The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-09-25

spotted Tail OIL the Purty-A Leader
Wanted.
The party journals are screaming over the
coming canvass. Here in New York we have
an immense clatter about the convention of
republicans that is to meet in Syracuse next
Wednesday. On one side is the Tribune, whose
editor (Mr. Greeley, in addition to being q
candidate for the Presidency, is also the
chairman of a contesting delegation. On the
other is Honest Tom Murphy, our handsome
Collector of the Port. Behind Greeley we
Murphy we have the brilliant and unapproach-
able Roscoe Conkling. The great quarrel is
over the spoils. When Grant became Presi-
dent he summoned them all before him and
tried to satisfy every faction. But this was
impossible. Fenton wanted the whole ad-
ministration, while Coukling would have taken
a couple of administrations contentedly. The
truth is our New York republicans had been
spoiled by daily contemplation of the Tam
many Ring and the great sums Of money that
were being constantly tucked away in dia-
monds, yachts, convertible securities and
cronies. 1t was agonizing, and in their envy
they rushed upon the Treasury and pleade d
for office and emolument.
Well, our inscrutable and wise Ulysses
calmly surveyed the situation and made up
his mind. He had tried to please everybody,
to make the party unit to conciliate all
factions, to put every peg into cosey hole,
and failed. The more men be- appointed the
more enemies he had. So in d happy and
anxious moment he found Murphy-''Honest
Tom, as his friends for generations have
called him-and babe him to 60 to New York
and make peace among the factions. Since
Grant could not please everybody he would
please somebody and who more worthy Of
honor than Murphy, the leader of an active
if not a dominant wing of the partyp That
began oil the trouble. If Mr.. Greeley, for
instance, had been made Minister to England
at the same time there would have been no
strife. While the broad and rudy face of
Murphy was rising over the Custom House
radiant with peace it was only necessary for
the bland and childlike countenauce Of the
famed philosopher to be seen dawning over
the drawing room circle of Buckingham
Palace to make universal peace in New York
But that was not to be- So there has been
war-war bitter, implacable and ma
lignant. A reader of the political jour
nails would imagine that we were
really in more desperate struggle than the
war for the Union. We have column after
column about Gridley, and Bliss, Jr., and
Murphy, and Latin, and Webster, and
Butcher, and Tracey and tremendous discus
sions Of the wards and districts, with all the
decorations of angry and needless rhetoric.
Thus, for instance, Murphy ran against the
Tribune for some reason that does not appear,
and he was denounced as a partner of Tweed,
a Tammany man, and School Commissioner
who could not spell. To which Tom, girding
on his armor and spreading his wrath over a
couple of columns, argued that he never did
anything as republican worse than bailing
Mr.. Davis, aud that he had as much right to
be business partner of Mr.. Tweed as Mr..
Greeley had to be business partner of
Charles E. Wilbour, the President of the Tam
many Printing Company. This revelation by
Tom of an astounding circumstance that will
certainly embarrass the philosophers canvass
for the Presidency aroused the Tribune, and
we have such DINING of adjectives and
furious nouns that the political journals are
worse than the organ-grinders and decent
people will pay money to the newspaper
carriers to take them away, as full Of vexation
and vanity and profitless strife. ~,
For In all respects, looking over the ground
seriously, we have never seen more dismal
and childish quarrel. 1t only illustrates tho
morbid vanity aud restlessness of our small
politicians and the folly of party journalists
to really write about them. What does New
York care about the whole crowd of these
noisy adventurersP They want Office; they
fight on one side to-day, on the other to-
morrow. And why should the administration,
and those who honestly support it in the
interest of peace and good government be
dragged into the quarrel2 What does the
country care whether Murphy is Collector or
not, or whether he would be removed to-
morrow Murphy attends to bis business, we
suppose, and if he does not there are thou
sand men in New York who would be glad to
take his place for half the money. And Of
what special interest are the woes Of Fenton
to humanity at large? Suppose Grant does not
give Fenton all the ofices-what business has
Fenton with any Office but his own Are we
to understand that all the patronage of
President belongs of necessity to one Senator
or another, or, In fact to any Senator at all3
And is party protesting high principles and
supposed to be under some discipline, to be
driven hither and thither and distracted from
its legitimate discussions and duties because
Grant does or does not give his few places to
a certain Senator's favorites? And much the
same with Mr. C0nkling Why should this