Year: 1873

From President Grant to Mayor Have


meyer-A Sketch for students OF Per-


sonal Government.


There must be something very infectious in
the new grasping after personality in govern
ment, which is the ominous sign of the times


1t may be mere imitativeness that causes the
lesser to follow the lead of the greater, or it
may be merely that the greater has first
OWNED whittier the currents of the age are
tending, and the lesser discovers later that he
can profit by the currents also. Thus the
example of the Emperor Napoleon l. might be
said to have produced tho Emperor Faustin l.


of Hayti, as well as Napoleon iii. of France


On the other hand, the impartial historian will
urge that citizen Louis Napoleon Bonaparte
and citizen Soulouque, each fell in with the
tendency of republics to be vanquished by
glitter and imperial purple What matters it
that Napoleon ruled the mighty destinies of
Franco, and Soulouque peddled out his duke
doms in Hayti9 They were both representa-
tive emperors Of the age Of opera bouve, and
the French negro had at least the precedence
in time over the Frenchman, for he mounted
the throne three years before Napoleon, and
was kicked out eleven years ahead. BY plac-
ing these two Emperors on common footing
we will be thanked by the critical world for o
new illustration of Cesarism in modern times.
That Napoleon III, outs larger figure in his
tory than his colored brother is altogether
due to the fact that France is bigger
every way than Hayti, and not, as
some might suppose, because of Napo-
Icons superior genius. It could hardly
be imagined that we should have in our
minds eye on American parallel to the big
Napoleon and the little Soulouque. But such
is the lamentable fact. As we have hitherto
at some length given our reasons for the state
ment that President Grant was, to all intents,
personal ruler, we need not go over the
ground again. He, for the nonce, we shall
call our Napoleon, and we propose to show
how our respected and venerable Knicker-
booker Mayor is Gotham's Soulouque. We
fancy that we see the frown on his massive
brow darkening down over his nose and shad-
owing his clean-shaven chin as His Honor
comes across this 'odorous comparison. But
we cannot help it, He is sturdy old Knick-
erbocker, phlegmatic and strong-headed, and
he will, probably, lose sight Of the sable en-
peror in remembering that President Grant
cannot be accused of gush or ,vacillation.
The qualities that tell at the head of the
Union should not fail at the head of its EN-
pire City, and SO our venerable Knicker-
booker Mayor fell an easy prey to his phlegm
and his strong -headedness before he was a
month in Office. We all know that President
Grant felt sufficiently grateful at the COM
mencement Of his first term to bestow
number of important national offices on his
personal friends, whom we need not particu-
or a coincidence of idiosyncrasies, we find
that our bold Knickerbocker Mayor proceeded
to do likewise once he had it in his power.
We may note also another fact, which is not
intended for any reflection on the friends of
great men-namely, that in both cases the
appointees were stamped with the sign manual
of mediocrity. The services which President
Grant recompensed were of a recent date,
while those which the Mayor rewarded go
back so far in the century that it does not
thence seem very far to the time when old
Gouverneur Stuyvesant mused and munched
under his pear tree after the Dutch had recap
tured New Amsterdam. There is a constancy
to friendship in oil this which should move
the sympathetic to tears, no matter how the
public service may suffer. There are simple
minded people, who, thus touched to the
heart will believe that the city could afford to
lose the genius of General Mcclellan from our
Dock Commission because it gave this CRATE
full old Mayor of ours chance to place one
of his ancients in o becoming position.
This is only one from many instances. He
loves the antique and serves it, and in this
age it is well to love anything, whether num-
mics from Egypt or fossils of the political
Ichthyosaurian period. Many Of the
surface of things to the Mayors CRATE
full remembrance. To make his posi-
ton more like the Presidents, the charter
gave him burlesque Senate in the honorable
shape of the Honorable the Board of Aldermen.
In the early days of his new-fedged honors he
attacked this Senate as General Grant went
through the Wilderness. Phlegm and strong
headedness served their turn admirably, and
for q time oil went well with him. Grim
and ancient, he made the Board tremble
and give away like a deal scantling
under the tread of an elephant He
made Police Commissioners, Dock Commits
sioners, Park Commissioners and Excise Com
missioners at his sweet will, and looked as
tranquil as clam ut dead water the while.
Then came the Police Justices, and the Board
resolved to put bar across his wild career.
They made their combination" with its lean
but suficing majority of one and stopped his
onset at oil points. Now, we cannot
strengthen our parallel more than by asking