The Portland daily press., 1874-03-03
whom Smith and Tweed maintained division

whom Smith and Tweed maintained division
of, and voice in the Republican party.
When the grand reform whirlwnd of 1871
broke out in unexampled fary, the whole fab
rio of municipal fraud seemed co have crrmbled
into shapeless ruin. Smith and Tweed sent
delegation to the Republican State Convention,
and savored it with such names as Sinclair
Tousey, Marshall o. Roberts and Moses ii.
Grinnell, in order to save it from absolute ex-
pulson. A gang of rOughs was sent up "
as as its body guard and to extort by puliying
what was denied on the score OF conciliatlon
At one time a compromise was threatened
which would have let in both delegations on
equal terms. Had it prevailed the whole con-
troyersy would have been remanded for re-
newed discussion and arbitrament Happily
wiser counsels prevailed. The bogus delegates
were turned out, and the unity of the party
was preserved The malcontents disappe ,red
with wrath and were ultimately swallowed pp
in that hybrid coalition yclepeds Liberal Repub-
licanism born in Cincinnati, baptised in De-
mocracy at Baltimore and which died of popu-
lar contempt in November, 1872.
One would have supposed that Smith, seeing
his allies discounted, his political wiles set at
nausht, would have quietly crept out
from under the ruins, and shrunk from the
sight of his fellow men. But his fortunes
were desperate. His wealth estimated at one
period at 81, OOO 900 had been largely dissipated
by ruinous speculations, and wasteful gaming.
He held his office still and it was fruitful of
patronage and emoluments. He resolved to
keep it if he could. By frequent visits TO AL
bany, by the enlistment of the services of his
few remaining friends, among whom he yet
reckoned that great master of the art of man
aging Legislators, Thurlow Weed, [stll adrot
and powerful in his old age, and by throwing
bats of every description to Senators and as
sembly men, whose tas ties he found means to
discover and whose weak points he was quick
to assail, he succeeded one winter in preventing
any change in the police law, and the next in
getting himself legislated into Office.
IL is not creditable to the politics of our
State that these things happen, but the
truth must be told. One of the means by
which we shall grow wiser and better is by a
frank avowal of the errors of the past. The
retention of Smith was burning disgrace to
the State Legislature. The appointment of
Charlick was still more fragrant abuse of the
appointing power by the man who holds the
Mayoralty by the grace of the Republicans and
reformers of New York City.
The way TO cure these outrages upon the moral
sense of too patient community is by holding
them up to deserved rebuke and condem-
nation. There is large and influential mi
nority in this wretched city who mourn over
the degeneracy of the times, and are shocked
that floral and lingual tributes should mark
the demise of a man, whose whole life has
served no other purpose than that of warning
the rising generation to shun the path Of
chicane which he persistently trod, and which
brought alternately profit and disappointment,
but never self-respect or the disinterested good
will of his fellow beings.
1t is with no spirit of unkinduess that deal
with this subject. My criticism upon this
gaudy sepulture has been inspired by no per-
soHal hostility. But when the municipal au
thorities make an ostentatious display of lach-
rymose sentiment they invite consideration
of the claims of the subject of their lamenta-
tons. Honors to the dead, as well as to the
living may be unduly cheapened, and in
order that they may have meaning and imply
a genuine feeling of respect for the departed,
they should be reserved only for the truly great
and good. Elegy becomes burlesque when it is
applied to the undeserving. ~
YARMOUTH.