New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-10-03
pILNHED 10 TILE W1LL.

seeking to punish tweed a. Co' NY '"o wv
man Democratic leaders is a transparent lra'o'
PUSHED TO TIE VAIL.
The exhibit made in the afidavits in the
Casa against Mayor Hall, published in TIE
TRIBUNE to-day, is really the most damnlng
Indictment of the members Of the Tammany
Ring which has yet been made. lrue' we
have had most of these figures before, anu
the long array of items has grown familiar 10
newspaper readers all over the country; but mere
we have conclusive arralgnment OF .thc
members of the City Government, Tor whom
A. Oakley Hall, Mayor, at present stands 10
answer. 1t has been plausibly urged that tho
good-na.ured and hard-wOrked Mayor could
not be expected to scrutinzo with great care all
of the warrants which came before him Tor his
signature He has even admitted that
some of the bills paid might have been
little cxorbitant; and in his light ana airy
manner has laughed this thing of as nero
official Idpsus which an casy-golng puDhc
would overlook, 1t is, of course, easy for an
officer to sign bis name-as mere matter OF
form-to paper that subsequent examination
would show not to be entirely regular. Then,
too there were other men, elected to help the
Mayor to look after the peoples money, anu
he depended upon their sagacity and vigil
lance, just as they, somehow, depended
mistakenly OH his. Let us be fair with
Mr.. Hail. who if he has any share in the crime
which has been comm tilted against the City,
has at least escaped the Odum of living lux
uriously and openly on the spoils of the help
less and plundered taxpayers. Let us look
over the ponderous facts which appear in the
case against the Mayor, and see where no Is
blameworthy.
Henry f. Spaulding, citizen of Ncw-Yoik,
a Taxpayer, and a member of the Citizens
Committee of Seventy, makes affidavit in the
Fourth District Court that he believes A.
Oakley Hall, Mayor of the City, to be guilty OF
various crimes and misdcmeanors, each of
which is specifically charged, and supported
by affidavlts. These affilavits are made
by Spaulding and by clerk in
the Controllers Office familiar with oil
the procedures which attended the settlement
of the bills against the County and City, which
have lately attracted 80 much attention. From
these it appears that Mayor Hall has been in
the habit of signing warrants for money in
large amounts without any evidence, legal or
moral, that the claims he thus liquidated
were genuine. Bills for labor, materials, goods,
or services were made out in the baldest and
loosest form for vast sums; warrants were
drawn for the amounts the vouchers were not
sworn to, nor in any way authenticated, and
yet the Mayor, who must have known the
vouchers were fraudulent on their face signed
the warrants in some such fashion as this:
One day he signed away the sum of
$417,994 10 to Ingersoll, Garvey, and
Miller; six days after he signed q warrant for
Ingersoll calling for $125,8S0, and one for Car
vey for $40,870; few days later we find him
signing two warrants, amounting to S117,2Oj,
divided between Ingersoll and one j. A.
Smith; and 30 on, day after day, this man, who
was elected to guard the interests of the
people of New-York and assist in supervising
the disbursements of the public funds sat
in his Office and signed away the money Of
his constituents with an abandon simply ap-
palling 1t cannot even be pretended that he
did this thing in the rush of business, when
there was no time to scan the accounts. The
warrants were sent to him by themselves
and not in the press of miscellaneous
work. He had time to examine thcm and the
vouchers; if he had not, he should have said
80. He knew we'll enough that half a million
dollars paid for plastering the Courthouse
was misuse of the public funds; and he
must have known also that million dollars
paid by him (or with his asscnt for repairing
that very same plastering was a. swindle on
the City. He knew that it was impossible to
nut furniture to the amount of q million and
a half of dollars in value in the Court-IIou
but his signature paid that bill. e,
What has the Mayor to say to all thisf We
shall probably learn when he appears in the
Fourth District Court Tomorrow to make
answer. Pushed to the. wall, he must confess
that he has willfully shut his eyes to mon
strous theft of the public funds, and so has
been guilty of dereliction in Office, Can any
sober man say that official routine or press Of
official business compels him to git quietly in
his chair and sign away, unintelligently and
without question, millions of money for
work and goods which are open to his inspec-
ton, and which he has authorized to be done
1t is idle for the Mayor to claim that his sig
nature was given in press of business and
was q mere matter of form. If he was 80
numbered with labor he should have called
out for help long ago before thsCity Treasury
had been emptied. He has been party to this
illegal distribution of the public money. Let
US see, now, whether he will plead that he
knew no better, or that he was an unwilling
instrument in the hands of others.