Year: 1860

OEFIEMBEk ZU, lOOU.-IA
The Standard OF Our Congressfonai Re


prssentstives and the GrogshOp POliti-


clans.


ANY person who has taken the trouble to
read the list of names that has been claased
among the aspirants for legislative and Con-
gressionA nominations must have become con-
vinced that the standard of our representatives,
both at Albany and Washington, Is rapidly de-
scending from the scale that was once consi.
dered necessary for men occupying such i'm.
portant positions So great has been this
change that the class who really ought to be
placed In those offices no lonoar consider it an
honor to occupy q seat even h our national
legislative halls. The cause of this deprecis-
ton in the calibre of men who seek those posi-
tions is easily accounted for, and Is traceable
to our corrupt party organizations and the
trading professional barroom politicians 1t
has been brought about through the buying
and selling of the grogshop confederacies, who
control the primary meetings Of our several
parties and secure the nomination of their ia
vorites for Aldermen, members of Assembly
and Congress.


The most busy set Of men in our metropolis
just now are unquestionably these pothouse
politicians, who are at present laboring with
great zeal to secure the nomination of
set of men who represent their order of
mankind for all the offices to be filled at
the next general election. Their movements,
however, would not be worthy Of notice or
even passing comment were it not for the
humiliating fact that they have, through the
apathy of our taxpayers, become our governing
class. All of our political parties and organi-
cations have a combination Of this bartering
and mercenary set of men in the several wards,
who are constantly seen hanging around our
saloons and brothels-men who have no honest
calling, but regular political shysters, living
upon the pillage of their associates in Office,
yet controlling the several party nominations
These men meet and dispose of the several can
didates and Offices to be filled, with as much
ease as drover sells his stock at the Bulls
Head. Our business men have so long silently
submitted to the control of this venal class that
it has become almost impossible to get an in
telligent and worthy representative In our
legislative chambers either State or national
Under the buying and selling of these cabals,
the commercial city Of the nation is in fair
way of sending to the next Congress third and
fourth rate men, who, when there, will be
simply the mouthpieces of the cIques that
placed them in nomination, instead of men pos
sessing the qualities Of statesmen, who are able
to cope with the Eost gifted in our Congress
sional halls.


This black picture is applicable to both Tam
many and Mozart, as well as the republicans
Each Of those organizations is cursed with this
league, coiling like boa constructor around its
vitals, which neither has the moral strength to
shake Of. Their special field Of operation Is at
the primary meetings, where they join hands to
prevent the men not of their own way Of think
ing from receiving the nomination. Men of the
ability and statesmanlike qualities Of Hon. John
Cochrane are their special marks, as Is plainly
TO be seen by the great effort that Is being made
by the clioues In the district which he repre-
sents to prevent his reelection. The machinery
of the primary meetings Is nisde use OF in all
its various ramifcations to strike down honest
and upright men, and for the elevation Of their
own colleagues when once nominated they
raise the cry Of regular party nominations, and
thus wheedle our business men into voting lcr
them.


They are first seen lsboring to secure their
election to the Board Of Councilmen or Board of
Aldermen, positions which they have neither the
natural talent nor education to ILL This point
gained, through their piratical schemes and raid
upon the rights Of the property holders, they
become comparatively wealthy in an amazingly
short time, and the next that we hear of them
they are candidates for Congressional honors-
being desirous 10 have the word Honorable
prefxed to their dishonorable names. A
dozen OF more of these ex Aldermen,
who have been quartered at the City Hall
until they have grown fat out Of the spoils, and
have been q disgrace and an eyesore to the
city, are now seeking the positions of Congress-
men, backed By these buying and selling alli-
ances In their several districts.


A humiliating as these facts are, II cannot be
denied that We are being governed by this Low
order Of politicians; not, however, by any pecu-
har strength Of their own, but through the inact-
witty Of our better class Of inhabitants. Through
their influence our representatives. in Congress
are fast sinking to the standard OF our Com
mon Council, which has been 80 long the stand
Ing disgrace Of our city. The taxpayers have 1t
In their power to change this order Of things
Let them repudiate the nominations emansting
from these corrupt sources, bring out their inde-
pendent candidates, throw on the thraldom that
now rests upon them, and put an end to the
barrocm nominations. There are plenty of
men worthy, able and willing to represent this
city, II they can do II without descending into
the cesspool Of the grogshop politicians who
control the party nominations on all sides.


New York, as the principal commercial city