The New York herald., 1867-03-20
Forty Cents, Worth Of Candy.

Forty CentS Worth Of Candy.
There has been great deal Of fuss made in
some OF the newspapers over certain alleged
corruptions at the Custom House in this city
and tho official conduct Of Collector Smythe.
A committee of Congress sat for thirty days
and thirty nights at the Astor House, collect
ing fund Of tattling and gossip and listening
to all the tales carried to them by disappointed
applicants for Custom House "plums," dis
charged ofhcials and political brokers and
jobbers. This trash they made up into q
lengthy report, written in the most approved
style of yellow covered literature, which they
published with q flourish Of trumpets intended
to astonish the world and make the Collector
of the port and the President Of the United
States shake in their shoes. Some of the news
papers seized upon the sensational document
with an avidity which at once indicated that
Collector Smythe had not properly appreci-
ated their friendship and influence; but the
public soon discovered that there was not in
the whole report, from beginning to end, one
particle OF evidence connecting the Collector
with any corruption or fraud or malpractice
of any description in relation to money mat
tiers, excepting in one single instance, which,
strangely enough, was stricken out by the
committee.
This solitary piece of bribery and corruption,
which was brought home to Collector Smythe
by his own admission, was the bestowal upon
one of the Presidents daughters of forty cents
worth Of candy. When asked, upon his oath,
if he had given money or any article or thing
Of value costing money, to any person in
Washington, his reply was, eyes, sir; I
once gave Senator Patterson's lady forty
cents worth Of candy" This was the only
was proved against the Collector. and this
was ignored and stricken ont by the COM
mittee, together with another piece Of evidence
which connected pious republican journal
notorious for its abuse of the President with
the Custom House pickings and stealings.
We are now furnished with second edition
of this report in terrible speech by Mr..
Hulburd in the House of Representatives,, in
which he seeks to alarm the Collector in the
true Bombastes Furioso stvle. But the speech
is as trashy as the report. There is not single
fact in it, from beginning to end, which in any
way duplicates Collector Smythe, in corrupt
practices. There is rascality enough in the
Custom House, outside of the Collector, and in
the forty thousand dollar job got up by ssring"
who were anxious to secure for themselves the
general order business; but either Mr.. HUI
burd and his committee we're too stupid to find
it out or had no desire TO do so. The fact is
there is one very curious feature connected
with this investigation. While the Hulburd
committee was sitting at the Astor House
another committee was engaged in inqniring
into the enormous whiskey frauds committed
in this city and Brooklyn, as well
rs into other corruptions in the inter-
nal revenue system. Nothing has been heard
Of the latter committee or their labors and
discoveries. Yet it is an admitted fact tina:
the government has been robbed to the ex-
tent of millions of dollars through the negli-
gence and connivance of revenue officials.
Some developments have been made
which show that most gigantic frauds
are yet in the backgrou und, but scarcely
word Of the testimony taken by the
committee has been given to the public. What
is the meaning OF this? Collector Smythe is
no politician, and the people laugh at his open
ness and candor. He probably believes that
he has committed some very heinous. offences,
bewildered as he has been by the tricks Of po-
litical brokers and sharp Congressman but
Of what public interest is his forty cents
worth Of candy ~ compared with tho mon
strous frauds involving millions Of dollars, per-
petrated 10 the Internal Revenue Department!
II looks very much a. II all this outcry made
by the Hulburd committee over the Custom
House humbug were designed to divert public
attention from the internal revenue frauds.
No doubt some Of the republican managers
would be glad 10 cover up this matter and to
raise fuss over the Hulburd report, 80 that
the silence Of the other committee may not
attract observation. But we insist that the
public are more interested In ascertaining
what ofIicials are implicated In the gigantic
frauds in the Internal Revenue Department, by
which the Treasury has been robbed Of mil
lions Of dollars, than in al the Custom House
squabbles and intrigues put together, includ-
ing collectors, Congre ssmen, copperhead Sen
ators, Presidents relatives, veteran lobbyists,
political jobbers, forty cents worth OF candy,
OIL Mrs. Perry and all.
The Late Attack on the PeiIee.
There IA hut one oninion abroad With rofsr