The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1857-12-03


| day last cannot fail to be instructive to those
who study it by the light of the principles in
| yolved and the issues made when the contest
| began. The most important of these issues
| turned on the recent legislation at Albany dis
| franchising this city and transferring the con-
troll Of the police, the regulation of the
Central Park, the building of the City Hall,
and other important branches Of the admins
tration of the municipal government to the
executive power at Albany or to its nominees
and commissioners. The democrats proposed
and the opposition accepted the issue on these
laws; the former contending that they ought
never to have been enacted and should now be
repealed without loss of time; the latter hold
ing that things were well as they were, and had
best be let alone. The result of the election
| teaches us that the people of New York city are
content to let matters stand as they are, and do
not desire to amend or repeal the obnoxious
| laws in question.
AS this expression of opinion will probably be
considered final by the Legislature at Albany, it
must be assumed by the people of New York
that the system of local government at present
in force in the city will be permanent, and that
no change or amendment in it must be expected
II must be taken for granted that our police
are to remain in the hands of the Albany
Commissioners that our public works are to
be carried through under the supervision
of strangers appointed by the Governor, that
our city moneys are to be expended by the same
parties, and, generally, that the most impor-
tant branches Of the city administration will
be taken out of our hands. Indeed, after the
decided expression of opinion on Tuesday, it
may be expected that the principle Of the
legislation Of 1857 will be still further carried
out in respect to other and more local depart
mcnts OF the city government-that the city
seistracy generally may be appointed ct
Albany, and that Commissioners appointed by
the Governor may be sent down here to
regulate the proceedings of the Common
Council, and to direct the disposal of the
finances of the city. Nothing less would be
consistent with the popular verdict of Tuesday,
and the sooner we prepare for il the better.
In another point of view, the election o.
Mayor and Aldermen, on Tuesday last, signifies
that the revulsion of 1857 is producing its
natural fruits in the disorganization of parties,
the gathering together of the waits and
cstrays Of defunct factions, and the partial
disintegration of the dominant party in the
State. After the revulsion Of 1887, the first
feature which met the political observers eye
was gradual loosening of the ties which bound
the members of the democratic party together,
detection Of certain Of those members to the
opposition, and an aggregation of strength
on the part of the opposition, which secured
to them-at the end of the then pending Pre-
sidential term-the control of the government
of the confederacy. The revulsion of 1857,
which has been in all probability more severely
felt in this city than anywhere else, aud has
ruined more families here than in any other
town in the country, has begun to operate in
similar manner. We see already the beginning
of detection among the democracy to the OPP
position. and the concentration of the hetero-
geneous elements of the latter upon a single
candidate We note that the democracy Is
beaten throughout the election; even its candi-
dates for seats in the Common Council, though
elected, are elected by pluralities and in the
face of a popular majority against them.
All this shows that the country is going
through political crisis such as followed the
revulsion of 1887, and that the scattered ele-
ments of the opposition where they unite, may
prove as successful in defeating the democracy
upon great scale in the country at large as
they were in defeating the democratic municipal
ticket in this city on Tuesday last