New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-08-05
WHAT WE ARE FIGHTING FOR.

The World persists in misunderstanding the
issue which has been so distinctly raised be-
tween the honest taxpayers of New-York and
the Ring by which they have been swindled.
"The real battle" it says, " (f there is to be
"ba,tle) against the present City Government
"cannOt be fought before the November cleo
"tion in 1872. The old defunct Board
"Of Supervisors will not he arragned for trial,
"but the City Government organized under the
"new charter. In that election the accounts
"Of the old regime will be ruled out as
"irrelevant; for however truthful the evidence
Knight be, it would have no proper bearing
con the case. Now the present hubbub
"and cOmmotiOn is all about the accounts of
"the old regime, or to speak perfect eXactness,
81 is about the accounts Of one particular
"branch of the old regime, the scandalOus and
universally condemned Board of Supervisors.
ave see no utility in digging Cup and sitting
in Judgment on the corpse of that defunct
"BOard.n
The World will make much better defense
when it finds cut what the fight is about. So
far it seems to comprehend this battle as little
as it understood last year the Franco-German
war. Our attack is not upon the charter, nor
even upon the City Government, as a govern
ment; but upon the Tammany Ring. AS long
as we are ruled by that scandalOus cOpartner-
ship it makes very little difference how the
offices are divided or what they are called.
We are not fighting the offices, but the men in
them. Now there is not a fool in New York,
even in the World Office, who does not know
that under the new charter, just as under the
DID, the city is practically governed, the taxes
spent, the debts incurred by William NJ.
Tweed, Richard Connolly, Peter b. Sweeny,
A. Oakley Hall, and some lesser cOnspiratOrs
like Garvey and Ingersoll The head man of
this organization is and long has been Will
liam NJ. Tweed. He is to-day the real ruler
of this city. He was last year and the
year before the very life and soul of
that scandalOus and universally con-
"demned Board of Supervisors which
passed millions of fraudulent bills. Hall and
Connolly were the officers who approved and
paid those bills, knowing them to be dishonest,
and they hold the same offices now which they
held then. 1t is mockery therefore to say that
" the hubbub is all about the accounts of the
Board of Supervisors 1t is about the I'M
faithful stewards whose theft of the money of
the people under the old regime, is not denied,
and who are supposed to be stealing it now
under the new; and they may depend upon
it we shall not consider miSdeeds Outlawed
because they are more than year old.
The fight consequently, being with men and
not charters, can just as well be fought
now as in 1872, and must be fought now. If
The World and its friends feel able to
defend themselves, well and good. If not,
they might better get out of the way. Per-
haps, while they own the impeaching power
and the power before which impeachments can
be tried, we may have present difficulty in
reaching a legal remedy; but we shall reach
it, Meantime, we can have Legislature that,
if such resort be found essential, can make
short work of a charter only wrested to the
cOncealment of vilany.