The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1871-09-30
The New York Frauds.

"niou nave oeeh commtted by at least Tour OF
the principal officers of the city government of
New York, have produced aprofound sensation
not only in that city and state, but Throughout
the whole country. The meek quiet with
which the people of this nation have witness
cd the exposure of the most fragrant corrnp-
ton in city, state and national governments,
at least since the outbreak of the late war,
| was well calculated to fill the heart of an hon
est man with despair. The carpet-bagg and
negro governments in the southern states have
been so clearly proved that even their friends
have not attempted to deny their guilt of
corruption and Encouragement vastly more
stupendous and glazing than is even charged
against the New York ring and yet the rev.
Citations in regard to them have been received
with profound indifference by the entire re-
publican party, both in and out of congress.
The simple tact that Boss Tweed could, any
morning during the last several sessions OF the
New York legislature, issue his order to his
broker for three, five, or fifty republican votes
deemed necessary to carry any measure which
the democrats in body refused to sustain,
| caused but a shrug Of the shoulder. Thus
public apathy and indifference to the most
shameful corruptions in public men was but
an encouragement and an invitation to the
corruptionists to continue their larcenies and
the invention of new schemes and devices to
cover them up, and to quiet any disposition
| tO inv etl IN
were not less bold than ingenious. The plan
was to divide their plumber with all the lead
ing journals of the city, and the prominent
politicians of the republican party. This was
done by organizing printing, stationery and
other companies, the stock of which was dis
tributed among the managers of all the
leading papers Of the city. The fraudulent
bills allowed and paid these companies fur
nished the means Of making dividends by the
million to these very virtuous stockhol.
ders who, when hard pressed, could deny
with upil,ed hands and eyes the most remote
suspicion that the dividends which they had
so complacently received, had been stolen
from the city treasury in the form of exor.
bitant bills. @' .-- es- D.
How long this hush money might have
kept all quiet We cannot know, had not the
chief owner and manager Of the New York
Times, who was also large owner and man
ager in the printing company, died, and
somehow the stock in the printing company
and the stock in the Times paper fell into diff
fcrent hands, and the Times had to be turned
in the cold or subsidized in some other way.
The ring had become so strong and SO bold
that 1t listened to the tapping OF the Times
under its new auspices for admission with
contemptuous Indifference, and told i. to do
Its worst, for it could not be taken into pay
again. Fatal delusion though apparently
inspired and justified by the fact that all the
other influential papers of both parties were
practically in the pay Of the ring, and that the
offices at their disposal were equally divided
between the democrats and republicans; so
that their political opponents were equally
implicated in the rascality. Only BY such
elaborate and expensive hedging could such
= shocking system Of official population have
been carried on for single year. 1t was in
dispensable to silence the press;and to silence
their political opponents, and this could only
be done by dividing the plumber with them.
In this division, no doubt, they took the lions
share. but the authority to Issue bonds with
out limit, bonds unsurpassed in credit by those
OF the general government itself, placed
fund ut their disposal 90 enormous thar it re-
quired bu. boldness in its use to placa,e all
whose silence was deemed worth the purchase.
When the Times WAS turned out of doors Us
not worth subsiding, it went vigorously to
work to convince the ring of its great error 10
turing it at, aud most nobly and success
fully has it performed the task. At first its
revelations were received with indifference or
even derision by the balance Of the city press,
while the community was startled and then
shocked, though still incredulous. Even tue
bucolic philosopher of the Tribune smiled
grimly but inditferently at the disclosures of
the Times, and not a single paper in the city
republished the evidence which the Times had
revealed. Playful pleasantres were alone
elected from the other papers, until they
awoke one morning, about the first of Sep
TENDER, t" the fact that the people of the
great metropolis were convinced by the evl.
dence thus furnished that the charges made
against the ring and their subsidized papers
and office holders of both democrats and re.