"Power told me yesterday that Kelly would be in Albany this week; let me urge that you have the frankest of free talks with him. I am satisfied that he will meet your views on every point except the retention of Green. Now you cannot afford to let Green be slaughtered, but Green can very well afford, in view of the momentous consequences to you involved in a disruption of the party machinery here, to solve the difficulty by placing his resignation in your hands, to be used only when a successor satisfactory to you and to Kelly can be agreed upon. I had a long talk with Green on Sunday night. He believes his position to be impregnable, and he is not at all conscious of the intense disgust with which he is regarded by the Tammany organization. He even thinks that the general committee might be got to indorse him. I told him very frankly that in my judgment it would be destruction to those who are really his friends to make any such issue in the committee, and I tell you that it is no use to try it. Your position and character will be with me the first consideration, and after that it seems to me that Kelly's position should be made as easy for him as the circumstances will admit. I think he understands Wickham now, and you and he ought never to be lacking in a perfect understanding with each other. I have not seen Kelly, as I would have been glad to do, but you are at perfect liberty to show him this letter if you choose, as there is nothing in my mind that I would not be willing to say to him personally on these topics, if he were to think it worth while to consult with me.
"Mr. Ruggles has been to see me with regard to the Davis canal bill, which he thinks is a blunder; he is quite clear, and I agree with him, that the canal can only be properly administered by a general superintendent, nominated by the Governor, and approved by the Senate. The Governor should have the power to suspend or remove the general superintendent for cause. In this way the Governor will have the direct control of the canal, and the canal commissioners be relegated to their proper duties of auditing the expenditures, and seeing that the general superintendent does his duty.
"It seems to me that the position in which Davis has placed himself in regard to the Tammany delegation affords an unusually favorable opportunity for getting this legislation. It might be brought in as a counter-proposition to Davis's bill. If you had a proper understanding with Davis in advance, and he would agree to make not more than a nominal opposition to the substitute, the canals could thus be rescued from the corrupt ring which has plundered the revenues for so many years. If your administration could accomplish any such result it would be a great triumph, as well as a priceless benefaction to the people of this State.
"Faithfully yours,
"Abram S. Hewitt."
"Feb'y 23, 1875,
"Hon. Samuel J. Tilden,
"Albany, N. Y."
CHARLES O'CONOR TO TILDEN
(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.'