The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-04-12
sELEGOVBRNkENT IN NEW YORK.

DEMOCRACY in New York has passed from
under the cloud which so long obscured the
sunlight The city was for years SO hope
lessly Democratic that the Republican party,
by virtue of its ascendancy in the rural dis
tricts, stripped the overwhelming majority
in Gotham of nearly every semblance of
power, leaving it only the disposition Of some
SIS, 200, 900 per year through the agency of
the Common Council and the Board of Super
visors. But at last even Tammany Hall grew
tired of the monotony, and by master-stroke
of fraud elevated John L. Hoffman to
the gubernatorial chair With this foothold
at Albany once secured, the control of both
branches of the State Legislature speedily
followed, and the year 1870 opened with
Tammany in supreme command of the State.
But Just at this stage, when the unterrifed
were anticipating restoration of the coveted
privilegeof self-government, there were mani
festations of insubordination in the ranks of
the country members, and the first charter
which Tammany presented to the Legislature
was slaughtered in the house of its whilom
friends The New York World led the coun-
try phalanx, yclept the "Young Democracy"
with John Morrissey and Sheriff O'Brien as
its ieutenants, and for time carried things
with high hand. A compromise charter,
patched up in fashion it is difficult to under
stand even at this short distance from the
scene of conflict, shared the same fate,
but when William M. Tweed went ints
the charter business on his own personal
responsibility and in his own name, he sue
oeeded in framing such measure as CON-
manded the almost universal approval of both
houses of the Legislature, the opposition
votes in the Senate numbering but two, and
in the lower branch only five.
To one unacquainted with the peculiarities
of metropolitan politics, it seemed as if New
York city had suddenly become the most
virtuous and amiable community on the face
of the earth. The lion and the lamb laid
down together, the lamb apparently outside
of the lion instead of inside, as is usually the
case when these two traditional antagonists
agree upon truce. Theoretically, the new
charter is as perfect model of charter as
is our own. The people of New York have
again become the fountain of authority and
the source of power. The people elect the
Council, the Mayor, and two or three of the
heads of departments in addition, while all
other officials with executive powers are ap-
pointed by the Mayor, as the mouthpiece of
the sovereign voters whose behest he is sup
posed to have been elected to obey.
For the time being, this cumulative patron
age is in the hands of A. Oakley Hall, Esq, an
elegant young man who fills up his spare mo-
ments by scratching off prologues for burles-
ques and turning an honest penny in the
courts. Yesterday Mayor Hall reconstructed
New York city in wholesale fashion, and an
nounced his appointments under the new
charter. And A. Oakley Hall, Esq, proved
himself, in SO doing, to be one of the most
honorable and generous of public rulers In
his pronunciamento accompanying the an
nouncement of the new city government, he
declared that che would be politically justi-
fed by the numerical record of votes upon the
legislation which bestowed this responsibility,
should he confer every one of the thirty-two
appointments solely upon Democrats But,
he continued, ''the extraordinary unanimity
by which the power was agreed upon appears
to create an honorable obligation to respect
the political minority of his constituents, SO
far, at least, as to reappoint few of his po-
litical opponents whose past services to the
public additionally deserve the recognition" :"
The phrase ''services to the public" is
one of sinister import in these degenerate
days, and so the people of New York have
discovered. Tweeds charter, which went
through the Legislature with as much ease
and airiness as an avalanche glides down an
Alpine slope, has developed into as perfect
and beautiful a specimen of "bargain and
sale" as has ever been witnessed in the poll
tical history of the country. Every citizen"
says oily Mr.. Hall, fought to feel that the
policeman, or the fireman, or the health physi-
clan, who protects his life or his property,
should be freed from party bias and have no
political duty to discharge" So the patriotic
and public-spirited Mayor reappoints the old
Albany Police Board, which stands two and
two, ''but with tie understanding that there
is to be new Democratic executive head as
Superintendent King Kennedy goes out
gracefully, before the avalanche reaches the
bottom of the valley, and New York awaits
the spectacle of an efficient non-partisan
police, with Democratic executive head" p
we have such in this city-and Board
of Commissioners behind him equally di-
vided to give him full swing The new Fire
Department stands three Democrats to two
Republicans, and the new Health Depart
ment five Democrats to three Republicans,
and everything is lovely and Democratic SO
far. So, likewise, is the Department OF
Charities and Corrections, with three Demo
Gratis and two Republicans at its head. "The
other three departments, SAYS Mr.. Mayor