The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-12-01
The Triangular Municipal Fight.

l There is great fuss made about the municipal
election, and personal attacks are made upon
The candidates for the Mayoralty to cover the
real designs Of those who want to elect O
Common Council which will help them tc
plumber the city treasury. To the citizens al
large, in a municipal point of view, it does moi
| matter one iota who is elected Mayor, for it is
already arranged, cut and dried, that the taxes,
now approaching eleven millions, will be in
creased three or four millions per annum, and
the citizens will have to pay the fiddler, no
matter to what tune their representatives in
the Common Council may dance. No Mayor
can prevent this result. His arm is rendered
powerless by the law to prevent the wholesale
robbery Of the people planned by the candi-
dates for the Common Council, who are the
worst and most degraded set of scoundrcls who
have ever dared to ask for the votes of
citizens. These will be allowed to slip into
power, while the jobbers and wirepullers and
their organs divert attention to the contest
about the Mayoralty, which is Of no conse-
quence whatever in municipal aspect It is
only in o political sense that it becomes i'm
portant; and in that respect its Importance can
hardly be overestimated. The battle munich
pally is farce, but nationally it is of serious
import.
1t is nominally quadrilateral fight, but
really triangular Ogden, the. representative
Of old fogy respectability, not having the
slightest chance Of success, and being set up
apparently for the purpose Of being knocked
down. Indeed, from recent proceedings Of the
Americans, it is now hard to tell who is their
candidate, or whether they will have any can
didate at all for the Mayoralty. The battle
is therefore, between the two republican
candidates on the one side, end the
representative of national democracy on
the other. Opdyke is genuine whig
republican of a dye as red as the
blood which flowed at Harpers Ferry, and
Havemeyer is democratic republican, with
alternate stripes of black and Witty brown, or
dirt color. The men of the red stripe are brave
and bold, say what they mean, and do what
they say. The men Of the black stripe on q
dirty ground only preach what the others prac-
tse, but still are on the same road to the disin-
tegration of the Union and civil war.
The supporters of these two candidates-Op-
dyke and Havemeyer the whole abo-
htion and republican party, which consists of
two elements-one Of them Of the John Brown
type which seeks its objects by blows the
otner' OF that cautious type who only use agi-
taslon as means to public plumber, and who
ioment insurrection by their writings and
speeches, but take good care to keep out of
harms way themselves Between these two
elements Of the same anti-slavery party the
battle RACES. The one is represented bv the
Tribune, backing up Opdyke-the other bv tho
Times, supporting Havemeyer. The manner
in which they pitch into each other is comical
in the extreme.
Tammany Hall is thrown into the scale Of
Havemeyer as makeweight, in order to turn
the beam in favor of abolition and revolution:
but it is doubtful whether that offensive con-
Germ, whose corruption and rowdy violence
send Ssrth foul stencil in the nostrils Of all
honest, order-loving and law-abiding citizens,
will not do him more harm than good.
Two years ago Tammany Hall put forward
Wood for Mayor, and gave him certificate