Year: 1870

opposlllOn lncOuprcnchoiuAo ia Aoe A"toAo, wa
sidering the quarter where it seems most to
centre, has been raised to it, and present


appearances indicate that attempts will


be made to impede its progress. The
friends and sustainers Of this much


needed measure of municipal reform are


having just now an uphill fight in their


efforts to secure the boon Of self-government


for the city. The cry raised against the lead


ing provisions Of the bill by the radical press


has been caught up and echoed in quarter


from whence support and not enmity to the


peoples charter might have been expected.


How far this howl OF opposition operates upon


the three recalcitrant democratic Senators from


this city can be judged by the stand they now


take against their colleagues who support the


BILL That they are acquiring an uuenviabie


rotoriety among their constituents here they


win perhaps discover when it is too late.


For ten years the citizens OF New


York have seen their dearest rights-tte


right of self-government paramount to


all-wrested from them by dominant


political party and an alien and inimicai


Legislature, and they impatiently awaited the


hour when through the ballot box they could


reassert and regain their inherent rights to


selsgovernment. Throughout the whole Qf
the State there was general feeling pre-


vailing against the continuance of republican
misrule. New York city, whose bill OF
grievances was complete and whose cup OF


bitterness ran over was Of course the most
Interested in the subversion Of the rule
inaugurated, instituted and directed at albany.
The democracy Of the city sent their best and
most trusted leaders to meet and confer with
the democratic leaders throughout the State
in convention at Syracuse. The platform there
adopted and the principles enunciated assured
the downfall Of republican supremacy through


out the State in the then ensuing fall campaign


That assurance was rendered doubly sure by


the result. The victory then gained was moro
and far-seeing leaders Of the party had calcu-
lated upon. Here in the city the people rolled
up an unprecedented majority, electing all their
candidates to the Senate, and with but one
solitary exception to the Assembly. Here was
the turning point in their political existence.
They wresled the power to govern and oppress
from the hands Of those who had so long
dominated over them, and once again
conlided the reins Of reformed NUM-
cipal government to their own chosen
The great city Of New York
was thus rescued from the ignorant, capricious
and corrupt legislation so long inflicted on it
and carried into execution by partisan boards
and commissions billeted upon the city at
large, and which by little and little succeeded
in depriving the people Of all their just and
inalienable rights. For years the chief legis-
lators for this grand emporium of trade and
commerce, for this Empire City Of the great
republic, with its million Of inhabitants, were
handful Of men, changed probably every
year, and brought from the most dis
tant and of1tines isolated districts of the
interior of. the State These were our
Legislators who knew as much of the
wants aud requirements of great seaport city
as did any OF the cattle they left behind them
grazing on their native hills. Very rarely and
at best bnt a few Of these legislators of ours
ever saw the city, probably only when brought
here from Albany on junketing committee,
or when invited to festive reunion by the
heads of the boards and commissions they
had legislated into existence, the citizens of
course ''paying the piper"


1t was to remedy the many aud grievous
evils arising from this ignorant, corrupt
aud pernicious legislation that the peo-
pie so earnestly and unitedly fought
and won the good fight last November
which gave them back the power Of self gov
ernment. The standard bearers Of the
democracy in that campaign-the men who
organized yictory-were undoubtedly the
leaders in whom the citizens trust to- day
II was under the old democratic banner
which so often heralded the way to
victory that the people massed their forces
preparatory. to going to the polls, and
when the day of conflict came it was TO the
leaders and to the party a day Of signal
But who was to be entrusted with
the duty Of making that triumph bring forth its
legitimate fruits--the overthrow and eradica-
ton Of the last vestige of the republican
boards and commissions, the repeal of obnox-
ious partisan laws, and to draw up new char
ter which would restore to the people tho full
measure of their civil and political rights,
privileges and prerogativcs? This duty must
devolve upon the popularity constituted and
recognized leaders Of the democracy, and to
them the people looked for the instrument and
the legislation that should rehabilitate them in
their political rights. The duty was at once
undertaken, and that instrument-'th new
Magma Charta'---is now before the people.
As we said before, the republican ''hue
and cry" against it has been taken up
and echoed and re-echoed from unexpected
quarters. The failure Of the old fossil,
Samuel J. Tilden, to get his proposed
charter introduced into the Assembly was
enough to beget hostility from the expiring