New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-09-20
HJLLS ESTIMATE or HIS PARTY.

| Governor Hills experience OF scandal has
been large Ever since be became public
man. even in the narrowest sense of that term,
| he has been involved in scandal. With the
assistance of Tweed and person named Pat
rick, who afterward, like Tweed, be-
came q convict, he lobbied through a
bill egalizing a lot of bogus claims against
the State. upon which he realized $500 He
afterward obtained from Tweed the money by
which he secured possession of The Eimira
Gazette" Ip his legislative service he
made notorious record as supporter OF
| all the crooked bills that were proposed In the
interest of the Tweed Ring the Canal Ring,
the Erie Ring and every other of the rascally
combinations which during the Seventies
proved so heavily OH the people. HilPs theft
of 81 0, 600 from the public treasury through
| Contractor OBren is no new exhibition of
bad morals. He always has been connected
with dishonest enterprises. He cannot recall
the time when he bore good public reputation.
| But he has succeeded despite all this in be-
coming the chief officer of the foremost State
| in the Union and in compelling his party to re-
new to him its pledges of support for second
term and to-day, while presenting himself to
the people as q candidate for their highest trust,
he does not even think it worth while to offer
any explanation of the facts proved against
| him, but, on the contrary, with the easy as
surance of one who does not feel the need of a
character, he serenely ignores them. Now,
when such man thinks he can aft ord to pur-
sue such course, the conclusion is irresistible
that his confidence is founded on the theory
that the fools, the bad elements. and the hide
bound members Of his party are more numerous
than that part Of the population which is
honorable, self-respecting and Independent.
1t is upon those three unpatriotic classes Of
voters that Governor Hill depends He calcu-
lates with entire propriety that his kind of men
will vote for him. So they will. The idea Of
any one who approves Of public iobbery, If
officials /" on the make,v Of saloon sover-
eighty and of demagogy in place of statesman
ship, voting for Warner Miller is evidently
preposterous. Mr.. Miller does not appeal to
such as these. He could not please them if he
would and certainly would not if he could
They will all vote for Hill. lie can count upon
certain number Of fools. too. to whose es-
pecial interest he has pretended vast Devotion
But these two classes combined would be in
sufficient to elect him without the support of
his party in practically its entirety. The ques-
tion is, how many Democrats are there in New
York who hold the interests of the State in
higher esteem than the interests of their party
Mr.. Hill does not think there are many, and
we are compelled to confess that his own ex-
perience justiiies large measure of faith in
the capability of the Democracy to swallow al
most any amount of official unworthineSs so
long as it bears the Democratic trade mark.
We cannot blame him fc- entertaining poor
opinion Of the value placed by his party on in
tegrity. But we cannot make up our mind to
think it so hopeessly and unanimously given
over to all that is bad in public policy as his
attitude afrms it to be. We believe that he
will find himself deceived, and that thousands
of Democrats will revolt against the party
edict which demands that they shall record
their approval of a Governor whose whole
record has been one Of corruption and corrupt
association and who openly stands before the
State the servie and willing tool of the saloons.