Year: 1875




and which enabled that monumental scoun-
drel to plunder the public treasury. As we
have said all along, the Presidential canvass
is largely involved in the vote Of Tuesday.
III the democratic party means to impose the
Tammany Hall discipline upon the country
1T will invite defeat as decisive as that
which General Grant inflicted upon
Mr.. Greeley The gravest burden which
Mr.. Greeley had to bear in that canvass was
Tammany Hall Thousands OF democrats
throughout the country, who respected Mr..
Greeley and who would gladly havesupported
him for the Presidency, struck him on elec-
tion day because behind him they saw the
support OF an organization which was in
violation Of all the cherished traditions Of
their party. The country has seen that
Tammany Hall took its rise in secret
order that its discipline was absolute that
it claims to control the votes of every office
holder in New York, from the chiefs Of
bureaus down to the poor laborer ON the
boulevards that it has destroyed civil
service; that it has filled every city Office
with vassals and hirelings, and not with
Independent, conscientious public servants,
who feel that they hold their places
during good behavior. The democratic party
throughout the country is based upon tradi-
tions with which Tammany Hall has no
sympathy, and honest democrats in this
city, therefore, in combating Mr.. Kelly do
not make personal war upon him do not
deny him his claims to respect as citizen
and counsellor in the party. They contend
that the party is more than man that
1t should be reorganized upon true
democratic principles, the glorious prin-
ciples Of popular sovereignty which the
great Douglas made a controlling idea Of
true democracy and above all things, that
now, when they are beginning to prepare for
the Presidential canvass, democrats should
be invited into its ranks and should
be asked to act in harmony, and not be
driven ont by an inside committee Of terror
lists like the Committee of Safety during the
French Revolution, who sent to the guillotine
every Frenchman who ventured to criticise
the absolute sway Of Robespierre.


We shall be glad to see the canvass at an
4
marked with the acrimony and bitterness Of
the present. This is due wholly to the
leaders Of Tammany Hall. They have con-
Quoted their contest with ferocity that is
appalling even in our American politics. On
the other hand the opponents of Tam
many Hall deserve credit for their
fairness, for their general moderation, and
for their disinclination to retort upon
Mr. Kelly and his followers the ISLANDERS
used against them. This ferocity on the
part Of Tammany Hall is now seen to have
been an act Of great weakness. No party is
strong when it can only succeed by vitupera-
ton. When the battle is over, whichever
way it may 60, when the leaders Of Tam
many Hall come to think calmly over the
events Of the past few weeks, they will see
the wisdom Of the lessons which this strife
teaches. Whichever way the contest ends,
we think there will be an end Of this
dominant, aggressive and cruel cabal. The
masses of the New York democracy will find
their true leadership in themselves, in a con-
vention representing their wishes, embody-
ing the glorious truth Of popular sovereignty,
in directory embracing democrats Of all
opinions in men like Herman and Seymour
and OConor and Tilden and Hackett, and
not in one man power whose supremacy is
based upon the prescription Of every inde-
pendent member Of the party and the sup
preston Of all freedom Of thought and
action.