The Portland daily press., 1874-02-11
The City VI the Ouakers.


The City VI the Quakers.
The Philadelphians are agtating them
selves with movement for muni.ip re-
forms. A contest is going on for the mayor
atty, the present incumbent, Mr. Stokely,
being the candidate of the Republicans, and
the so-called Reformers supporting the notori-
Gus A. K. Mcclure.
1t is difficult to form judgment, at this
distance from the scene, of the merits OF the
controversy, but the Reformers are either very
hard pushed for standard bearer, Jr their
professions of reform are decidedly hollow,
when they go into battle under the leader
ship of Mcclure. He is pretentious, fussy,
blattering demagogue, whose sole capital con-
sists in windy declamations, denying the ex-
istence of virtue in anybody but himself, and
by implication lauding his own purity as be-
ing of the most exalted and celestial type.
1t is an old but apt saying that ''the man
who calls all the world knaves, convicts one.'
Mcclure was first heard of outside bis own
State at the time of Gen. Grants Inaugural
ton, when he went to Washington to instruct
the new President how to perform his duties.
He got numerically snubbed at the White
House, and went home in rage, evidently
determined that he would show the President
when the time came what an awful blunder
he had mad. in rejecting his advice. He
subsequently turned up in the Cincinnati
Convention, Breathing threatenings and
slaughter against the corrupt and democrat
ized'' administration in true Liberal fashion,
and pledging Pennsylvania to the '.Any-
thing-to-bsat-Grant" coalition by a hundred
thousand majority or so. He stumped the
State, and kept the telegraph lines busy with
flaming predictions of the great things that
were to be done in the Keystone State at the
October election. .
He became ecstatic when poor Curtin jump
ed off the fence int the coalition camp, and
proclaimed that the accession of the "Great
War Governor made the assurance of victory
doubly sure. BE was so prolific of abuse OF
Gen. Hartranft that not a few ingenious peo-
pie in other States, not then aware of the ex-
tent to which humbug and Misrepresentation
could be carried in political warfare began to
fear that the Republicans of PennsyIvania had
made an irretrievable mistake in nominating
an improper person for the post of Governor
But the whole fabric of falsehood fell like
card house as soon as the votes were polled
and Mcclure and Co. were buried beneath
the ruins, r..s
The Philadelphians may stand in some need
of reform in their local affairs, but they can
not expect to achieve it under the auspices OF
politicians of the Mcclure stamp. Fellows
who are perpetually prating Of their own hon.
esty are often the very ones who most need
watching; and when they accept depravity
a. the rule and integrity as the exception in
human affairs, they are not worthy to be trust
ed. Probity is by no means SO rare, that it
needs to be blazoned and boosted about and
1t will generally be found that those who have
the least, are the greatest pretenders.
We hail with satisfaction every movement
which looks to the extirpation of abuses,
great or small, in the conduct of public af.
fairs. But we deprecate the cant and charla-
tanry which is everlastingly seeking for bad
motive in good action, and keeping up a
continual clamor about wickedness in high
places, where there isn't the slightest proof
that it exists.
If we were to credit the jeremiades of the
publicists who screech most loudly for reform
we should imagine that the world was ''going
to the bad" with terrible velocity. But the fact
hat the term reform is being used largely as
mere catchword by splenetic journalists and
scheming adventures, makes one suspicious
of the professions of those who cry most
Justify for 1t.
We have heard great deal of ''Rings''
and profigacy in Philadelphia, but we are
quite unable to determine what measure Of
truth there may be in the current denunciations
ofits local rulers. If any trusts have been be-
trayed, any populations perperated, we should
be sincerely glad to see them exposed and
punished. If the offenders are Republicans
so much the worse for them. They sin
against greater light, and thence incur deep
er gpilt.. But when q Mcclure is put for
ward az the Hercules who is to cleanse the
Augean stable we ask to be excused from
sympathizing with the performance. If there
is anybody in Philadelphia who needs reform
ing-in manners,in morals, in veracity, in re-
spect for the obligations OF patriotism and
good citizenship, it is this man whose ideas of
reform we have had an earnest OF already in
the tergiversations which have increased his
notoriety at the expense of his reputation.