New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-03-22

uey-GeBefal, Win DarDDulhers 'oi oocto-
tary of State, Treasurer and Canal Com
missioner.
We urged the friends of the Speedy En-
largement to Judge by acts rather than
professions. We assured them that the
Leaders of a party which had denounced
the Canal Fund Certificates where With the
Enlargement was to be constructed as uu-
constitutional and worthless, and fought
the measure in every possible way, could
not now be trusted to turn short corner
and zealously, in good faith, prosecute that
Enlargement Had We not good ground
for our convictions
Yet we urged in vain. A few days be-
fore the Election, Mr.. Leu S. Chatfeld
was placarded along the Canals as the
signer of a pledge to prosecute the Canal
Enlargement faithfully and zealously. His
colleagues on the State Ticket, the placard
assured the People, were all of his O)iniOn -
all included in the pledge. And thereaPon
the Democratic friends Of the Speedy En-
largement were exhored to vote the regu-
lar ticket Strong majorities for that
ticket had already been secured in Scho-
harie, Delaware, CheDahgo and other anti
Enlargement Counties, on the natural pre-
sum- ton that this ticket was hostile to
Gov. Hunts policy, which the Wing ticket
openly and warmly supported.
The double game succeeded. Chatield
& Co. were elected, and Loco-FOco Ca
nal Board was secured. On that Board de-
volved the management and direction of the
State Canals from and after the LIST of jan
uary last There, having done its best to
prevent such a result, the responsibility Of
the Wing party for the Canals was at an end.
Well what have we since seen? A
mare's-n wrangle over the Canal Con-
tracts or Lettings of the late Board, where
in the Canal Commissioners of both parties
participated. A clamor raised, under Chat
fields direction, because the Contracts were
not given to the lowest bidders, when it ap-
pears that Chatield himself was the very
man who proposed that they should not be.
A cry of corruption and robbery was raised
by the Chat6eld tribe against the contracts as
exhorbitanhy high, when it is proved and
not denied, that the Contracts as Chatfeld
and Church fought to have them awarded
amounted to 100000 more than as they
now are. Such is the upshot of the Canal
Investigation.
We think the Wings in the Legislature
erred in having anything to do with it.
They should have cheerfully united in voting
the investigation, had full Committee
Of Loco-Focos appointed to conduct it,
awaited their report, and then asked them to
do as they see fit in the premises. For they
have full power in the Canal Board-let
them use it and take the responsibility If
they choose to break the present contracts
and award the work to the lowest bidder in
each case, they can do it, whether with or
without an investigation. If they should
thus complete the work in due season and
below the rates specified in the present con-
tracts, so much the better for the State; if
they should las they probably would) in-
crease the expense or seriously postpone
the contamination, On their heads DO il,
But here We are, with Loco-Foco Ca.
nal Board eleven weeks 10 power, and the
Canal Enlargement virtually arrested. The
Barhburner Chairman of the Joint Investi-
eating Committee proposes the annulment
Of the contracts. The Barnburner Auditor
of the Canal Department refuses to pay
the warrants drawn on account of work
done under these contracts. And finally a
Barnburner Judge-Brown of Newburgh
has decided that the Canal Certificates
issued under the Speedy Enlargement
Act are unconstitutional, void and worth
LEES, so that whosoever has sold one
of them on credit, can recover neither
the stipulated price therefor nor any
other sum whatever! And this fair spe-
cimen of Loco-Foco morality and juris-
prudence has only to be sustained by the
Courts above to kill the Speedy Enlarge
ment stone dead. Who is to have the
Contracts is a matter Of supreme indiffer-
ence if this judgment shall stand.
Wen ~ soame thnx H. r-:~-J- A..
Canal Enlargement needed this lesson,
having forgotten that of 1912. Bought
Wit lie said to be the best, if the price is
only reasonable. We trust they will find
this within their means-and remember it.