New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-09-08
fHE 1ocAL DEMOCRATIC REUNION.


There are several curious features of the
recent reunion of the Tammany and Anti
Tammanv sections Of the city Democracy
which expose the insincerity and dishonesty
OF the alliance. and which in the end ought
to render the alliance ineffective for its i'm
mediate object.
The Democratic masses must feel good
deal perplexed. They have en- accustomed.
in "off years. when the fight was solely for
local patronage to hear the speakers Of the
two factions denOunce each other as rcnegades
and political tricksters. Now, when the Ma
tional spoils are at stake and union is ncces-
sarv TO success, they see these same leaders
get up III public places, and coolly, and even
iocularly, dispose of the votes Of the party
lust as so many street hucksters CHIT COM
bne to dispose of lot OF spoiled fruit or
market refuse. The most shameless proceeding
in the late deal was not the mere ceremony Of
the division of the local spois by pub
lie lottery. True, 1t must have been
sorry spectacle for Democrats to
find their districts appOrtioned Off with
out a pretence of reference to them, in
committee or at the polls, for confirmation of
the act. Did no one of the many educated
and independent Democrats of the XVIllth
District. the best in the city, feel in the least
chagrined at the published descriptions of Mr..
John Kelly, Tammany, and Mr.. Hubert o..
Thompson, Anti Tammany, smiling acquies-
cence in the decree of the lottery which gave
over this old Tammany stronghold to be
"run ~ by the Anti-Tammany leader for Anti
Tammany candidates Is it to be supposed
that no decent Democrats face flushed with
indignation when he heard Mr.. Kelly say that
rather than that there should be any obstacle
TO harmony he would not insist on the nOmi-
nation of Mr.. Potter in the Ath Congress
District
But more melancholy than even these scenes
was the fact that these men should presume
to get up thus publicly and assume to dis
nose of more than 100000 Democratic votes
TO name not only the faction from which
tbe candidates were to be drawn, but also
the candidates themselves. Yet it was just
this which was done; and the whip and spur
tn acouiescence I'm the result is that there
must be harmony on the National ticket.
"Next year." they say, In effect, "you can
"6oht among yourselves for local spoils but
"now we must help our Southern friends to
" conture the Nation and get at its bountiful
4. natronage.n We do not believe that even
the Democratic masses of this city are so OBJ
tuse as to be deceived by the false show of
harmony, nor so absolutely lost to political
virtue as tamely to submit to be insulted by
such grossly dishonest and patched-up peace
making. 1t will not do for leaders, even as
absolute as those of the two factions, to prac-
tice too often and too boldly on the as
sumed gullibility or the supposed political de-
pravity of their followers. They sometimes re-
sent the insult of those who claim to own and
control them and to dictate their candidates.
They did 1t to Mr.. Kelly in 1878 when he
tried to force upon them Mayor and some
Congressman they did not want They some
times punish dishonesty as well as resent die