Year: 1871

- 80 Voe4UO4 hOH A0tOs
The democracy Of the Empire State stand
to-day In new and most extraordinary atti-
tude before the people Of the State and of the
country at large. This s'new departure" is
one Of the most remarkable events in all the
history of American politics. In its causes
and their immediate consequences we have
nothing to compare with it in all the strange
vicisstudes of our controlling party rings,
Juntas or regencies of the past, and it is pro-


bable that we shall have nothing to compare
with 1t in the future. As far as it goes the


collapse of Tammany may be compared with


the late collapse of the French empire, and for


all practical purposes the fall of Mr.. Tweed


may be likened to the fall of Napoleon the
Third but with this differe0ce-that while


for Napoleon there is the prospect of restor-


alton, for s'the Boss" there is not the ghost of


q chance. Politically he is dead as Julius


Cesar, and around him his late all-powerful


Tammany 'sRing" has wilted like Jonah's


gourd vine over the head OF the faithless


prophet Tammany Hall itself is destroyed


and superseded, and the Independent Assem-
bly, district takes its place.


Had this Rochester State council assembled
| on the Fourth Of July last the edicts of Tam


many would have been the proceedings of the
Convention, ss the DEGREES Of Tammany were
the acts of the Legislature of last winter The
Tammany junta had risen not only to the


absolute control Of the party in the State and
the State government, but had assumed the
position of tho 'sking maker" in reference to
the Presidential succession; for there were


none to call her power to account. The fifty,
sixty or eighty thousand democratic majority of


this city, as the occasion might require, which
secured the State, was in the hands of Tam


many, and the vote of the State was the basis
Of all the Presidential hopes and calculations


of the national democracy. Hence the COM


manding power and prestige Of Tammany as


the great central nucleus and base of opera


tions of the party. What, then, is the pros
pect to the party in the State or the nation
| with Tammany thrown out Of the Rochester


Convention, with all her electioneering appli-


ances taken from her hands, and with the
democracy of this city all adrift? At the first
glance it would appear that the State must be
carried by the republicans by an overwhelming
majority, in spite Of all the petty Custom
House delections of Fenton, Greeley and Com
pany, and that in the Presidential contest Gen.
eral Grant will be enabled to walk over the
course.


But in q closer view of the new position
taken by this Rochester Convention we find
that it is the strongest possible position that
could have been chosen for the party. It de-
taches the party from the corruptons and the
control Of Tammany; it does all that could be
done to relieve the party from the bad
odor into which Tammany has fallen,
and it places the party upon
sound and popular platform Of mu-
nicipal reorganization. Disorganized, there
fore, as the party is in this city, and de-
moralized as it must necessarily be to some
extent throughout the State, it yet possesses


State ticket and platform calculated to har-
vember election. We incline 10 the opinion,
therefore, that the democrats will hold their
own, and perhaps more than their own, in the


'srural districts" and that their losses In the
city will hardly be felt in the Legislature.
They may lose their State ticket by q consid-
cradle vote with the loss of their usual over
whelming city majority but throughout the
country, on this new departure of reform, the
loss of the State will be neutralized, as
cause Of encouragement, by the release of
the party from the dead weight Of Tammany
Hall.


The overthrow of Tammany is great point
gained TO the democratic party, looking to
the future. The advantages will hardly be
apparent in 1879; but they will enable the
party, as on the new amendments to the con-
stitution, to fight the republicans on equal
ground in 1876. Their little delusive victory
in New Hampshire last March was Bull Run
victory to the democrats. It brought out the
copperheads Of the North and JEFF Davis in
the South in glori6cation of the event as the
beginning of revolution which would restore
the constitution az 1t was under Buchanan.
Thus the old Union party of the war was
reused once more from its slumbers, and in
the April Connecticut election all this demo-


cratic New Hampshire fat was cast into the


fire. Then came Mr.. Vallandigham with his
s'new Departure" accepting ''the constitution
as it is" but he came too late to turn back


the popular tide for 1871 or 1872 on the issues
Of the war revived by JEFF Davis.


There was hopeful celebration of the
Fourth Of July by the sTammany Society of
the Columbian Order" but next in order
came that unfortunate conflict of democratic


authorities on the right Of Orangemen to
parade in our city streets. That affair of
itself created an ominous muttering Of public
opinion through all the length and breadth of
the land against the rule of Tammany; but all
this has since been thrown out of sight by


the developments Of the astounding fnancier-
ing Of the Tammany ''Ring." These develop