The Portland daily press., 1877-03-13
Our New York Letter.
The Need Of a General Revival OF Busi-
ness Throughout the Country-Meeting
Of she Union League Club, etc.


clamation so suggestive as this of the present
needs of the country. We have passed through
prolonged and exhausting political conflict
The business of the country has So ffered meal
culably by the incessant turmoil. 1t is time the
people were left free to attend to matters which
much more nearly concern their material well
fare. The surest way to create general aver
sion to every thing that pertains to politics is to
keep up the discussion of them till everybody
is sick and tired of hearing any more. Of
what consequence is it. except to the persons
themselves how the offices are distributed and
the patronage bestowed? The government is
an expensive and troublesome piece of machin-
cry at best. But it will become nuisance If
its citizens neglect the occupations by which
they gain their livelihood and spend all their
time watching it.
did hope that after the 4th of March we
should witness complete subsistence of the
agitation. But right here in New York, the
place of all others most injuriousy affected by
any disturbing element that dive1ts attention
from practical AFFAIRS we have already had a
public m Getting about national topics 1t didn't t
amount to much, it is true, but its projectors
were gentlemen of the highest respectability
and worth. 1t was a street assemblage CON-
vened in Wall street, for the ostensibie object
of sustaining the administration. Now, what
possible necessity could exist for such pro-
ceeding within three days after the Inaugural
ton of new President? With all conceivable
respect for the motives which prompted it,
cannot but regard it as i'll timed and injudicious.
The movement implies that the administration
requires bolstering, which is in itself an un-
complimentary assumption. 1t has not got
fairly started yet. 1t seems to me that it would
be much better way to let it alone until it has
had a fair trial. Promises to support it or
threats to oppose it are equally premature and
in bad TASTE
The Union Lsague.Club was in such hurry
to indulge in its favorite pastime of issuing
resolutions that a call for meeting to be held
on the Sd of March received the requisite num-
Der of signatures. The readiness with which
the excellent habitues of that af1uent organ.
ization attach their signatures to all sorts
of papers Except subscriptions) is in remarka-
BILE contrast with the caution they display in
the management of their individual affairs.
They held their meeting. The customary sew
enty-five who constitute quor um' were in at
tendance. The vast folios of "whereas and see
ing and wherefore were all prepared. Bnt
just as they were about to be launched upon an
attendant corps of reporters for dissemination
to listening universe a level headed member
raised the point that it was too soon to declare
unwaveripg confidence in regime that bad lot
yet come into existence The moment the idea
was broached the whole audience was struck
with its obvious good sense. There was a
hasty adjournment. But on the Sth inst. the
meeting reconvened, and a series Of whereases
aud resolveds If the usual tenor, was adopted
out of hand, nobody taking the trouble to ana
lyze them or seeming to care much about them
| any way. The club had so largely overstocked
the market with this sort of literature that q
few volumes more or less are not If much ac-
count The resolutions oresthed spirit of
deep humility and and ESTABLISHMENT. They
expressed thankfulness mingled with amaze-
ment, that the Republican party had not been
utterly destroyed. They recalled Watts feel
ing staDza-
"Great God, and are we yet alive?
And do we yet rebel?
Iis wondrous, It's amazing grgce
That we are out of HI"
which might not napproprlately be paraphras-
ed thus:
And do we wretches still hold place
STEPPED as we are in sin?
lis wondrous democratic grace
That Hayes was counted in!'
They recounted the sins of the party in q
tone of such pitiable penitence and shame
facedness, that if one could believe their
averments he couldn't possibly comprehend
why such conglomeration of sel6shness and
iniquity had escaped humiliation. They re-
presented Republcanism as being tainted with
such crimes as ''infidelity to pledges" putting
unworthy men into Office (that is a chronic
grievance; the other fellows are always un.
worthy,) ''surrendering to partisan dictation''-
winding up with the general accusation which
always follows, "and other abuses we ought to
have prevented
There was one man present to whom these
extraordinary winnings were extremely salts
factory. That was "Parke Goodwin They
were a perfect vindication of his enlistment
under Tildens ''gonfalon" of reform But
if disinterested spectacular Engishman
for instance-had witnessed the scene he
would. naturally have exclaimed ''what under
the Sun do you stay in such party for? IT it
is as corrupt and as bad as you pronounce it,
why not overthrow it, and erect good one on
its ruins?" Then Goodwin would have
answered as a matter of course, ''That is
precisely what 1 did try to do 1 preserved
my consistency and am quit of the whole
concern
However the force of habit is very strong
The gentlemen who compose the kind of reso-
lutions referred to have got so accustomed to
hat aIns A. I.-s -
realise that there is either improperly or
absurdity in the practice. They are like the
exhortsrs in class meetings, and take no little
pride in confessing how guilty and wicked of
nature they are. They couldn't be made to
believe that the reason why Hayes only
squeezed through by one vote was not because
the party that supported him had in the
slightest degree forfeited its claim to popular
favor, but because they and so many more like
them had grossly DETAINED it.
But all this is now of the past. The election
is over, the President has been naugurated,
and we want total cessation of political dis
cussion. Other things of vastly more impor-
tance claim consideration. The workshops are
to be set in motion, the commerce of the coun-
try rehabilitated, and labor furnished to every
aDle-OOuleo man IN tn6 u nlted States The
panic has left its desolating trail all over the
land. There are hundreds,-I am afraid L
should not exaggerate if wrote thousands
of men in New York who were supposed and be-
lieved themselves to be wealthy four years ago,
who are to-day utterly impoverished. Property
has declined to such degree that it is hard
work to pay the interest on the mortgages that
cucumber much of it, and arrears of taxes are
increasing at fearfully rapid rate. Our unfor'
tunate citizens are casting about for means to
support the costly municipality, Durdened as II
is with prodigious debt saddled upon it in
former years by the wholesale depredations VI
its local officers. The people here are in nc
condition to waste any more time on politics
The same thing is true of all other sections OF
the country. The delapidation is universal. II
is high time that the task of reconstructing the
shattered industries of the nation should engross
the undivided attention and energy of the whole
people. 1t is the first duty of patriotism at this
critical juncture, to leave politics exclusively tc
the men whose bus; ness 1t is to look aftei the M
and LEFT ayarp hodu alqa 6avnto him Golf IN hn