The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1874-10-27
New York Letter.
New York PoIiiics-The Effect of the
Western Eleciions-The Stale and City
Tickets-The Contest in the Eleventh
District.

NEW YORK, Oct. 25, 1874.
MIR. EDITOR: have been requested on very
short notice to take the place Of the person
who customarily corresponds with you. For
reasons which he mad little time and less in
clination to state, he declines for the nonce to
commit himself on paper. 1 may have my
own opinion as to the motives of his sudden
reticence, but it would hardly be fair to abuse
the privilege of the occasion, by ever so guard
ed an expression of them. / shall respect his
confidence.
Writing as an impartial and disnterested
observer OF the political situation, am con-
strained to say that the atmosphere is hazy.
The alterations of hope and apprehension
which have disturbed the tranquility of the
chronic campaigners, are perhaps only such as
are incident to almost every hotly contested
struggle, but they are quite frequent enough to
keep both parties in q ferment. The state, it
must be remembered, is intensely Republican
at one end, terribly Democratic at the other,
and bewildefingly mixed in the middle The
hrst effect OF the election in Ohio and Indiana
was to produce CONSERVATION among the Re
publicans and elation among the Democrats.
The former had counted on the reelection of
Gov Dix by majority ranging from $4,000 to
10000. The latter, without exactly conceding
such result, were very wary of predicting the
success of Tilden. Now the situation is
changed. The Dix men still claim that he will
win, but not by large majority, while the
Tllden men have taken to figures, and set their
mark extravagantly high. Meantime both par
ties are girding on their armor for a desperate
strife Nsw elements are becoming interfused
into the calculation OF chances. me outs rely
upon the tide, the ins upon the alarm which
capital will take at the possibility of peril TO
the public faith in the establishment of the
financial heresies which are championed so
recklessly by the Western Democracy.
There is some chance that this conflict of
ideas will impart more ofigravity and dignity to
the strife than could otherwise have been ex-
pected. We have been literally "snowed un-
DER with frivolous and inconsequent topics.
and matters of real Importance have been COM
p'etely lost sight Of 1t is surprising to note
the number of people who are speculattng with
nervous anxiety as to the chances of Gen,
Grants being candidate for a third term. 1t
is! in vain to point to the fact that the sug-
gestion Of third term emanated exclusively
from persons inimical to the President,-that
he has never given it moments serious con-
there are no conceivable cir
cumstances under which he could be prevailed
upon to enter the lists again-such facts as
these, patent as they are, have but trifing
weight with people who are mesmerzed by a
newspaper craze. There is no cure for the de-
fusion. In the first place the President will
not speak, at least in any more public way than
that in which he has spoken repeatedly-for in
general conversation he has always treated the
matter as an absurdity-and in the second
place, if he did, his utterances on the subject
would be construed in some quarters as having
been extorted by the pressure of public opin.
ion, and in others as tardy abandonment of a
purpose actually entertained. There is no suit
ing the sort of folks who allow their attention
to be drawn from the realities of life by such
an ignis fatuus.
Happily, so far as Gen. Grant is personally
concerned, this whimsical discussion can have
no effect; and one can readily imagine how a
gentleman of his natural imperturbality might
derive amusement from witnessing such an ado
about nothing. He happens to be the one man
OF the country whose measure of ambition is
full-who has no more political battles to fight,
and therefore no dangers of defeat to dread,
who has by undisputed admission the foremost
place among all his contemporaries, and will
from and after the 4th of March 1877, be lifted
qnite above the petty criticisms of the hour free
to enjoy the sweets of private life, and sure to
find his blazon in posterity." So far as it NAV
be presumed to affect the fortunes of the domi.
-.-,'e patty, hn may vary pronerlv reason. that
the hurt or help which can come of such Chi
nese warfare must be ephemeral and of little
The real issues are momentous enough
Heaven knows, to quicken the pulse of the
whole nation. The prosperity of forty millions
OF people is dependent upon a restoration of
the finances to their normal condition of
soundness. The productiveness of the Southern
States can he immensely increased, by making
them safe places of immigration and residence.
The public treasury is threatened with invasion
by voracious lobby and needs to be defended
by men of resolute will and infexible honesty.
The work in hand is of that absorbing interest.
side shows or arguing distractions.
The Republicans have the disadvantage of
being in power, and therefore liable to all the
blame of not having adopted policy which
would have set the wheels of industry in mo-
ton. There never has been time, there prob
ably never Will be when an existing admins
tratlon was not visited with proofs of popular
displeasure in seasons of panic and revulsion.
Ihe pressure of 1887 caused the overthrow of
MIR. Van Buren, in 1910, He had the courage
then to resist all propositions, to galvanize the
business system by expedients of quackery, but
his hrmness cost his Presidential life. All
the dissatisfied odds and ends political, and
non-political, are scooped in TO the attacking
army. The tide flows exclusively in that di-
rection. Fault finding is so much easier than
well doing, and the utterance of complaint in
wolves so little exertion compared with that re-
quired in devising remedy, that the opposi.
ton catches every thing that floats.
Per contra, the state government never was
better managed than it has been under Gen.
Dix. Conservative men of all parties who
consult the public interests and care more for
the welfare of the commonwealth than for par
tisan successes, will tie very 10th to assist in
bringing about change. If Gen. Dix is de-
feated. it will be sure sign that madness
rules the hour'-that we have reached one of
those exceptional periods in the history of
state, when its people have run wild and have
lost for the time being, their capacity to think
calmly, Judge wisely and ac. intellgentIy. If
it should turn out that this condition of demen
tia is largely prevalent among us, there will be
left the consolation that such epidemics cannot
last long. The "sober second thought will
work out corrective.
In local affairs we have triangular contest
for the Mayoralty and square fight between
James Hayes and ex-Post-Master Jones for the
lucrative office of Register, with some prospect
that the latter candidate may pull through.
The Republicans, though last in the field
have made the best nomination. BY all odds
Mr.. Ottendorfer is thoroughly upright gen.
tleman, but his tastes are aesthetic rather than
He is better suited to make stat
ntes than to administer them. Mr. Wales on
he contrary is practical business man, adept
in affairs cOmtatant alika hv fbo bont &C -.