Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1881-10-29
THE PROSPECT IN NEW YORK.


THE PROSPECT IN NEW YORK.
IFrom Harper's Weekly. rep, Oct. q.
The result Of the election in New
York turns upon the degree of har-
mOny that can be secured in the re-
publican party. If both wings should
work as heartily as they did last
year, they will undoubtedly carry the
state; but if the defeated wing in the
convention should secretly oppose
the ticket, as Governor Dix was Sec
reilly opposed in 1874, the democrats
will win. Undoubtedly there is
disposition among the machine mem
to let their opponents select q ticket
which they have nominated" The
machine insists that it is virtually
the party. 1t has even been ludic-
rously asserted that the 81 900, repub-
llcan votes in the city last year were
due to kind of organization which
forbids seveM-tenths of those voters
to have any voice in naming the can-
didates of the party. The machine
desires; above all things, to be con-
sidered essential TO success, in Or
der that it may be endured as ne
cessary evil, aud it is quite capable of
quietly procuring ths defeat Of the
ticket, not openly and manfully op-
posing it, or any part of it. upon
grounds OF prlnciple, but secretly
''cutting" It, in order to be able to
say that nothing else can assure re-
publican victory. A careful COM
parisOn of results after the election
will show how far the threats freely
made at the convention have been
carried cut. ....
1t is supposed, upon the other hand,
that the humiliation of President
Arthur III the loss of his own state,
in which he has had the credit of
organizing the victory Of last year
with its 1000 republican majority,
and . loss within less than two
months of his succession to the pres
idency, would be blow which the
machiue would not wish to infict up
on him, aud from which his admins
tration would not readily recover.
This is strong reason for surposing
that the machine will feel it necessa-
ry to do Its share to show a party
majority at the polls. But, again, its
conduct in some of the legislative
districts, as i'll the preliminary elec-
tioDs for the state convention, shows
Its spirit of rule or ruin. Republican
success at the polls, after SO emphatic
victory over the most desperate
tricks of the machine as was dis
closed al the convention, would be
the conclusive proof that machine
rule is not necessary to republican
victory, ana that an anti-machine
management is just as good for the
party. This would be q fatal cOnclus-
ion for the despotic ring that has 80
long dominated the republican party.
1t would be the loss of its last hope.
For, lout-voted at almost every fair
republican primary i'll the state, and
overwhelmed in convention called
in place where the machine could
most readily blowbeat and coerce. it
has still one resource, that of prOcur.
ing defeat as the ground of insisting
upon the necessity of its control. "In
dealing with the vote of 10000 re-
publicans. you had better go siow,'
| said Mr.. George Bliss in the conven-
ton. This was threat that if the
convention should lay hands on the
machine, the machine would defeat
| the ticket. 1t was both frank con-
| fession Of the character of the machine
and an sspersion of the great mass OF
republican voters in the two cities.
But its implication upon the machine
was undoubtedly correct. The ma.
chine would not hesitate to defeat
the ticket for what it deemed q sufh
cient cause, and the only question is
whether it holds that cause to exist
There is nothing 10 be gained fol
republican success by playing that
there is no division in the party
The contest of the last five years
would be entirely unjustifiable Il
there were not real aud serious diff
ference, involving continued party
prosperity. 1t is not, and has no.
been, q mere personal contest. Mr.
iConkling has been a salient figure in
it, and has given name to it, be
cause he represents as fully as any
man the tendencies and methodI
which nearly cost the republican
party, four years ago, HI ascendency
which should have been indisputabl
for twenty years. 1t is the persisten
aud inscriptions at empt to identify
Conklingism with republicsnisn
which had well-nigh destroyed re
publican domination. 1t was the de-
feat of Couklingism by republican
| AoiA Nv SuASoSV sh'
confidence Of the country for the re
publican party. The anti-machln
declaration is that republican organi
zation aud success are not only com
patible with Independence and self
respect and honorable political meth
DDS, but that they are promoted BY
them. The anti-machlne body, in
deed lis no more exclusively composed
of upright and exemplary men thai
the Union army was wholly compos
ed Of pure patriots. But, for all that
the cause which the anti-machin
movement serves is the cause of hon
orable politics. Its success in New
York would be encouraging to ever
American who holds that practica
politics need not necessarily be con
temptibie and mean. Its defeat woul'
mean nothing more than we have III
dlcatad. 1t would signify only tina
the "machine" preferred to see
party beaten which it could not con
troll, in the hope that defeat wonl
be accepted as proof of the necessit
of that control, and in the expecta
tioD that any injury to the prestig
l of President A:thur's sadministratiO
would be overcome before the end G
it by the return Of the machine t
power.
AN INTERESTING RELIC.