Matthew Stanley Quay

A Register of His Papers in the Library of Congress

Prepared by Laura Kells

Manuscript Division, Library of Congress

Washington, D.C.

1993

Contact information: http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/mss/address.html

Finding aid encoded by Library of Congress Manuscript Division, 2001

Finding aid URL: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms001034

Latest revision: 2007 October

Table of Contents

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

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Subjects:

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Administrative Information

Provenance:

Processing History:

Transfers:

Copyright Status:

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Biographical Note

Scope and Content Note

Organization of the Papers

Description of Series

Container List

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically therein.

Administrative Information

The papers of Matthew Stanley Quay, politician and United States senator, were given to the Library of Congress in 1988 by Professor James A. Kehl of the University of Pittsburgh. They have been combined with a small collection of Quay papers given to the Library by Russell S. Bachman in 1936.

The Matthew Stanley Quay Papers are described in Library of Congress Acquisitions: Manuscript Division, 1988, pp. 9-13.

Bound volumes of the Beaver Radical (1869-1871) have been transferred to the Library's Serial & Government Publications Division and are available in the Newspaper and Current Periodical Reading Room.

The status of copyright in the unpublished writings of Matthew Stanley Quay is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.).

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, Matthew Stanley Quay Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Biographical Note

Scope and Content Note

The papers of Matthew Stanley Quay (1833-1904) span the years 1776-1949, with the bulk of the material concentrated between 1890 and 1904. The papers focus primarily on Quay's activities in late nineteenth-century state and national politics as United States senator from Pennsylvania and Republican party leader, with the richest material relating to Pennsylvania state politics. Other material concerns Quay's military career, his financial activities, and his family.

The Family Correspondence file spans the years 1787-1949. In much of this correspondence, Quay is referred to as Stan, an abbreviated form of his middle name. Included are letters to him from his father, Anderson B. Quay, a Presbyterian minister, and his mother, Catherine. There are also letters to the Reverend and Catherine Quay from their eldest daughter, Sarah, who wrote from Rose Park Seminary and the Lyceum Institute in the 1830s about her life at school. Letters from Quay's sister, Thetta, concern family life until her death from consumption in 1862. Correspondence of Quay's youngest brother, Elliot, includes letters written while he was a second lieutenant in the Seventh Ohio Infantry in 1861 and 1862. He resigned in poor health in October 1862 and died of consumption.

The family's health is a common subject in the correspondence. Quay's parents and every adult member of his immediate family died of consumption. Of Quay's own children, only five of ten survived to adulthood. Quay also seems to have inherited a weak constitution, and his ailments figure prominently in his correspondence to his wife, Agnes, and their son, Richard, whom he wrote from Florida, where he spent extended periods of time to restore his health. There is also a long run of correspondence between Quay and his daughter Coral. The latest correspondence is from the next generation of Quays to their Aunt Coral during World War II and the postwar period.

Attached to some of the correspondence are typescripts prepared by James A. Kehl. A professor of history, Kehl had obtained the papers from Quay's grandson, Stanley Quay, who had inherited them from Coral Quay. To help identify family members, diagrams of family trees are in the Miscellany file in the "Family information" and "Research notes" folders.

The General Correspondence file, 1852-1927, relates primarily to political activities. There is some correspondence concerning Quay's election to the United States Senate in 1886-1887 and to his Republican National Committee chairmanship from 1888 to 1891. A major portion of the correspondence relates to his candidacy for the chairmanship of the Republican state committee and the split in Pennsylvania over the party chairmanship in 1895. Material from 1896 covers the battle over the membership of the Pennsylvania Republican delegation and Quay's candidacy for the presidency. The correspondence from 1899 to 1901 focuses on the controversy concerning Quay's Senate seat, his acquittal on charges of conspiring to misuse state funds, his reappointment by the governor in 1899, the vote against seating him in the Senate in 1900, and his reelection in 1901. Correspondence includes reports on efforts to gain political backing, letters of support, and requests for appointment to public office. Added to correspondence from the 1890s are notations in shorthand. Prominent correspondents include Presidents Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, and Theodore Roosevelt; Pennsylvania governors James A. Beaver, Andrew G. Curtin, Daniel H. Hastings, and Samuel W. Pennypacker; and national figures such as Mark A. Hanna, Boies Penrose, John Wanamaker, and J. D. Cameron.

The Financial Records file documents some of Quay's financial dealings during the period leading to his conspiracy indictment. Of particular interest are the records of his dealings with the Peoples' Bank of Philadelphia. These files (1878-1898, n.d.) include records of transactions and canceled checks, as well as correspondence and telegrams from cashier John S. Hopkins, who handled most of Quay's personal stock transactions. In March 1898, the Peoples' Bank declared bankruptcy, and Hopkins committed suicide. Letters and telegrams from Quay found in Hopkins's desk after his death were used against Quay in his reelection campaign and as evidence in his trial. Also of interest is a financial journal in which Quay lists his stock holdings and other financial assets.

Of particular interest in the Scrapbooks and Clippings series are fifty-three volumes of clippings from the years 1878 and 1888-1895. They reflect national press coverage of Quay and include both pro- and anti-Quay points of view. Senator Quay was an early subscriber to a clipping service, Henry S. Romeike of New York. Also available are two large volumes of clippings relating to Quay's death and funeral. Bound volumes of the Beaver Radical (1869-1871), a weekly Republican newspaper which Quay published from 1868 to 1872, have been transferred to the Serials Division of the Library and are available in the Newspaper and Current Periodical Reading Room.

The Photographs file contains an album of photographs and autographs of United States senators in 1888. A clipping in one of the scrapbooks notes the value of the album because of the fact that some of the senators were normally reluctant to give out photographs. In addition to portraits of Quay, there is a portrait of Pennsylvania governor John F. Hartranft.

The Miscellany file contains information about Quay's family and a journal of his brother Elliot's 1860 trip to Louisiana in search of work. Biographical information about Matthew Quay as a young man is available in reminiscences by members of the Griffin family, who were visited by Quay at their Southern plantation in 1850. Matthew Quay's military papers include accounts of his activities at the battle of Fredericksburg during the Civil War. Material from his political career includes election results and voting records, the guest book of the Pennsylvania delegation at the Republican National Convention in St. Louis in 1896, political pamphlets, and petitions, resolutions, and other written expressions of support. An 1890 handwritten statement by William Shaw Bowen, a reporter for the New York World, describes his investigation into Quay's background and political and financial dealings. The World subsequently printed Bowen's articles giving a sensational negative account of Quay's character and activities as a political boss. Legal materials include court papers (1897-1898) from Quay's trial. Among the memorabilia are inaugural ball programs, invitations to the White House during the Theodore Roosevelt administration, dinner menus, and metal and cloth political badges.

Organization of the Papers

The collection is arranged in seven series:

• Family Correspondence, 1787-1949, n.d.
• General Correspondence, 1852-1927, n.d.
• Financial Records, 1863-1903, n.d.
• Scrapbooks and Clippings, 1878-1908, n.d.
• Photographs, 1888, n.d.
• Miscellany, 1776-1918, n.d.
• Oversize, 1856-1908, n.d.

Description of Series

Container List