Letter of Acceptance, 1888

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="34b085a3.jpg"> <div> <B>     </B></div> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="County Carlow Coogan Immigrants"><B>Home</B></A><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Symbol" ><B>   ·   </B></FONT><A HREF="site_map.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Site Map"><B>Site Map</B></A><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Symbol" ><B>   ·   </B></FONT><A HREF="list_of_letters.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="List of Letters"><B>List of Letters</B></A><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Symbol" ><B>   ·   </B></FONT><A HREF="family_history.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Family History from Letters"><B>Family History</B></A><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Symbol" ><B>   ·   </B></FONT><A HREF="names.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Index of Names"><B>Name Index</B></A><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Symbol" ><B>   ·   </B></FONT><A HREF="family_list.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Family List"><B>Family List</B></A><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Symbol" ><B>   ·   </B></FONT><A HREF="news___politics.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Coogan Name in 19th Century NY News "><B>19th C. 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Hotchkiss, Chairman</B></div> <div> <B>Committee, </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#663300" FACE="English111 Vivace BT" ><B>Etc.</B></FONT><B>:</B></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 20 WIDTH="635"><div> <B>Dear Sir–</B></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 58 WIDTH="635"><div> <B>I have received your notification of my nomination in the United Labor Party for the office of Mayor of this city. Of the responsibility imposed, no less than of the honor conferred upon me, I am deeply sensible, and I now formally accept the nomination.</B></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 77 WIDTH="635"><div> <B>Two years have elapsed since there was begun in the same hall where your recent convention was held, a movement for the assertion, by means of legislative and administrative reforms, of the equal rights of all citizens. The first platform of our party, adopted at Clarendon Hall in September, 1886, declared, among other things,</B></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 361 WIDTH="635"><div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000336600.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">that the people of New York City should have full control of their own local affairs; </B></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000336600.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">that the requirement of a property qualification for trial jurors should be abolished; </B></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000336600.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">that the laws for the safety and sanitary inspection of buildings should be enforced; </B></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000336600.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">that in public work the direct employment of labor </B><I><B>should be preferred to the contract system</B></I><B>; </B></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000336600.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">that all taxes on buildings and improvements should be abolished, so that no fine shall be put upon the employment of labor in increasing living accommodations; </B></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000336600.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">that the existing means of transportation should not be left in the hands of corporations, but should by lawful process be assumed by the city and operated for public benefit; </B></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000336600.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">that there should be such changes in our elective methods as should lessen the need of money in elections, discourage bribery and prevent intimidation; and </B></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000336600.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">that it is the true purpose of government to do, for the equal benefit of all, such things as can be better done by organized society than by individuals.</B></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 173 WIDTH="635"><div> <B>All of these declarations I find substantially reiterated in the latest platform of the United Labor Party, that adopted by the Cooper Union Convention of a few weeks ago. Through many vicissitudes, the principles and membership of our party are unchanged. Though hitherto unsuccessful in electing any of its candidates to office, the extraordinary vitality of the United Labor Party would of itself attest the continuing need of such an independent movement. But a still stronger proof is to be found in the fact that the past two years have seen no betterment in the condition of the masses of our fellow citizens, and that the selfish objects, and the antagonisms of the political parties have undergone no change.</B></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 345 WIDTH="635"><div> <B>We are, in fact, again confronted in this city with the candidacy of the very man who justified his acceptance of a nomination in 1886 solely on the grounds of the necessity, in the pretended interests of “society,” of suppressing our own movement. What has been done by the present administration toward saving, or even benefitting the great mass of men, women and children who are the real society of this metropolis? It is for these that salvation of some sort is bitterly needed, and while I well know that the powers and duties of the chief magistrate of New York City are defined and circumscribed by the laws, yet I also know that it is possible for a Mayor who has at heart the amendment of social and political evils to use the influence of his important office, both here and at the State capital, to abate those evils.  Not an act of substantial and radical reform has been urged, much less achieved, by the present incumbent of the mayoralty. To one wing of the local Democracy has been mainly due this contemptuous neglect of the reasonable demands of many thousands of our fellow-citizens. It remains to be seen whether the opposite faction of the same part shall be suffered to perpetuate this misrule. There can be but one pretext on which the Democratic party ask a continuance in control of the government of this city–that Democratic law officers have imprisoned or exiled a few of the criminals that Democratic methods have developed.</B></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 77 WIDTH="635"><div> <B>The Republican party–the actual third party in this city–forgetful of its earliest and best traditions, and distrustful of the common people, now repeats the fatuous policy of two years ago by insisting on a mayoralty candidacy, which can only tend to fasten still more firmly upon this community a government by its worst elements.</B></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 20 WIDTH="635"><div> <B>With much respect,</B></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 20 WIDTH="635"><div> <B>Your fellow-citizen,</B></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 20 WIDTH="635"><div> <B>[signed]  </B><B>James J. Coogan</B></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></I></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>