The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-11-09
what Nexts The Charter Election.

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| meeting.
What Next The Charter Election.
| Now that the State election is ended, and
nothing remains but to count up the returns,
| M they creep in from different corners Of the
States, ali thoughts revert to the topic of para
mount local interest to our citizens, namely,
the election for municipal officers which will
take place upon the first Tuesday in December.
II bids fan to be one Of the most eventfil in
| the history Of this metropolis. The results
which must flow from 1t, for good or for evil.
will be tremendous Upon II will depend,
whether adequate protection of life and pre-
perry shall, be afforded to the three-quarters of
million of Inhabitants OF New York, or whe
Their we shall be given over to murderous
anarchy, akin to that which reigns in Baltimore.
A Mayor. Corporation Counsel, and Board of
| Aldermen are to be chosen, In whose hands the
already monstrous taxation Of the community,
| may either be reduced within proper bounds,
or swollen until it eats into the very capital Of
property holders. Local magistrates are to be
elected, who will either connive at crime or be
terror to evil doors. We are in the midst Of
dark days, and either light must dissipate the
existing chaos, or an abyss lies before us, into
which public prosperity must inevitably be
plunged.
! The political organizations in this CITY, are
as effete, rotten, depraved and disunited, as
were the parties in the French Republic of the
end Of the last century, before they fell into the
hands of military dictator. Black republi-
/ cans, Know Nothings, Tammany rowdies, and
Mozart Hall intriguers, are, alike, corrupt in
character, and one is as little to be trusted as
the other. AT the head, however, Of
the Mozart Hall forces, stands Fernando
| Wood, whose downright, invincible energy
has left him without rival as a local strate-
gist. He has succeeded in curling up the pig
mics Of Tammany beneath his feet, and even
the anti democratic factions in the city, sucumb,
to degree, under his ubiquitous influence.
Daniel E. Sickles, the only man who ever had
the brains and industry to oppose him, is
buried in the past. Mr.. Wood controls Mozart
Hall, and, through Mozart Hall, dictates law to
Tammany, in manner which the Old Wig
wan does not dare to disobey. Fowler, Ken
needy and their satellites, have eaten each other
up with their two-andsixpenny squabbles, and
the late Mozart nominations not only for State
Offices at Syracuse, but also for the judiciary,
State Senate, and Assembly, were followed with
| next to blind obedience and subserviency, by
! the conventions drummed together by the So
called regular democratic organization"
| Tammany has become so completely merged
and lost in the sweeping current Of its more
powerful neighbor, that the rowdy cliques may
be safely pronounced united, and firmly held
within the iron grasp Of Fernando Wood.
While the democratic cliques are thus con-
trolled and represented by one powerful man.
| there rises up against them the new move
ment of the Democratic Vigilant Association.
The measures initiated by the honest, upright
and moneyed laberers, mechanics manufao-
turers merchants and fnanciers of the city of
New York, to throw off the yoke which brutal
ucinaSoo --..r"s~,- ~Yo.. ."o community,
have thrown terror into the hearts of the
shoulder hitting, depraved monopolists of
power, whose tyranny has, heretofore, OPP
pressed the industrial masses. The great up
rising of the disnterested classes of the
| people against misrule and plumber, is not
| an ephemeral one. Were every man
engaged in the work which the Vigilant
| Association has undertaken, to withdraw from
| it, others would take their places, and the law
of selfpreservation would cause it ultimately
to prevail. But there will be no such tickle
mindedness and faltering. The leaders of the
movement are constantly receiving the adhe-
sion and subscriptions of citizens of all parties
who have an interest in the public welfare
Republicans and Americans, promise them mo-
raj support and pecuniary aid, to an extent
which was not calculated upon, and letters
from the interior Of the State, express tho deep
est sympathy with the patriotic enterprise It
cannot be sneered down, nor will intriguing
cajolery divert it from its purpose, nor wheedle
the funds from it's treasury. In fact, the very
individuals who, with one breath, denounced
the Vigilant Association as a scented, kid glove,
silk stocking, poodle headed aristocracy, bow
down, the next instant, and humbly crave the
smallest contribution in dollars and cents, for
their own selfish purposes.
The Democratic vigilant Association has
maintained wise and prudent reserve during
the past ten days, in order that no premature
action might interfere with the result of the
State election, but it has neither slumbered
nor slept. 1t is now, however, about to issue
an address to the people, and to rise in its
might, against the abuses which have so long
been dominant.
Thus, we have two great powers arrayed in
the field, preparing for the coming municipal
election. At the head of the one, stands alone
and all powerful, for mischief or good, Mr..
Fernando Wood, and if the sagacity Of that in
dividual could but extend beyond the expert
ence of the past; If his vision could embrace
the vast, beneacent future which might lie be-
! fore him in cordially embrac;no a MIRO M