USA > New York > History of the state of New York, political and governmental, Vol. III 1865-1896 > Part 8
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properly administered. In the winter following he spent $50,000 to buy coal and food for the poor of his own district, and gave $1,000 to each Alderman for this purpose. Austere critics might scoff, but they could make little headway while they dealt merely with sus- picion, and Tweed's popularity reached the point where it was proposed to erect a statue in his honor and the New York Sun seriously advocated the project.1
The indiscretion of one of his Assemblymen nearly blocked his legislative program in the midst of the session. James Irving of New York on April 6 made an assault on Assemblyman Smith M. Weed of Clinton, and to avoid expulsion resigned from the Assembly, leaving the Democrats without a working majority. The Republicans made a hard and fast agreement to block Tweed's party measures, which included new registry and election laws and the New York tax levies. But Tweed won over Orange S. Winans, a Republican Assemblyman from Dunkirk, and passed his bills. Winans was openly charged with having sold himself on a promise of $75,000, only one-tenth of which he received.2 He was repudiated by his friends and his own family and disappeared completely. The new Registry law opened the door for the non-registered man to appear at the polls on election day and offer an excuse for the absence of his name from the lists, which might be accepted by a majority of the polling officials. As Tammany had the majority of each election board, the opportunities for fraud were plain and were not
1New York Sun, March 14, 15, 1871.
2Gustavus Myers, History of Tammany Hall, p. 231.
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lessened by the provision that the Mayor should appoint one minority poll-clerk for each precinct.
A special Tax commission, consisting of David A. Wells, George W. Cuyler, and Edwin Dodge, which had been appointed in 1870 to study the tax system of the State, made a report to this Legislature which, though not adopted, has served as a basis for all the studies of taxation that have since been made by legis- lative committees and commissions. The commission reported for continuing taxation of real estate and monied corporations under then existing law, and for abolishing all other taxes and substituting for them a tax on the owner and occupier of any building for any purpose on an assessment of three times the rental value of the premises, not including the value of any land except that actually covered by the building or essential for access to it. The commission showed that the gener- al tax on personal property was unscientific, unjust, and practically unenforceable, and held that the general wealth of a community could be fairly measured by the tangible improvements put upon real estate. The report was received with a good deal of favor from the press, but no Legislature, even to this day, has dared to undertake a thorough and scientific revision of the tax laws.
While Tweed proceeded unconscious of the storm soon to overwhelm him, Conkling was planning to gain complete mastery of the Republican party. He followed up his victory over Fenton in the struggles for the Collectorship and for control of the State convention by a movement to break the Fenton organization in
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New York City. By the liberal use of Federal patronage he secured a majority of the State committee, which, under the leadership of Alonzo B. Cornell as chairman, on December 20, 1870, appointed a sub- committee to consider the factional differences in the metropolis. The Fenton organization, over which Horace Greeley had been made chairman, was charged with being made up of "Tammany Republicans." Some of its leaders held offices in bipartisan city boards, and as fast as Murphy removed the Fenton followers from the custom house they were taken care of in city departments. This office-holding by Republicans under Tammany had been long tolerated and was indeed the offspring of the Republican system of ruling the city from Albany, but Conkling now made it the pretext for the extermination of his enemies, and Cornell informed Greeley that the State committee by a vote of 20 to 8 had decided on an entire reorganization of the party in New York City. At a meeting on February 9, 1871, the sub-committee reported in favor of deputing Horace Greeley and William Orton to select members of the new organization, who might be supplemented by the State committee's own selections. A bitter news- paper controversy raged throughout the spring, Greeley protesting that, as indeed Cornell admitted, there was no precedent for such action by the State committee and that the State convention of 1870 had refused to give the State committee such powers as it pretended to exercise over the city general committee. He refused to serve as the executioner of his own organization, and the work of making a new body to serve Conkling's pur-
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poses was entrusted to William Orton and Jackson S. Schultz, president of the Union League Club.
