New-York tribune., 1870-11-15
THE SKELETON IN THE HOUSE.

disbursement OF pubic money, J0nn l. Hoii-
man has been reelected Governor, by little
more than his former majority. That, how
ever, was wholly the result of fraud. while
this is in good part legal. He has no such
majority of legal votes as are returned for him
in Kings, Queens, and sOme other Counties;
and there are doubtless many parallels to the
new 10Th district of our With Ward, wherein
94 votes in all were polled, and we have the
affidavit of ten of the voters that each OF them
gave his suffrage to Stewart l.. Woodford for
Governor; yet Oakley Halls Inspectors have
returned 3l5 votes as cast therein for Hoffman
and barely one for Woodford! But for
Federal supervision and vigilance, there would
doubtless have been hundred such returns,
while there are now probably less than score.
We presume Hoffman received at this election
what he never did before-a majority of the
legal votes for Governor.
How desperate were the efforts required to
compass this result. the observant already
know. 1t was found necessary to withhold
from the taxpayers of this City that annual
exhibit of the expenditures Of their Municipal
rulers to which the law entities them. Our
masters of the Ring decided that it was safer
to defy the law than to let the public see what
they have done with the last Twenty-odd
Millions they took from our taxpayers; and
this was doubtless wise and prudent choice.
They could better confront suspicion than en-
dure conviction
Hoffman's Thrty-twO or Three Thousand
majority will doubtless prove considerably
larger than that of his Lieutenant, Beach; hav-
ing been swelled by special efforts and uni
| I'm
diously disparaged and unscrupulously de-
famed to secure this result. A journal of
wide circulation was induced to assal him as
a slave -traderl and One Hundred Thousand
extra copies of most elaborate and venom
GUS attack upon him as such were paid for by
the Ring and the State flooded with them.
The idea Of pitting "little Woodford" against
the stately, eminent, illustriOus Hoffman, was
held up to derison, and the public from day
to day assured that Hofman'5 majority could
not fall below Seventy-five and might reach
One Hundred Thousand. Had the supporters
Of Woodford been blacklegs, they might have
won as much money as the Ring steals in
year-say Ten Millions-by taking the bets
freely offered that Hoffman's majority would
exceed Forty, Forty-fye, and even Fifty
Thousand.
But Hoffman has secured his second term
and is now in full career for the White House
| He will fail to reach it for many reasons, but
primarily because of the quality of his hackers.
Had he no other weight to carry, Col. James
Fisk, jr., would sink him to perdition.
Gov. Seward missed the Republican nOmina-
ton for President in 1850 because of the evil
odor of recent Albany legislation. The "Grid.
"iron Railroads" had just become laws over Gov
MOrgan's pungent vetoes, and they were but 8
part of the profitable but unsayOry work OF
that session. The engineers were all at Chi.
cago. shouting for Seward. The Convention
decided that the Republican party could mt
afford to transfer their fragrance to Washing
ton. That was the consideration most potent
i'm securing the nomination of Lincoln. And
the delegates to the next Democratic National
Convention. hungry as wolves and not disposed
to weaken their chances of success, will quietly
conclude that they cannot afford to load theil
craft with Fisk's penagerie until they are re-
signed to see her Beaded for Salt River.
For this Erie scandal "smells to heaven
It's scent pervades this hemisphere and nvadcs
the other. You cannot find clearing in the
Michigan forests, G settlement on the Iowa
prairies, wherein something is not already
known of the combined legislative, executive
aud judicial viaines whereby the Erie Rail
road has been wrested from its owners and
handed over to a clique who plunder it of all
its net earnings, refusing to share them except
with each other. The cries of the widows and
orphans thus despoiled of their scanty heri-
tage ascend nightly to heaven the execrations
of men of business and enterprise, who want
to place bonds or shares with European capi-
talists, but are repulsed with the single word
Erie" are heard on every side. There is no
American security, from United States Skies
down, which is not depressed in price and
rendered more difficult of sale by the high
handed rascalities which the word Erie y
calls up If our country could have escaped
the consequences of the Fisk Gould manipula-
tions of Erie by paying them Fifty Millions of
Dollars and persuading them to take their
booty to Khartoum or Thibet for its secure
and tranquil enjoyment, she would have been
richer in money than she is, and not nearly so
threadbare of reputation.
For it is not the naked fact that a great
property has been wrested from its owners
and perverted to alien uses that alarms and
dishonors it is the glaring completely of
legislators and judges in the crime and its
fruits that shakes the very pillars of Public
Credit and threatens TO bring down the edifice
on the heads of the community. If one great
Railroad may thus be embezzled and retained,
why not any other as WELT Who can sleep
soundly with his means invested in banks in
surance companies, trust companies, or any
form of corporate undertaking, if a property
which ought to yield its owners -Four or Five
Millions per annum may be impounded by a