ar at
hand. It will be a fight for liberty, just like the American Revolution.
We'll get liberty peacefully if we can; by cruel war if we must.

Just think how lovely things would be here if we had a Tammany Governor
and Legislature meetin', say in the neighborhood of Fifty-ninth Street,
and a Tammany Mayor and Board of Aldermen doin' business in City Hall!
How sweet and peaceful everything would go on!

The people wouldn't have to bother about nothin'. Tammany would take
care of everything for them in its nice quiet way. You wouldn't hear of
any conflicts between the state and city authorities. They would settle
everything pleasant and comfortable at Tammany Hall, and every bill
introduced in the Legislature by Tammany would be sure to go through.
The Republicans wouldn't count.

Imagine how the city would be built up in a short time! At present we
can't make a public improvement of any consequence without goin' to
Albany for permission, and most of the time we get turned down when we
go there. But, with a Tammany Governor and Legislature up at Fifty-ninth
Street, how public works would hum here! The Mayor and Aldermen could
decide on an improvement, telephone the Capitol, have a bill put through
in a jiffy and--there you are. We could have a state constitution, too,
which would extend the debt limit so that we could issue a whole lot
more bonds. As things are now, all the money spent for docks, for
instance, is charged against the city in calculatin' the debt limit,
although the Dock Department provides immense revenues. It's the same
with some other departments. This humbug would be dropped if Tammany
ruled at the Capitol and the City Hall, and the city would have money to
burn.

Another thing--the constitution of the new state wouldn't have a word
about civil service, and if any man dared to introduce any kind of a
civil service bill in the Legislature, he would be fired out the window.
Then we would have government of the people by the people who were
elected to govern them. That's the kind of government Lincoln meant. 0
what a glorious future for the city! Whenever I think of it I feel like
goin' out and celebratin', and I'm really almost sorry that I don't
drink.

You may ask what would become of the upstate people if New York City
left them in the lurch and went into the State business on its own
account. Well, we wouldn't be under no obligation to provide for them;
still I would be in favor of helpin' the