USA > New York > The Empire State: a compendious history of the commonwealth of New York > Part 55
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Again the ever-oscillating political pendulum in the State of New York went to the Republican side in the fall, giving to the Senate twenty-four Republicans of the thirty-two members, and to the Assem- bly ninety-seven Republicans and thirty-one Democrats. This result was largely occasioned by the discovery during the summer of immense frands perpetrated by municipal officers in the city of New York. The conspirators concerned in these frauds are known in local history as " The Tweed Ring," or the " Tammany Ring." 'For several years the metrop- olis was virtually ruled by William M. Tweed, a chair-maker by trade,
545
PLUNDERING OF THE N. Y. CITY TREASURY.
and a politician of the baser sort by profession. Active, pushing, un- scrupulous, he had worked his way up through petty municipal offices to the position of Supervisor of the County of New York, chairman of that Board, and Deputy Street Commissioner in 1863. The latter office placed him virtually at the head of the public works of the city, and gave him almost unlimited control of the public expenditures. At about the same time he was chosen Grand Sachem of the Tammany Society, which position endowed him with immense political power. This power, by means of his offices in the municipal government and the patronage at his command, he was able to wield with mighty force. He took advan- tage of this power to procure for himself election to the State Senate for three consecutive terms-1867 to 1871. Corrupt officials and hungry politicians swarmed around him. With three or four shrewd confidants -men who before had enjoyed a fair reputation for honor and honesty -he organized a system for plundering the public treasury unprece- dented in boldness and extent. It comprehended the expenditure for streets, boulevards, parks, armories, public buildings, and improvements of every kind, in which the spoils were divided, pro rata, among the conspirators. These spoils consisted of sixty-five to eighty-five per cent of the public money paid to contractors and others, who were encouraged to add enormous amounts to their bills, often ten times the amount of an honest charge .*
To render plundering more secure, Tweed procured from the Legis- lature amendments to the charter just mentioned, by which the execu- tive power of the city was vested in the mayor and the heads of depart- ments, who were appointed by him. The mayor appears to have been one of the "ring" of conspirators, and appointed Tweed to the impor- tant office of Commissioner of Public Works. Tweed's confederates were placed at the head of other important departments connected with the city finances. The power of auditing accounts was taken from the supervisors and given to a Board of Audit, composed of the Mayor,
* For example : " On one occasion the sum of $1,500,000 was granted for pretended labor and expense of material, when a fair and liberal allowance would have been only $264,000. The sum authorized by the Legislature to be expended in the erection of a new county court-house in the city was $250,000 ; in 1871, when it was yet unfinished, $8,000,000 had ostensibly been spent upon it. Whenever any contractor or mechanic ventured to remonstrate, he was silenced by a threat of losing the city patronage or of non-payment for work already done ; and so conscientious men were often forced to become tlie confederates of thieves. A secret record of these fraudulent transactions was kept in the auditor's office under the title of " County Liabilities." The incumbent of that office was a supple instrument of the plunderers, and did their bidding."-Lossing's History of New York City, vol. ii., p. 806.
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
Comptroller, Commissioner of Public Parks, and Commissioner of Public Works, * who were the chief conspirators.
The scheme for plundering the city treasury was now complete, and it was used with a free hand for the next fifteen months. In order to evade joint responsibility, the Board of Audit delegated their power to the city auditor, who was one of their willing tools. He signed all the fraudulent bills often without examining them, and paid over to the chief conspirators their commission of sixty-five or eighty-five per cent on the amount so audited. Within the space of less than four months the sum of $6,312,000 was paid from the city treasury, of which $5,710,000 was ostensibly on account of the new court-house. At least $5,000,000 of the $6,312,000 went into the pockets of the chief conspirators and their associates.
Their " sin found them out." The sheriff of New York happened to place an honest man in the auditor's office, named John Copeland. He stumbled upon the record of "County Liabilities." He made an exact copy of it, and showed it to the sheriff. The latter used it in endeavors to force the " ring" to pay a claim he held against the city. The conspirators refused compliance with his demand, and he threatened to publish the record in the New York Daily Times. Alarmed, they at once sent the auditor to negotiate with the sheriff, who, they sup- posed, was at a sporting tavern in a remote part of the city. Failing to find him, the auditor was returning, when he was thrown from his car- riage and mortally hurt. He never regained consciousness.
