Year: 1871

Tho Theory Or Political Refsrn asa che
Practice Of Pretended Referners.


In bis letter declining the nomination Of the
democratic reformers for Assemblyman
Charles O'Conor advises all honest citizens
throughout the State to lay aside party in
terests and affiliations and, with singleness Of
purpose, to devote themselves at the ensuing
election to the choice of sound lawgvers as
the only peaceful remedy for existing or inn
pending evils, "a corrupt majority in
our Legislature possesses vastly more
power than the English Parliament"
says Mr.. O'Conor ssfew, feeble and
utterly inefficient against robbery Of
the public treasure are the restraints of our
fundamental law, and such majority can
render practically powerless the judiciary and
the Executive" If the warning should be
needed and the advice followed we might
hope for return to the days when the Van
Burens, Marcy, Wright Bouck and Young
were the leading politicians of the State; for,
as Charles O'Ccnor truly says, ''if for even
single year majority Of incorruptible men





measures of relief might be initiated,
and such beginning would be the
dawn of hope for our city and for the
cherished Institutions of our, republic" But,
unfortunately, sel6shness aad corruption have
so eaten into our political system that the
people cannot expect honest aid in reform
from any existing party organization. The
cry raised occasionally against official dis
honesty is hit up and echoed by all the
struggling cliqnes aud factions that have their
own interests to promote and their own
schemes to carry out and in tn end those
earnest men who have sincerely desired to
effect reformation in the government find
themselves detached from one set Of political
knaves only to be fastened to the chariot
wheels of another. n.8aa4s 8.Ula ggs1 r3


The present movement against our city
pcculators is case in point. The people,
startled and indignant a! the conclusive
evidences of the unfaithfulnsss of some Of
their public officers, were ripe for such
political revolution as might have swept the
dishonest officials from power. But the popu-
lar uprising was hampered and checked by
the intrigues of politicians, and soon degen-
Grated into mere scramble of outside cliques,
ward clubs and individual adventurers for
Office There was no direct honesty Of pur-
pose in the movement-no desire to bring the
guilty to speedy accounting. The object of
those who managed TO control II was to raise
as much excitement as possible and to feed
the raIolic with sensational accounts, day after
day, until after election. The only offices
having any direct bearing upon the New York
municipal question are the Judgeship Of the
Supreme Court, the Senatorships and the Mem
bers of Assembly. For the former of these
the reformers overlooked the names Of
the many eminent jurists and distinguished
citizens who were at their command, and put
in nomination respectable lawyer who had
enlisted in the cause, it is alleged, in consid-
Grafton of heavy fee, and who no doubt
hoped to be further rewarded with the prize
he has obtained. For legislative offices we
find the reformers trading and bargaining
with all the factions notorious in the several
districts; and while some good nominations
have been made, enough of the vile
element of the ward politician and the
professional ofice-seeker has crept in to taint
the whole batch of nominees. A party that
unfurls the banner of legislative reform should
not allow itself to uphold a single questiona-
BILE candidate for Senate or Assembly yet we
find the Committee Of Seventy the open sup
porters of ex-Sherif O'Brien, the original or
ganizer of the repeaters, and, probably, the
most INSCRIPTIONS politician in the length and
breadth of New York, not even excepting
Tweed. The same tamperng with corrupt men
is found throughout the State on the part of
the organization alleged to be opposed to Tam
many, and the advice given by Mr.. O'Conor
is unheeded. At one end, in Chautauqua
county, NJ P. Bemus, whose record is noto-
rious, receives the republican nomination for
Assembly, and at the other end. in Queens
county, L. B. Prince, an old member of the
Assembly grinding committee, the most mon
strous instrument of legislative corruption, is
supported by republicans for Assembly,
although his opponent Edward A. Lawrence,
has been known all his public life as relentless
enemy of Tammany. The truth is, there is
no choice between the present political organi-
cations; one is as corrupt, unreliable and ras-
cally as the other. Both are under the con-
troll of dishonest men, who make politics
profession for the sake of the profits they may
realize by unscrupulousness and peculation.


The loudest political denouncers of Tammany
to-day have their price, and would become
allies of the "Ring" tomorrow if that much
denounced circle would regard them as worth
buying. There is only one hope for the
thorough publication of our body politic and
the return of parties to the integrity and Pc
cuniary honesty that existed before the days
of Fernando Wood, and that is in the entire
wiping out of all the old organizations, to-