New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1863-12-09
MISUNDERSTANDING.


MACMINE.sMAsMIN
A coTespondent-who isbraye enough TO offer
TO let US see his name if We insist on having it
says that We ought to have insisted on stopping
the Union machine andreyersng its engine If we
supposed il was being run badly in the recent
Municipal canvass.-lle has perfect right to
his opinion, as We have 10 act in accordance with
orr own convictions Of duty. Our political
friends who ran the Union machine were per-
fectly aware from the first that We wished some
one of our very ablest, wiscst, best known,
most hOnored citizens selected as the Union can
didate for Mayor. and that We decidedly pre-
ierred that lie should be one who, though now
only and Internationally Union, had acted with
the Democrats prior to the outbreak Of the
Shareholders Rebellion. Our first choice, Of
course, was Gen. Dix; and we did what we
fairly could to have him brought forward. We
believed and no,c believe, that, had hc been solc
tied, in becoming manner, and by general
rcquisiiion signed by the leading Unonsts Of
our City, he would have consented to stand.
But the machines were all set 10 prevent his
nomination, unless he chose to appear as a com
petitor with one or two others for Union votes;
and that he neither would do nor should have
done.
But Gen. Dix is not the only man who could
have called ont the Union strength Of our City.
We could have polled from Twenty-Five 10
Thirty Thousand votes for George Bancroft, or
l 1 EItravIc Di.fraunut or
one or two others Of that stamp. We believe
We could have pollcd nearly 50 many for Ham,
ilton Fish, or some one Of our capable and pub
lic-spirited merchants. But the opportunity
was not afforded Us. Mr.. Orson Blunt-who
had run fox Congress as a bolter last year in the
only district Of oar City that We bad prospect
Of carrying, and polled 99G yotcs-was made
our candidatc-through the contrivance and
Procurement Of Francis ]. A. Boole, we have
no manner Of doubt. We do not mean that
every one who favored Blunto nomination was
inspired TO do 80 by Boolc; but we do mean
that, had Boole let our machine alone, Blunt
would not have been our candidate.
Then says our critic, you ought to
law bDltfu, upHtt iAO ~ w
would, we answer, if Mr.. Blunt had been a
knaye and public robber. But such is BY no
means the case. lie is honest; he is thoroughly
pat rotic; and he has had q very considerable
Municipal experience, which would have made
him III many respects q useful Mayor. To the
extent of his capacity and power he would have
opposed all manner Of jobbcry and plundcrng
of the public. He would have made q fair
average Mayor. Yet he lacked some qualities
very desirable in the holder Of tia. office; and
he was not the man to concentrate and call out
our full Union vote. SO we feared from the
first; so the result has proved.
Then why not bolt, and make general
smash Of the crOckcryP
Simply because that would have rendered
certain the very catastrophe that We apprc-
hended, and would have shifted the response
bility Of producing it from the runners of the
machine to US. II was settled last year that,
when Orison Blunt gets any sort Of nonina-
ton, he holds on 10 it like grim Death; end, had
another Unionist been pitted against him, we
should have confronted such certainty Of de-
feat tbat not more than half our vote would
have been polled. SO We resolved to make the
best Of our position, ond ye did. We could not
elect Mr.. Blunt; but we did what We could to
swell his vote. The result is known.
And now we give fair notice that the
machine business is played out. We shall no.
wait next time to be crowded into such corner
as we have just occupied. II shall not be our
fault if there are not Fix Thoroughly loyal, up
right, capable, well known md popular candi-
dates for Congress before the people of this
City before the machines can be got into opera
ton next Fall. We don't care if they oil live in
one Ward, one street, one block, SO that they
are men who will be generally recognized as
emincntly qualified and worthy TO represent
this great Emporium in the grand council of the
Republic. And We ask our fellow citizens to
begin mo~ TO consider who ought 80 to repre-
cent ~, and to confer with each other OIL the
lsu'icct. We hope 10 see them quite generally