For several months the sheriff unsuccessfully pressed his claim. At length he gave the damaging document to the proprietor of the New York Times, and in July, 1871, the tell-tale items were spread over its pages for the public eye. Amazement and hot indignation produced intense excitement in the city. Tweed, believing his fortress to be im- pregnable, sneeringly inquired :
" What are you going to do about it ?"
Day after day the Times dealt ponderous blows at the walls of the fortress of the conspirators, each day adding proofs of the black crimes of the plunderers. Week after week the inimitable cartoons of Nast in Harper's Weekly struck equally telling blows, for pictures are the liter- ature of the unlearned ; and the most illiterate citizen could read and understand these cartoons. The conspirators were soon compelled to yield.
# A. Oakey Hall, Mayor ; Richard B. Connolly, Comptroller ; Peter B. Sweeney, Commissioner of Public Parks, and William M. Tweed, Commissioner of Public Works.
547
FATE OF THE CHIEF PLUNDERER.
A meeting of citizens was held at the Cooper Union on September 4th, at which some of the principal men of New York City were active participants. An Executive Committee of Seventy, composed of leading citizens, was appointed, charged with the duty of making a thorough investigation, and to take action for relieving the city of the plunderers. The Committee sent forth an " Appeal to the people of the State of New York," and then entered upon their duties with vigor. Very soon the conspirators in office fled to Europe or were brought to the bar of justice. The Attorney-General of the State authorized the late Charles O'Conor to act for the commonwealth. He employed able assistants. The late Governor Samuel J. Tilden rendered con- spicuous service in the matter. On the strength of an affidavit of the latter, Tweed was arrested and held to bail in the sum of $1,000,000. He was tried for and found guilty of forgery and grand larceny in 1873, and sentenced to a long imprisonment in the penitentiary on Blackwell's Island .* Very soon the city was purged of the plunderers. It was estimated that the " ring" had robbed the city of fully $20,000,000.t
The Committee of Seventy not only broke up the gang of official rob- bers, but procured an amendment to the city charter, by which the legis- lative power was vested in a board of twenty-two aldermen. The mayor retained the authority to appoint the heads of the several departments, but only with the advice and consent of the Board of Aldermen.
The State Legislature was called upon in 1872 to adjudicate the cases of five judges who had been impeached for corrupt official conduct. These were G. G. Barnard, A. Cardozo, J. A. McCunn, and George M. Curtis, of New York City, and H. G. Prindle, of Chenango County. Thirty-nine articles of impeachment were presented against Barnard, mostly accusing him of receiving bribes and corruptly using his judicial power. He was found guilty, was removed from the bench, and was
* In the summer of 1875 Tweed's friends procured his release on bail. He was imme- diately arrested on a civil suit to recover over $6,000,000 which he had stolen from the city treasury. Bail to the amount of $3,000,000 was required. He could not furnish it, and he was confined in the Ludlow Street Jail. One evening at twilight, being allowed to visit his wife in charge of the sheriff, he managed to escape. He fled to Europe, was arrested in a Spanish port, and brought back to New York in failing health, and lodged in jail. In March, 1876, in a civil suit for $6,537,000 the jury returned a verdict for that amount. He could not pay. He lingered in prison until January 12th, 1878, when he died at the age of fifty-five years.
+ The Tweed Ring were not the only plunderers of the city at that period. Members of the dominant political party in the city Legislature (largely for political purposes) gave in lands and money, during three years previous to 1873, no less than $4,896,388 to one denomination of Christians in the city of New York for the support of its religious, benevolent, and educational organizations.
