The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1855-03-23

against n police pni s"'' -,
through theANcw York legislature for tne
nur,ose Of divesting the Mayor of his oon'ro'
l,,,or the police and entrusting it to Comm's
.;opers, says that the bill is an attemP. "
WIN II. Seward to prepare matters tor hi'
presidential enterprise by obtaining the con.
troll of the police. The Seward majority VIII
have the choice Of the Commissioners, who |
vii, he named in the BILL "They will thus
adds the Herald, mot only provide fat berths
for three of their friends, but viii moreover
ana HE Mr.. Seward when the time comes to
use the police as politicians have used it for
the last tw enfy years at elections. This will
be done ut total sacrifice of the efficiency
Of the force, and safety to life and property
in New York. 1t is in fact impossible to ex
agge rate the Importance of the measure to
this community. From the time when the
municipal offices were rendered elective and
the Mayor Invested of the power of appoint
ing his subordinates, the police force became
the favorite weapon of the agents of corrup
ton at the elections. They sided with the
rowdies were intimate with them personal
"; befriended them at need and with their
aid controlled the polls in the city. Hence
it came about in the course of a few years.
that New York was the worst e overned city
in the world contained more murders, more
robberies, more assaults on women, more
cases of arson, and less convictions, than
any town north of the Equator. Every man
recollects the time when it was quite COM
mon for citizens to carry arms, and when
grand iuries refused to indict those who shot
| down an assailant in the open street These
the case of Baker winding up the list
were the fruits of placing the police under
the control of politicians, and divesting the
Mayor of authority over them
| AS is well known, under the administration
| of Mayor Wood, there has been very con-
siderable reform and the police has made
great improvement in efficiency, honesty and
character Whilst the hopes of the people
have been raised by this improved state of
things, and the prospect began to brighten
for reign of law and order in New York,
the Seward men in the New York Legisla-
ture introduce bill taking from the Mayor
that control over the police which alone has
enabled him to promote the security of life
and property in New York, and giving it to
Commissioners, creatures of VIM. III. Seward.
who will secure fighting men to surround the
ballot box and intimidate all who are not
fighting men like themselves from exercising
the right of suffrage at the election.
SO long as the subject of the New York
police was Inconnected in any way with fe-
deral politics, it was subject of no interest
to the South, except as all citizens of the
country might feel interested in the security
and good name of their principal city. But,
in its present aspect, it concerns directly and
practically all the people of this country,
who have any interest in good government
at Washington. Southern men, especially,
cannot look with Indifference upon any new
and potent auxiliary which VIM. FL. Seward
may employ for his political elevation.
What depth of depravity does such an
intrigue as this reveal in the selfish and cor
rupt character of VIM. III. Seward! He is a
man who stops at no means to secure the
ends of his ''vaulting ambition" Not only
is he willing to violate the Constitution he
has sworn to support and to fan the flame of
sectional agitation, careless whether it in
volye the country in disunion or civil war; so
that his own personal purposes are promoted d;
but he is ready to give up the chief city of
his own native State, to the control of the
vilest gang of rut1ians that ever lived, to Sc
cure the aid of these rufiians in the election
He is ready, as the New York Herald Justly
says, for his own selfish ends, to make the
police what it was in its worst days when
| property, life and comfort were all in peril
when gentlemen, in escorting ladies home at
night, were compelled to wear revolvers or
knives in their belts, and the daily papers
were filled with lists of unparalleled and un
punished outrages. What is to become of
, Republicanism! Will not its very name he
3 mockery, bye-word, a Kissing and shame
, throughout the earth, if such man can sue
2 coed IN his purposes, and by such means?
; | SETTLEMENT OF THE BLACK WARRIOR
CAsE.-We published yesterday an extract
from the Washington Union which gave an
Official coloring to statement which had
been previously published of the settlement
of the Black Warrior case.
| Whilst the Union expresses its grati6ca-
ton at what it characterizes as a tsrdy man.
Hesitation of returning sense of justice on
the part OF Spain, it observes that we sbould
be blind to the past if we inferred from this
single concession that the intercourse he
tween the Spanish government and our own
would cease to be disturbed hereafter by the