The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1854-10-31
RICHM0HD, VA.
TUESDAY MORNING. ocroBER s. ,a,4

nAtu III Uu ", VAs
TUESDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 81. 1854.
MUNICIPAL REroRM IN NEW, YoRK.-The
address of the Municipal Reform Committee
20 the people of New York gives horrid
picture of the political corruption there.
Ut is obvious. says the address. that our Taxes
are enormously high, without any corresponding
recompense In the security comforts given rs in
return Tor paying them,-that our houses and shops
are unsafe from burglars and robbers-that murders
mere are ofweekly occurrence, that crime stalks
abroad unpunished that in short while this is about
the costlest governed city the world, it is about
sne thiest In its streets, and the most unsafe in
me protection afforded to human life. For all
tnlngs while our republican institutions are in
.no main, elsewhere, working well, there must be
mere, some adequate cause and what that cause
10, we now propose briefyt to examine
The address then proceeds to say that the
most affecting characteristic of the day, is
the almost entire neglect by the citizens of
their political duties, and the consequent
abandonment of them to outcasts and out
laws. 1t mentions, as a melancholy and
frightful fact, which cannot be gainsayed,
that in the main, the highest and lowest poll.
tical officers are named and created, in what
are called Primary Meetings" by what are
known as Primary Elections, in which a
few bold men of both the great parties, con-
trive to secure by violence or fraud the con-
troll of the nominations, and hence the cleo
ton of such men as they desire.
The address states that till within two or
three years past these Primary Elections were
under the control of Wings or Democrats, in
their respective parties-but tits now known,
that there are organized bands of uuprinci-
pied and reckless men, who sell out their ser
vices to aspirants for place, without any re-
gard to party association.
The rank and shameless corruption de.
scribed in the following extract from the ad
dress is almost incredible.
If a corrupt Wing Alderman of a. Ward de-
sires reelection, he bargains with corrupt Dem
ocratic Alderman in anciehboring Ward. to lend
the Democrat his forces to carry Primary Elec.
hon, and the Democrat in return lends him his to
carry Wing Primary Election. Hence. Whigs
promiscuously vote in Democratic Ballot Boxes
and Democrats in Wing Ballot Boxes-whije the
honest Wing or Democrat desiring to vote. NAV be
tHdohtul IL perHltteU 10 go lnrOueh the farce of
fng at ALL 1t there be otenough of these parasites
who have been living through the year upon the
City Treasury, to carry these Primary Elections
for this Whig, or that Democratic Alderman. some
organized band OF unfortunate outcasts or villains
ls employed, who, though the money NAV be ad.
vanced by the Aldermen, are vet in fact. maid in
the end, out OF the City Treasury in Jobs or con.
tracts. or frauds OF one class or another such as
we daily read of in the public Press
III there be- as there are, in some of the moro at
tentlve Wards, good citizens deyotipp Themselves
to these Elections, and with enough power TO vote
down these leeches upon the City Treasury then.
ny securing what are called the ''Inspectors of
Election" the Ballot Boxes are filled before vote
is given with any necessary amount of votes or
even II TINS Is prevented, and honest men have out
yeted their opponents, and all their frauds then
tnese inspectors OF Election often, with utter
shameessness, count the votes as thew please with
out any regard to numbers, and return men elected
VINO nave never received in fact one quarter of the
numerical vote - '-o
In other cases, where these organized forces
cainoI, or dare not undertake to exclude bona fde
clZens tney, ana their accomplices, vote over and
over again, and often overawe the inspectors into
receiving their votes, or they bring in voters from
ncighborlng Wards, without distinction of partv.
or uiscflnpatlon as to aiepshp, or any other dis
quancatlon. In some wards it has become as
much as mans life Is worth to vote at all unless
ne votes as he is ordered. In other wards. the re
spectacle citizens of both parties have rered from
all Urinary Elections in disgust, or alright, and
who now have here the especial control.
The objects and aims of the men who car
ry these primary elections are, not only mo-
ney, which is in the end all taken from the
City Treasury but independence of the Mag.
lstracy fthe city, and of the Law,-exemp.
ton from punishment tor the crimes they
commit.-the robberies they may be guilty
of, and even the blood they may shed in sud
den affrays, or in cool and deliberate malice,
They reason, and they reason well, that if
they can create the Magistracy, they can
overawe it. and control it,
Hence murder, manslaugbter and other
crimes are said to have become almost OF
daily occurrence in New York. The address
says it is notorious fact, that men who have
been indicted for high crimes and misde-
meanors, and escaped only by influences
they created in Primary Elections, have this
year named the Judiciary of the city, or been
over and over again on the most important
Nominating Committees
1t is added, that in the main, the Primary
Elections in several Wards in both parties,
are now the offspring of the gambling hous-
es and houses of ill fame in the city.
If this address gives true picture of the
state of things in New York, and we see no
reason to doubt it, the good citizens, who cer-
tainly compose the great majority of the peo-
pie, have no one to blame hereafter but them
selves, if they do not attend watchfully and
steadily to their political duties. " Eternal
vigilance is the price of liberty" and if men
would enjoy the blessings, they must dis.
charge the duties which the possession of
free government imposes. Otherwise the
only alternatives are mob law or monarchy
At ST. Mary's, Ca, IS deaths from yellow fever
had occurred up to Tuesday morning last The
epidemic was however, regarded as on the de-
cline.
Captain Leonard Freeland well known a. a
former commander on the Savannah and Charles
ton line, died Of yellow fever at Camp pinckney on
the ST. Mary's river on Sunday last.
Peter B.. Manchester, the Cincinnati banker
whose failure and flight have caused 90 much mise
ry TO his depositors, 10 the same fellow who prsc
tised law and roguery In New Yofk city tan or dt
team n M q pnsk