548
THE EMPIRE STATE.
disqualified from ever afterward holding any office in the State of New York. Cardozo wisely resigned, and so avoided a trial. McCunn was found guilty, and was removed, and died soon afterward. Curtis and Prindle were acquitted. The conduct of the four city judges was a part of the great official conspiracy to plunder the treasury of the metropolis .*
The colored population, availing themselves of their newly-acquired political rights, followed the example of the white people, and assembled in conventions in various parts of the Union to express their views. The first State convention of colored citizens ever assembled in the United States met at Troy, N. Y., on May 8th-9th, 1872. They ex- pressed their gratitude to the Republican Party as their liberator ; endorsed the administration of President Grant ; pledged themselves to support the Republican nomination for President ; asked the Republi- can State Convention, then about to assemble at Elmira, to send a colored delegate at large to the Republican National Convention, then soon to meet at Philadelphia, and demanded the recognition and the enforce- ment of the rights of the colored people.
The political aspect in the State of New York and of the whole country in 1872 was peculiar. A large faction of the Republican Party, who had become dissatisfied with the administration, had formed a sepa- rate organization under the title of Liberal Republicans, and arranged themselves in opposition to the great historic party as represented by that administration. At a National Convention held at Cincinnati on May 1st, they nominated Horace Greeley, the veteran editor of the New York Tribune, for President of the United States. The Dem- ocratic leaders, perceiving little hope of success for their party, sought and effected a fusion of the Democratic and Liberal Republican parties. Mr. Greeley accepted the nomination from both parties ; but President Grant, who had been nominated for re-election, was chosen by a pop- nlar majority of over seven hundred and sixty-three thousand. Many
* When Tweed was at the height of his disreputable career a strange social phenomenon appeared. Dazzled by the magnitude of city " improvements" under his direction, and without inquiring whence he procured the means for dispensing his private charities on a munificent seale, some of the most reputable citizens of New York publicly proposed to erect a statue of him as a public benefactor ! And when his daughter was married sixty- two citizens, some of them of high social position, bestowed upon her wedding gifts to the aggregate value of $70,000. Only one present was as low as $100 in value. Twenty- one persons each gave presents valued at $1000. Ten persons gave $2000 presents, two, $2500, and five gave presents to the value of $5000 each. One of the donors of the latter amount was a woman. Some of the most munificent gifts were from persons connected with the " ring," but who were then accounted respectable members of society. See Lossing's History of New York City, p. 807. A list of the names of those donors may be found in Stone's History of the City of New York, Appendix.
549
A CIVIL RIGHTS BILL.
straight-out Democrats, offended by the nomination of Mr. Greeley, their life-long political antagonist, nominated Charles O'Conor, of New York, and gave him over twenty-one thousand votes, though he declined to be a candidate. In the State of New York Grant's majority over Greeley was more than fifty-three thousand, and that of General John Adams Dix," the Republican candidate for Governor of the State, was over fifty-five thousand. A large majority of the Republican Congress- men were elected, and the State Legis- lature, at the beginning of 1873, was overwhelmingly Republican. A greater portion of the Liberal Republican fac- tion was afterward absorbed by their ally, the Democratic Party, in the State and nation, and disappeared as a distinct organization.
In the spring of 1873 a Civil Rights Bill was passed by the Legislature, for- bidding the managers of theatres and other places of amusement denying equal enjoyment of the privileges of JOHN A. DIX. their exhibitions to any person on ac- count of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." During the same session a commission appointed to prepare and submit to the Legislature such amendments to the State Constitution as they might deem expedient completed their work and reported amendments of nine acts and two new acts. These amendments were referred to the people at the next fall election, when they were all ratified. They made some
* John Adams Dix was born at Boscawen, N. H., on July 24th, 1798 ; died at New York on April 27th, 1879. He entered the army in 1812, a boy less than fifteen years of age ; was promoted to captain in 1825, and soon afterward resigned and studied law. He made his residence at Cooperstown, N. Y., and was chosen Secretary of State in 1833 by the Democratic Party. In 1845 he was elected to the United States Senate to fill a vacancy. In 1848 he was the unsuccessful Free-Soil candidate for governor. While in the Senate he was chairman of the Committee on Commerce. He was succeeded in the Senate by Mr. Seward in 1849. In 1861 he was Secretary of the Treasury for about three months, in the Cabinet of President Buchanan, during which time he issued the famous order : " If any man attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot !" He was made major-general of volunteers in May, 1861 ; commanded at Fortress Monroe in 1862, and performed eminent services of various kinds during the war. In 1867-68 he was United States Minister to France ; also was made President of the Union Pacific Railroad. In 1872 he was chosen Governor of New York. In 1855 Governor Dix pub- lished A Summer in Spain and Florence, containing his reminiscences of travels in Europe.
