New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-05-29
Rack INTO THE rom"

I, is a circumstance worthy of note and per-
hans of some significance that whenever
prominent public man who came over ilOm
the Democratic party during the war returns
To what his early associates might call his
" first love-" but his later ones describe more
pointedly as his "wallow in the mirc he
never stops at any Of the halfway houses set
up by the class known ~ Democratic Reform
ers-likc tie County Democracy for instance
but plungcs bodily into the arms OF the tooth
less old crone that inhcrts all the traditions
of the party for good or l-lammany Hail.
There are not many instances to he sure but
Tammany makes the most of such AZ there
are. When General Daniel L. Scklcs year
or two ago made mp his mind after discovering
from careful search that his manager was empty,
to go back TO the old party IN the hope OF
oats, he did not stop an instant with the new
tangled County Democracy or any other OF the
-Tammany organizations but marched
straight by them ali into the old Wigwam. Tam
many did not nominate him Immediately for
any Of the Offices he was willing 10 take, but
the sachems and chiefs and sagamOrcs seated
him ON the platform and held pow-w0 over
him, while he expressed his great joy at being
once again in his old home. General Butler
likewise goes way over, if we may believe the
statement of Mr.. John Kelly. 1t is announced
that the "long talk at the next Tammany
Hall Fourth of July celebration will be given
by Governor Butler.
In making the announcement Mr.. Kelly re-
marked that Governor Butler had been
Democrat before the war and member Of the
Tammany Society; that his separation from the
party was due TO causes which had cstranged
many good Democrats but that he was glad to
welcome the Governor " back into the fold"
So the Tammany Society will Kill two birds
with one stone on Independence Day by cele-
brating the day and at the same time rejoicing
over the return OF General Butler to the fold.
The names of the short takers have not been
announced, but if the Committee OF Arrange
mcnts have any sense of the fitness of things
Mr. Samuel Cox will be one of them 1t will
be in the very heart of fly time" which
Governor Butler has heretofore set down IN
one of his most successful mOtS as Mr.. Cox's
own and appropriate season. But whoever
makes the short talks, the long talk cannot
fail to be entertaining and instructive. For
Governor Butler. returning and being wei
coined back to the fold under such auspicious
conditions, will be put upon his mettle to cx-
ercisc his highest gifts. Naturally he will
"recal thousand heavy times during the
wars" of Huuker and Barnburner OF "Nc-
braslar and "Anti- Nebraska Democracy,
of Douglas and Breckenridge. What MEM
cries he will call up of the old times when he
was a member of the Tammany Society. of
the last mOCratic National Convention
when he voted with mOnOtonOus persistence
for jefferson Davis and contributed so largely
to the disruption of the party. And what a
story he can tell of all the intervening years,
of how he has subsstcd on the enemy, harassed
and disturbed them from the inside,
brought them into i'll repute, and how
having done more than any other living per-
son to give them bad name, and
having outlived his usefulness in that direction,
he has come back to the party he has served
so much better than he ever could if he had
remained in the fold. All! No man ever came
back to Tammany with such placer-such
bonanza, ndeed-of experiences.
Back into the fold. "Well, well, having
WELCOMED him-and welcomed him on he
Fourth of July-and given him the great
"hOnOr of the OCCASION tho Long Talk =
"what shall we do with hint Can we
dismiss him as we did Sickles, with just the
"hOnOr of recognition as a returned wanderer.
"Or-well, let lis come to the real question
What can he do for rs ?" These are the
reflections of the Tammany mind. The Tam
many people know it. Governor Butler has
been too long in politics not to know it, And
each knows that the primal consideration in
Democratic politics is tho greatest good of the