The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1855-10-10
indictments Of City Officials.

tnued tomorrow.
indictments Of City Officials.
There can be no doubt but the public has
received with very great satisfaction the news
that several municipal officers have been in
aicted for corruption and malfeasance. Not
that any one of the accused bore O particular
ly bad reputation, or that the dozen or so who
have been singled out Of the mass By the Grand
Juries were VIGOROUSLY profigate, or conspicu-
ously deprayed among their fellows. The
public has drawn no distinctions either in their
favor OF against them. It being generally UNI
derstood and believed that the officers Of the
city government, or many of them, were cor
rupt, no one has stopped to inquire whether
these were the worst; they have been made to
serve as scape goats for the rest, and it is
abundantly manifest that if they should be
condemned with the utmost rigor Of the law,
The public verdict would be: served them right
So much for the fruits of keeping bad COM
pany. There are officers Of the federal govern
ment concerning whom malice itself has never
uttered calumny; yet SO utterly corrupt is
the administration and SO we'll does the cOun-
try know it, that if these very men were in
dicted and brought to trial, public opinion
would be against them. 1t is the same with
the city government Of the city Of New York
The accused had better be prepared with a
full and unquestionable defence. That it is
hard for some of them, there can be no doubt,
and grave questions may arise with regard to
the regularity of the proceedings by which
their indictments have been effected. The
people are pretty sure to take broad view
emitting personal considerations and matters
Of detail; on the strength Of the prospect of q
clarified atmosphere and purified administra-
tion, they will be ready to overlook individual
cases Of hardship.
AT the same time, conscientious men cannot
help regretting that so desirable a result
should be attained by means which no dispas-
sionate thinker can wholly approve. The in
dictments against the accused officials were
obtained on eapa,te evidence, taken before q
sort Of star chamber commission called a
Grand Jury. That that body was not infalli-
bic is proved by the nolle 1rose9ai entered on
Monday in the case of Councilman Cooper; in
whose case the indictment rested on the evil
deDce of witness who swore one thing one
day and the contrary the next That an in
dictment, whether followed or not by a con-
viction, involves q serious loss of character,
and in some cases inficts an irreparable injury
on the party Indicted is still more obvious
Had Councilman Cooper been allowed to cross
examine the witness on whose testimony he
was indicted, or had he been suffered to adduce
evidence in rebuttal, it is probable that he
would never have been brought before the
public as an offender against the laws We
hear of other cases, wherein the indictments
have been obtained on evidence which no ex-
perienced lawyer would consider adequate to
sustain civil suit. There is here matter for
serious reflection. That the city officials bear
bad name is no reason why innocent in
dividuals-such as Councilman Cooper must
be presumed to be--should be DETAINED, and
held up to public scorn without good cause
II IL be necessary-and all will agree that it
is--to purge the municipal body of corrupt
members, some mode must be invented for
doing so without exposing blameless men to ir-
retrievable injury. We must try to get rid Of
the star chamber system. Grand Juries have
their merits as an nsti tuition, no doubt:
but in cases of this kind, the mischief they
may he made to work is far more readily de-
tected When an irresponsible body composed
of naval officers sat in Judgment on the United
States navy and suspended, furloughed, or rot
rid Of some two hundred officers, on erparie cvi.
dence, and without hearing one of the ac-
cused-the Secretary Of the Navy contenting
himself with sanctioning proceedings which
he admitted he did not approve-the public
judgment was that the thing was wrong, and
that the officers removed from active service
were gratuitously and shamcfully wronge1.
u is even so with the Grand Juries. They
hear part Of the evidence in a case, on one
side only they give the accused no chance of
demoiishing his assailants they sit with closed
doors, which shut out the light Of public OPT
Mon, and the dread of responsibility and in
this way they give birth to public impeach-
ment Of character which cleaves to a man
through life, and which no acquit,al, however
honorable, can wholly efface. u seems that
such method Of getting rid Of corrup,ion ia
scarcely less Objectionable than the vice il is
designed to cure.