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Matthew Stanley Quay

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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MATTHEW STANLEY QUAY (1833-1904), American political "boss," was born in Dillsburg, York county, Pennsylvania, on the 30th of September 1833. He graduated at Jefferson College (now Washington and Jefferson College) in 1850 and was admitted to the bar in 1854. He served in various capacities in the Civil War, and in1865-1867was a member of the state House of Representatives, becoming secretary of the commonwealth in1873-1878and again in 1879-1882, recorder of Philadelphia in 1878-1879, and state treasurer in 1886-1887. He was chairman of the Republican national executive campaign committee in 1888, and was a member of the United States Senate in1887-1899and again in 1901-1904. For nearly twenty years he dominated the government of Pennsylvania, and also played a very prominent part in national affairs. In 1899 he was brought to trial on a charge of misappropriating state funds, and, although he was acquitted, the feeling among the reform element in his own party was so bitter against him that the legislature was deadlocked and his re-election was postponed for two years. He died on the 28th of May 1904.