588 



NEW YORK. 



pendents in the Assembly. The total vote for 

 President in the city of New York was 132,- 

 471, of which 77,814 were for Greeley and 

 54,657 for Grant, giving the former a majority 

 of 23,157. The vote for Governor was 134,- 

 205, of which Kernan received 77,915. and Dix 

 56,290; Kernan's majority, 21,625. ' Win. F. 

 Hiivemeyer, nominated by the Citizens' Com- 

 mittee of Seventy and accepted by the Repub- 

 licans, was elected mayor of the city over 

 Abraham R. Lawrence, the candidate of the 

 Tammany Democracy, and James O'Brien, In- 

 dependent Democrat, the vote being 53,031 

 for Havemeyer, 47,133 for Lawrence, and 34,- 

 714 for O'Brien. Noah Davis, Republican, 

 was chosen Judge of the Supreme Court in the 

 city, over Leonard, Tammany Democrat, who 

 had been appointed in place of Cardozo, and 

 Anderson, Apollo Hall Democrat ; Josiah 

 Sutherland, a nominee of the Republicans and 

 Apollo Hall Democrats, was chosen City Judge 

 over Gunning S. Bedford, Tammany Demo- 

 crat; Henry G. Van Vorst, Republican, was 

 chosen Judge of the Superior Court, and Ben- 

 jamin K. Phelps, Republican, District Attorney. 

 This result was brought about by a coalition 

 of the Republicans and Democratic opponents 

 of the Tammany organization, under the lead 

 of the Committee of Seventy. Of the 15 Al- 

 dermen chosen, four were Tammany nominees, 

 and the rest coalition candidates. Eight Tam- 

 many Democrats, seven Republicans, and six 

 Apollo Hall Democrats, were chosen Assistant 

 Aldermen. 



The reform in the administration of the af- 

 fairs of the city of New York, which was be- 

 gun in 1871, was well sustained during the 

 year. The Committee of Seventy issued an 

 address near the end of May, in which they 

 reviewed what had been accomplished, and 

 deprecated the failure of the new charter in 

 the Legislature, attributing its defeat to the 

 hostility of Governor Hoffmann. Practically, 

 nothing has been done to bring to punishment 

 those accused of official corruption in the pre- 

 vious year. A. Oakey Hall, the mayor of the 

 city, was brought to trial for alleged misde- 

 meanor in auditing accounts in which the city 

 was overcharged for work and supplies, but his 

 trial resulted in a disagreement of the jury. 

 William M. Tweed, the former head of the De- 

 partment of Public Works, charged with the 

 principal share in the conspiracy to plunder the 

 public treasury, was tried on one indictment 

 near the end of the year, and acquitted. Sev- 

 eral suits, both criminal and civil, are still pend- 

 ing against him. Richard B. Connolly, the for- 

 mer Comptroller, who is also under indictment 

 and awaiting trial on bail, has remained un- 

 molested, and is supposed to be out of the 

 State, if not out of the country. Peter B. 

 Sweeney, formerly head of the Department of 

 Public Parks, and one of the organization 

 known as the "Tammany Ring," has been in 

 Canada, and no action has been taken against 

 him. Thomas C. Fields, formerly Corporation 



Counsel, and a member of the Legislature, 

 charged with corrupt conduct in office, is be- 

 lieved to have fled the country. Mr. Tweed 

 remained a member of the State Senate until 

 1873, although he did not appear in his sent 

 during the last session. Early in the session 

 of 1873, an investigation into his conduct was 

 set on foot by the Senate, and in March he 

 sent in his resignation. The Committee of 

 Seventy took a leading part in making up the 

 tickets for local offices in the fall, and their 

 candidates, who were generally supported by 

 the Republicans and " Anti-Tammany " Demo- 

 crats, were very generally elected. In an ap- 

 peal to the voters of the city, at the opening 

 of the political campaign in September, the 

 committee gave the following picture of the 

 corruption that had prevailed in the manage- 

 ment of municipal affairs : 



We appeal especially to the vast reserve force of 

 voters through whose criminal indifference to their 

 political duties the shame and disgrace that we are 

 now enduring has come upon us. At least one-third 

 of the best classes of people are habitually absent 

 from the polls. The forces of evil are active, crafty, 

 and resolute. The honest people of this State have 

 never had such an inspiration to redeem them- 

 selves from the wiles of corruptionists, and to teach 

 them a lesson that will be remembered for genera- 

 tions to come. Never has the proud motto of our 

 State been so appropriate as it will be if we do our 

 duty this fall. 



In our glorious resurrection of public virtue the 

 humiliations of the past will be forgotten as a hate- 

 ful dream, and every institution of our society and 

 politics will feel the elevating influences of revived 

 confidence in honesty and justice. 



Official corruption has grown up as the result of 

 the enormous expenses of a gigantic war, of an in- 

 flated currency, of the magnificent chances offered 

 to private ambitions, of stoak and gold gambling, 

 and a universally spread passion for sudden wealth 

 and idle display. 



It is an evil which has afflicted both parties, and 

 dragged them down from the high principles that 

 gave them origin. Honest and earnest patriots will 

 feel the common woes and humiliations that have 

 been brought on us by the representatives of both 

 parties, arid will be enkindled to a doubly bitter 

 hatred of the Achaus that are in their own cai 

 and that have draggled their own banners in the 

 mire of corruption. 



In this city, where millions could be stolen from 

 tax-payers without imposing extra burdens that 

 were felt as enormous by so wealthy a constituency, 

 it is not strange that prevailing corruption should 

 have broken out in aggravated forms, nor that all 

 the evil elements in our community should have 

 finally been combined into an apparently irresistible 

 phalanx. 



No such mass of bad material was elsewhere to be 

 found waiting such a masterly alliance of corrupt 

 leaders to develop all its resources of evil. 



Given these elements, opportunities, and h; 

 and the natural result was the ring which, until late- 

 ly, has robbed and stolen itself into power; which 

 has bought Legislatures, controlled governors, cor- 

 rupted newspapers, defiled courts of justice, violated 

 the ballot-box, threatened all forms of civil and re- 

 ligious liberty, awed the timid rich, bribed the toihi: 

 masses, and cajoled respectable citizens, and which 

 has finally grown so strong and reckless as to openly 

 defy the intelligence and virtue which is believed 1 

 be inert, voiceless and powerless to stay its ai: 

 sions, or to assert the supremacy of honesty and 

 justice. 



