John Edward Charles O'Sullivan Addicks was an American industrialist and capitalist who used his wealth from financing and building gas works to wage four unsuccessful campaigns for a United States Senate seat in Delaware.
Background
John Edward Charles O'Sullivan Addicks was born on November 21, 1841 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, the son of John Edward and Margaretta (McLeod) Addicks. The father was a local politician of some prominence and for a time held the place of health officer of the port of Philadelphia.
Education
Addicks attended the public schools until he was fifteen.
Career
Addicks went to work in a wholesale dry-goods house, when fifteen. At nineteen he entered the flour business of Levi Knowles, and two years later, on attaining his majority, was made a partner in the firm.
His next venture was in real estate. The panic of 1873 left him bankrupt, but he soon regained a commercial footing.
In 1877 Addicks moved to Claymont, Delaware.
He first came to the general notice of the business world when he introduced Minnesota spring wheat to the farmers of the east. He soon turned to the then infant industry of producing water gas for illuminating purposes, and though occasionally speculating in railroad stocks, devoted most of his time to the promotion of gas companies. He built gas works in Jersey City, Brooklyn, and Chicago, making large profits through the manipulation of contracts. In 1882 he was the prime mover in organizing what was known as the Chicago Gas Trust.
Two years later he organized and became president of the Bay State Gas Company, and by his subsequent legerdemain with its securities, according to Thomas W. Lawson, he "made Boston look like the proverbial country gawk at circus time. " His activities in this field caused him to be known as "Gas Addicks" and the "Napoleon of Gas. " He was also associated with Lawson in the promotion of the Amalgamated Copper Company. In 1892 he bought a majority interest and became president of the Brooklyn Gas Company.
Six years earlier he had moved to Boston. In Philadelphia Addicks had dabbled lightly in local politics. He was now to enter the national field, in a long and fiercely contested effort to be elected senator from Delaware. It is said that the first prompting in this direction came to him in New York City on a day in December 1888, just after his return from Europe, where he had made a million dollars by a coup in Siberian railroads. Reading in a morning newspaper that the Delaware legislature was deadlocked in a contest over a senatorship, he immediately summoned his Boston political agent, and on the latter's arrival they started together for Dover.
On January 1, 1889, conspicuously overdressed, he appeared with this agent and two or three other followers at the Hotel Richardson, Dover, and announced to the newspaper correspondents that he was a candidate for senator. Then began a campaign unique in American history. For seventeen years thereafter, at a cost believed to have reached $3, 000, 000, he strove by every means that he could employ to obtain a majority of the Delaware legislature.
His first move was to win supporters for himself by paying the tax bills of citizens, and as no delinquent taxpayer in the state could then vote he soon had a following. In time he built up a formidable faction, known as the Union Republicans, in the Republican party, and several times he came near to success. In 1895 the joint ballot resulted in a tie; in 1899 he obtained a plurality, and at other times, unable to win for himself, he prevented an election. In the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-sixth Congresses Delaware was represented by but one senator, and in the Fifty-seventh, was unrepresented. This spectacular campaign aroused deep interest throughout the country, and denunciation of Addicks became a hackneyed theme in the press. The end came in 1906. The Republicans, reunited and led by the du Ponts, had obtained a large majority in the legislature. The vote for senator in the two houses on June 12 was 36 for Col. Henry A. du Pont and 2 for Addicks, the 18 Democrats expressing no choice.
Financial disasters to Addicks followed almost immediately. The decline in the price of copper had wrecked his fortune, and his operations in gas were now to entangle him in costly litigation. In 1907, on the plea of stockholders who alleged fraud, George Wharton Pepper, later a senator from Pennsylvania, was appointed receiver for the Bay State Gas Company. About the same time a federal court awarded a judgment against Addicks for $4, 000, 000.
He was soon hiding from subpoena and attachment servers. At one time he was found in a cheap tenement in Hoboken without light or heat. He escaped and was not again apprehended until 1913. Taken into custody, he was released on $2, 000 bail, which he forfeited. Two years later he was again arrested. The last four years of his life are believed to have been spent in extreme poverty.
He died in an apartment-house in New York City.
Achievements
Personality
There is no evidence that Addicks had any of the qualities fitting one for the office of United States senator. "Coarse" and "common" were the terms usually applied to him, and no responsible witness has recorded anything greatly to his credit.
His idea of a senatorship was evidently that of a commodity that could be bought in the open market.
Connections
Addicks was married three times. He first married Laura Butcher of Philadelphia.
His second wife was Rosalie Butcher, a sister of his first wife.
In 1894 she sued him for divorce, naming Mrs. Wilson as co-respondent. Addicks contested this divorce, but, on a change in the character of the complaint, made no further opposition.
The divorce was granted in 1896 and Addicks thereupon married Mrs. Wilson.