The New York herald., 1879-07-28
A Few Word. 1vith You. Mr. Kelly.

The HERALD is going to address a few
words of political counsel to the Hon.
John Kelly, and we give notice that this
column being to-day devoted to that pur-
pose nobody but Mr.. Kelly needs to read
what follows.
The coming State election is on some ac-
counts one of the most important tor some
of the present year. 1t does not appear to
us to be SO one-sided an affair just now as
it seemed to be several months ago. There
is at least fair doubt as to which party
will carry the State in November; and, in
our Judgment, Mr.. Kelly, the result lies at
this moment largely with you. You are in
many respects good man, and large part
of your fellow citizens know it. They be-
lieve that you are honest and that you hon.
estly desire to serve the city's best interests.
They know that you have courage, vlgor,
energy; and when some OF them add
that YOU are a little self-willed and
obstinate they concede at the same time
that your obstinacy is oftener shown in
behalf of measures and policies than OF
men, and that you mean well toward the
public. Now, what the HERALD thinks is
this-That if you will for the next few
weeks act with your accustomed energy
and with shrewdness and straightforward
dash you may yet be able to carry New
York, and carrying New York, you may save
the democratic party all over the country.
What you need to do, Mr.. Kelly, is to
chuck overheard that Old Man of the Sea,
as the boys call him, your friend, Mr.. Til
den. You can make nothing of him nor
with him. He is accounted one of the
most astute of all our politicians. but
unfortunately the aim and object of all
his astuteness is only his own per-
sonal ACKNOWLEDGMENT. All politicians.
and indeed all who are not poll
ticians know this very well. When
he is making platforms. or when he is pri-
vately instructing politicians from different
parts of the country-whatever he may be
about, he is working always for himself.
When he describes to some admiring politi-
cal neophyte the kind of man who ought
to be President it is his own portrait-a
little fattered-that he presents. When
he shows some politician from a distant
Western or Southern State how the next
Presidential election must be carried it is
only the way to elect Mr.. Tilden that he
dwe!ls on. When he bends all his efforts
to the denomination of Governor Robinson
it is not that he cares whether the Governor
is re-elected-it is because to renominate
him is to defeat you, Mr.. Kelly, and this
whether poor Governor Robinson is elected
or defeated afterward. And to defeat you,
Mr.. Kelly, is just now what may be called
a first class necessity to Mr.. Tilden.
Mr. Tilden's characteristic traits as
politician are all summed up in one. He
has never fought for party, he has never
fought for his friends he has always
fought for his own hand. Everybody
knows this, and everybody knows that
What you need to do is to make
this point in his character prominent.
You can afford to do this, because every
body knows that you do stick to your
friends. 1t is o good quality in you and
in all men, though it may be carried to ex-
cess and it might be useful for you to re-
member that man may stick to some
friends too long, with the result of hurting
not only himself but them too. Every
body knows, too. that you are generous,
brave, patriotic and, above all, honest.
The HERALD is far from saying that Mr..
Tilden has not many of these qualities
also; but he was as'brought up under a pecu-
6o
had the disadvantage of party training
under the old school Of New York poll
ticians, whose policy was to use men and
then cast them away; who aimed at a sort
of camarilla, small knot of men who,
whether at Albany or in Washington or
elsewhere, and whether they were called
a junta, or a regency, or what not, ruled
their people, and when the time came
systematically kicked down the ladders by
which they had climbed. When Mr.. Tilden
was learning his political primer the news
papers were all the paid organs of such
camarillas, and meekly took their instruc-
tions from their masters, and with them
such moderate amount of pap as these
masters chose to dole out; and when
the founder of the HERALD undertook
very different role he excited the
amazed indignation of the party lead
ers, who naturally considered and tried to
treat him as q rebel against their authority.
He made success of independent journal
ism, however, in spite of Mr.. Whitelaw
Reid's criticisms of that kind of journal
ism in his recent lecture, and he gave the
people an organ which looked to their in
terests against all party leaders and spoils-
men. 1t was the HERALD whose vigorous
attacks broke down the old system under
which Mr.. Tilden was trained to politics
the system of spoils for the few and obedi-
ence for the many.
Mr.. Tilden is not to blame that he cannot
change and that he continues to pnrsue