Two delegations appeared at the Republican State convention in Syracuse on September 27, and the struggle was renewed over the temporary chairmanship. Fenton's candidate was Chauncey M. Depew, while the Conkling forces proposed Andrew D. White, president of Cornell University, a former State Senator who had recently been of great service to President Grant in connection with the San Domingo annexation policy. Cornell, who called the convention to order, declared Depew ineligible because he was not a member of the convention, and G. Hilton Scribner of Yonkers, the head of the Young Men's Association, which sought to promote harmony between the factions, was sub- stituted. A motion to make Scribner temporary and White permanent chairman was declared out of order by Cornell, who refused to put to the convention the Fenton appeal from the ruling. After a long wrangle, at the suggestion of Waldo Hutchins it was agreed that all delegates whose seats were contested should be passed. Under these conditions the Fenton men expected to win, but they found that they had been undermined in several rural counties and lacked 21 expected votes. The result was White's election by 188 to 159. White closed what was characterized as a "most apostolic exhortation to mutual forbearance" by naming a committee on credentials picked by the State committee to seal the fate of the Fenton faction.3 He afterward said: "I received the list of convention
3New York Tribune, September 29, 1871.
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committees from the State committee with express assurance that the list represented fairly the two wings of the party. I had no reason then, and have no reason now, to believe that the State committee abused my confidence."4 That at the time he acted in good faith probably nobody questions, but it is difficult to under- stand his continued belief that his confidence had not been abused in view of the fact that his committee on credentials stood 12 to 2 in favor of Conkling, although the convention on the first test vote, before the prospects of certain annihilation had detached the weak-kneed from the losing side, had been about equally divided between the two factions.
The committee majority proceeded to recognize as the only regular organization in New York the body created by the State committee, but for the present con- vention it offered the Greeley delegates seats with half a vote. The minority favored the Greeley organization as the regular one. A considerable body of Conkling's followers were loath to push their fight to extremes, and finally a compromise was proposed by Hamilton Ward of Allegany, afterward Attorney-General of the State and a Justice of the Supreme Court, which admitted both factions to seats in the convention with a divided vote and directed the State committee to harmonize the factions and perfect an organization. The Fenton people accepted this compromise and the further sug- gestion that members of the organization be disqualified from holding office under Tammany. Harmony seemed about to reign, when from the back of the hall arose
4White, Autobiography, I, p. 166.
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Roscoe Conkling, who began his famous speech which opened : "Mr. President, not yet the question." He professed a desire for harmony, but urged the necessity of a single organization and the impossibility of the committee in the month before election doing all over again the work of Schultz and Orton.5 Ward's motion was lost, 154 to 194, and the Greeley delegates with- drew. Many of Conkling's friends deplored this extreme measure, and also his personal and spectacular part in carrying it. His majority was assured, and a whispered word would have voted down Ward's com- promise. But Conkling wished to make certain his control of the next convention, and did not propose to have any contesting delegates to interfere with a har- monious indorsement of Grant. Apparently he also wished to demonstrate beyond question his own personal domination. Greeley, pointing out the inconsistency of declaring his followers so corrupt and so under Tam- many control that they must be ruthlessly cut off, and at the same time inviting them to share in making the platform and the ticket, thus characterized Conkling's interference: "The custom house delegates had no word to utter, but Mr. Conkling had. The convention was ready to ratify the amendment, but Mr. Conkling was not. Peace and harmony with safety were at hand, but Mr. Conkling preferred to cram an insult down the throats of the men he was exhorting to concession."6
Having shown his power, Conkling allowed a free hand with the nominations to the convention, which
5New York Times, September 28, 1871.
6New York Tribune, September 29, 1871.
JOHN T. HOFFMAN
John T. Hoffman, 26th governor (1869-1872) ; born, Sing Sing, N. Y., January 10, 1828; lawyer; recorder of the City of New York, 1869; mayor of the City of New York, 1865-1868; elected governor in 1868 and served until 1872; died at Wies- baden, Germany, March 24, 1888.
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sought harmony by naming G. Hilton Scribner for Secretary of State and Thomas Raines for Treasurer. General Francis C. Barlow was again drafted for the service of the party and nominated for Attorney- General.7 The platform commended the administration for the advancement of reconstruction in the south and for the arrangement of the Alabama controversy with Great Britain. It pointed with pride to the payment of debts, reduction of taxes, and progress toward civil service reform. It held the Democratic party respon- sible for the long suspected corruption of New York City, proof of which was just beginning to be revealed. It charged that the Democrats in the name of reform had given the ring irresponsible power and that it had "at all times supported and acted with" the corrup- tionists. The party repeated its declarations in favor of local option and lower canal tolls.
