New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-03-01
puGILINTs AND POLITICS.

pUG1LISTS AND PoLtTiCs.
It is instructive to see with what feryent zeal
some # our contemporaries have detained against
ruffisbism for some tine past, and especially
since the saDguDary row in Broadway the o'oer
night. Suddenly aroused from profound
silence, they hammer away with vigor pee i'r
OILY TO new converts, and surpiss themselves ID
pIotestations of virtue, while they test the re-
sources Of the vocabulary 10 opprobious epithe:s
to burl at the now defenieless fighting men.
True to their instincts, they doat with the pop.
ular current, and pipe whatever tune TIE humOu
of the hour may demand; fiwn like we-trained
courters upon Success, while they fercels sn ,rl
at poor fiiendless Failure.
Years $50 THE TRIBUNE exposed and de-.
nouDced the growing evils Of Rufisnism in thIs
City, espe eialy as allied with rum aud party pol
itca. At that time, when the old rum hole,
pacL ed Convention syitem Of nominating candI-
dates was in full operation, and when the denun-
citation Of these gangs Of Primary Election DULLES
implied some hazard of personal safety, where
were the brave moralists OF today They were
in secret COZ clave with the rowdy leaders, buy
irg and selling the services Of their gangs
fer 10 many dollars to pack this or that Conven-
tiop, and to "use their influence" at the
polls TO elect Mr.. SO.and.so. They were the de-
tenders Of the outrageou, Primary Election swim.
die to the last moment; they sought and obtained
nomination and secured election By the purchased
exertiops of theie now denounced "ruffi.ns,"
and not pote of condemnation was heard until
the crushing hand Of City Reform was laid upon
their rockies, mercer aries-uutil citizens who
though. more of order than Of party took the field
in earnest, and made it unpopular to hire rufiaos
TO choose law makers. Then the rats deserted
the falling house, suddenly discovering the
rotterness Of the primary machinery, they began
TO COX with favor upon registry laws,
rum restriction, and such other reforms az
low seemed likely to prevail, in spite of
all opposition They had climbed into place
from the shoulders of the rowdies for the last
time; the last sttempt at packing deeg stion for
ODe Of the General Committees was failure;
''the boys" had lost the prestige Of victory; the
current of popular feeling set 10 another dirsc-
ton. Now our professional trimuers tackled
about to run with the wind; they cut their fight
ing friends, talked vaguely. as if astonished at
their own voices of morality, laS and order;
1welt with JUNCTION upon the brutality Of - the
clancy" and called vociferously for justice upon
their devoted heads. just now, when two or
three of their old friends lie doubuuly between
life and death, they improve the safe opportunity
to give them a few exemplary kicks aud talk
st large about the depravity of politics, brought
L ~ An. .f tba .sshn
tiers"
TIE hundred or go of professional hghting-men
VITO manage 10 keep before the public in one or
another disgrsceful way, are bad enough; but
are they worse than the INSCRIPTIONS respecta-
"bt" men who have for years kept them in
ruffsnly employ Had there been no am
bilious and successful Office seekers to hire them
they never could have reached . 1.-THE of their
present importance. Had party leaders re-
PEELED their mercepary advances, nsy, had they
not voluntarily after them, these DULLES would
never have been heard Of beyond the Criminal
Court and the State Prisop. Bus they were hired
TO DO villainy and protected after the act, by
the very men who now desert them only because
they have got into Office, and the brusers are 10
loreer useful
The Establishment Of the once famous Empire
Club wss the Commencement Of the reign of po-
li,icsl Iuffisnsm in this City, and all parties
more or less fostered the as.ality until the de-
feat of the notorious Comm Council of 1852
Since that election, brute force-kas been more
and more = drug in the market; the patrons of
the fancy begin to reject and disown the serv-
itors through whose disinterested exertious they
got irto power. snd DOW, instead of privately
bailiug them out of prison. or begging magistrates
to let them up easy they expose their wickedness
in Sc. terms Of lofty morality. We are glad to
see even such testimony to virtue and no that
our political aspirspts are at Last converted and
have ,poken out, We only hope they will work
with half the zeal to break up political rus anism.
that they did to establish it.