The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-09-30
Tho Republicans in tho Citizens
Union.

When the Citizens Union movement was
first conceived, a Committee of Organization
consisting Of two hundred and fifty gentle
men, most Of them of good or high standing
in New York, was selected arbitrarily.
Included among these were many Republi-
cans, some of them gentlemen previously
held in great respect and full confidence by
their party.
The Republicans generally went into
1t with the expectation, If not the I'M
~derstanding, that it was to- proceed on
lines similar to those pursued by the old
Committee Of Seventy, through whose har.
monizing agency the fusion of which Mayor
STRoNG'S election was a consequence was
effected. These honest Republicans Joined
1t solely for the purpose of beating the at
tempt of Tammany Hall to regain power by
opposing to it a political combination like
that of 1894, with the Republican party as
Its necessary nucleus.
The Citizens Union almost from its in
ception, however, fell under the control of
men whose primary purpose was to defeat
such a combination and make it impossi-
BILE. The newspapers which pretended to
give the loudest support to the under
taking, moro especially after it was
turned Into a Low movement specifi-
cally and purely, betrayed their mali
cious animus openly and even eSultingly
exhibited it, by assailing the Republican
party with abusive and insulting epithets.
They were untiring in egging on the small
and malignant spirits ofthe Citizens Union
to fout the Republican organization and
cp,rn oil oIror,ae fra~> - Iool.;n-t ....l
combination us the honest and single
minded Republicans had gone into it solely
for the purpose of bringing about.
Hence such Republicans soon withdrew
from the Low movement, so far as con-
cerned active participation in its manage
ment. Consistently they ought to have
discovered their connection with it wholly,
more especially after Low had accepted it's
nomination, with the threat that he would
run, be his friends " many or few" without
regard to unity or disunion. That Is the
spirit which continues to animate him, ac-
cording to the representations of his closest
political agents, even after the nomination
by the Republicans Of a candidate for
Mayor whose peculiar qualifications for the
office are universally recognized as unex-
celled, nay, ~unequalled.
The Republicans remaining in the Citl-
Zens' Union, therefore, have become marked
men, and the reputation fastened to them
will be intolerable by honorable men if they
do not at nee use their influence to bring
about the retirement of Low as a disturb
ing force and a Tammany ally, and, failing
in the effort, do not themselves retire from
the Citizens Union and repudiate it as a
public enemy.
Take, for instance, Mr.. CHARLES STEW
ART SMITH, the Vice-President of the Ex-
ecutive Committee of the concern and in
the absence Of Mr.. CUTTING its acting
President. He Is a Republican of long
standing. Is he going to lead in an
assault on the distinguished candidate
Of his party simply because he is a Re-
publican candidate2 Mr.. SMITH must
hold Gen. TRACY in high honor as a man,
and is he going to fight against him solely
because he is a loyal Republican, as he was
a brave and loyal soldier of his country 2
Are we going to see Mr.. CHARLES STEWART
SMITH charging upon Gen. TRACY at the
head of the bitterest enemies Of the Re-
publican party2 Is he going to smirch his
honorable reputation by joining in a move
ment insidiously undertaken in the interest
of Organism and gleefully welcomed by
Tammany as an assurance of victory for it2
We do not believe it OF Mr.. CHARLES
STEWART SMITH or of any honorable and
self-respecting Republican who was allured
Into the Low movement, now demonstrated
to be hostile to the interests of good govern
ment and conducive only to the triumph of
Organism in the Greater New York, and
hence contributory to its purpose of con-
trolling the Congress in 1898 and the
whole Federal Government In 1900.
1t is a big responsibility that now rests
on Republicans in the Citizens Union.
Unless forthwith they make the with
drawal OF SETH Low a condition of their
remaining in it, their names will receive a
disgraceful distinction and the stain will
be ineradicable.