Year: 1874

nomination on the part of Tammany Hall will
assemble this evening The two Offices that
are most important are the Mayoralty and
Registership. One would reasonably suppose
that in nominating candidate for an Office SO
important as the Mayoralty there would be
earnest competition and care in the selection
OF representative men. But the Convention
Is mere form. 1t is an emasculated body.
1t simply meets to record the will Of two per-
sons. The imperial power has acted, and
these delegates only hasten to record its will.
1t is only representative SO far as it
represents the ambition or the purposes
of John Kelly and John Morrissey.
Mr.. Wickham will be nominated for Mayor
Mr. Wickham is a pleasant gentleman, hand
some, manly, with clear blue eye and Saxon
complexion, and would fill the Office accept
ably Mr.. Wickham represents nothing
He is only an expression of John Kelly's
friendship. So far as the possession OF any
actual power is concerned we might well
have for q candidate wax figure of one OF
Artemus Wards apostles. For Register Jimmy
Hayes will be nominated This Office is one
of the most lucrative under the American gov
ernment Its revenues have been estimated at
from seventy-fve thousand to q hundred and
twenty-five thousand dollars year. 1t is now
held by General Franz Sgel, who came here
from Baltimore to accept it. General Sigel
has made good oficer-that Is to say, he has
drawn the money regularly and salted it down,
let US hope, for rainy weather. There
in
for he is German and soldier, and
o popular hero in the German mind. It
would certainly seem that the wisdom which
prompted the selection of Sigel would indi-
cate the nomination of man of his type to
succeed him. But for this Office we are to
have Jimmy Hayes. Jimmy Hayes is rich
man and does not need the Office. He will
be nominated solely because he has transferred
to John Morrissey the affection he showed for
years to William M. Tweed.


This, then, is the fruit of reformed Tam
many Hall" This new, purified, holy dispen-
sation, which was to have regenerated the
democracy in the city, and by that means
carried the State, and so insured success
for the party in the Presidential year,
only proves upon the first practical test to
be another form Of Tweedism. The great
Tammany chief is in exile. He has found his
St Helena on Blackwelps Island his glory
has passed away his diamonds have lost
their splendor or glitter on alien bosoms.
The tiger head no longer glares from the ban
ners of the Americus Club. The Blossom
Club has failed; the summer halls of Green
wich no longer echo to the tramp of his fol-
lowers His friends are as widely scattered
as the marshals of Bonaparte after Waterloo
but his spirit lives in Tammany, just as
the spirit of Napoleon lived in the
reign of Louis Philippe, and it would
not surprise US to see his long pro-
jected statue erected on Tweed plaza,
just as Louis Philippe erected the statue of
his great predecessor on the top of the Col
umn vendome. We do not know how far Mr..
Wickham may represent the personal wishes
of the departed leader so far as the Mayoralty
is concerned It is possible that there are
many other democrats who would be far more
acceptable to Tweed, for Mr. Wickham was
professional reformer. But the principle
which inspires his nomination is the principle
which Tweed engrafted on the gospels of Tam
many-namely, that Office first belongs to
ones self, and then to ones cronies, relatives
and bosom friends.


| This is beautiful principle and makes our
Offices harmonious groups, and gives the City
Hall that same air of affection and kinship
and friendliness which we saw when Sweeny
reigned, and all his relatives by blood and
wedlock reigned with him which we see in
Washington, where o President celebrates
his domestic affections by messages to the
Senate nominating his relatives to Office
which we see in the Mayors Office now, during
the reign of the fond and fondling Havemeyer.
In private station nothing is more grateful
than these affsctionate dealings between
man and man. But the mistake is that
Offices are for the good of the people, for the
discipline and efficiency of the party, and our
ruling men have no more right to distribute
Offices among their friends in requital of
friendly Offices than they have to distribute
the bonds in the Treasury. What is more,
this is the general feeling among the masses
of the party The people who vote for Tam
many nominations-the rank and file; the
sturdy Irishman of the east side; the patient,
thrifty German, who cares only for good gov
ernment and prosperous times-these
know we'll the motives that dictate the
nomination of rich man like Jimmy Hayes
to the lucrative Office of Register. They know
there can be but one motive. They know
that it is q motive like those that governed
Tweed, and which led to his rank and ephe-
neral greatness, only to end In his fearful
and appalling catastrophe. so compact is the
Tammany organization and SO rigid is the con-
troll of the party over the masses that Mr..
Kelly may do these things but how long can
/ L a. IIa 10 otp ;r