character, first dimly showed itself in the readiness o It was agnitude, vas taking losophers. emigrants of the city s possible s of 1856 red. The vere most ansfer to le portion • interest How to the soluving it of Mr. Tilden, Mr. O'Conor, and Mr. Hewitt, to pursue men of their own party, accused of malfeasance in office, and in the prompt formation of a body composed of men of all parties, like the Committee of Seventy in 1870, to join in the work of reorganizing the city government after Tweed's overthrow. That the idea of non-partisanship, however, made, on the whole, but little impression was attention the possi- S. It was agnitude, vas taking losophers. emigrants of the city 5 possible s of 1856 How to the soluving it of >ssible to vernment y, and to Legisla- Le or Federal Mr. Tilden, Mr. O'Conor, and Mr. Hewitt, to pursue men of their own party, accused of malfeasance in office, and in the prompt formation of a body composed of men of all parties, like the Committee of Seventy in 1870, to join in the work of reorganizing the city government after Tweed's overthrow. That the idea of non-partisanship, however, made, on the whole, but little impression was INTRODUCTORY. T cannot be said that the objections to Tammany as a political organization within the city attracted any public attention until Tweed's day, or about 1870. It is true that the possibility of organizing the dangerous classes for purposes hostile to efficiency and purity in municipal government became apparent between 1852 and 1857, under the leadership of Fernando Wood. But the anti-slavery agitation at that time absorbed most of such attention as the public had to spare for political questions. It was plain that it was carrying the country toward a crisis of unknown magnitude, and all eyes were fixed on the growth of the Republican party, which was taking the slavery question out of the hands of the philanthropists and philosophers. The success of demagogues like Wood, therefore, in marshaling the emigrants who had begun to crowd into New York from 1846 on, for the seizure of the city government, was watched mainly from the Federal point of view. Its possible effect in strengthening the Democratic party at the Federal elections of 1856 and 1860 was what even the most thoughtful citizens mainly considered. The only defenses against such designs which occurred even to those who were most alarmed by them was the election of Republican Mayors, and the transfer to Commissioners at Albany, by Republican Legislatures, of a considerable portion of the municipal powers and patronage. The city was, in fact, mainly interesting to them at that time as the abode of a large Democratic majority. How to keep down this, majority was the municipal problem of that day, and the solution was held, according to the ideas of the time, to lie chiefly in depriving it of as many offices as possible. It was only when, after the war, it was shown by Tweed to be possible to use the Tammany Society as a means of getting control of the city government and to make the city government a means of robbing the city treasury, and to use the city funds as a means of purchasing legislation from the State Legislature, that the municipal question began to loom up before the public eye as a new question in American politics. It was, as presented to us, a new question in all politics. No human experience threw any light on the way to govern a great city through universal suffrage. But the possibility of approaching the problem from a non-partisan point of view, of divesting it of all State or Federal character, first dimly showed itself in the readiness of leading Democrats like Mr. Tilden, Mr. O'Conor, and Mr. Hewitt, to pursue men of their own party, accused of malfeasance in office, and in the prompt formation of a body composed of men of all parties, like the Committee of Seventy in 1870, to join in the work of reorganizing the city government after Tweed's overthrow. That the idea of non-partisanship, however, made, on the whole, but little impression was |