550
THE EMPIRE STATE.
notable alterations in the organic law of the State. Among other things, provision was made for securing equality in the exercise of the elective franchise ; for the punishment of givers and receivers of bribes at elections ; for the payment of a fixed salary of $1500 to the members of the Legislature ; for changing the official term of the governor and lieutenant-governor of the State from two to three years, making the salary of the former $10,000 a year, and of the latter $5000 a year ; for re- stricting the Legislature in the management of the finances of the State and the chartering of banks ; also for the prevention of official corruption.
For some years a topographical and trigonometrical survey of the Adirondack region of the State had been prosecuted. In 1873 a com- mission appointed to inquire into the expediency of setting apart a large portion of that mountain and lake district as a State Park reported in favor of doing so. It has been done. The domain surveyed embraces about five thousand square miles, and includes all the higher peaks of the group and many lakes. The principal object sought in the preservation of the forests which clothe the hills was their beneficial climatic effects and the furnishing and perpetuation of a healthful and delightful pleas- ure ground for the people-a vast and magnificent sanitarium.
At the State election in the fall of 1873, the following questions were submitted to the voters for their decision :
1. Shall the chief judge and the associate judges of the Court of Appeals and the justices of the Supreme Court be hereafter elected or appointed ?
2. Shall the judges of the Superior Courts of New York City and Brooklyn, of the Court of Common Pleas of Buffalo, and the several county judges throughout the State be hereafter elected or appointed ?
The majority for the election of the higher judges was 204,642 ; for the election of lower judges, 208,985.
Among the important events in the civil history of the State during the administration of Governor Dix was the passage of an act which became a law on May 11th, 1874, for the compulsory education of the children of the commonwealth. It met with much opposition. The law went into effect on January 1st, 1875. It requires all parents and those who have the care of children between the ages of eight and four- teen to see that they are instructed in spelling, reading, writing, English grammar, geography, and arithmetic at least fourteen weeks in each year, either at school or at home, unless the physical or mental condition of the child may render such instruction inexpedient or impracticable .*
* Eight of the fourteen weeks' attendance at school must be consecutive. Any person neglecting to comply with this requirement is liable to a fine of $1 for the first offence,
551
LAW FOR THE PROTECTION OF CHILDREN.
The political campaign in the State in 1874 was exceedingly interest- ing. A Prohibition Convention assembled at Auburn late in June, and nominated ex-Governor Myron H. Clark for governor. On the same day in the same city fifty temperance Republicans from various parts of the State met and passed resolutions condemnatory of Gov- ernor Dix, because he vetoed a so-called local-option bill for the repression of intemperance .* The Liberal Republi- cans met in convention at Albany in September, but did not make any nomi-
nations. The Democratic Convention held at Syracuse in the same month nominated Samuel J. Tilden for Gov- ernor.+ The Republican Convention was also held at Syracuse in September, SAMUEL J. TILDEN. and renominated Governor Dix by ac- clamation. The result of the election in November was a Democratic
and for each succeeding violation, after having been properly notified, the offender shall pay $5 for every week, not exceeding thirteen in a year, during which he shall fail to , comply with the law. The fines thus collected are to be devoted to school purposes.
No person shall employ any child under the age of fourteen years to labor in any busi- ness during school hours, unless the child has been instructed, either at school or at home, for at least fourteen of the fifty-two weeks next preceding the year in which the child shall be employed. The child must also furnish a written certificate of having received such instruction. The penalty for violating this provision is $50 for every offence.
In every school district the trustees are required, in September and in February, to examine into the situation of children employed in all manufacturing establishments ; and manufacturers must furnish a correct list of all children between the ages of eight and fourteen employed.
Trustees are required to furnish text-books where the parents or guardians are unable to do so. If the parent or guardian is unable to compel the child to attend school, and shall so state in writing, the child shall be dealt with as an habitual truant.
