A DARK PICTURE | AdventAI

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 20, 1859

A DARK PICTURE.

THE New York Herald gives some ugly statistics in regard to the voters who hold and wield the political power in New York city. The picture drawn must be a pretty correct one, of course, for we cannot conceive of one more likely to be posted up in the matter than Bennett. He says:

“What, then, is the governing power in the metropolis of the Union? Freed from religious, or military, or aristocratic despotism, we seem to have attained the highest political happiness. But such is not the fact. We cannot shut our eyes to the truth, and, therefore, we are beginning to acknowledge that the governing power is the mob; and that it is a despotism worse than that of Russia or France, because it is senseless, cruel and bloody. Here we have, within ten miles of the city hall, a population of over a million of people, presumed to be eminently blessed in their political surroundings. The law guarantees to every citizen the right to choose his own rulers, as well as protection to life, liberty and property; that is, according to the common reading of the constitution of the State and of the charter of the city. But what is the fact? It is that the laws are set at naught—that the power of the mob is supreme, and that this million of people tremble before a few thousand scoundrels who ought to be in the penitentiary. These precious rulers may be classed as follows:

Superior pugilists, 100.
Inferior bruisers, 1000.
Vagabond shoulder hitters, 2500.
Gamblers and touters, 2000.
Keepers of houses of bad repute, 1500.
Men about town, 2000.
Thieves, swindlers and loafers, 6000.

Total governing powers, 15,100.