The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-01-13


The Custom House Observation-Disclosures IL
Proves-whas Ii Doesn't.
The Senate Committee ON Investigation and
Retrenchment has raised great cry and not
particularly much wool In its raking among
the rubbish ut the Custom House. As the
inquiry progresses the fact becomes more
and more apparent that beyond furnishing
voluminous texts to the partisan press for
scurrilous articles on their opponents, this
washing Of dirty republican linen In public
will eventuate In no particular blessing to the
country at large. The fact that the Custom
House patronage was used to control the pri-
maries, and afterwards the State Con-
ventlon at Syracuse, is not ~credltable
to, although no novelty in, the party Of
moral ideas but when the accusers IN this
matter are the soreheads snuffed out by that
action, and not the party at large, that always
suffers for the crimes Of it's leaders, the whole
thing becomes very amusing. II the sorehead
leader and his sorehead party were famous
while In power for purity In primaries and
merging Of influences In conventions the case
would be different. Those, however, who
know anything about the history Of republican,
ism in this State for the last six years will
burst into inextinguishable laughter at Fenton
and the Fentonites, or Greeley and the Gree.
leyites, constituting themselves tho Nemesis
Of official jobbery and intrigue. Time may
come when forced party assessments, plots
Matched in the nests Of party power, and all
the dirty work of Custom House Machia-
vellis and syoophant understrappers, to gain
momentary triumph, shall be regarded
as crimes by ell parties. That suspicious
hour has not yet arrived; and II this display
OF radical sores has any present effect Its
lesson should be felt by the accusers of to-day,
who were the c0rrup tionists Of yesterday, as
well as by the individuals whose alleged dis
graceful tricks and dishonesties are now laid
bare. TO prove what everybody knew, that
Custom House influence had been used of late
to carry the State for Grant and Conkling,
was, although not avowedly 80, the main object
of the inquiry. The monopoly Of the general
order business by young army officer named
Leet its wrongs, pecuniary and otherwise, to
the mercantile community here, and, above
all, the limited sharing Of the profits with
the President, form the next serious point Of
attack. The sharing of the immense profits of
the concern with Generals Babcock and
Porter by means Of "mess" at Washington
Is a grave charge, to which these young
officers must be held to answer, and on which
M ind tohO ho a.
story is heard. Mr.. A. T. Stewards evidence
on the matter as regards the merchants
declares that he suffers in pocket by extra
charges and delay from the closing Of the
Cunard stores at Jersey City; and if 1t can be
proven that the business community suffers,
without any corresponding benefit to the gov
eminent, something should be done to save
their money bags. The appointment Of
Colonel Leet, under the system of favoritism
which has prevailed since the time Of
Andrew Jackson, Is the fault of that bad
system, and altogether beside the question of
official integrity except from the sorehead point
of view. Out Of all the evidence adduced
there is nothing which points to the President
having any guilty connection with the busi-
ness. The influence of those Immediately
around him would seem to have been used to
preserve Leet aud the general order business
at the same time; but that President, if he
dared to sully his high Office with the stains Of
profitable collision with public plunderers,
would have finger in so small pie, is some.
thing to test tho credulity even of ''sore-
head" On this subject II will be recalled
what an amount of Black Friday mud was
flung at the President in ths gold corner
business without any Of it sticking.
An amusing feature of the row is tho free
dom with which the minor actors In. tho affair
call each other Tammany republicans. The
Conklingites fling Hank Smith in the teeth of
the turnip philosopher, who huris the ponder
GUS Murphy against the White House, with his
classical ''you're another!"
One Of the gravest and really most interest.
ing developments Is that which shows how
dishonest Custom House employee can be II
he so wills 1t. The checks on dishonesty may
not be sufficiently absolute to insure faithful
and upright service, and this should
be seen to In wise, patriotic spirit;
for it has nothing whatever to do with
party. 1t will be noticed that the
greater portion of the crimlnality in this de-
partment comes from the temptation of not
over well paid officials by grasping avarice
among merchants, The weighmaster who
takes the English weights Of cargo, for ex-
ample, would not be likely TO commit so crimi-
nal a negligence, to say the least, If the mer-
chant or his agent had not given bis anxiety
to have the law broken some tangible form.
These faults are in human nature, and will be
10 the end of the chapter. The proper pay