The New York Police Force 207 



these theories into complete effect. Like all other 

 men who actually try to do things instead of confin- 

 ing- themselves to saying how they should be done, 

 the members of the new city government were 

 obliged to face the facts and to do the best they 

 could in the effort to get some kind of good result 

 out of the conflicting forces. They had to disre- 

 gard party so far as was possible ; and yet they could 

 not afford to disregard all party connections so ut- 

 terly as to bring the whole administration to grief. 



In addition to these two large groups of sup- 

 porters of the administration, there were other 

 groups, also possessing influence, who expected to 

 receive recognition distinctly as Democrats, but as 

 anti-Tammany Democrats; and such members of 

 any victorious coalition are always sure to over- 

 estimate their own services, and to feel ill-treated. 



It is of course an easy thing to show on paper 

 that the municipal administration should have been 

 administered without the slightest reference to na- 

 tional party lines, and if the bulk of the people saw 

 things with entire clearness the truth would seem 

 so obvious as to need no demonstration. But as 

 a matter of fact the bulk of the people who voted 

 the new administration into power neither saw this 

 nor realized it, and in politics, as in life generally, 

 conditions must be faced as they are, and not as 

 they ought to be. The regular Democratic organi- 

 zation, not only in the city but in the State, was 

 completely under the dominion of Tammany Hall 

 and its allies, and they fought us at every step wit' 



