New-York tribune., 1879-04-22
am TIE TOETFX.o

II ia the opinion OF Senator Voorhees,, Of
Indiana - communicated to the Senate the
other day in that orators most approved and
effective style-that this country is in the
vortex of q whirlpool. 70 the inland Indiana
mind there is probably no figure OF speech in
common use 50 powerfully adapted to tCrrlfy
and alright as this. With ali the phc-
nomena Of wind, Mr.. Voorhees, constituents
are-as why should they not be i-toierably
familiar. With the phenomena OF the watcry
wastes-as indeed with m0ss Of the uses Of
that elemcnt-they are but slightly acquainted.
Mr.. Voorhees,, if he desired to kinde an cX-
citement on the prairies, did well to sound
the alarm that we are in a whirlpool. He
might have said that a cyclone threatened, and
the men who have stood up before the gusts of
his tempestuOus OratOry would not for n mo-
ment have been disturbed. But whirlpool
is something. they are not used to. Mr. YOOr-
hees says that even " the sailor III Northern
"seas vecrs Off into safer waters the moment
che feels the current of the great maelstrOm
"under his keel" but that ave are in the
very vortex of the whirlpool wherein every
" local privilege, every right Of citizenship, all
" the sanctuaries of home and the ship of state
" to pieces and yet the cry that all is well,
uttered by false pilots, lulis us into sense
"of security and repOse." 1t is just possible
that the Indiana Senator, borne along upon
the resistless tide of his own elOqueucc and
the force of this fne marine metaphor, may
have drawn more things into the vortex than
in his calmer moments he would deliberately
scoopup. However that may be, tits certain that
he believes we are i'll a vortex, and thai
things are likely TO go hard with u.s. No
wonder then that he calls upon his " country
"Inen to awaken, for the hour of mortal peril
"to their institutions is here" What has
"happened in ew-YorL,n he says, Il" has hap
opened elsewhere, and may happen every
"where."
The student Of history does not need to IN
Guire "what has happened in New-York.' 1t
Is a case of John |. Davenport, of course. 1t
is fact so well established that even so
careful and painstsking q statesman Mr.
Fernando Wood has commented upon it as
having historical accuracy that John |.
Davenport organized the ortex to which Mr..
Voorhees, has so eloquently referred f; the very
description Of which is enough to make the
ordinary landsman seasick. He is the tyrant
who has set up the whirlpool IN whose vortex
"eyery local privilege. every right of citizen
"ship, all the sanctuaries Ot home, and the
" ship of state itself are being drawn and
dashed to pieces" He did it under the
provisions Of the odiOus Election laws, which
were enacted simply az restraints upon
Democrats who desired to vote the Demo-
cratic ticket freely and frequently, and TO
count the votes and make the returns
with careful discrimination. Every local
privilege of the men who voted SO early
and so often in 1858 as to give the
State TO the Democrats over an actual Re-
publican majority every right of citizen
"ship" OF the men who wanted to vote on
forged and Illegal naturalization papers was
drawn into the vortex, and thousands of
Democrats found their usefulness at an end.
And Mr.. Voorhees, wants to know, in bis yehe-
ment and impassioned way, If the laws which
make such scenes possible shall remain in
force Against them lie Inyokes "the mem