Year: 1874

s'Uncle Dick"


In the Ninth Congressional district the
Tammany candidate for Congress is Uncle
Dick Uncle Dick is one of the charac-
ters Of New York. For eighty-fve years
his genial, pensive, Knickerbocker face,
rugged with thought and dimpled with
humor, his mysterious, absorbed, patient air,
as though the burdens of the world rested
upon his shoulders, his cunning, his sagacity,
his wide acquaintance with men and affairs,
have made him the glory and the pride of
New York, and certainly make him the proper
man for Congress. Uncle Dick first came
into public lite as the power behind Thomas
Jefferson's throne. Since then he has been the
power behind the throne Of every President,
more especially Andrew jackson. Although
democrat dyed in the WOOL and, excepting
Havemcyer, perhaps the Oldest surviving
democrat Of the Jeffersonian period, Uncle
Dick has always held country far above party,
and has been the trusted adviser of every
administration since jefferson. We can
see his hand in the early features
of Grants reign. But when we come
down to back pay and salary grab
and Credit Mobilier, the third term and
the appointment of relatives to Office and
the wild whirl of promiscuous jobbery,
we reach the new departure of Grant,
when he threw himself into the
arms of Williams and Murphy and
ceased to be advised by Uncle Dick. For
Uncle Dick is q singularIy prudent states
man who does not believe in jobs and was
never in lobby in his life. He is the power
behind the throne of Vanderbilt, greater
than Vanderbilt, and if he is not now as rich
a man it may well be believed it is from the
aggregation of circumstances over which he
has no control


Uncle Dick is the original of Colonel
Mulberry Sellers, the representative Ameri-
can of Mark Twain drama. The annexation Of
Mexico; the alliance with Russia on the basis
of annexing the British Empire; the alliance
with Bismarck for the purpose of seizing the
Bank Of France to pay our French claims;
the capture Of the Pacific islands; the seizure
of Cuba the building of new Arctic and
Antarctic railway, to be largely endowed with
bonds and lands; the negotiation of seven
per cent gold loan for the conversion Of the
Pope and the determination Of the Chinese
these, and objects like these. are the gigantic
plans which constantly possess the mind Of
Uncle Dick. In Washington he would become
their eloquent advocate-the eloquence of
Chambertin and Champagne. For while Uncle
Dick is great on Wall street, great ON Broad
IN %1a nho{<a ri,,1 ,ybo
he is ssaround with the boys" studying
ecclesiastical architecture, he is never so great
as over an icy bottle Of Champagne or q cosey,
warm dust-encrusted bottle Of Burgundy. We
cannot fancy more persuasive and convincing
sight than Uncle Dick addressing Carolina
delegation, Of various colors, in Washington
fcasting halls, upon the merits Of the Arctic
and Antarctic Railway bonds, or how to annex
the republics of South America by subsidizing
the Jesuits and bribing the Pope. We want
more statesmen like Uncle Dick in Washing
ton, for good legislation is inseparabe from
good feeding. Rocky Mountain statesmen,
who have never gone beyond round of
corned beet or pork, will rejoice in the COM
ing Of Uncle Dick. He will spend his money
freely. He will never give poor dinner nor
miss chance of giving q good one. He will
make his colleagues such addresses as they have
never heard-spicy, fruity, life-giving, blood
enriching addresses-beginning with oysters
and winding up with coffee. So we say
"All hail, Uncle Dickl" And from the West
ern and Southern mountains the echo will
respond, 'All hail, Uncle Dick!" Our
only regret in supporting his nomination is
that he has no apparent prospect of running
for third term.