New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-07-04
Correspondent in Ksn,as will be found in this
mornings TRIBUNE.

There 10 no point OF view 10 WHICH Tue icco"'
conspiracy Of Fernando Wood can find justifca-
ton. As q magistrate he never had, and never
could have, the shadow Of right to question,
much less nullfy, the action Of the Legislature.
The business Of every magistrate, and OF every
public officer, 10 simply and exclusively to execute
the law, and for him every act of the Legislature
bears that sacred character. So long as he remains
q magistrate, or an officer, be is deprived of all
right to call the justice or the cOnstisutonalty OF
a legislative act into question. He must execute
it; therein lies bis constant duty and his only pre-
roeative. A private citizen may proclaim law TO
be bad, and may take measures to test IFS cons'l'
tutionaty Not so a magistrate. II he becomes
convinced that law 10 wrong or unconstitutional
there is but one course open to him: nc must re-
SIGN his Office There is no other alternative.
And this is not mere legal principle; it is prln'
cple which exists in the very nature OF society.
No community could endure, whose magistrates
and agents, instead of executing and enforcing the
laws should set up to dispute their validity or
their equity, and should set them aside as their
own whms or interests might prompt.
IfMr. Wood really thought the Police law to be
unconstitutional, he should at once have resigned
the Mayoralty. So long as he continued to be
Mayor, he was under every obligation that can
bind man to carry the law into execution. This
obligation is not whit more imperative since the
decision of the Court Of Appeals than it was be-
fore. The day when the law by its own terms,
took effect, Mayor Wood was concluded from all
opposition to it, and no other duty and no other
right remained to him in the premises, but to
cary it into operation. Others might question
1t; he could not. Others might probably bring it
before the Courts; he could not. His whole pro-
ceedng, then, has been not simply illegal; it has
been eyre gousy criminal.
1t is pretended in Woods defense that be has
been acting as the champion of the city against
the encroachments Of the State But if there
were such eDcroachments to be resisted, he could
not lead in the resistance so long he held, under
the law of the State, commission as Mayor. If
he wished to engage in such championship, let
him begin by resigning his commission. But the
truth is that this pretenseis arrant humbug. What
Wood has really sought has been to cause popular
excitement, as means of forcing himself once
more upon the Democratic party That party had
spewed him out; he was determined to put himself
once more at its head at least in this city 1t was
q desperate case. Ruined in reputation by the
disclosure of his forgery and frauds, which had
been proved upon the Marvin trial. he was now
ruined politically by being kicked out of Tammany
Hail. This latter misfortune he was determined at
all hazards to retrieve, by rendering himself once
nd a fat whole
transaction was nothing but a political intrigue,
with 10 object beside his own personal advantage.
The culpability of Wood is increased by the fact
that he has deuded many others into becoming his
tools in this rebellion There are no doubt hun
dreds of the late policemen who would never have
thought of defyipg and breaking the law they were
sworn to obey, but for the influence which his ele-
waited Office and habit of command had gained over
their minds. And yet these men have not only re-
sisted the law and its officers, but have done it un
der aggravated circumstances, with blows and
bloodsbed, exposing themselves to severe retribu-
ton at the hands Of public justce-and all for
nothing but to serve the base personal ends of
most selfish, reckless and dishonest man.
1t is true that since the rebellion began, and
since the OBJECTIONS from the sO-called Municipal
ranks, some thieves, counterfeters and other we'll
known criminals, have been enlisted by Wood to
fill vacancies and for them nobody can have any
sympathy. But there are many, no doubt, who
have been led honestly to believe they were pur-
suing right course. They are the victims of
false representations, such as that Mr.. Wood
had private information that the Court of Appeals
were certain to condemn the law. These deluded
men, victims of this heartless political desperate,
are now turned off, of course, without pay fortheir
illegal services, and without employment for the
future. There is something in their condition
which excites pity; and we do not believe they
will very soon be found engaging in another con-
spiracy like that now brought to conclusion. Or
if they should ever again be led into such des.
perate and dangerous enterprise, we are confident
it will not be in the service of such person Fer
Baldo Wood.