Year: 1875

The Democracy of the State Of New
York may rest assured that the moral
victory which they have won in the
elections Of 1875, outweighs the numer-
ical victory which they won in the
elections Of 1874.


1t was indeed very striking success
which last year reversed the immense
immense majority of Governor Dix and
gave $4,000 majority to Governor
Tilden. But political parties live or
die by their moral character and the
estimation in which that character is
held by the great mass Of the people.
The tidal wave which submerged the
Republican majorities in so many of
the States last year, and which is only
another expression for widespread
popular disgust with the selfishness
and the corruption of the Republican
leaders, counted heavily in Governor
Tilden's Democratic majority OF 50,-
600. 1t expressed the popular estima-
lion Of the fact that the Republican
leadership had destroyed the moral
character and the once high repute of
that party. The alliance this year Of
the Republican party with the Canal
Ring vindicates that popular judgment
Of one year ago.


1t is more striking success which
the Democracy Of New ork have now
won. for it is moral success and an
unprecedented success-so striking and
| so significant in that respect as to make
| il q matter of indifference whether our
| numerical majority shall turn out to
be twenty-five thousand the off-year
numerical equivalent of fifty thous>
and gubernatorial majority, or shall
turn out to be little more than but
half that number.


| Il is an unprecedented success. No
other political party in the United
Estates ever before staked its own ex.
istence upon reforms within its own
constituency. That has now twice
been done by the Democracy of New
Y ork. First, in the fight to expel
the Democrstic'members OF tho Tweed
Ring from the Democratic party, which
cost it the control of the State for q
term. Second, in the fight to expel
the Democratic members OF the Canal
Ring, which has been carried through
triumphsntly, saving every administra-
tive and executive officer in the State
and costing us nothing but the loss of
one branch of the State Legislature.
And it is thus q success unprecedent-
ed in the history of the Democratic
party.


The Republican members OF the
Tweed Ring, the Republican members
of the Canal Ring have never as yet
been expelled from the Republican
lparty. The attempt to expel them
has never been made. The proposal
to expel them was never broached by
the purest or the boldest man in "ths
party OF great moral ideas" Nor wa,


he attempt ever made, or q PROPOSE


ever broached, in the Republican
Ip4rty, to expel from its ranks or from
its leadership the corrupt rings exclu
lsively Republican in membership


The Credit Mobilier Ring, the Custom


House Ring, the Indian Ring, the
carpetbAg ring, the Kitchen Cabinet
Ring, the District of Columbia Ring
; instead Of being elected from the
Republican party, have risen to it:
} control-cut-purses Of its empire and
its rule. Promotion to Cabinet ap
lpointments, to Judgeships, to foreign
embassies, has been the reward be


slowed by the head Of the Republican
party upon the men whom its protec
; ton could not shield from the wrath
of the people. Worse still, the yer,
men who had stolen the livery of De
lmocracy to serve the Devil in, anC


$hom the Democracy had CALCULATED


from their council chambers and thei


fellowship, were received with effu


sivs Joy into the Republican camp an(


court. Tuesdays success is thus utter
= " without precedent, either as pro


posal, an attempt, or victory, IL


the history OF the great Republican


party.


BY such efforts and victories, the De
mocracy are subduing the prejudices o.


the war period and are winningth sym


pathies of the intelligent, the virtu


Gus, the patriotic citizens of the Uni


ted States. And the eminencc which


belongs to New ork in the Democrac.


of the Union, by virtue of her un
matched victories, she maintains by
still higher title and with q more gen
. erous and enforced assent, in the mora
) character of those victories.


To have expelled its half of tn
: -lTweed Ring, though at the cost o


losing Democratic supremacy in tn


State; to have uprooted and elected it


half of the Canal Ring, running tn


same risk again, but this time victori


ously, this time despite an open avowe'
alliance of the Republican party wit
both halves of that shattered ring
d these are moral victories which ia


outweigh in value to party til


more striking numerical results tha


alone attract the eyes of shallow pre-


phets and hand-to-mouth journalist


and politicians. For moral victorie


breed majorlties, if besides the phys
. cal order of the universe, there is
= moral order, as stable in its laws, an


as sovereign in events.