The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1876-01-05
cov,yuor TiIden's Message.


space compel us to drop out some of its pad
ding II is a mistake for public officers to
spin out their productions. Such interim
nable documents are glanced and SKINNED,
but seldom read. If their authors could
learn that last and greatest art the art
| to blot If they would condense their inn
portant matter and prune away redundancies,
they would make stronger impression on
the public.
1t is related Of some Judge that he cut
short prolix advocate by sharply remark
ing, 1.-THE counsel may assume, if he pleases,
that the Court knows little law" In like
manner the Governor might have greatly
shortened his Message by assuming that the
Legislature to whom it is addressed, possess
the ordinary information of other citizens.
He might have dispensed with his little trea-
tise on the physical geography of the State,
in which he communicates the true but not
very novel idea that the break in tho noun
tain chain that runs parallel to the Atlantic
coast for the passage of the Hudson makes
the mouth of that river the natural seat of a
great city for commercial intercourse with
the West. The relation of this topo-
graphical fact to the commerce of the
continent was stated with an eloquence sur
passing Governor Tilden's by one of his pred
ecessors nearly forty years ago in the elab-
| crate introduction to the Natural History
! of New York, published by the State, and
at that early period it fact of great sig
nificance because internal commerce was
! 4
ton 1t has not the same Importance since
the era Of railroads. With the usual fate of
borrowers Governor Iilden has introduced
the plagiarized idea out of season. All those
parts of the Message meant to be ornamental
are equally needless and unreasonable.
Why should he tell the Legislature, or
tell ANYBODY that our State canals 'are
link of three hundred and fifty miles in
system which, on the one hand by one thou
sand five hundred miles of the waters of the
great lakes, and on the other hand by three
thousand one hundred and fifty miles of the
waters of the Hudson River and the Attain
tic Ocean connects the crowded populations
of Europe with the fertile prairies of the
Northwest, covered with their network of
tributary railways?" What member of the
Legislature needed to be informed of the ex-
tent of the great lakes, the length of the
Hudson River, or the distance across the At
lantic
The Governor adopts other methods of
padding out his Message to wearisome
length. He gives a history of the part he
took in the constitutional conventions of
1916 and 1867, which may doubtless be ac-
cepted as information, for Mr.. Tilden was
not at either of those dates statesman of
such prominence or such promise that his
action in either convention had much chance
to be remembered beyond tho passing day.
But why need he cite it? If his present
views are sound they can stand on their rea-
sonableness if unsound the fact that the
Governor entertained them thirty years ago
can add nothing to their force Why should
he lengthen out his Message with such irrel-
evancies Another source of prolixity is
long quotations from his own documents of
last year There is q long one from his
special canal Message of last winter, and two
| long ones from the memoranda attached to
bills which he disapproved after adjourn
ment All these documents are easily ac-
| cessible to members of the Legislature, and
a mere reference might have sufficed without
encumbering the Message with tedious quo
tations The heavy prolixity of public docu-
ments is such an infection on public
patience that it is the duty Of the press to
castigate it in cases of unusual fagrancy. If
the Governor had followed the advice Of our
bright contemporary, the Sun, and made
his Message short, it might have had hun
dred readers for every one that will now
wade through it.
There are sound views and valuable infor-
nation in the Message if the chaff were win
moved out Every citizen has an interest in
the statistics relating to the fiscal condition
of the State, and will approve of Governor
Tilden's zeal for diminished taxation. The
near extinction of the bounty debt renders
large reduction of taxes possible; but we do
dot see that the Governor helps the matter
by his sneers at the creation of that debt.
Nobody disputes that the faith of the State
is bound to pay it. and there is no other
apparent reason why the Governor should
denounce it at this late day but to
recommend himself to the South as q Presi-
Dental candidate There are other portions
of the Message which are addressed to the
South with the same view Nobody needed
to be informed how grossly the South has
been misgoverned since the war. The Gov
ernor cannot think he is conveying any in
formation on this subject and, as it is not in
the power of the New York Legislature to
apply remedy, why does he swell the bulk
of his Message with such topic9 This
piece Of irrelevance, though sent to our
Legislature is addressed to the democratic
party in the Southern States and is bid for
Tilden delegates to the National Convention
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