The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1871-09-14

! April 30, 1871. aug !, 1871.
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[FrOm Haper's weskiy.
d THE TIMES ANB TAMMANY.
The constant and unsparing de.
4 nunciations in the New York Times
of the Democratic management Of
: the city excited universal attention,
: They were so pointed and sugges-
. tive, yet so relentless, and the gen.
eral feeling was that the paper was
utterly reckless, or that it under
stood itself perfectly. That its blows
told, was evident from the foolish
! charge of the organs of the Ring
that its hostility was due to the re-
fusal of the city to pay its bill for
advertising, as if journal like the
Times would ruin itself for bill of
fifteen or twenty thousand dollars.
Still further proof of the stinging eff
feet of its attack was offered in the
notorious effort of agents of the Ring
to buy an interest in the paper, in
order to get an injunction from one
of the Ring Judges to suspend and
destroy it. This attempt was COM
Ipletely baffled. The value of the
shares in the Times rapidly rose,
and at a greatly enhanced price a
lsale was made to one of the original
stock. holders, so that more than
four-ffths Of the paper are now own
ed by two gentlemen, who have
been managing partners during the
whole controversy with the Ring.
At last the Times published the
facts, which were as utterly destruc-
tive of the claims of Democratic
management to superior honesty and
economy of administration, as the
! Democratic surrender to the threats
of mob had been of its professions
of regard for constitutional liberty.
In successive issues the Times laid
before the public literal copies of the
Comptroller's accounts, by which it
appears that during the years 1869
and part of 1870, more than five and
half millions Of dollars were paid
to certain firms for furniture, carpen
ter-wOrk and carpeting for the new
Court House and for certain militia
armories. The bill of one plasterer
for work during a part of two
months was nearly a million dollars,
and for "repairs" of county build
ings, two days in the Winter, he re
ceived S133,18 20, while for two
years the bill for plastering was
nearly $3,OOO,OOO. For furniture,
Fittings up," etc., in the new Court
House alone during two years, more
than $1,7OO,OOO were paid to one
firm. For another months carpen-
ter-work in the same Court House.
in one of the same years, more than
$35O,OOO were paid to another car
penter. And reckoning carpets
at five dollars a yard, the city au.
thorities have paid money enough. |
for carpeting, in the new Court
House alone, to have covered the
whole City Hall Park three times
over.
These are but examples of the de-
tails of these astounding frauds and
the exposure was too overwhelming
to be borne with the silence of affect
ed contempt. There were the names,
the dates, the details, the figures. IfI
they were false, the Times was ruin
ed. Its judgment and its veracity |
could never again be trusted. If they
were true, what was the explana-
tiOn? Now the country will OBJ
serve that the accuracy of these
enormous figures has not been de-
MED The Times charges that mil
lions of dollars have been stolen
from the Taxpayers under pretense
of paying for the work done, and
the Tammany Ring does not deny
it. The Times calmly says that it
accuses the authorities of the theft. |
1t invites a suit for libel. 1t asks
only for the most solemn and public
opportunity of proving the city au-
thOrities to be swindlers, and those
authorities, up to the time of this
writing, have neither denied thel
truth of the fatal figures nor sum-
mOned the Times to prove its asser-
tions in court.
[The Weekly recites the pitiful ex-
cuses amounting to admissions made
by the Ring and prOeeeds:1
And this is the defense which the
city authorities offer to the wither
ing revelations of enormous frauds
upon the public treasury. These
frauds, it will be remembered, are
not denied. The authorities merely
excuse their completely by calling it
ministerial. These frauds, moreover,
are all accomplished within the
Ring, which is the immediate rep
resentative of Tammany Hall, the
most powerful Democratic organiza.
tiOn in the country, which controll-
ed the last Democratic Convention,
and which hopes to control the next
And those Democrats who are now
engaged in abOrtive attempts to con
fuse and conceal these damning
facts are loudest in their denuncia-
tions of Republican extravaganza
and maladminiStratiOn. Mr.. VIM.
M. Tweed, the chief sachem of Tam
MANY and nof Iooot &c a. -.