Boards of instruction and trustees in cities, school districts, etc., are authorized and directed to make all needful provisions and regulations concerning habitual truants, and children between the ages of eight and fourteen years found wandering about the streets during school hours, having no lawful occupation or business, and growing up in igno- rance, and to provide for their instruction and confinement where necessary.
* Governor Dix expressed himself as favorable to the principles of the bill, but vetoed it because of its inconsistency and failure to meet the alleged exigency. It professed, he said, to leave to the people the largest liberty, while it in reality restricted them to the narrowest. This subject came up afterward, and a local-option bill finally became a law. + Samuel Jones Tilden was an astute politician. He was born at New Lebanon,
552
THE EMPIRE STATE.
victory. Mr. Tilden was chosen chief magistrate of the commonwealth by a plurality of 50,317 votes. Mr. Tilden took his seat as Governor of the State of New York on January 1st, 1875.
Columbia County, N. Y., in February, 1814. His physical constitution was weak from infancy. His father being a personal and political friend of Martin Van Buren and other politicians who composed the " Albany Regency," young Tilden was introduced into political circles at a very early age. He studied law with Benjamin F. Butler, and became a sound but not brilliant member of the profession. For a while he indulged in journalism, establishing the Daily News in New York City in 1844. He soon returned to the bar, was elected to the Assembly by the Democrats, and was a member of the conven- tion that revised the State Constitution in 1846. Mr. Tilden was much sought after as counsel for corporations. He was a bitter opponent of the Republican Party, and blamed President Lincoln for not calling out 500,000 troops in 1861 instead of 75,000 to suppress the rebellion. He and Governor Seymour were in accord during the war. In 1874 Tilden was elected Governor of New York, and in 1876 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the Presidency of the United States. He died at his magnificent seat on the Hudson, near Yonkers, in August, 1886, leaving a fortune of fully $5,000,000. He was never married.
553
THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION.
CHAPTER XL.
THE year 1875 closed the first century of the life of the great republic of the West. The notes of preparation for a grand Centen- nial celebration and an exhibition of the industries of all nations were then heard throughout the land. The city of Philadelphia-the birth- place of the republic-was the chosen theatre of the wonderful display to which the State of New York made a notable contribution from its immense treasures of production of every sort .* At that centennial period-the end of 1875-I propose to close this compendious history of the Empire State of the Union. All events before that period have passed into the realm of completed and permanent history ; all since then are components of current history with ever-changing phases, in which living men and women compose the persons of the drama.
The session of the Legislature began on January 6th, 1875, and adjourned on May 22d. Among the more important acts passed at that session were a general law for providing uniformity in the organi- zation and administration of savings-banks,t empowering the Super- intendent of the Banking Department to grant charters to such in- stitutions, limiting the amount of deposits in the name of one person to $5000, and prohibiting their loaning money on personal securities and dealing in merchandise, or buying or selling exchange or gold and
* The exhibition was opened on May 10th, 1876, with imposing ceremonies. The most distinguished guests present were President Grant and the Emperor and Em- press of Brazil. After prayers a thousand voices sang a beautiful Centennial Hymn written by John G. Whittier, the Quaker poet. The exhibition was kept open six months. The total number of admissions from the opening until the closing was 9,910,965, and the total cash receipts for admission was $3,813,725. The largest attendance for a full month was in October, when 2,663,911 persons were admitted. Twenty-six nations were represented among the products of industry.
+ The first bank for savings in the State of New York was opened on Saturday even- ing, July 3d, 1819, in a basement room in Chambers Street, New York City. It was the fruit of the suggestion and efficient labors of John Pintard. An association was organ- ized by the choice of twenty-six directors, with De Witt Clinton at their head. William Bayard was chosen president. The deposit office was open from six until nine o'clock that evening, when $2807 had been received from eighty-two depositors. The smallest amount deposited was $2 ; the largest amount was $300. That first savings-bank in New York is still a flourishing institution, located in an elegant banking-house of white marble on Bleecker Street. From 1819 until 1883 the aggregate sum of $162,032,515 had been deposited in that bank from 490,541 persons.
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