New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-06-26
HE DEMOCRACY md TIE INDEPENDEN1
IOTLR

tOIIH.
awe shall be stronger at the polls this fall
without Kelly than We should be with him.
aThe votes which he will subtract from the
party will be more than made good by the
independent Otcs that Will come to it because
lie has been discarded Such, in substance, is
one of the consultations which the organs OF the
regular Democracy would fain administer
10 their readers these days.
But unfortunately for the Democracy, the in
dependent voters of this State are nothing if
not intelligent, They understand perfectly well
that if the REGULARS and Kelly are out 1t is
not because the former are prominently viz
tuouS and the latter is precmlnently vicious.
The quarrel which led to their separation was
over spoils pure and simple. Kelly asked for
more patronage in the Legislature than the
"reguiars " thought he was entitled to, and they
declined to come to his terms. lie retaliated
by using the Tammany balance OF power so as
TO defeat their nominees for Clerks of the
Senate and Assembly and after shat there was
war to the knife. Wherein consists the SUI
periOr virtue of the "regularS" that they
should plume themselves upon the fact that
they are swell rid " of kelly7 They GER
tainly were very fond of him when the Legis-
lature met They would doubtless have con-
tinued TO be very fond of him if he had not
asked for so large share of the spOiIs. They
reasoned with him during the five long weeks
Of the deadlock, endeavoring 20 induce him
to be more modest in his demands-to har-
rl0nize' without asking for the Clerkship of
either House but finding that he was not
to be cOaxcd nor bullied into doing rs they
wished, they turned around sharply, and saw
agely told him to consider himself read out
o. the party. If the "regulars imagine
that the independent voter sees in their con-
duct anything more than a new rendering of
the fable of the fox and the grapes they are
grievously mistaken.
Another point. The independent voter does
not forget that the Democracy made num-
Der of fine professions i'll the platform which it
adopted at its State Convention last fall, and
that it has given the lie to all Of them in its
subsequent conduct 1t proiessed to be in
favor of Civil Service Reform, but its record
in the Legislature demonstrated that it was
never more absolutely devoted to the spoils
system. 1t protested to favor a revision of the
laws i'll relation to assessment and taxation.
But, to its lasting shame be it said, it made no
attempt during the session to devise any
comprehensive measure OF relief for taxpayers.
It protested to have "A holy horror of " the
factional struggles of placemen," and yet from
the organization TO the adjournment of the SEN
ate and Assembly the struggle between Tam
many and Anu-Tammany was eneIgetcally
kept up at the expense of the public interest
No, no. The independent voter is not going
to vote the Democratic ticket this fall. lie is
much too level-headed and patriotic for that.
He would not relish the prospect of having a
representative of the party that shaped the
course of legislation in 1882 placed in the Gov
ernor's chair. He believes that what the De-
mOcracy has done for the State this year calls