The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1857-03-15
Congressional OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES OF Il
Black Republican Journals.

Black Republican Journals.
The records of the last Congress contain the
report of committee appointed to investigate
charges of corruption against some of the MEM
bers, and the action Of the House thereon, by
which several representatives and hangers-on OF
the lobby were morally kicked out of the society
Of decent men. The matter was made still more
conclusive by the circumstance that the control
Of the House was in the hands of the party to
which the disgraced members belong The re-
port Of the committee implicated three members
Matteson, Edwards and Gilbert-who resigned
their seats. Another member, WEIGH, was ex-
cused on the ground that he had been mere
tool in the hands of sharp practitioners Collate-
rally with this investigation. Greeley was mystic
riously mixed up in queer transaction, involv-
ing o check for thousand dollars, and Simon
tou areporter Of the Times, was expelled from the
floor as reward for his share in the same trans
actions.
The report Of the committee, SO far as it went,
was satisfactory to the country. 1t checked for
a time the lobby plunderings for which Washing
ton had become notorious, and nipped in their
budding youth several pretty little schemes for
depicting the treasury and flching the public
lands, which had been held back till the last
moments of the session, then to be pushed through
while the noise and confusion were too great to
admit of calm investigation into the matter Of
the bills before the House. The members incul-
pated escaped expulsion by resigning, but the
report OF the committee, and the verdict of the
people sustaining it, have become matters Of his
tory. Matteson and the others cannot escape
from the stigma which will rest upon their names
so long as the archives of the American Congress
shall exist.
These conclusions are those of every thinking
man, of any party, who watches the course OF
public events. The only regret on the part of
the people is that the committee did not pursue
its Investigations still further. According to the
statements of one of the convicted parties there was
in the last Congress an organization of thirty or
forty members pledged not to vote for any bill
involving the expenditure of money, or the grant
ing Of public lands, without being paid for it.
This was the foundation upon which the CON-
mittee had to work. and but three members were
df9ecfSiSu d. having UGH tAtphcdteu-
twenty TO thirty more being shielded from pun
ishment
Under these circumstances We are astonished
TO see some of the journals which were impIi-
Gated in the crime publishing long statements
by the criminals, accompanied with editorial
comments, and complaining that they did not
have a fair trial. The Times aud the Tribune
take this view Of the matter, because they are in
the same boat with Matteson, and they are vainly
eDdeavoring to prove that Simonton is an injured,
innocent dove; that Matteson Il Co. are angels OF
light, unjustly cast down from that heaven of fat
obs which is enclosed within the ten miles square
OF the District But these attempts of our co.em-
poraries cannot fail to plunge them still deeper in
the mire where they have been foundering dur
ing the last six weeks. Matteson, Simonton II
Co. have had a fair trial; they have been con-
victed at the bar Of Congress aud at the
still higher tribunal of public opinion. We
have no doubt that the members who
voted against them knew much more than
was contained In the reports upon which they
were called to pass As well might the con-
victed thieves and garroters in Sing Sing attempt
to whitewash their characters by whining agains.
the courts in which they we're tried. The cases
of Matteson Co. are settled in the public mind,
and no amount OF sophistical special pleading
can remove the damniDg evidence Of their guilt
therefrom.