The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-09-19
New York Letter.
NEW YORK. Sent. Il 1HI

OF THE GREELEY LEADKRs-TAMMANY
AND UNREPENTANT REBELs-TuE LEA
DERs PASS IN REvIEw-ooNCERNING THE
CREDIT MOBILIER.
wish the people Of this country could be
eye witnesses for once of a 'Liberal Rally'' in
Tammany Hall-could see the material of
which it is composed, the animus which per-
vades it, and the supreme effrontery with
which the veteran plunderers of the city trea-
sury and the chronic traffickers in State lesis-
lation below about the corruptions (?) of the
National Administration. If in viewing this
spectacle of sublime impudence they could
have before them key to the picture, point
ing out the prominent actors in the scene,
they could take in at glance the grotesque
absurdity of the whole thing
Beginning with the officers, you find at the
head of them, the Editor of one of the most
libellous and untruthftll newspapers ever issu-
ed, even in New York-a man who has been
alternately the extravagant eulogst and the
frantic defamer of the President; the former
when he wanted an office, the latter when he
didn't get it; who has been the journalistic
champion Of Fisk, Gould and Barnard who
justified the attempted assassination of D. B.
Eaton, by the Erie gang, and who, here,
where of all places in the United States we
most need reform, has never given voice or
pen to promote it. d~
sRunning through the list you find, sand
wiched between the names of leading demo-
Gratis of respectability, all the old Tammany
Hall stagers, who have gorged themselves
with the spoils of twelve years of municipal
robbery. The Tammany Republicans, fellows
who have worn the livery of an honest party,
to sserve Tweed in, figure in force. Here
are couple of ex.supervisors, who were
participants in the spoils of that most con-
spicuous of our local outrages, the County
Cours House Building. There, the at
taches of the various Departments, which
Tweed created for the purpose of increasing
his emoluments and Strengthening his power.
Men sat on that platform, whose immense for
tunes were almost wholly derived from dis
honest conduct, while holding places under
the city government, and listened to declama-
ton against the corruptlons of an Admins
tration which has reduced thepublic expend-
iture, largely abated taxation, and paid of
over an hundred millions per annum of the
public debt during the period of time in
which our own local expenditures have swollen
to gigantic proportions, our taxes increased
to burdensome extent and our funded debt
trebled: -..
Can you fancy anything more thoroughly
cheeky than sermon on reform in such a
tabernacle of sin and guilt?
But as if to give an additional spice of
righteousness to this broad farce the home
actors who had parts in it were such model
reformers as Fernando Wood, Frank Spinola,
Dan Conover and II. A. Barnum, not to men
ton number of others less notorious abroad
than at home for 'itching palms" and an
lncurable propensity to pervsrt politics to the
advancement of personal aims. frr
1t is not too much to say that without the
votes of the mass of the men who composed
this meeting, as well the ninety-five per cent
Of democrats as the five per cent of assistant
democrats, whilom Republicans, who filled
Tammany Hall, and gathered in its vicinity,
the great crimes against property and civil
liberty which have disgraced the metropolis
OF the Nation never could have been perpe-
trated. 1t is equally safe to predict that if
the open conspiracy in which they have en-
gagged with view to retaining possession of
the city and seizing control of the State and
the Union is baffled by the honest suffrages
OF the people, as now seems absolutely certain,
the Ring robbers will be brought to Justice,
the city of New York rescued from further
spoliation and the good name of the Republic
redeemed from the ineffable disgrace which
has been inflicted upon it by the guilty be-
havior of the democracy who have ruled us
so long by ballot-box stuffing' and thrived by
unblushing theft. Whether the coalitionists
have not deemed it worth while, or have
found it impossible to divest the fusion State
ticket of the odium which might reasonably
be supposed to attach to the very name of
Tammany, it is certain they have made no
advance in that direction. There is not
name upon it which affords hope of relief in
that quarter. There is nothing in Mr..
Kernan's record which gives promise that he
will refuse to follow in the footsteps of his
predecessor, who was always faithful ser
vitor of Tweed and Sweeney, alike in the
zenith oftheir power, and after their down.
fall. 1t would seem indeed as if they meant
defiantly to aaunt the Tammany banner in
the face of the people, for they have nomi-
mated S. S. Cox for Congressman at large, in
spite of the fact that on the 18th of FEBRUARY,
1S71-less than six months prior to the
revelations of the Times-he pro
a eulogy upon Tweed, Sweeney
and Hall in the House of Representatives
themlby name and commencing
their administration of city affairs
Thus, so far as New York is concerned, we
have the issue plainly before us. The Demo-
cratic State ticket represents the Ring and its
shocking abuses-the Republicans stand for
a Thorough publication of our city and State
poltics. 1t is a serious reflection upon the
virtue or intelligence of the people to doubt
that the result will be great Republican tri-
umph. The speeches at the Fusion meeting
we're tame and ineffective. Many of the min
or orators devoted themselves to repetition
of the vulgar slang in regard to the President,
which has so disguised the decent voters of
the land The coarse brutalities of KilFat-
rick were re-hashed, and served up in all
their nauseating mendacity. 1t really seems
as ii these people were as deficient in tact as