The herald., 1897-11-15
Talkson the Late New York
Election
REPUBLIcANISM is DEFENDED
AGAINST CHARGES MADE BY
Low PEOPLE
The Menace Of Organism is Panacea
for All Factional Ailments of
the G.. o. P.
Associated Press Special Wire.

'ASSoS-A.Su Atess SpCCldl Wlre
NEW YORK, Nov. Ex-senator Thorn
as Plat tonight gave out the fo,lowins
statement:
1t is the plain purpose of those Re
publican factionists who. failing in ev.
cry eftort repeatedly made to control tn,
tepublican organization, projected Setl
Low into the municipal campaign
thereby dividing the -TammanS
vote, to force into the public mind tn,
impression that the responsibility fol
this division attached not to them bu,
to the Republican organization. AnJ
Just as during the campaign they
stopped at no act of treachery in order
to create dissension. so now they ar,
hesitating at no falsehood nor calumny
in order to promote it and keep it alive.
THE malicious Misrepresentation y.
these incurable factionists must not &C
unchallenged. No fair-minded Repub-
lican who will look back over the events
of the last six months can fail to re-
lican organization up to the very last
moment at which the law permitted a
nominating certificate to be filed, was
much more than favorable to union
with the citizens organization. Fair
minded men will remember that when
Mr.. Quigg assumed the presidency of the
county committee he made the offer OF
will remember that his offer was as dis
tinctly refused by those to whom it was
addressed. They will remember. indeed,
that when the Citizens association or
ganized they adopted platform which
was intended to commit its members to
a go it alone policy. This platform
denied the relation of q national polit :
ical party to municipal affairs. 1t chal-
lenged the right Of the Republican party
to make a Republican nomination. It
placed upon the doctrine of -parti-
sanship' new interpretation, and one
which forbade the possibility of Coop
GRAFTON between the Republican party
and the Citizens union.
This was done, We must remember,
away back in the spring and before the
average citizen had begun to consider
what his political course should be. No
body paid any attention at the time,
for nobody supposed it would mean that
the citizens We're going deiibe1.a tefy to
work to defeat Themselves. or that they
could obtain a candidate who would
stand with them in such a suicidal pol
icy.
The Republican leaders, however.
who had had long experience, perceived
its significance and the perilous situa :
tion to which it was bound to lead. 1t
everything which the Re
publican party would do to secure 81
union, and repudiated all in advance.
1t demanded the unconditional surren-
der of the Republican party, not simply
to objectionable candidates, but to i'm
possible platforms. 1t demanded that
the Republican party must say in muni-
cipal affairs it would not allow itself to
be the Republican party, and would as
sert no right to make nomination or de-
fine policies. The Republican leaders
met an insolent charge without bitter
ness or resentment. The found no fault
with the candidate whom the Citizens
union picked out as the expression of its
purpose and ideas. They do not now
deny that they regard him as practically
the sort of a man he has turned out to
be-a vain glorious, self-seeker, mas
querading as a Republican, but willing
at any time to wreck the Republican
ship on the ledge of his own ambitions.
The Republican leaders do not deny
that they were then opposed to the can
ddacy of Seth Low. But they allowed
their opposition to take no definite or
that the Republican party did have a
Just and inevitable relation to munich
pal affairs; that it did have the right to
nominate and it must exercise that
right; that the views and wishes of it's
adherents We're entitled to consideration
and that there ought to be union be-
tween the citizens organization and
the Republican party, but that it ought
to be an honorable, friendly and equit-
able union, under the terms of which
both should have a voice in choosing
and defining policies.
This was the exact state of things up
to the time when the Republican county
committee adopted Commissioner Col
lis resolution inviting all anti -Tammany
into q conference in order
that IL date might be fixed when they
should all hold their nominating con-
ventions, so that ready conference and
harmonious action might be assured.
"The Citizens union refused to parti-
cipate in the conference, frankly assign
ing as its reason the fact that it was
committed to the 'go-it-alone' policy.
Can any honest man, in the face of that
fact, charge the responsibility for dis
union upon the Republican party? Does
not every honest man know that if the
Citizens union had gone into the pro-
posed conference, united action would
have been inevitable? Is it not plain
enough that the Republicans could have
not possibly broken up, or have allowed
to be broken, conference which they
themselves had originated?
THE Republican organization in the
city of New York no less than in the
country districts is still powerful, earn
est and devoted. In the menace of an
other Bryanite campaign factional con-
troversies will soon be forgotten and the
will be Republicans again. -