The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-09-27
Letter from New York.
NEW YORK, Sept. 25,

ItbUtT lIOm NOW IOIAs
New YORK, Sept. rs, 1872.
There has not been a conversion to Liberal
Republicanism for so long period that Cur
tins letter announcing that he should go
against Hartranft-albeit he is profoundly 81
| lent in his Presidential preferences-flls the
Greeley organs with raptures. Mr.. Greeleys
organ especially takes no pains to conceal its
transports. 1t calls Curtin the "great war
Governor and otherwise bespatters him
with inky decorations. Here you will find
out exactly how slight cordial will revive the
dropping spirits OF the Liberal journalist.
Curtin is one of those unfathomable myster-
les, Pennsylvania politician, kind of CO.
nundrum which everybody out of the State is
obliged incontinently to give up. If you ask
Cameron or Scott for a character for Curtin
or Forney you will get one which, were it
half true or if you half believed it,would make
the doctrine of total depravity an indisputa-
BILE dogma. Per contra the "Press' and the
great war Governor will set out Cameron
in such colors that his satanic majesty will APP
pear sanity in contrast. ga plague on both
youL houoCo' ooy - lOl ~ 10 % oIesihS oAieiI
these domestic brois should affect the for
tunes of the Republican party or dim the lus
tire of the victory to which Grant is leading
its hosts for the great battle of Nov. 9Th. The
past record of Forney does not impress one
with undoubting faith in the purity of his
motives or the absolute perfection of his moral
nature. 1t is pretty generally conceded-I
doubt if he would deny it now-that he
counted James Buchanan into the Presidency
in 1856 when the vote of Pennsylvania was
cast tor Fremont, or at least that he manipu-
lated the ballots at the October election of
1856 in that State, so that they were made to
show Democratic majority. As for Curtin
very honest and straight forward Pennsylva-
mans speak of him with disrespect and dis
paragement going to verify the proverb that
ga prophet is not without honor save in his
own country" At any rate the word of Ben
jamin FL. Brewster is worth more than
dozen afidavits from either Curtin or Forney
or both, and he declars of his own knowledge
that Hartranft is an honest upright man and
that all the allegations made against him are
groundless or deceptive.
Here in New York, where we have seen
and are seeing now, the regulations of en-
trely blameless citizens made the sport of
malignant editors, and specific and minute
charges of wrong-doing made in which there
is no foundation whatever, all are slow to
believe any thing said by one politician
against another while an election is pending.
The fact that the Union League Club of
Philadelphia supports Hartranft is pretty
good evidences that he is not unworthy
the confidence OF good citizens. The men,
beers of that eminenty respectable and patri-
otto organization would not be likely to. en-
dorse candidate who was so excetionable
as Hartranft is declared to be by Forney,
Curtin & Co. ID I'd.
] Then there is Mcclure representing pretty
much all there is of Liberal Republicanism
in the State, matchmaking the corruptions
of Hartranft. suspect if there is thorough
humbug in the world it is this fellow Nc
Clure. He has set up in business as spot
less, white robed angel of political purity, 1
never shall forget that, just after Gen. Grant
had formed his original cabinet, Mcclure
called upon him to demonstrate upon the
materials of which he had composed it, He
abused Gen. Grant roundly for attempting
ellis, and saidithe experiment would fail, that
the politicians must and would control the
Executive, and much more of the same sort.
Finding himself snubbed for the utterance
to these wholly gratuitous and by no means
reformatory warnings, Mcclure left the
presence and has been a one-term-any-t thing
to-beat-Grant Liberal Republican ever since
He constitutes the party in Pennsylvania and
will throw its unanimous ballot for Greeley
and Brown. Generally, when you come to
take the measure of modern reformer, you
find him just aboutIup to the moral stature of
Mcclure who was first heard of (outsids of
his own State) impudently lecturing Gen.
Grant on the duty of recognizing politicians
parcelling out patronage, and acting upon
the small beer doctrine, that ''to the victor
belongs the spoils''.
The Committee of Seventy has resumed its
sessions preparatory to taking hand in the
municipal campaign. This Committee
was originally constituted in about equal
proportion of Democrats and Republicans,
but now there are only abont five or six
Greeley men in the lot. The remainder of
the Democratic members are either for
O'Conor or directly supporting Grant and
Wilson. This may lead to reconstruction
of the Committee unless the suggestion which
has been made finds favor, viz: that the
Committee shall ignore national politics alto
gether. 1t is a difficult thing to do in
Presidential year. What renders it more
embarrassing is the fact that pretty much all
the old Ring allies, the Tammany Democrats
and Tammany Republicans alike are followers
of Greeley, so that the national road to re-
form leads directly into the Republican camp
YARMOUTH.