New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-12-22
MR. FISK,.S kEW PLEA.

biography of Mr. James Fisk, jr., comes to be
written, in deciding which was the most i'm
pudent action of his astonishing career. We
suggest for the consideration Of the historian
upon whom this nice adjustment of balances
may fall, the answer which he has set up to
the action brought by the English stockholders
to compel an accounting for his stewardship
in the management of the Erie Railway COM
pany. The answer is in the form of an appli-
cation of Messrs. Fisk, Gould, and Lane, for
an Injunction to restrain the prosecution OF
the suit on the plea that the stockholders had
testified their appreciation of the conduct
of the managing directors by continuing
them in Office aud passing 1--WE believe) q
vote of confidence In the old days when Judge
Barnard and Mr. Field were in their prime,
such an Injunction would have been granted
without any difficulty; but now there is at
least chance of its being refused. When we
look at all the circumstances, the application
seems more like satire upon Tammany JUS
tice than q serious legal proceeding. 1t will
be remembered that in 1869 the English share
holders, being about to bring suit against the
Erie Ring, placed their stock in the hands of
Heath and Raphael, and applied at the usual
Office to have it transferred in the usual way
from the names of the brokers, in which it
then stood, to the names of the owners repre-
sentativcs With the assistance of Judge Bar
nard, Mr. Fisk Immediately seized this stock
about 10000 shares-and placed it in the
hands of the celebrated Gntz, Mr.. James
ii. Coleman. Mr.. Coleman, according to a re-
port which has long been current and never
cOntradicted, used that stock to vote for the
reelection of Fisk, Gould, and Lane; and thus,
by an amazing travesty of justice, the Erie
Ring was continued in power by votes stolen
from the very men who were trying to over
throw it. The Classification bill, the aid of
Field and Barnard, and the virtual possession
of these 10000 shares, enabled the Directory to
retain their ill-gOtten power and to approve
their own rascalty by as many resolutions of
confidence as they chose to pass.
The Heath and Raphael party have Mt last
succeeded in getting back their property, or
nominal equivalent for it. They fought Fisk
out of the Tammany Courts and into the Fed
eral Court and there, after innumerable delays
and vexations, they procured an order for the
restoration of the appropriated shares Further
proceedings were necessary to enforce Obedi-
cnce to Judge BlatchfOrds first order, and to the
laSL tue Ming nclu DdCk lSUVO BOarc8, winch,
whatever might be said of the other $4,000,
they vowed to be their own personal property.
These too they have now been ordered to surreu-
der. And 80 it appears upon the record of the
Court that Fisk, Gould, and Lane never had
any right to the stock which they seized in
1869; that the Englishmen have been all this
while wrOngfully kept out of their property
and that the votes of confidence" and eek
generation to which the present petition for
IN injunction refers were carried by the voices
of men who were not bona fde stockholders,
but only the forcible appropriations of stock
belonging to persons Of very different way
of thinking. Yet Mr.. Fisk and bis friends
have the assurance to refer to these proceed
ings, which the decision Of the Court virtually
prOnOunces fraudulent, as bar to any fur
ther action on the part Of the very suitors
against whom the fraud was planned. In
other words, they ask the Court to let them
take advantage of their own wrong. Must not
the Fisk Ring be in desperate need when it
makes such prayer rs thisi