562 



McCLOSKEY, JOHN". 



their professional opinion that an underground 

 railway in Broadway was practicable, and he 

 was at various times President of the New 

 York Underground Railroad, the United 

 States Kolling Stock Company, and the Atlan- 

 tic and Great Western Railroad. In March, 

 1877, he was nominated by Gov. Robinson as 

 Superintendent of Public Works in New York 

 State, but the nomination was not confirmed. . 

 On Sept. 19, 1877, he was nominated by the 

 Democratic party of New Jersey as its candi- 

 date for Governor, and he was elected by a 

 vote of 97,837 to 85,094 cast for the Republi- 

 can candidate. His administration was one of 

 the best in the history of the State. Up to the 

 day of his death he was prominent in the busi- 

 ness and social life of the metropolis. His last 

 formal public appearance was at the Decora- 

 tion-day ceremony on the battle-field of An- 

 tietam in 1885, when he delivered the ora- 

 tion. He died of neuralgia of the heart, after 

 an illness of four hours, and was buried at 

 Trenton, N. J. 



Gen. McClellan was about five feet eight 

 inches in height, neatly and compactly built, 

 with strong shoulders supporting a large neck 

 and a handsome head. His eyes were gray 

 and clear, and his complexion ruddy. He wore 

 a mustache and imperial, sandy colored in the 

 days of the war, but silver-gray at the time of 

 his death. His forehead was prominent, his 

 nose good, and his whole face indicative of a 

 strong and fine nature. He had in a rare de- 

 gree the peculiar charm that wins the love and 

 confidence of men. It was felt by all who 

 came into personal contact with him in the 

 closing years of his life, not less than by the 

 mass of his soldiers, whose rolling cheers were 

 wont to announce his coming along the lines. 

 Though few men of his generation were more 

 bitterly assailed, his achievements were great, 

 his character beautiful, and his life blameless. 

 He was the author of no book beyond those 

 already mentioned, and the " Report on the 

 Organization of the Army of the Potomac, and 

 of its Campaigns in Virginia and Maryland," 

 published in 1864; but he contributed several 

 papers to the magazines, and was one of the best 

 writers among the soldiers of the civil war. 



McCLOSKEY, JOHN, an American prelate, born 

 of Irish parentage in Brooklyn, N. Y., March 

 20, 1810; died in New York city, Oct. 10, 

 1885. At the time of his birth Brooklyn was 

 a village of fewer than 5,000 inhabitants, and 

 New York was a city of fewer than 100,000; 

 and there was neither Catholic priest nor 

 Catholic church in the former, and only two 

 priests and one church (St. Peter's) in the lat- 

 ter, though a second church (St. Patrick's 

 Cathedral) was building. He was baptized by 

 the Rev. Anthony Kohlman, who was acting 

 as administrator of New York, which had been 

 made a separate diocese two years before, but 

 was then a vacant see. As a boy, the first 

 American cardinal used to go do'wn to the 

 East river with his mother on Sundays, and 



cross in a row-boat from Brooklyn to hear mass 

 in New York. He was a lad of delicate con- 

 stitution, and an accident, in which a log rolled 

 over him, weakened his lungs, so that even in 

 early manhood he did not expect to live be- 

 yond forty years of age, and made the very 

 frailness of his life the excuse for spending it 

 lavishly in the labors of the priesthood. 



His parents were well-to-do, and in 1822 he 

 was sent to school at Mount St. Mary's Col- 

 lege, Emmettsburg, then in charge of its found- 

 er, the Rev. John Dubois, a school-fellow of 

 Robespierre and Camille Desmoulins, who be- 

 came third Bishop of New York in 1826. Young 

 McCloskey was of gentle disposition and studi- 

 ous habits, and after a seven years' preparatory 

 and collegiate course he entered the theologi- 

 cal department at Mount St. Mary's to prepare 

 for the priesthood. Completing a seminary 

 course of five years, he was ordained a priest 

 by Bishop Dubois in the old cathedral, Jan. 12, 

 1834, being the eighteenth priest ordained in 

 the Diocese of New York. The previous year 

 the bishop had laid the corner-stone of a col- 

 lege and seminary at Nyack on the Hudson, 

 and though the building was destroyed by fire 

 and the project long delayed, it was not aban- 

 doned, and the young priest, with a view to 

 fitting him for the presidency of such an insti- 

 tution, was allowed to go to Rome to continue 

 his studies. Early in 1835 he entered the 

 Gregorian College, where he spent two years, 

 and he so contrived his slow return as to see 

 something of the various countries of Europe, 

 reaching home admirably endowed by nature 

 and thoroughly equipped by education for the 

 career he was to run. lie was appointed, 

 Nov. 1, 1837, pastor of St. Joseph's Church, 

 corner of Washington place and Sixth avenue, 

 the fifth in order of erection of the Catholic 

 churches of the city. The parish was exten- 

 sive, stretching from Bleecker street to Har- 

 lem, and the congregation was fresh from a se- 

 rious quarrel with the former pastor arising out 

 of the old trustee system ; but Father McClos- 

 key entered npon his duties with cheerful en- 

 thusiasm. He is described as at that period 

 bright-eyed and frail-looking, but indefatigable. 



Bishop Hughes, who had been made coad- 

 jutor of Bishop Dubois in 1838, and adminis- 

 trator of the diocese in the following year, 

 opened St. John's College, Ford ham, June 24, 

 1841, and appointed Father McCloskey presi- 

 dent. He held the office about a year, and then 

 returned to his parish-work. In 1843 Bishop 

 Hughes asked for a coadjutor, and the Provin- 

 cial Council, Nov. 23, nominated Father Mc- 

 Closkey for the place, and he was consecrated, 

 March 10, 1844,#ishop of Axieren, in partibus, 

 and made coadjutor of the Diocese of New 

 York with the right of succession, being then 

 thirty-four years old. In 1847 the new sees < 

 Albany and Buffalo were erected, and Bishop 

 McCloskey was transferred to the former city, 

 May 21, 1847. There he remained as bishop 

 for seventeen years, laboring for the develop- 



