"NEW YORK, _Feb'y 6th, 1876_.
"DEAR SIR,--I see by the papers this morning that Senator
Francis Kernan had taken steps to reconcile the discordant elements
of the Democratic party of this city. I am convinced of the
unpracticability of the effort without your active interposition.
Success with Tammany as at present organized is entirely out of
the question. John Kelly, as chief, with Ned Gale, Tom Boize,
Frank Spinola, Billy Boyd, and the like as chief counsel, will
inevitably bring disaster upon the party and turn the State over
to the Republicans in the fall. I would in no wise depreciate Mr.
Kelly, whom I regard as a very estimable gentleman. But he has been
most unfortunate in selecting his '_entourage_.' There is no lack
of efficient material in this city for constructing a capital to
the Democratic edifice and insure harmony in all its proportions.
As at present constituted, it is an incongruous mass, ready to
disintegrate and form other affinities. Without some decided action
on your part, there will most certainly be two delegations from
this city to the convention, and the bad blood thus generated will
outcrop in the fall election to the detriment of the party. I
shall leave home to-morrow night for Washington, where I expect to
remain a short time to confer with my Democratic friends from the
different sections of the country. There being quite a number of my
acquaintances representing different constituencies in Congress,
the dissensions of the New York Democracy are certain to form the
leading topic of conversation and the topic upon which the least
satisfaction can be vouchsafed--and the entire responsibility laid
at your door. Your personal friendship for Andrew H. Green might
have been so evinced as not to have provoked antagonism to yourself,
and might have availed by its influence to have kept him from
exciting the wrath of a majority of the voting community. Wickham is
weaker than Green in the popular estimation. Wickham is looked upon
as milk and water, whilst Green is regarded as gall and wormwood,
whilst Kelly is so encumbered with _barnacles_ as to be impervious
to the popular demand for a more democratic form of government than
that now run exclusively for the benefit of favorites.
Very respectfully yours,
"THOMAS COTTMAN."