Year: 1874




the promptimde he showed when, as Secretary
OF the Treasury, he directed that whoever
should attempt to haul down the Ameri-
can flag should be shot on the spot The
unfortunate dilemma into which our NUM-
cipal affairs have thus been brought by the
misnamed reform movement will have one
wholesome effect if it explodes the delusion
that there can be any better method of govern
ment in free country than by responsible
political parties. Party lines will again be
strictly drawn in this city, and for some years
to come. Until recent lessons have been for
gotten there will be mo respectable attempt to
secure efficient honesty by loosenlng party
ties and confusing party responsibility Our
municipal administration has never sig
nany failed to command public respect
under the misguided attempts to separate it
from party politics. Tweed was damned to
everlasting fame" by his connection with the
old Board of Supervisors The stupendous
disclosures of 1871 msrely unveiled the in
iquities perpetrated by that Board. The
swindling accounts had its sanction and were
ordered to be paid by its vote. Now, what
was the organization of that corrupt concerns
II was a strict no-party organization, an act
of the Legislature passed in 1857 dividing the
members of that body equally between the
two political parties in the pretended interest
of fairness aud purity. 1t was said that
Board consisting of six democratic and six re-
publican supervisors would be so equally bal
anced that neither party could parvert its ac-
ton to partisan ends overlooking this great
danger that small knot of men thus shielded
from party vigilance and criticism would
abuse their powers to enrich themselves by
cheating the city. That no-party Board be-
gan by hunting small game Success in
creased its boldness, and the building Of
the Harlem Bridge and the New Court House
! furnished occasions for swindles of constantly
growing magnitude until the corruption be-
| came at last gigantic. But it was all direct
consequence OF separating a great money
spending and debt-incurring branch of gov
ernment from party politics. The reform
movement which followed is an equally con-
spieuous failure of the same kind


If Mayor Havemeyer had been elected by
one of the great political parties he could not
have committed the series of blunders and fol-
lies which have brought him to the verge of
suspension and removal Party ties are
| strong curb on personal whims and crotchets.
Party leaders are generally shrewd men and
practised judges of what public opinion will
bear. Their habit of acting together and doing
nothing without mutual consultation 81 YES them
effective control over such members of the
| organization as they permit to hold Office,
since important official acts are seldom done
without the advice and concurrence Of
trusted leaders. When to this parties are
animated by a high purpose, and will select
| the best men for nomination, such men, let
us say. as John K. Hackett our present exem-
plary Recorder, and William Butler Duncan,
they become necessary elements OF republican
government. True reform consists in the
reform of parties, for there can be no
reform without party. There Is great
safety in party arrangement against the
individual folly of ofice-holders. 1t is
the beneficial function of political parties
to keep sharp eye on each others mistakes.
and discredit their opponents by exposing
and magnitying their blunders and corrup-
tions and making capital of them in the elec-
tons. When parties are so nearly balanced
that a small proportion Of the votes will
change the result OF an election their mutual
watchtulness is the surest check on abuses of
power; and it is accordingly a great public
misfortune for one party to be SO overwhelm-
ingly strong as the republican party has been
for many years In the nation and as the
democratic party was in this city previous to
the overthrow OF the Ring But even when
parties are unequally matched there is no
safer way than to keep party lines strictly
drawn and to hold each responsible to the
people for its discharge of public trusts.
When strong party abuses its power,
as strong parties commonly do, its opponents
only need to unite patience with vigOr to build
up their own organization on the ruins OF
/ their erring antagonist. Weak as The tory
| party of England has been a great part Of the
time during the last twenty years it is now in
possession of the government in consequence
OF its persistent steadiness. The democratic
party OF this country never made a greater
mistake than when it accepted the candi-
date of the Cincinnati Convention in 1872
and dishonored and Disguised the old
party pride Had it succeeded with so
pronounced republican as Greeley
as its candidate it might have had as
unfortunate an experience as has befallen
the republicans of this city, who united
with the so-called reformers to elect Mr.. Have
meyer OF course neither Greeley nor any
other able and sane man could have been as
crotchety and foolish as poor Havemeyer I;
but the circumstances of his election had he
been elected and lived, would have freed him
from responsibility to the democratic leaders,
who would probably have been kept in such q
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