St. Paul daily globe., 1896-03-26
THE NEW YORK FARCE.

No episode of the current political
campaign, not even the struggles Of
rival candidate supplied with Doodle to
gather in the delegates from the South,
is as discreditable to the Republican
party as the outcome of the New York
state convention. Here stands the
greatest state of the Union formally de-
hVering her voice and vote in the ma
tional convention to a man whose whole
public life has branded him as an ex-
ponent of the most unscrupulous and
corrupting forces in American public
life. That such a man as Thomas c..
Platt could begin as he began, and
climb to the height that he has reached
is sufficient to disgrace any party that
makes 1T possible. All can remember
how Platt made his first appearance
in public life as the Man Friday Of
Roscoe Conkling. He was lampooned
and caricatured from one end of the
country to the other, and there was
nothing in his public performances to
prove that these reflections did him
injustice. A shout of laughter went up
when he resigned his seat in the senate
at the command of his master, and his
failure to secure a legislative vindica-
ton was accepted unanimously as the
end Of an inglorious career.
That story is now fifteen years old.
and all that interim has been filed
by Mr. Platt with political scuvity of the
lowest and least reputable variety. He
has labored painfully and incessantly
to build UP in his state Republican
machine which should rival in COR
ruptness, as we'll as in efficiency, the
worst era Of Tammany Hail. He has
debauched primaries and corrupted leg
fslatures. He has made deal after deal
between the venal elements of his own
party and that of the Democracy to ad-
climbed step by step until the supremacy
which Roscoe Conkling reached by the
force of sheer intelligence and personal
power is his now by virtue OF low
cunning aid the ready sacrifice Of ey-
cry principle. To this man the Re-
publicans of New York state have de-
Hvered themselves over, bound hand
and foot, as chattels 20 be sold in the
market place at st. Louis next June.
Men like Warner Miller, who has little
reputation to lose, and Chauncey M.
Depew,who is worthy of better things
were tied to the wheels of Mr.. Platts
triumphal chariot md go with him
to ratify, with their signatures, such
bargain as he may be able to make.
Only the most ignorant voters Of New
York can imagine for a moment that
the Morton boom was launched with
sincerity. Every reasonably informed
politician knows that Levi P. Morton
has no more chance Of being nominat-
ed for the presidency than Galusha A.
Grow. Every one knows that it is not
Mr.. Platt's intention to nominate him,
or work for his nomination. The New
York boss is simply extending to the
field Of national politics the system by
which, in fifteen years, he has mas
tered control of his own state. AS he
has traded in the country districts, and
traded at Albany, and traded in all
| the offices of his state, and traded in
cessantly with the ward heelers of New
York city, so he goes to ST. Louis to
trade the New York delegation for any
thing that may be in sight for Thomas
c. Platt.
All parties breed such creatures as
this in the stagnant and ferment-
ing pools of local corruption. Ev-
cry party that hopes for future fights
against them, as a healthy system
struggles against the germs of some
dread disease. The Indictment against
the New York Republicans, and the
sign of their sure decay, is not
that they have produced a leader
like Platt, but that they nave ceased
to struggle against him. No mat
ter whom the Republican party may
| nominate, no matter what declaration
of principles they set forth, they are
condemned in the eyes of honest men
by the fact that, without protest and
without revolt, they have surrendered
their organization and their principles,
in the two greatest states of the ma
ton, to two men, Thomas c. Platt and
Matthew S. Quay, who represent moth
ing but tendencies and purposes that.
if unrebuked and unchecked, would
surely and quickly put an end to free
government in the United States.