the Big Boss, on the other, for the division of the sovereignty of western Pennsylvania."Senator Quay told me," said Flinn, "that he would not permit us to elect the Republican candidate for mayor in Pittsburghh unless we adjust the politics to suit him." The people evidently had nothing to say about it.
The experiences of New York and Pennsylvania are by no means isolated; they are illustrative.Very few States have escaped a legislative scandal.In particular, Rhode Island, Delaware, Illinois, Colorado, Montana, California, Ohio, Mississippi, Texas can give pertinent testimony to the willingness of legislatures to prostitute their great powers to the will of the boss or the machine.
