Damon and Pythias Reconsidered

Abstract

TO STUDENTS OF PHILADELPHIA’S POLITICAL HISTORY, the names Damon and Pythias mean only one pair of politicians: Joseph Sill Clark Jr. and Richardson Dilworth, the men who inaugurated the current era of Democratic rule in Philadelphia. Although they had been politically active for nearly two decades, their names were relatively unknown in the Quaker City until Dilworth splashed onto the front pages in 1947 and declared virtual war on the rapacious Republican organization that had held sway in Philadelphia since the Civil War.