The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-09-25

several weeks before the Maine election. he
thought perhaps, at tbs time that there was
good prospect for Seymor, and that II the
votes Of the unreconstructed States would elect
him it would be well to have them i,ssady. But
What then? Mr.. Pendleton must have meant
that tie refusal Of Congress to count these
votes wouid bring President Johnson, IS
Commander-in-Chief of the army, down upon
the two houses in the r6le Of Cromwell. If
this letter, then, means anything, it means the
possible contingency for another civil war;
We guess, however, that the votes of the
Southern States, if all counted against Grant,
will not be enough to upset his election, and
that accordingly the vote of Texas will practi-
cally amount to nothing, though Mr.. Pendleton
may see that she is represented.
Our Piers and Wharves-The Street Com
missioner and the Citizens Association.
We publish in to-day's HERALD long COM
munication from Street Commissioner George
w. Mclean, in which that officer meets and
satisfactorily disposes of twenty-one of the
of the city government in q letter signed by
Peter Cooper and purporting to come from the
Citizens Association. The Street Commits
siOner lays before the public mass OF evil
dence which seems effectually to clear his
skirts of the offences alleged against him by
the venerable reformer; but not contented
with this he carries the war into Africa, and
promises some rich and racy developments in
regard to the manner in which this so-called
Citizens Association is managed and the char
Cooper himself he regards as highly respect
able, innocent and confding old gentleman,
whose infrmity is that he is too ready to sign
documents foisted upon him by designing
parties, who, under the guise of reformers use
him and his name for their own purposes We
have no doubt that the disclosures promised
by Street Commissioner Mclean will be as in
teresting and as spicy as the recent develop
ments in Water street, and as he hints at a
Vincent Crummles of the Citizens Association
who seems to have history, he had better let
the curtain rise at once on the manager and
allow us to discover whether there is in that
famous company real rival to Johnny Allen in
his great part of ''the Wickedest Man in New
York" 1t will no doubt be an interesting fight
all round.
So far as the piers and wharves of the city
are concerned it is very evident that the plea
yune reformers of the Citizens Association are
incompetent to grasp the Importance of the
subject with which they are msddling. We
want no tinkering and patching of our docks
at all, and the true economy is to adopt the
policy which the agents and lobbyists of the
Association defeated last winter. Let the city
take into its possession all the piers and
wharves along our whole water front, rebuild
them of stone and establish system of dock
age commensurate with the enormous COM
merce which in a few years must flow through
our port. At present all the Street Commits
sioner or any of the city authorities can do is
to repair the rotten wooden structures as well
as they can, and the general testimony is that
under the existing management this is done
better than for many years past The proof of
this is to be found in the fact that the rents are
collected with greater regularity than they
have been for the past eight years and that a
decent revenue is at last received from this
source. But our taxpayers should insist that
fund of hundred million dollars, if neces-
sary, shall be raised to give us handsome
granite docks. This is the sort of reform we
need, and Peter Cooper and his associates will
do more good by advocating its adoption than
by frittering away their time in picayune at
tempts to discover whether Tom, Dick or
Harry has managed to make few dollars too
much out of city job.