With the Republicans rent by factions, Tweed had reason to look with confidence to the fall elections. Manton Marble, who had opposed his charter the year before, now declared in the World: "There is not another municipal government in the world which com- bines so much character, capacity, experience, and energy as are to be found in the city government of New York under the new charter."8 Suddenly, however, Tweed, who cared little for newspaper criticism, since
7The ticket was: Secretary of State, G. Hilton Scribner, Westchester; Comptroller, Nelson K. Hopkins, Erie; Treasurer, Thomas Raines, Monroe ; Attorney-General, Francis C. Barlow, New York; State Engineer, William B. Taylor, Oneida; Canal Commissioner, Alexander Barkley, Washington; Prison Inspector, Thomas Kirkpatrick, Cayuga.
8New York World, June 13, 1871.
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most of his constituents did not read, but had winced under Nast's cartoons and sought unavailingly to buy him,9 found a newspaper enemy who dealt with more than generalizations and suspicions. William Copeland was a clerk in the Comptroller's office and a follower of ex-Sheriff James O'Brien. O'Brien had quarreled with Tweed over the division of the spoils. After attempting in vain to extort money from the boss on the strength of Copeland's transcript from the Comptroller's books showing corrupt payments, O'Brien placed the transcripts in the hands of George Jones, who had suc- ceeded his partner, Raymond, in the direction of the New York Times. Jones also obtained from Matthew J. O'Rourke, a county bookkeeper, transcripts showing frauds in armory accounts. As soon as his possession of these documents became known, the ring made strenuous efforts to purchase silence, which culminated in an offer of $5,000,000 to Jones.10 In July, 1871, the Times began the publication of the accounts, giving definite proof of the frauds and showing how contrac- tors' bills were padded for amounts vastly in excess of what the contractors actually drew. Eight million dollars had been stolen through the unfinished and shabby court house, and altogether the frauds, as they afterward were revealed, were variously estimated at from forty-five to seventy-five millions, not counting bonds improperly issued, waste in the grant of public franchises, and extortion from private individuals. Only $876,000 of this vast sum was ever recovered.
9 Albert Bigelow Paine, Life of Nast, p. 182.
10 Harper's Weekly, February 22, 1890.
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Indignation over the Times exposures led to a mass- meeting in Cooper Union on September 4, 1871, at which the Committee of Seventy was formed to make investigations and conduct prosecutions. The ring in panic first resorted to burning the accounts for court house work stolen from the Comptroller's office, then determined to save itself by sacrificing Connolly, the Comptroller. Connolly at this point turned to Samuel J. Tilden. Tilden had long been known as a foe of the ring, but in the absence of concrete proofs against it he had gone on working with Tweed as a fellow- Democrat. He had not even attended the Cooper Union meeting, but he seized the opportunity offered by Connolly's appeal, and on his advice Connolly appointed Andrew H. Green Deputy-Comptroller and left to him the full conduct of the office. Mayor Hall at first refused to recognize this arrangement. Finally, in the face of an opinion from Charles O'Conor, he yielded, and when Connolly resigned he appointed Green Comptroller. In response to the appeal of the Committee of Seventy to the Governor, the Attorney- General designated O'Conor to act for him in prose- cutions.
Tilden was now fully embarked on the fight. He investigated the Broadway Bank accounts, and there secured proof of the division among the ring members of the moneys that the Times's exposures had shown to have been stolen. This, with the preservation of the Comptroller's accounts, now placed in Green's custody, was a necessary link in any prosecution of the thieves. He started a movement for a reform delegation from
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New York to the Democratic State convention and issued letters to Democrats all over the State, telling them of the corruption in the Democratic party and urging that they "take a knife and cut it out by the roots." But Tweed was not disposed to surrender so easily. He was willing to let Tilden dominate the State convention and nominate the State ticket, if he would concede the regularity of Tammany and not interfere with its legislative ticket. Tilden would not com- promise, and when he called the State convention together at Rochester on October 4 he faced a hostile assemblage, which Tweed from the seclusion of a nearby hotel was able to sway to his wishes.
