The Portland daily press., 1872-03-04
Senator Wilson on Public Affairs.

on the pay roll Of the Senate-90.
Senator Wilson ON Public Affairs.
Hon. Henry Wilson has been making some
telling speeches in New Hampshire, dealing
largely in historical facts He meets the cry of
corruption raised by the enemies of the admin
istration in the following telling manner:
WHY THE ADMINISTRATION Is ATTACKED.
Appeals are made specially to laboring men
thal we have a very corrupt administration at
Washington. One would suppose, to hear our
Democratic friends talk, that we never had any
corruption before; that they had ALWAYS been
pure, because they never punish q thief lap
plause and laughter.l 1 propose right here to
lay down this proposition That the reason why
this administration is so assailed is not that it
has been more corrupt or as corrupt as its pred
ecessors, but that it is doing much to expose
thieving and to punish men who steal. The
Democratic party-I mean, the modern Demo-
cratic party-came into power in 1929, under
Gen. jackson. One man, Samuel Swartout, in
Gen. Jackson's day, when the government rails
ed only few million dollars year. stole ST.
600, 900 in the New York Custom House-near-
ly asmuch money as has been stolen under this
administration in three years, in collecting and
paying out nearly 81, 10000O,00O. The per cent
age OF loss under the administration has been
less than under any administration since Gen.
jackson was inaugurated President of the
United States. There is not shadow of doubt
been less percentage of loss under Gen. Grants
administration than any other administration
since the days of John Quincy Adams. John
Tyler, son of President Tyler, in a letter re-
Gently published, states that there were in Van
Burens administration ninety-eight receivers
of the public money, ninety-six of whom were
defaulters. Ninety-six out of ninety-eight.
Laughter. Is there any man here tonight
who knows that any one of these men was ever
sent to the penitentiary? believe a Republi-
can thief is worse man than Democratic
lLaughter He has not had SO many bad ex-
amples Laughter and applause.l A Repub-
lcan thief is the wickedest and meanest thief
in all the land He joins great party that
was brought into being to give freedom to the
slave maintain the unity of the country and
preserve the life of the nation. In the ranks of
that party is large mass of the intelligence of
the country, of the praying men and women of
| the country. A man who joins that political
organization, betrays his trust and steals the
money OF the government, is a base creature,
and the penitentiary is the only place where he
| should CO. u
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN REPUBLICAN AND
-sH.cl al DEMOCRATIC THIEVES.
The difference between Republicans and
Democrats on this question is this: the Repub-
licans try to discover and punish their thieves;
the Democrats never punish theirs. You can
not tell me tonight of a man who stole from
the National Government under a Democratic
Administration who was sent to the peniten-
tiary. Under this Administration several thieves
have been sent there Most of their stealing
was under the late Administration, for there has
been little stealing under this. Under Andrew
Johnson's Administration mean men got office
He went back on his party, on his record, and
upright Democrats paid little attention to him,
honest Republicans kept away from tine White
House, and mean men of both parties sought
the benefits of his patronage. Since
Gen. Spinner entered upon his office as Treas
urer of the United States, ffty-five thousand
millions of dollars have passed through his
office, counted by from three to four hundred
men and women. We have lost between fifty
and sixty thousand dollars in these eleven
years, while fifty-five thousand millions have
| gone through the Office We punished one
man, fined him. and he is now trying to get
| back five thousand dollars, for he says we made
| him pay five thousand dollars more then he
stole. Laughter. We have sent to prison
rnree trusted clerks, men of capacity and abil-
| ty; everybody trusted and respected them
That is the way we have served onr thieves.
THE "Boss THIEF OF THE WORLD.
