Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-12-14
BTHE DO WNFALI OF BOSS KELLY.

Boss Kelly is no more. He has been called
/ upon to step down and out of the Office OF
comptroller of the city of New York, and
has done SO, though not without a protest
The office has been filed by a more accept
able man, though, it is to be feared, NO
more honest than Kelly has been. Allan
Campbell is as much of a machine politician
as Kelly was. He has been identified with a
great many rings in the local government OF
the city, and has not escaped his full share
of censure for the part he has played. But
good, bad or Indifferent, as the appointment
may be, people in general will rejoice that it
has been made if for no other reason than
that it has broken the power of the chief
manipulation of political affairs and of the
ruling hand in Tammany Hall.
For years past John Kelly has assumed
too much. He has endeavored not only to
dictate terms to the Democratic sparty of
the city, but has assumed to control the &C.
ton of the entire State. He had even the
e%ffrontery to go before the national conven-
ton at Cincinnati with an ultimatum, The
acceptance of which he demanded as the
price of his fealty to the party. No man
has ever assumed more; no man has ever so
palpably shown upon what slender basis his
assumed power rested. He fought Gov.
Robinson's nomination, and when ~repudiat-
ed by bis party associates put himself for
ward as an Independent candidate. He sue
ceeding in effecting his purpose and defeat
ing the Democratic candidate, yet he show
ed that aside from the following that his
control of the offices in the city
gave him, he had scarcely any strength.
He endeavored to intimidate the National
Democratic convention at Cincinnati. In a
spasm of good sense the chairman meta
phorically sat upon him when he endeavored
to bring forward his claims. With bad
Judgment the chairman afterwards permitted
him to make a spectacle of himself and to
exalt the popular opinion of his influence
by a melodramatic clasping of hands over
the nomination of Gen. Hancock to the
Presidency. Mr.. Kelly left Cincinnati with
a grossly exaggerated idea of his own i'm
%portance. He was convinced that he had
prevented the nomination of Samuel Tilden,
and that his aid was esteemed to be of
greater importance to the party than the
help of any other man. With this impress
sion he returned to New York and in fact
dictated the nomination for mayor. How
signally he was rebuked is still fresh in the
public mind. In a city that usually gives
more than fifty thousand Democratic major
ity, his candidate received less than three
thousand. He found himself without honor,
even in his own most cherished precincts.
Though Kelly has been shorn Of some Of
his power, he will not abandon the political
field, Blu will endeavor to boss affairs in
the future as in the past. He will. through
his Tammany associations, be able to con-
troll many votes, though he has been de-
prlved of the official patronage he has here
tofore enjoyed. But now that the first steps
towards his debasement and that of the or
ganization he represents has been taken, it
should be pursued until there is not q
vestige OF such a person, politically, on the
face of the earth. The influence of Kelly
and Tammany Hall in the political affairs OF
city, State and nation should be completely
obliterared, and Mayor Cooper is entitled te
the thanks of the whole country for having
so auspiciously begun the good work.