Tammany's first tactical move was to announce that in the interest of harmony the organization would waive its right to vote in the convention. On this, William C. DeWitt of Brooklyn, who was the ready spokesman of Tweed in the convention, pushed a resolution that the city of New York be omitted from the roll-call since it presented no regular delegation. This was a cleverly planned blow at the reformers, as it shut them out from recognition and left the door open for Tammany to resume its place at will in that or any future convention. By an overwhelming vote of 90 to 4, this course was adopted. DeWitt appeared again as the Tammany champion when Horatio Seymour, observing Francis Kernan outside the rail among contesting delegates from Oneida, moved his admission. DeWitt countered with a motion to admit General McQuade, the opposing contestant, as "the friend of that great Democrat, John T. Hoffman," and the con-
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vention rejoiced at the chance to insult the reformers. Seymour had expected to preside over the convention, but, filled with chagrin at such treatment by assembled Democrats among whom he had always before been honored, he suddenly gave out that he was ill and went back to Utica. Four days later he wrote to Tilden expressing regret for the weakness of his excuse and the wish that he had boldly said that he would not preside. In deep depression he complained that the young men of the party were debauched, that even Cassidy of the Argus, who meant well, had been put under obligations by Tweed, who found him poor largely because the Democracy long neglected him, while his rival Albany editor, Weed, had been enriched by Whig and Repub- lican patronage. "A new party has been made up," he said, "and we are outside of it. For this I am glad." So little did he realize the emptiness of Tweed's vic- tory.11
The next day the convention gave bare courtesy to the reformers by listening to speeches by Oswald Otten- dorfer and William E. Curtis, and was brought face to face with the cost of what it was doing by Tilden, who, finally stung into boldness, declared, "I am free to avow before this convention that I shall not vote for any one of Mr. Tweed's members of the Assembly. And if that is to be considered the regular ticket, I will resign my place as chairman of the State central committee and help my people to stem this tide of corruption. When I come to do my duty as an elector in the city of New
11Bigelow, Letters and Memorials of Samuel J. Tilden, I, p. 283.
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York, I shall cast my vote for honest men. "12 On his motion the convention then proceeded to make nomina- tions. It renominated the old Tweed ticket, except the candidate for Secretary of State, for which office Diedrich Willers, the incumbent deputy, was named. The only contest was over the Attorney-Generalship. Charles O'Conor was proposed, but Tweed's friends rallied to Attorney-General Champlain and renomi- nated him by a vote of 62 to 42.13 Tweed allowed the convention to view with indignation the corruption revealed in New York City and lay the blame for it on the irresponsible government instituted by the Repub- licans. The platform declared for a new election of city officers and a more complete control of the city govern- ment by the Mayor, subject to removal by the Governor as in the case of a Sheriff. It favored a constitutional restriction of the power to incur municipal debts, and attacked the Republican convention at Syracuse as being dominated by the corrupt power that had com- mitted profligacies in the custom house. It commended Governor Hoffman, declared for tariff for revenue only, and, while recognizing the enfranchisement of the freedman, it condemned the Federal administration for prolonging dissensions.
Tweed had overmatched Tilden at Rochester, because he had still been able to profess personal irre-
12New York Tribune, October 6, 1871.
13The ticket was: Secretary of State, Diedrich Willers, Seneca; Comp- troller, Asher P. Nichols, Erie; Treasurer, Wheeler H. Bristol, Tioga; Attorney-General, Marshall B. Champlain, Allegany; State Engineer, Van Rensselaer Richmond, Wayne; Canal Commissioner, George W. Chapman, Saratoga; Prison Inspector, David B. McNeil, Cayuga.
