The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-04-18
Tho Solid Mon OF New York at Cooper
Institute and Thoir Endorsement Of
General Grants Administra ton.

We devote large proportion of our avail
able space this morning to the speeches and
other proceedings of the mass meeting last
administration of General Grant and in his
support rs the peoples candidate for another
Presidential term Our report of this meeting
will show that it was an assemblage largely
representing the intelligence, the capital the
business interests and the substantial citizens
of New York; that they fully comprehend
the good work for the city and the country
achieved by General Grant as the head of the
national government, and that the speeches
and the resolutions of the meeting speak
the common judgment of the country,
as far as made known in the recent
State elections and in the conven-
tons of the republican party. A
meeting such as this, in advance of the NOM
nation of the Presidential candidate of either
OF our two great political parties, is an extraor-
binary event but when revolutionary dis
turbances are afoot our solid and responsible
citizens are quick to take the alarm and come
to the front, in the expression Of their judg-
ment on public men and public affairs.
Such were the elements and the spirit and
such the proceedings of this administration
meeting 1t was an assemblage of the solid
men of the metropolis, its capitalists, mer-
chants, manufacturers, mechanical profess
sional and working men generally, who are
satisfied with General Grants administration.
1t was not a meeting of office-holders
i'll opposition to a meeting of disap-
pointed office-seekers. 1t was an
affair contrived and controlled outside
the Custom House, though in opposition to
the late affair of the anti-Grant liberals, or
reform republicans These malcontents were
nevertheless present in considerable num-
bels, and did what they could, in their
cheers for certain leaders Of the Gin
cinnah movement, to neutralize the
endorsement of General Grant But still
the overwhelming pressure Of this assemblage,
inside and outside the building-as pub
lie demonstration for Grant, against small
body Of disappointed and over-ambitious
politicians, ventilating their petty grievances
to the amused and sympathizing democracy
will be apt to have good effect upon these
anti-Grant reformers even in their Cincinnati
Convention.
1t may be said, however that political mass
meetings in New York city signify little or
nothing as expressions of the public sentiment
Of the country; that here not only can the
managers Of powerful political party, with |
the aid of fireworks and Chinese lanterns
muster at any time grand mass meet
ing, but that an adventurer with
new idea Of any sort, or mounte-
bank whose notoriety has come before
him, or a feminine apostle Of woman's rights,
with a little advertising, draw a multitude
Of thousands, and frequently with requisition
Of twenty-five or fifty cents upon the spectator.
But there have been, nevertheless, on great
occasions in this city, from time to time, such
demonstrations Of the public sentiment of this
community as have fairly awakened or
reflected the prevailing popular inspiration of
the city, of the State or of the nation Such
was the spontaneous and overwhelming popu-
lar assemblage in Union square in April 1861,
on the announcement of the fall of Fort
Sumter, and in support of Abraham Lincolns
proclamation calling for volunteers to main
tain the authority Of the national government
in the rebellious Southern States. That
meeting was the signal for the gen
eral uprising Of the loyal States
in support of Lincoln as the leader
of the Union cause. In 1856 the initial meet
ing in this city at Cooper Institute, in advo-
cacy of Fremont, the Pathfinder" as the
first Presidential candidate of the republican
party distinctly foreshadowed, in its spirit and
enthusiasm, the near approach of our great
anti-slavery revolution. And, without multi
plying examples, we need only revert to the
ant-Taminany Cooper Institute meeting of
September last to remind this people of the
sweeping revolution then and there inaugurated
in reference to the administration Of our city
government
As distinctly as that meeting of September
last expressed the Indignation of the honest
masses of this community at the astounding
disclosures of the cornptions and crimes of
the Tammany Ring, this meeting of last night
was an expression of the confidence of the great
body of our substantial citizens in the honesty
of General Grants administration and in the
safety OF all the great interests of the people
under his management of their national affairs
At the late anti-Grant meeting Messrs Trum-
bull and Schurz presented a schedule of
reforms as among the good intentions of the
new party which is to be ushered into life at
Cincinnati. Against these shadowy promises
this Grant meeting presents the substantial
performances of the administration in civil
service reform, in revenue reform, in reforms
in all the departments of the government
and in all the measures thereof at
home and abroad. But with all
the complaints and all the promises
OF Messrs. Trumbull and Schurz, and with all
the reforms which they have undertaken, it