"[It is a fearful thing]"

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☞ It is a fearful thing that our country has arrived at a pass where parties will openly sell their influence to cabals, for the votes of the cabals. The Tammany papers¹ may try to gloss over the scandalous bargaining between their party and the Hughes faction;² but it is plainly the most complete piece of political chicanery that ever disgraced the annals of the land. The Irish "Independent Democrats" threatened—and Tammany plucked up spirit enough, at first, to resist.³ The Irish threatened a second time, and with double fierceness; and Tammany bowed her neck to the very dust.

We are sure that there must be such men as American democrats in Tammany. Where were they while this abominable game was going on? Where was their patriotism—their hatred of interweaving priestcraft with politics—their love of liberty undefiled—and their care for the interests of their children? That they could tamely have stood by, and consented to this thing—for God’s love we could hardly believe. They must have been caught napping; the enemy must have entered the citadel in the dark.

And now only one thing remains. Let them show that paltry partizanship has not deadened every remnant of love of country. Let them—we beseech them as American republicans—let them not cast away self respect and self rights at the command of the minions of foreign convents, and the menaces of an Irish riffraff. Every suffrage given by a democrat for the Tammany ticket⁴ is so much to aid the behests of the Hughs​ clique.

There is no candidate in the field who has the least claim upon a true American voter. In particular, let those men who have so anxiously sought Catholic patronage, that they have given up every thing to Catholicdictation​ ⁵—let them, we say, rest exclusively on Catholic support. It certainly is not becoming for honorable democrats, to countenance them. A defeat of the Tammany ticket might teach the Tammany leaders a wholesome lesson.

We call, then, upon all American hearts to join in a determination to abstain from supporting the so called democratIc​ ticket. We ask this, "not that we love Caesar less, but that we love Rome more."⁶ We love (why should we conceal it?) we love the name of democrat. It has been our pride and glory to keep the title untarnished, as we inherited it from those who carried the then opprobriousterm​ ⁷ amid the stormy political tempests of Jefferson’s day.⁸ But we cannot flatter the base, and fawn to hypocrisy, and wriggle, and lie, for the interests of any petty cliques. True democracy requires such things of no man for any purpose.

Today, the opportunity will be presented for democrats to show whether they, as individuals, are content to be lickspittles to Austrian monks,⁹ and filthy foreign vagabonds. If they cannot say NO! let them at least not say YES!