Rash's Surname Index
Notes for George C. CONNELL
George Connell attended school at Washington, Pennsylvania, graduating from Madison College, Uniontown, Pennsylvania, under the "eloquent divine, the Rev. Henry R. Boscom, whose divine afflatus" seems to have settled upon his pupil.
Elected in 1859 to the State Senate of Pennsylvania from the Fourth Senatorial District of Pennsylvania, comprising West Philadelphia and Germantown, rapidly he took his place, "easily the leader" of that body. He first addressed his mind and attention "to measures of defense which so fully prepared our State for the great struggle," eloquently defending the policies of the National administration. "He was an able parliamentarian, a courteous debater, a sharp and ready logician, and when aroused on occasion, was thrillingly impassioned and eloquent": eulogy of Senator James L. Graham, of Allegheny, who further said of George Connell, "If any man in purely State matters can rise to the dignity of statesmanship, it was surely given to him to do so."
The volume of legislation sponsored by Senator Connell during the period of twelve years in the Senate, up to the time of his death in 1871, would fill volumes, legislation such as could issue only from a powerful mind, instinct with statecraft. The late Colonel McClure, his colleague and successor in the Senate, said of George Connell, "He was the brainiest Senator of the brainiest Senate that ever sat in Pennsylvania." He certainly covered a wide field of parliamentary activity, ranging from the practical organization of street car railways to an appropriation for the purchase of the painting of the Battle of Gettysburg, by Rothermel, now lodged in Memorial Hall.
As chairman of the Finance Committee, 1863, he set up the financial structure of Pennsylvania, which lasted until the Earle Administration and towards the end of his career, according to the "Erie Republican," "The Chancellor of the Exchequer," as he was known, had a plan for the new Constitution, then in the making.
Other acts of great importance, sponsored by Senator Connell, were an Act for the Payment of the State Debt in national currency in place of coin; an Act for the Redemption of Overdue Loans of the Commonwealth; an Act Repealing the Tax upon State loans. That Senator Connell was well thought of by the citizens of Philadelphia, his increasing majorities are eloquent testimony. It may be interesting to note that several wide awake young men of that period hitched their wagons to his star; one of whom was the young P. A. B. Widener, who always maintained that George Connell gave him his start in life, together with Mr. Widener's partner, William L. Elkins, and William S. Kemble, the first president of the Mount Moriah Cemetery Association of Philadelphia, which George Connell organized in 1854.
Jay Cooke wrote him, March 11, 1867, "If any Philadelphian is to have the position (State Treasurer), we most heartily join in recommending you for it."
There was considerable Quaker blood in the veins of George Connell, he having been descended from Joseph Pennock son of "Christopher Pennock, an officer in the arms of William the Third. Prince of Orange, who fought at the Battle of the Boyne, and who represented the County of Chester twelve years in the Provincial Assembly, having been elected to that office in 1716. His doors were never fastened against the children of the forests which surrounded him. Food was always left for the Indians who might choose to enter his kitchen at night. It was no uncommon thing to find several Indians stretched on the floor before the kitchen fire in the morning."
George Connell married his first cousin, Elizabeth Pennock (likewise descended). This Quaker origin may have accounted for much of the idealism which characterized his career: Joining the political party which nominated James G. Birney for President in 1844 on the single plank platform, namely, the abolition of slavery, from 1848 to 1856, a member of the Free Soil party, which took the place of the aforesaid Liberty party and merged into the Republican party, delegate to the convention which nominated Fremont as the Republican candidate for President in 1856, and too, the purchasing of a slave at New Orleans at the cost of some $1,200 and sending her over to Canada and to freedom; and be it recorded to her memory that in the course of time, she repaid the debt; and the bill which he fathered, permitting colored people to ride in street cars.
A speech delivered by George Connell at the age of twenty years at Greensburg. Pennsylvania, 1835, shows a mind already filled with a remarkable historical grasp and comprehension. A quarter of a century later, to wit, on January 23, 1869, Hon. George Connell, State Senator from Philadelphia, delivered his celebrated lecture on Americanization of America to a large and brilliant audience in the House of Representatives, at Harrisburg, entitled "The March of Empire." (From the "Erie Republican.") How apposite his remarks to the present European situation: Mr. Connell said, in opening his address:
The desire for extended empire exhibited itself far back in the history of our race. Since governments grew out of the necessities of society, it has been seen in every age, In all nations, and under every form of established rule, despotic, popular, or mixed. That principle which is found everywhere must have some deep foundation in natural law. Common alike to monarch and his meanest subject, to the magnificent Oriental despotisms of Babylon and Persia, to the hardier Mede and the various dynasties of Egypt, we see it yet more glowingly displayed In the smaller states of Greece, the perpetual theme of Athenlan eloquence and the object of Spartan valor, and culminating in the brief empire of Alexander. Only Rome succeeded for any great period of time In realizing this universal longing for supremacy, and in her annals we find the purpose to conquer, annex and absorb, the strangest and the most aggressive during the five centuries when her Republican consuls led her iron legions to victory, and gave no rest to wherever advancing and triumphant eagles.
In each nation, all alike, monarch, priest, satrap, soldier and subject in the East, and In the West, King, consul, centurion, tribune, knight, patrician and plebeian, including all who could utter that proudest boast of antiquity--"I am a Roman citizen" -- shares alike the universal passion, to make each his own country the ruling power of the world.
Himself successful in many lines of business activity, grappling with the question of taxation, he brought forth a measure creating the Board of Revision of Taxes, which has stood many attacks through the years, the most recent of which was that of the Earle administration. As Senator Joseph L. Graham beautifully phrased it:
And so, on every other grave question of national, or State policy, the heart of George Connell was ever in the right place, and his Judgment and votes on the right side. The charitable institutions of the State--the asylums and homes, the public and soldiers' orphans' schools, and even the churches, without denominational distinction--have lost by his death a warm friend. Among his last efforts was that for the repeal of the collateral Inheritance tax, so far as it relates to religious and charitable institutions. Deeming this tax unjust In Itself and calculated to retard religion and humanity, solitary and alone he addressed himself to the task of effecting its repeal. His views in regard to it he enforced last winter in a speech of great ability; and so marked was its effect on the minds of his fellow-Senators that a measure which at first had scarcely another supporter passed the Senate by a large majority, and failed in the House only for want of time to take it up.
This measure was subsequently passed.
Another epoch-making measure of a similar nature, carried to successful conclusion by Senator Connell, was the repeal of State tax on real estate and the substitution therefor of the tax upon banks and the gross receipts of railroad companies, a measure which he carried against the determined opposition of the great corporations of the State.
He did not hesitate, when Girard College had drifted into political control, to do battle in behalf of that institution (the great charity of Stephen Girard, who, by the way, was the business associate of his uncle, John Connell). with the result that he fathered another measure, to wit, the "Board of City Trusts," which took over the management of Girard College, with what degree of success one need hardly speak.
Toward the end of his public career of some twelve years' duration, Senator Connell brought forth a measure,which to him perhaps would have been the most gratifying of his long and successful career, namely, the "Fairmount Park Commission," and though no tablet or marker has been erected to commemorate his name with that great pleasure ground, or with the many laws of the Commonwealth associated with his name, nonetheless, still there stands forever a monument to this practical idealism, to many years of almost exclusive devotion to the affairs of the State, to his consummate parliamentary ability, to his desire to be of service to humanity, namely, a great and widely known place of recreation, of its kind one of the noblest in the world, with its health giving properties, its beautiful scenery and loveliness beyond description -- just Fairmount Park.
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