New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-03-02
ryp com INVESTIGATIONS.

If tbe very searching investigation mo '"o
p,ocL Friday" Gold Conspiracy had been
only intended TO remove suspicious Oh fres'-
dent Grants completely in the infamous sche"o'
II yvould have been unnecessary waste Vi No'
cressional time and labor. The charges VI
,ucb complicity came from such cOhteinPuoio
sources and were supported by such iilmsy tes-
t;monv that no thinking and unpreJudiced per
son ncrmtted himself for a moment to en-
terrain n doubt Of tho integrity OF
tbo Chief Magistrate. Now that the
inouiry of the Committee is ended. tho most
malignant partisanship, embodied In the per-
sons of Messrs. Cox and Jones, can advance as
they do in tho minority report. no other insin-
uation than that tho inquiry IA incomplete III
not more bitterly pursuing Butterfield, ana
partial because the President, Mrs. Grant, ana
tho unfortunate Mrs Corbin were not insultcd
by being summoned as witnesses IN a matter Oh
which they knew nothing. That MIR. Coroin
had 10 influence with the President,
and that bis volunteered advice on
financial matters received no notice.
is shown by the reluctant testimony oil Coipn
himself. That President Grant approved oil
Mr. Boutwells gold selling policy, and 80
cv,ressed himself much to the disappointment
of the arch conspirator. is plainly shown by
the statement Of Jay Could And .aat Mr.
boutwell, and the President were in full accord
on financial policy, and united as to the pro-
prjety of ordering tho sale which broke the
Gold Ring, is made clear by the testimony oil
MIR. Boutwell,, aud the dcspairinS admissions oil
Corbin. OF all the witnesses-and many OF
them were contemplate enough Ill c''"i
acter-only Jay Gould's man, james
Fisk. ir, insisted on repeating the weak
disconnected. utterly baseless insinuations, hrSt
doled out in sensation newspapers, against the
nrobity of tho President, Mrs. Grant, and
Gen. Horace Porter. There Is not even posi-
tive proof that Con. Butterfeld affiliated with
the conspirators at all.
Even the poor, weak, and despised old man.
Corbin, appears in a better light, placed, as he
is by this report. by the side OF those VINO are
truly guilty. His weakness in being scduceh
into the schemes of Gould and Fisk is virtue
compared to the treaCherous wiles with which
they tempted and committed him. One almost
pities Corbin while reading the story detailing
how tho net was woven around him, and feels
only scorn for tho hcartless intriguants who
worked his ruin. 1t did seem that these men
could not DO placed by any revelations IN
greater public contempt; but this report robs
them of what little respect remained to them,
for it shows them TO have been not merely
unscrupulous but, worse still in their own
eyes, not shrewd.
The long investigation will not be without
wholesome result however, if the recommend
atoms of the Committee in regard TO the Gold
Exchange and its banks are followed.
The inquiry has at once revealed that
these gambling institutions furnish the oppor-
tunities for conspiracies which affect public
credit and values, and cmbarrass business, and
suggested a remedy for their evil in the heavy
taxing of all transactions in such establish
ments Lot the taxes imposed be heavy enough
practically to close them up, the punishment Of
conspiracy against the public credit severe
enough to deter the most INSCRIPTIONS; and
the country will be satisfied with tho outcome
Of the protractcd examination.