Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1871-09-08

Il SpCdhOlSj anu III tu0 lCoOluI1OAS W UIO
same point, this sentiment never failed to
elicit the most vehement applause. No
partisan vindictiveness prompted such
feeling, unless it were on the part of sim
cere Democrats, who felt deeply how much
the New York Ring had betrayed their
party, as well as the public. But the out
spoken references from the platform and
from the audience to restitution and to the
State Prison were met with unfailing ap-
plause, because the honest public senti-
ment, which the meeting truly represent
ed, will be satisfied with nothing short of
justice which carries with it retribution.
m From the Tribunel
No incident in the political history of
New York for many. years has given us so
much hope for the future of the metropolis
as the meeting last night at Cooper Insti
tute. In the early days of the war for
the Union, the secession party cOnsoled
itself with the belief that New York City
was too firmly welded to the idols of COM
merce to comprehend a patriotic instinct,
or to sacrifice dollar for disinterested
purpose. Yet nowhere in the United
States was there more general manifes-
tation of a patriotic fervor, more liberal
expenditure Of money, more generous
offer of volunteers, or more cheerful
readiness to bear the privations and suf-
ferings of the conflict, than in this city of
tradesmen, importers and cotton-brOkers.
Some such impulse as stirred the popular
heart at the great war meeting in Union
Square during those sad but glorious days
seemed to stir it again last night, when
men of all ranks, all parties, all avocations
came together and raised their voices in
angry yet dignifed rebuke of official cor
ruption. ---.r ... .-.s, .
From the World.l
The long heralded meeting at the Cooper
Institute which took place last evening
was certainly respectable in point of num-
bers. 1t filled the large hall in the base
ment to its utmost capacity; but that hall
can hold but an Insignificant fraction of
the citizens of New York. Numbers
p1ove nothing; and if they did the argu-
ment could be easily refuted. Nobody
can doubt that if the inculpated officers
should choose to call a meeting, they could
assemble one five times as large as that last
night. nor that the multitude would be as
strong and vociferous in acquitting as this
meeting was in condemning the city gov
ernment. If the question of guilt or in
nocence were to be decided by popular
vote taken to-day or tomorrow, the ma
jority on the side of the city officers would
be overwhelming. 1t is therefore of little
consequence whether the accusing minor
ity of citizens was large or small.
H-s4'. tFrom the Evening Postl .-F "A
The great meeting at Cooper Institute
last evening was an expression of the pub
lie opinion of New York city. When peo-
pie at distance hear of this city they nat
urally think of a few leading politicians,
chiefly of Tammany Hall, and of the
throngs of their voters, largely of foreign
birth or else of the handful of very rich
men, the heads of the great corporations,
or of the chief business houses of the me-
tropolis To them, the former class are
political New York; the latter class are
pecuniary New York and it is mainly as
a political power or as money power that
they care for New York at all.
But the meeting last night represented
neither the politicians who manage our
public interests mainly for their own profit
nor our millionaires, who are of course
tempted to infer from their own comforta
bic situation in this world, that the world
itself revolves quite correctly. 1t repre-
sented q power which is commonly dor
mant here; but which, once reused, is
mightier than all other social forces COM
bined-the public opinion of the patriotic
masses. rhe men whose names are usually
most conspicuous in business, in politics
and in society, were not present in large
numbers; but no man could see the audi
ence without seeing in it the real strength
of our city-the earnest, patriotic, honest
men, whose enterprise and activity are the
soul of its prosperity, and in whose char
acter lies its future. Our young men were
there in their intelligence and strength,
and gave the spirit, the energy and the
hopefulness of youth to its proceedings.
From the Standard
The meeting called at Cooper Institute
to protest against the fraud and corruption
charged upon the city government, was
one of the largest affairs that has taken
place within the walls of that building.
The meeting was not called for an earlier
hour than s o'clock, but there were many
in the room as soon as the doors were open
ed. At 7:30 the room was already filled
even to overfiowing, the doors even and
halls affording no further standing room.
The hall was unusually bare, the heat sti-
fling. The audience itself grew early inn
patient, and long before o'clock the calls
for the speakers were loud and repeated.
When the full glare of the gas showed
the faces of the speakers it became plain
that they were of very different class
from those attending ordinary political
meetings; respectable merchants, lawyers,
ministers, clerks, solid men, and some la
dies were on the floor. The platform itself
was crowded. Peter Cooper, Mr.. Choate,
Judge Emott, Rev. J. H. Smith, Robert
Roosevelt, Mr. Mellish, John Foley, eX-
Gov. Solomon. and crowd of other we'll
known citizens were upon the platform.
Among them ex-Mayor Opdyke, Moses I'll.
Grinnell and Sheriff O'Brien.
[From the Herald.l
The great meeting of the tax-paying cit
izens at Cooper Institute last night was
highly respectable and substantial gather
ing. Speeches were made by ex-Mayor
Havemeyer, Congressman Roosevelt, and
Judge Pierrepont and others, and series
of resolutions were offered and adopted
appointing a committee to look into and
report upon the alleged charges against the
| city authorities.
1t will be abserved that while Republi-
can journals speak in the highest terms of
the success of the meeting the World re-
CARDS it as failure and the HerIad has
but little to say about it. The Sun, the
chief Democratic sheet of the Democratic