About the same time the discovery was made
of the boldest and most gigantic robbery of the
people ever perpetrated in ancient or modern
times. Bill Tweed-'tBoss Tweed''-a man
who few years ago went through bankruptcy,
and who is said to have bosted, within year,
that he had eighteen millions of dollars; and
wNh him the tribe of Tammany Hall, have been
discovered and exposed. Some of them have
| gone to Europe, somd of them are enjoying the
pleasures of the heaithf1l breezes and snow
Qr1ftS OF canada some or Uneu1 are IN one part
of the country and some in another. While we
were trying Major Hodge, and sending him TO
the Penitentiary at Albany for ten years, with
the approval of the entire Republican party OF
the country, Bill Tweed, the greatest thief in
all the history of the human family, the boss
thief of the world cloud laughing and APP
| plause) was sent to Albany, not to the Peni-
| tentiary, out to the State House as State Sem
| ator by twelve thousand Democratic majority.
| (Applause) These two cases illustrates ex-
! actly the difference between the two parties;
! the once denouncing thieves and arresting
and Furnishing them when it can, the other
I never Furnishing any of them. / am told by
! leading Democrats, some of them members OF
i the Committee of Seventy, men who have done
! all they could to expose and break these
meu down, that they do not believe one of
these thieves will ever go to the Penitentiary.
| They stole the Erie Railroad; they stole the
| State of New York from Gen. Grant in 1868;
| they have stolen their millions from the city;
| they have stolen judges and stolen iuries, and
they get elected to the Legislature; they do not
! get sent to the State prison. And the men who
denied this stealing, who denied that they stole
the State of New York, when they knew that
they did it, who denied the stealing of these
| Tammany Hall men, until it was finally brought
out and established clearly that nobody
| should have denied it-these very men are ac-
] cusing the Administration of stealing have
heard of Satan's rebuking sin, but never saw
anything so brazen as this before. Loud ap-
planse.]
|
| There has been collected under Gen. Grants
Administration, in three years, nearly 81 1,2OO,-
| 000, ,000-neariy $500 900 year; there has
! been paid out nearly 81 ,000, ,000, 900, making
| about 81, ,100, 10000 We have lost out of this
| immense sum in all the Departments of the
Government 81, ,25O, ,O00-less than ffteenh
| part of one per cent! Look at the Post Otfice
| Department. With $1,000 postmasters, clerks
and mail carriers, the loss has been less than
one-tenth of one per cent. in these three years
In no part of the world has such integrity been
shown under like circumstances. We have
paid out during these three years 800, ,000 900 in
pensions, and we have had five defalcations, all
! of them soldiers, and four of them shed their
! blood for the country. But the Government
| has not lost a dollar, for the agents made good
| their accounts, or their bondsmen did it for
them.
JOHN GRAHAM AND HIS JURYMEN-A
CASE AT BATAvIA.-We find the following
letter in the Buffalo Commercial. 1t shows
where John Graham first pursued hispeculiar
tactics;
BUFFALO, Feb, 10, 1871.
ELI PRRKNs-Dear Sir:-The name of
John Graham, in the Fisk-"Josie''. Stokes
unpleasantness, has set me thinking whether
this is the same Graham, who was called to
Batavia, Genesee county, few years since,
to assist District Attorney Bowen in the pros
ecution of Polly Freisch, for murder, in poison
ing her husband and three children.
| If is the same Graham, he will undoupt-
! edly have Tom B, of Genesee county,
on the Stokes jury. Tom is first-class A
| number juryman in a murder case.
| Polly had been twice tried, but neither of
| the iuries could agree. On the third trial
| Graham was called to the assistance of the
| district-attorney. Out of some fifteen hun
dred jury and talesmen summoned, eleven
! brilliant individuals were found who knew
nothing (about the easel. Three hundred
more were summoned, and for four or five
days two hundred and eight-seven of these
men had been rejected because they had read
or heard of Polly or some Of her relations.
On the two hundred and eighty-eighth call,
on the fifth day, Tom B--walked up and
laid his hand on the book, when the following
| examination took place:
''Have you ever formed or expressed an op-
| inion in regard to this case?
''No, never heard of it before -
'Haye you never read anything about it in
the newspapersw
| ''No."
"You take newspaper, don't you%'
"No never had but one newspaper, and
that some fellow sent me from Indiana"
| s"That will do" says Graham.
And Tom was ''sworn in" because he new
er had a newspaper and didn't know any,
thing. If this is the same Graham, YOU look
out for Tom on the Stokes jury.
Yours truly, ALExANDA H.
FOR SALEi