The New York herald., 1875-08-18
The Mayors Opportunity.

The Mayors Opportunity.
We read with delight that the members of
the American team who are to arrive in New
York will have a public reception. The great
feature of this reception will be the speech to
be delivered by Mayor Wickham. Those of
our readers who have been disappointed be-
cause the Mayor did not visit London and
take his part in the great international ban
quet will learn from this speech what he
might have done, had occasion served, in
Guildhall. We believe we are not disclosing
any secret when we say that this oration will
be the Mayors masterpiece. He has been
studying it at his summer resort His devo-
tion to this great work prevented his signing
the fremen's warrants He feels that some
thing is due to the reputation of the city for
oratory. Carlyle has said that the two finest
nations of the world the American and Eng
lish, are quite going out in wind and
tongue. Carlyle referred not to high oratory,
Demosthenic in its character but to the
ordinary wayside gabble which we have on
the sidewalks and in conventions.
Wickham's speech will be comprehensive,
eloquent and worthy of the Office which he
holds Whether it will be planned on the
orations of Demosthenes or Cicero we cannot
say. Demosthenes is looked upon by the
Mayor as the finest model for an orator
Some of his advisers, among them Colonel Tom
Dunlap, have been urging him to model his
speech upon Burke's charges against Hastings
Still others, and among them such men as
Judge Dennis Quinn, have advised him to
throw aside all ancient or foreign models and
to give an grafton in the style of Webster or
Clay. 1t is the penalty of man in the po-
sition of Mayor Wickham, an orator of so
much renown and wisdom, that he should be
subject to this sort of advice. We trust that
he will be above the temptations of initiating
even Demosthenes or paraphrasing aWeb-
ster We want an Grafton that will
live in history and that will be monu-
mept Of his administration. The subject Is
full of opportunities Let him enlarge on
that beautiful sentiment of bosom friendship
which bound Kelly to Wickham, an
O'Morrissey to Hayes. Let him dwell in
eloquent terms upon its beauty its romance
and its poetry. Let him show how he came
into office as 'no mans man," but only his
own man-resolved to be master, not a
slave. Let him tell us how he drove the
stony-fisted, hard headed children of Mullin-
gar and Tipperary out of the possession of
the best offices in the party and gave them to
the curled darlings of the Manhattan Club.
Let him explain how under his administra-
ton these curled darlings can gain large in
NH 10
laboring men from Clare and Westmeath
are compelled to tumble the granite blocks
from morning until night at one dollar
and sixty cents a day. Let him tell us
about the great controversy with Comp
troller Green on the fireman question.
On this alone he might speak for an hour
and might paint in glowing colors the embar-
easements and wants and sufferings of the
honest fremen-their grocers' bills unpaid,
while he was studying Cicero and Demos
themes by the fresh breezes of the sea-
And so rising with his theme the Mayor
might look into the future; he might paint
the troubles that will surely come unless the
royal descendants of the great Irish kings
shall harmonic and give us steady govern
ueut ne lHlSnt appear 10 the lnaSlnatlOn
of his hearers by painting the invasion of the
Yankee Huns, the pouring in of the hordes
of New England to occupy the places of an
O'Brien and an O'Kelly, an O'Brennan and
an OSweeny. Such an appeal from one
whose lips never opened without golden
words dropping from them might give us
that peace for the lack of which the true de-
mocracy is starving. By all means let the
Mayor be worthy of this occasion. Let those
who have business with the Office give him
comfort and peace until the time comes Let
him have repose. Let his great mind have
rest now that he is slowly fashioning this
work of his life into shape, SO that when we
come to report the welcome Grafton delivered
by Wickham we shall say that the nineteenth
centuryof the Christian era and the first CEN
tury of American independence has pro-
duced an oration worthy of Cicero or Demos
themes, an grafton worthy of the centennial
period of our nationality.
Cross and Crescent.