The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-10-19
Ought Rowdy Politicians to he q Privf.
legged Aristocracy3

Ought Rowdy Politicians to he a Privi-
legged Aristocracys
The measures contemplated by the honest,
upright and moneyed laborers, mechanics,
manufacturers, merchants and financers of the
city Of New York, to throw off the yoke which
has been imposed upon them by the brutal
demagogues of Tammany and Mozart Halls,
and of the black republican party, have terri
fed the press organs Of those corruptionist
cliques into just such utterances of wrath and
fear, as were to have been expected. The out
cry raised by the Leader, Ne,cs and Tribune
against interference in politics by those who
wash their faces and wear clean linen, betrays
the direst tribulation and anxiety. Their theory
in plain English, is, that honest men should
build up the country, and that a handful OF
rogues should be permitted to destroy it; that
painstaking industry should accumulate NUM-
cipal and national wealth, and that dissipation,
profigacy and vice should expend 1t; that the
consequences of the Fourieritc axiom, property
isrobbery," should be exemplifed by the legiti-
nation Of public plumber.
The recent comments in the three expo
nents of rowdyism we have mentioned,
upon the great uprising of the vast
industrial masses against the tyranny
of shoulder-hitters, gamblers, gougers, keepers
and owners of dens of prostitution, pothouse
loafers, criminals from Blackwell's Island and
from Sing Sing-the very offscouring of the COM
munity-show that they accept this leprous mi
nority as the constituted anti "diyine right"
essence of American government. "Out Of the
abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh J"
and, down in the depths of the venal souls of
these children of padfoot Mammon, lies the
ecstatic idea of leaky national and city trea-
sury, from which they may gather the drip
pings. This is their thought by day, and their
dream by night. Around it rey0lYe the free
wool instincts Of Weed, the aspirations of the
thousand dollar philanthropist, and the clancy"
exuberances Of the muscle heroes of Syracuse.
Unless the rowdy five thousand out of the
eighty thousand voters of New York city,
can screech down the reform democratic
agitation which has commenced, the
very whiskey will be snatched from their
mouths. Their time will have come, and they
will have to be provided for in conformity with
our penal laws.
The history Of democratic government, from
the beginning until the end of time, will con-
vey the same lesson. 1t is a struggle, as i'm
mutable as the psychological laws that govern
the human soul, between men-placed origi-
nally upon basis Of equality-some of whom
deliberately aspire, while the remainder, with
equal deliberation descend. The starting point
of the eighty odd thousand voters, of the city
of New York, was substantially about the same.
Born in country offering the highest prizes
for industry, each had before him future of
distinction, wealth, and education, or else, if
the beastly element predominated, Of shame,
sorrow and misery. Seventy-ive thousand
out of the eighty, have, beyond a question, pre-
ferred being good and conservative citizens to
joining the ranks Of those dissolute, abandoned
makeshifts, whom the Leader, Neps and Tri-
tane glory in exalting. The former, however,
have, unfortunately, neglected politics, and
devoted their energies to building up the ma
terial welfare of the nation, while the latter
have, gradually, usurped power and reduced
the country to the verge of ruin, by "a long
course of misrule.
The future Of the United States will be sad
one, If the experience Of the past does not teach
wisdom for the future. The records of Athe-
MAN democracy show that just SO long as the
wise, educated good and prudent governed the
republic, its halo of glory enlightened the
world. When, after the days of Pericles, helot
corruption overruled higher counsels, it fell
into slavery, from which it never emerged
again. The decay of Sparta, was synonymous
with the increasing power of unadulterated
blackguardism. The history of the Italian re-
publics Of the Middle Ages, is glorious
or degraded, in proportion as the rule of men
of integrity or minority rabble was permitted
to prevail The Senate Of old Rome was nothing
more than firm, permanent Fifth Avenue
Hotel protest against agrarianism. But for the
untiring zeal and fortitude of the purer element
of society, there would not have been, even
second Carthagenian war. Rome's unhappy
days dawned upon it with the rowdy subordi-
mates Of Scylla and its ruin was identical with
the Five Point oppression of half the world, by
the shoulder-hittcrs of seventeen hundred years
ago. In every democratic community, the
neglect Of duty by the respectable majority
masses, and the transfer Of power to the-hands
Of the base and vile, is the signal for decay.
The Billingsgate Of the Ne,os, Leader and
Tribune is employed in presenting the leaders
of the Fifth Avenue Hotel movement, as kid
glove, scented, silk stocking, poodle-headed,
degenerated aristocracy. Is this the truth?
Most of the able and intellectual individuals
of New York city, derive their origin from
precisely the same ranks, as those who will
vote at the next Tammany primaries, or who
occupy cells with Huntington at Sing Sing, or
are prominent in urging "irrepressible con-
fict' theories, or have been put forward as
Mozart candidates for Office. The latter have