Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1872-02-07
FeTnuiSiTes.
Men who know their rights
And knowing dare maintain. ="

The Republicans carried New York at the
election last fall, being aided very much in
the canvass by the Democratic oorruptions in
New York city. Since the assembling Of
tho legislature at Albany, however, the Re
publicans have not presented the most edify-
in- spectacle Of reform. At the outset it
took a majority Of the high federal officials
in the State to g manage the organization
Of the legislature. 50 that the machinery Of
legislation should be in such hands that the
managers could control it, The Fenton and
ConkIing factions have since, as before, been
fighting each other with much greater zeal
and effectiveness than the common enemy !;
and, as consequence, reform of any kind
has, as yet, made little progress. The Sen
ato Of that State, after waiting until it did
not dare longer defer it, has however taken
in hand little investigation into the honesty
Of It's clerk, Mr. Terwilliger, one Of the
Custom House clique, and the New York
Posi- thus speaks of the progress made
Mr.. Edward Oracle, who made the afida-
Wit charging Mr.. James TerwilIiger with hay
ing taken q PERCENTAGE of the Senate print
iug bills for his influence, testified before the
Senate committee that the affidavit was made
several weeks before it was published. 1t
appears 10 have been secured for certain
friends Of Mr. Fenton, and suppressed for a
time bcause they were afraid of the exposure
which would be sure u follow. Ii may be
interesting 70 recur to the fact that when
the contest for Speaker of the Assembly took
place, Mr.. Terwilliger, who had been
- COnkling man." astonished his Custom
House friends by suggesting that Mr.. AL
word, the Fenton candidate, had a good
chance Of success, and that he was not so
bad a man as he had been painted after all.
1t is notable that Terwilliger received the
support Of both factions, as both were impli-
Gated in the irregularities which were charged
against him. The committee should now
find out who made the compromise by which
man under charge Of official corruption
was elected 70 the chief Office in the Senate.
The most important testimony was that of
Mr.. John d. Parsons, of the firm of Weed,
Parsons a Co, before the Assembly commit
tee. lie said that it was the custom Of his
house to pay the clerks a commission when
they brought printing. The amount paid
Mr.. Terwilliger was twenty per cent. This,
Mr.. Parsons said, was for various g ser
vices When asked if these services occu-
pied one month during the year 1869, the
year when the largest amount was paid to
Mr.. Terwilliger, Mr.. Parsons said 81
should think not When asked if the clerk
should not have done the " services " as
part of his official duty, he said - That
Is for him to decide - and he added 81
think that we would have paid Mr.. Terwil-
Tiger whether he read the proof or not" In
answer to another question he said that they
understood that the money was paid as
part of the perquistes of the clerks Office.
The Times wishes TO know why the legis-
lature does not remove Mayor Hall, and
hasten the promised reforms in this city I?
At the same time it says that, although the
custom of paying clerks perquisites is q bad
one. = AIr. Terwilliger is guilty of no spe-
cial offene in following IT. The Times
thus answers it's own question better than
anybody else could do it. The cause Of the
delay in the legislature ia that many Of the