The Indianapolis journal., 1893-09-19
TO MAYOR SULLIVAN.
injury.

first elected Mayor of this city, you were
elected as representative of municipal
reform. You posed as the champion of
law and order and good government.
Running against one of the best men in
the city, Gen. John Coburn, you re-
ceived tho votes of large number of
Republicans who feared that, if elected.
General Coburn wonld not "rise above
party" in tho promotion of municipal re-
form, while, for some reason or other.
they were pleased to believe that you
would. Deluding themselves with the
comfortable belief that somehow or
other the tail would wag the dog, they
voted for. you, and their votes, with
those OF your party friends. elected
you. The result is history. Your first
administration was dismal failure. You
had been in Office but short time be-
fore you developed your unfitness for
the position and your complete SUBJ
seryiency to the worst elements of your
party. Instead of rising above your
party, you showed q bad alacrity in
sinking with it, and seemed to find real
pleasure in pandering to it's worst ele-
ments. Perhaps this was due more to
weakness than to viciousness, but it
was none the less indicative of your un-
fitness for the position.
Notwithstanding the failure of your
first administration, you were able to
deceive the people into re-electing you.
The new city charter was a godsend for
you. You had no part or lot in the
framing of this instrument or in secur-
ing its passage by the Legislature, and
for the benefits it has conferred on the
city you are entitled to no more credit
than the man in the moon. Not only did
you not assist in procuring the adoption
of the charter or the subsequent amend
ments thereto, but you have shown your
contempt for its spirit and its letter,
and have ignored or violated 1t in va
rious ways. The charter owesyou moth
ing; yet it made you Mayor q second
term. Coming into force seven months
before the municipal election of 1891. it
soon developed such conspicuous merits
that neither you nor your unpopular
boards, nor your imbecile administra-
tion of municipal affairs, could induce
the people to pass q vote of censure on
q measure which promised so well. By
the time the election came on you and
your organ had succeeded in making the
people believe that you were. above all
others, the friend of the charter and the
champion of public improvements.
This, like your previous claim to be the
representative of municipal reform, was
a false pretense, but, like the other, it
served its purpose. You were re- elected
and given another chance to rise above
your party.
One of the best features of the char
ter, and one which supplied q strong ar
gument for it's supporters in the Legis-
lature, in which struggle you were On
inactive spectator, was that it would
concentrate all executive authority in the
Mayor and make him the responsible
head of the city government. In the
hands of brave and conscientious man
this would be strong assurance of
good government; with you it has sim
ply been pretext for farming out your
authority and shirking your duty. You
began to do this from the day the char
ter went into effect, and you have con-
timed the same policy till now. AL
though your Board of Public Works
and your Board of Public Safety have
long since outlived their usefulness or
become odious to the people By reason
of. their arbitrary methods, you have
clung to them for moro than two years
as dev0tedly as if you owed your posi-
tion to them instead of the reverse.
You have acted as If you thought their
retention was necessary to vindicate
the wisdom of their selection, and while
the town has been ringing with censure
of their methods you have been hug
ging. the delusion that keeping them in
Office was the height of municipal re-
form. The action OF these boards has
been enough to damn your administra-
ton, but your disgraceful alliance with
the gamblers furnishes still stronger
reason why you should not be allowed
to fool the people third time. Of
this, more hereafter.