New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-11-09
CUs7on-HoUSE RECONSTRUCTION.


1t is currently reported that the President
stubbornly ressts the representations and en-
treaties which are rained upon him from every
side by his devoted adherents, urging change
in the office of Collector for the port OF New
York. We credit this report, and perceive IN
the fact it affirms o new evidence of the en-
inently practical, common-sense structure OF
Gen. Grants mind For unless there Is to be
a radical change in the system on which Gus
tom-houses are run, the objects which they
are expected to subserve there could be no
filter head of the establishment, as there can
be no better exponent of that system, than
Mr. Thomas Murphy.
A ohasSep6t is not an elegant weapon Any
fowling piece or Joe-MantOn rifle surpasses it
in beauty. We presume no one ever bought
chasSep6t or a needle-gun to ornament his hall
or library. Its sole recommendation is its ef-
fectiveness in the destruction of human life;
yet monarchs sigh for it, and war-ministers
exult in its possession. They value it for
qualities which, though nowise ornamental,
are prominently serviceabe.
Mr. Murphy is neither representative mer-
chant nor great commercial jurist Neither
the Chamber of Commerce nor the Bar AssO-
citation would ever have dreamed of recon-
mending him as its exponent and choice for
chief revenue officer of the Republic Had the
ancient and honorable guild Of matters been
asked to present its best man for this most re-
| sponsible trust, it would never have thought
of Murphy. And had the President said to
every friend in New-York, "Name to me that
"man who will collect the customs of your
"port with eminent fairness signal efficiency,
and at the least cost to the Treasury" we
are confident that no one of them all would
have responded, "That man is Thomas Muir
"phy"
But if what was wanted was a professional
and dexterous politician-one who could ex-
tract from the Office the largest quantum of
political Captal-who could 80 WELD it as to
control primary meetings and manipulate To-
cal and State COnventions-lt would have been
difficult to name q person more adroit and
shifty than our present Collector. That may
have been speculation once; it is now demon
strated fact The cost of collecting the reve-
nue. by Mr.. Murphy is more than it ever was
before; it employs more persons and involves
heavier disbursements per month or per an
nun; but Mr.. Murphy has 80 used it as to
carry two successive State Conventions in the
very teeth of the constituencies they pro-
fessed to represent, even though majority of
the delegates, when elected, professed in either
instance quite other opinions than those they
were thus made to express. Such being "the
"proof of the pudding" Mr.. Murphy's admin
istraton must be pronounced an unequivocal
success and the President is justified in refus-
ing to end it,
By-and-by we shall have New Departure
in Revenue Collection, such as 1--WE trust) has
just been decreed in Municipal administration.
We.shau have Collector appointed expressly
to assess and secure the legal rates of duty at
the smallest possible lcost to the Treasury and
with the least Inconvenience to the merchants.
The fat pickings of private secretaries and
cousins from general ORDERS" warehouse
leases, carriage, &C., &C., will be no longer en-
joyed; senators and representatives will no
longer quarter their thriftless relatives and
broken-d down satellites on the Federal revenue
in genteel but dishonest pauperism; and the
State will no longer be traversed and harried
for weeks in advance of every State
convention, by platoons Of weighers, deputy
collectors, and humber tide-waiters, earning
the money of the People and the smiles of
Power by dragooning postmasters and tanning
the aspirations and hopes of ofice-seekers in
order to pack delegations of the requisite do
cility and subservieney. In short, it will yet
be realized and insisted that custom-houses
shall be run as manufactures and mercantile
houses are intended and presumed to be-with
the utmost economy consistent with efficiency,
and in utter independence Of personal aspirations
and political conventions. In that blessed time,
we shall of course have different sort of Col
lector; under the existing regime, we can i'm
agine no one filter for the work required of
him than Mr. Thomas Murphy.