(ON THE GOVERNOR'S POWER OF REMOVAL FROM OFFICE)
"FORT WASHINGTON, _February 11, 1875_.
"DEAR SIR,--I wrote you yesterday. You will have probably seen, ere
this can reach you, a partisan opinion in the _Herald_ pronouncing
your authority in the matter of removals limited to a Delphic response
whether the 'reasons' or the 'causes' are sufficient. This, too, to be
pronounced in the Mayor's specification of his reasons, without any
authority on your part to look out of it.
"This is unsound. Your power of approval is just like the Mayor's power
of removal--absolutely discretionary. You are not bound to pass upon
the 'causes' assigned nor the 'reasons' communicated. The grammatical
import of the law and the good sense of the thing show that your
approval is to apply to the removal, _i. e._, the act itself.
"This journalist's reasoning would tie you up very closely. If the
Mayor were to remove Comptroller on the ground that he had shown
himself quite unworthy of confidence by kicking his wife in a church on
Sunday, in the face of the whole congregation during divine service,
the only point before you would be whether such a cause--assuming
the fact to be as asserted--was in point of law sufficient ground of
removal. Though Green had no wife, was sick in bed at home on the
designated Sunday, and that, owing to bad weather or some accidental
cause, there was no service in his church on that day, you must approve
his removal and let him be kicked out unless you were prepared to say
that, in point of law and reason, such misconduct was not objectionable
in a public officer.
"The truth is, the Democratic branch of the Tweed Ring is no better
than the Republican branch of the same. The former and the latter have
the same aims. Either from weakness or something else, the Mayor goes
with 'our friends.'
"You must make up your mind to go with that interesting party or to go
against it. I am against it; nothing will persuade me to withhold any
little power I possess from the anti-swindler-ism party.
"Yours truly,
"CH. O'CONOR."
"_His Excellency, Samuel J. Tilden_,
"_Albany, N. Y._"