Morning journal and courier., 1882-11-23
ThurIow Weed.

| From the New York Evening Post1
 The death of Thurlow Weed may be said l to mark the close of a phase of American 1 politics, and no good history of American ro- | litical machinery could be written which did not use his career very freely by way of illus- trating it's development. He came on the stage very soon after the disappearance from the politics of this State of the influence of families and of individuals who weighed through their names and just as the problem of organizing and drilling parties under uni versal suffrage was first presenting itself to political managers. The sceptre was rapidly passing away from the Hudson river, which had held it from the earliest times, and the pioners were coming in from the western country and insisting on having their say, and being considered as good as anybody and somewhat better. The need of conference, and persuasion, and reconciliation, and har- monizing, and recognition of claims, or, in 8 word, of the management of large masses had set in, and Thurlow Weed was ready for it. In fact he seemed to have been born for it. He was printer by trade, and was actually editor of newspaper when universal suf- frage and all it's accompaniments were intro- duced into the State, although prior to the change he had not property enough for a vote. About the same time, too, the nomi- hating convention of elected delegates was substituted for the Congressional caucus as a mode of selecting candidates for the Presi- dency, so that both in State and federal poli- tics an absolutely new field was opened to his peculiar talents.
 It was field in which newspaper editor enjoyed advantages which he does not now possess. Impersonal or indeed anonymous journalism was unknown. The sheet was little, and easy to fill, and every word in it was supposed to emanate from the editor, who, indeed literally talked through its columns to his acquaintances and friends. The community was small and isolated and but little distracted by news from the outer world, and dwelt on it1 own affairs with an Moreover, the early sense of the solemnity or even sacredness of things printed still lin gered, and helped to make little pedestal for the editor. Nevertheless, he on his part never dreamed of sinking himself in his paper. Thurlow Weeds journal was always simply means of making his voice heard over a wider area.
 Thus equipped he entered into the new work of managing conventions with great gusto and marvellous success He had re- markable and indispensable faculty for re membering names and faces. His acquaint-
  out the State was wide, and at that time, when the art of controlling great masses of voters was still in it's infancy, was unprecedented, and excited constant admiration. He was, too, shrewd and kindly, and faithful to his friends and slow to quarrel. By keeping himself in the background, and never seek ing t.recognition' for himself, while always very powerful in awarding it to others, he never excited anything like jealousy, though now and then the object, as in Greeley's case. of bitter hostility from persons who thought his awards unjust. In the prelimi- nary work of convention, the controlling, the harmonizing, the laboring with the disaf- fected or lukewarm, he was without rival. He rarely missed the weak points of anybody he had to win over. In dealing with persons who plumed themselves on having superior judgment he was particularly happy, for he listened to their deliverances with 8 sort of delighted surprise, and never attempted to dispute them. The amendments he suggest ed, however radical, were thus made very &C., ceptable, and their real bearing concealed. He was particularly fortunate, too, in the selection of Mir. Seward early in life as his political protege. Mr. Seward had force enough, and character and capacity enough, to reflect high credit on anybody who took charge of his political fortunes, and to give & certain elevation to management which had the promotion of them for it's object Asso- citation with him was, therefore, @ distinct gain for Mir. Weed, for it magniied his calling. ! Mir. Weed, too, was strong anti slavery man for @ politician of that day, and was thus able to bring fervor as we'll as skill to the work of engineering the Republican party into power. But his failure to get the nomi- nation for Seward in 1860 was a disappoint- ment which practically brought his profes- sional career to a close. He wept over it bit terly, and never again showed the same zeal as working politician, though he was a hearty and efficient supporter and counsellor of Mir. Lincoln's administration.
 i His methods were looked on with consider able reproduction by the sterner political moralists of his time, although they consist | cd simply in that use of patronage for the | good of the party that had been more or less
 the practice in this State from the revolution. l He, however, worked the system over 8
 wider area, and had larger following of
 beneficiaries and disciples than had ever be-
 fore been witnessed, and was the most promi-
 nent practitioner of the new art. Of the re-
 moter effect of his system on the government,
 he seems to have had no provision, nor does | it's enormous and mischievous development
 under General Grant seem to have been un- ! derstood by him. In his latest laudations of
 it, which have made the public smile, he was
 evidently still living in imagination in the
 old and simple New York in which he began | his career, when officeholders were few and l far between, the revenue was trifing, and 8
 boss was simply, like himself, kindly and
 shrewd p7fnaus inter pares, who had the art l of winning men over to his views, and mak- 1 ing them feel that they all were little wiser
 than he was. Of the brutal, course, silent,
 arrogant boss of our time, without opinions
 or convictions, or any art beyond giving so
 much pay for so much work, he was certain | ly not really the prototype, and yet he open | ed the road for him through the Democratic
 woods