The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1872-01-12
PrIvate Morals and Public Crimes.
From the Providence Journal.

From the Providence Journal.
Recent events in New York, both, In
public and in private ne, raise the ques-
lion whether aiter alltliere % not some
necessary correspondence between the
crimes Of ofilcchoidefs and the average
morals Of tho community. In other
words, Is itpossible TO believe that there
could be such men, In the city offices as
Tweed, Connolly and the rest, u there
wcre not men, a great many Of them too,
leading such lives rs Fisk and Stokes and
their associates Is 1t not the corruption
which exists in private life, that breeds
tho corruption now and for long time
past SO conspicuous In public stationss
TO our mind, we confess, they all seem 10
be linked together and 10 DO insepatable
from each other. Give q community Of
Ffsks and the like, as private citizens,
and we may always expect 10 see It
governed by q set made up Of such men
as Tweed and Sweeny and Hall. "'.'I
This we suppose 10 be tho general law
of human affairs. Great and eXtraordi-
nary atrocities do not usuully spring out
OF the guilty plotting Of the few crimi.
mails who perpetrate them, while the COM
munity oil around Is pure and innocent.
They are suggested by the analogies OF
smaller atrocities which arc more fire..
quently occurring. They arc encouraged
by q prevailing Indifference 10 imm0Fali-
ties Of every kind. They grow up out oil
a soil that Is filled with tile seeds Of cor.
ruption and CRIME. II private lives, such
as those which have been uncovered by
the Fisk and Mansfield trial, arc common
In New York business affairs there Is
nothing too monstrous to be expected in
the New York city government. The
latter cannot bepurilled till the former has
been cleansed, for they arc both very
closely connected together. O Vices ID
private life will always show themselves
in the criminal management Of public ai.
fairs. SUI .t.gl Tf.rf. Sol
The facts which the past two or three
months have developed, have shown
most conclusively that the municipal vii.
lainy OF New York Is intimately associ.
ated with large part ofthe reckless
transactions vi Wall street, and that they
all alike have those roots running deep
down into the rotteness Of private life In
that city. That there are mulhtudes Of
good and honest people there, we know
null well; but they are too ieebly represent.
ed in the formation OF public opinion,
They do not assert themselves with suf.
tlcient force 10 Counteract the influence
of the giled hypocrites, the rich debauch-
ees and williams Of every degree who con-
tribute so largely to the moral standard
oil the community nlf1 Hu -.
In The murder Of Fisk, atrocious as is
the crime, we behold the natural result
Of o career like his. administered to the
worst passions OF human nature. He be.
came wealthy and iamous-a power in
the communitY-by means which from
the beginning were grossly demoralizing,
BE has been intimately associated with
mon and women as bad as himself, and
by one Of them with whom he had a fall.
ing Vut and suit in court, that pro.
CLAIMED the common lnHGlny OF nil concern.
ed, he has been wantonly murdered. III
is TO be regretted that the manner of his
death iasuch as to awake public sympa.
thy for man who has done so much to
harden the public conscience and iniure
the public morals. As it is, New York
parades her regiments and makes his
funeral the occasion of q public pageant
as ifshe had lost q public benelactor, OF
at least a citizen who was worthy of pub.
lie honOrs. Such hOnors are cheaply &C.
quired, ifthey are bestowed on life like
his, because 1t has ended ina violent
1 Ia