Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-03-27

THE city election is at hand; an election
more important to this city than those of the
State and nation put together. We have u
City Council whose corruption is offered in
the Legislature by our own Democratic rep
resentatives, us evidence that Il is unfit to
govern; and upon the evidence, Republic
can Legislature has taken the most impor-
tant part of the administration Of our city
affairs out of the Council and placed it where
it can not be reached by the popular cleo
tions-proof that its corruption is accepted
as an established fact by both parties.
We have city of the most magnificent
enterprises, of taxes whose munifcence will
not be questioned, Of railroad subscriptions,
wharf purchases park purchases, and great
breathing place projects, which count by
millions Of dollars, but in which the excre-
tory filth Of the whole city flows into the
streets and stagnates upon the surface for
want ofsewerS in which every street has the
same generous stink, which smells to heaven
which a blind native would identify after cir
cumnavigating the globe, as soon as he struck
the pavement, and which, as General jack
son said the blessings of government ought
TO he, is like the dew of Heaven, distilled alike
upon the poor and the rich. In our city en-
terprises we are affecting ruffled shirts and
diamond pins, with our bare feet in the mud.
A pestilence is due the city every summer
from its own negligence of the ordinary mu-
nicipal provisions for cleanliness; while it
seems to be taken for granted that every city
improvement only opens field for jobs and
plunder.
With this condition of affairs upon us, the
annual city election is at hand, and how do we
find the political parties preparing for the
emergency? The Democracy are going into
it with their ancient regular test. Is he a
good, working Democrat? That is, will he
use his position to throw all the possible pub
lie plunder into the hands of Democrats?
While the only question that agitates the
Opposition is whether they can adjust
the balance of candidates SO nicely as to
'fuse" on them. The public welfare is, to
them, reduced to n nibbling here from the
American faction, and there from the Re-
publican faction of the Opposition, to pre-
vent any preponderance of either, like the
monkey adjudicating on the fusion of the cats
on the cheese question.
In the name of this long suffering city, so
great in business enterprise and prosperity,
is there no motive that can reach the people,
higher than the scramble of parties for the
common plunder? And are the working
men, the business men, and the capitalists OF
the city-for their interests are all identi-
cal-going to sit down quietly and allow
this great municipality, with interests
more important than those of some
of the sovereign States, to be perpetually
made the mere football of scrambling parti-
sans? There are plenty of men in this city,
honest, capable, having the confidence Of the
people, and willing to serve the public zeal
ously, but who will not seek public positions
through the dirty means of party machinery.
Let the party machinery be put down, then,
and let men be brought forward in its stead
men who stand on their own character and
merits The responsibility is with the peo-
pie, but the case demands immediate action.
The party machine grinds its grist regularly,
requiring only few manipulations to work
it, while to overcome it willrequire prompt
movement Of the people.