Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-08-31
NEW YORK POLITICS.


look into this complicated machine
and try whether we can elicit any
information for the benefit of those
who, like little TOddie, "want to
see de wheels go wound"
The first anomaly we come against
is that while New York is a Demo-
cratic State (as proved by local cleo
tions), it still sends regularly a pre-
pOnderance of Republican members
to Congress. This, however, is a
simple case of GeyTymGIldering, in
stituted during the war, when the
Republican party controlled every
thing, and, we suppose, needs no
explanation at our hands. The
next point is that there are two Sec
tions of the Republican party and
two of the Democratic party, all
four having separated or Organiza-
tions and diverging interests; these
may be designated as ConkIing and
anti-COnkling in the Republican
party, and Tammany and anti
Tammany on the Democratic side.
We have failed to discover any
principle of public policy which
any of these sections of parties main
tain as the object of their Organiza-
tiOns, the only rGisOn detre of any
of them being the possible privi-
lege of distributing certain offices
belonging to national, State, county
or municipal organizations. Let us
take, for instance, the divisions of
the Republican party in that State.
If not sooner, these commenced at
least as far back as the Cincinnati
Convention, where the pretensions
of Messrs. Conkling and Hayes JOS
tied one another. If not sooner, we
say, because some say that previous
chickering's between Messrs. Evarts
and COnkling have a good deal to
do with them. 1t is certain that
during Gen. Grants tenure of the
Presidency, the whole Federal pa
tronage in New York State and
City was placed at Mr. COnkling's
disposal, and, in this way, he was
established as Senator from New
York in position that seemed al
most impregnable. Every Post
master in the State, with his clerks,
every employee in the Custom House
at New York or the Navy Yard Mt
Brooklyn held his Office at the bid
ding of Mr.. G.. and was expected to
be an active partisan of that gentle
man mt all primary meetings, cOun-
ty, city or State conventions. But
in an evil hour for these arrange
ments Mr.. Hayes was elected Presi-
dent and civil service reform was
the order of the day. There are
those who maintain that civil ser
vice reform was only preteXt and
Il device cOntrived by Messrs. Ev-
arts and Hayes for attacking Mr..
Conkling in his stronghold, that of
Federal patronage; a means of con-
vincing office-hOlders and Office
seekers in New York that the favor
of Mr.. Conkling was neither a con-
ditiOn of obtaining office nor a secu-
rity for keeping it when obtained.
The use made of the Custom House
patronage in New Orleans seems to
give some FEASIBILITY to this view.
However that may be, an inter
necine war came of it between COnk-
ling and the administration, which
nothing seems likely to bring to a
close except the political destruction
of one party or the other. The rage
of the New York Senator was i'm
placable, and a complete division of
the Republican party resulted, con-
sisting of those who do and those
who do not endorse the admiDistra-
ton. From Maine to Texas no
meeting of the Republican party
has taken place in which this ire
pressible conflict has not cropped out,
and the Republican gubernatOrial
convention in Nashville has been
no exception to the rule. At first
Mr.. Conkling, with the aid of his
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS in the United
States Senate, gained the advan-
tage. The officials whom the adj
ministratiOn removed from Office
had to be restored upon the Senate
refusing to confirm the appointment
of their successors, and Mr.. COnk-
ling was again king in New York
but since the adjournment of the
k9rty-fifth Congress more removals
have been made and it seems doubt
full whether they can be restored by
the same means. The Office-seeke:
finds that the gHsRlt Senator cannot
appoint to Office, and the office
holder finds that making himself
very busy for COnkling is rather
than favorable to his reten-
ton of office, and the Senator's
sovereignty is a very limited one
and becoming smaller.
What next? y combination as
as the Anglo-Turkish Con-
ventiOn of Constantinople. An al
lance is projected between the
wing of the Republican
party and the Tammany section of
the New York Democracy. Whether
this scheme is still a reality we are
unable to say, but month ago, it
was not denied by either of the
parties to it. The alliance was made
on the condition of a division of the
spoiIs, and such an alliance was no
novelty in New York politics. The
Tweed robberies We're managed by
inst such a coalition. But how
rould Mr.. COnkling reconcile this
with Republican principles? The
answer is a simple one. Mr.. Conk-