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sponsibility for the corruption that it was clear to all existed in the city government. But on October 26 Til- den was ready with the results of his investigation of the Broadway Bank, which directly traced stolen money into Tweed's pocket, and upon his affidavit Tweed was arrested and released on bail of $1,000,000 furnished by Jay Gould and others. Connolly and Sweeney fled to Europe. The latter afterward compromised the claims against him for $400,000, which Attorney-General Fair- child accepted in preference to proceeding with the proffered testimony of Tweed against Sweeney and others.14 Connolly died abroad. Mayor Hall was brought to trial, but the jury disagreed and he served out his term as Mayor. Tweed after one mistrial was sentenced to Blackwell's Island for twelve years, but after he had served one year the sentence was set aside by the Court of Appeals. In default of $3,000,000 bail he was sent to jail, whence he escaped in December, 1875. He was rearrested in Vigo, Spain, where he had gone by way of Florida and Cuba, brought back to Ludlow Street jail on November 23, 1876, and remained there until his death on April 12, 1878. Impeachment proceedings had been started against his Judges, Bar- nard and Cardozo of the Supreme, and McCunn of the Superior Court. Cardozo, the cool-headed, masterful plotter of corruption, resigned. The swashbuckling, high-living Barnard was removed and lived for seven years after this disgrace. McCunn, a good-natured Irishman, a victim of weak greed rather than delib-
14John D. Townsend, New York in Bondage, ch. xxii.
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erate villainy, was also removed. He went home from Albany trying to carry a brave face, took to his bed, and died three days later.15
The arrest of Tweed gave the deathblow to his polit- ical machine and left Tilden no need to worry about regularity. He had planned to run for the Assembly with O'Conor and other friends to fight Tweed's legis- lation, but he was the only one of the number who stood and was elected. The Republicans, in spite of their factional difficulties, had no trouble in carrying the State, electing Scribner by 18,907 plurality. He received 387,119 votes against 368,212 for Willers. Charles C. Leigh, the Anti-Dramshop candidate, received 1,820 votes. The Senate elected stood 24 Republicans and 8 Democrats, and the Assembly 97 Republicans and 31 Democrats. Tilden had kept his word to oppose Tweed's members of the Legislature, and four out of his five Senators and fourteen of his twenty-one Assemblymen were defeated. Tweed him- self obtained a reëlection to the Senate, but never took his seat.
15For details of the Tweed frauds consult Myers, History of Tammany; and Townsend, New York in Bondage.
CHAPTER X THE LIBERAL REPUBLICAN MOVEMENT 1872
T HE Legislature of 1872 met facing great ex- pectations of a sweeping program of reform, which were largely disappointed. The Repub- lican majority worked at cross purposes with the Gov- ernor and showed no disposition to punish its own rascals. Hoffman dealt with the Tweed frauds in the fashion of the Democratic platform, recommending the concentration of power in the Mayor's hands. He also suggested minority representation in the city's legislative body and the requirement of frequent state- ments of expenditures, receipts, and contracts. He proposed legislation that would permit taxpayers to bring action in court against municipal officers for abuses of trust, thus anticipating the so-called Tilden law. The Governor likewise criticised the methods of the last two Republican Legislatures that had elected Senators, and urged the direct election of United States Senators, forty years in advance of the acceptance of that policy.
The Committee of Seventy appeared before the Leg- islature with a charter that made the king-pin of the city government a Board of Aldermen to consist of
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forty-five members, nine from each Senate district, to be elected by the cumulative method of voting. Each elector instead of casting one vote for each of nine candidates could cast nine votes for one candidate. Thus a minority by concentrating its vote could be sure of representation in proportion to its numbers. This board was to appoint most of the heads of executive departments. The bill passed both houses, but was vetoed by the Governor, who treated it as a confession that republican form of government was a failure and said: "No self-acting machinery can be devised which will suffice to do the work which the people themselves are bound to do.". He urged that power of appoint- ment be concentrated in the Mayor, and that he have control of the budget so far that he might decrease but not increase any proposed appropriation. He also objected to and questioned the constitutionality of cumulative voting, notwithstanding his suggestion of the need of minority representation in the Common Council previously put forth in his annual message. He like- wise vetoed several other attempts to amend the charter and pay claims against the city; and when a bill in- tended to be along the lines of his recommendation passed, making city, county, and town officials trustees of public property and every taxpayer a cestui que trust with power to sue for breach of trust, he vetoed the measure on the advice of the Judges of the Court of Appeals, who held that it might divest the city of title to its property and vest it in the officials, and that it also might make any suit against delinquent officials other than that of a taxpayer impossible. The Gilbert
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