AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A PENNSYLVANIAN
actual warfare. On one occasion, under the leadership of Henry Todd, a brother of M. Hampton Todd, later Attorney General, and of a young fellow named Williams, the Invincibles stormed and gutted the headquarters of the Democratic Keystone Club on Walnut Street. Attacks were frequently made upon the club when in line. On one occasion arrangements had been made to attend a meeting in the lower part of the city. For days beforehand it had been rumored that we were to be assaulted on the way. Only about two hundred men turned out and they were accompanied by a delegation from the Harmony Engine Company, which occupied the sidewalks. The anticipated attack did not occur and late at night the club returned to headquarters on Fifth Street below Chestnut. At this time the Keystone Club was parading down Chestnut Street and some of our men with their capes on ran up to the corner to watch them. In an instant there was a collision, and right under the windows of the office of the mayor seven men were shot, including a young member of the Paul family. This event led to the passage of an ordnance by councils preventing the parading of political clubs within ten days preceding an election. We were once attacked in Norristown at a place where a stone wall ran along one side of the road. The assailants were repulsed and in retreat had to get over this wall. As they clambered up they were assisted by the application of torches in the rear. Among the most active men in the club were George Truman, an erect and athletic scion of a well-known Quaker family, who was later killed; Alexander P. Colesberry, afterward United States Marshal; and William B. Smith, who became mayor of the city.
The selection of the State Committee to which I have referred, marked a divergence in the councils of the Independents. The centrifugal forces increased and tended to throw the movement outside of the orb and there were some men who were ready to leave their party. There were others, including myself, whose feeling was to do missionary
