New-York tribune., 1872-07-08
McCUNN.

1t must have been evident when Judge Me-
Gum cOnversed with the reporter OF morn
ing newspaper last Wednesday that the decided
action of the Senate in the matter of his re-
moval had brought him into a condition of
dangerous mental and physical excitement
The extravaganza of the language recorded at
that interview doubtless led many who did
know McCunn to look upon the whole
story of the journalist as grossly exaggerated,
if not pure invention. But to those who
did know him the article carried internal
evidence of truth. No public officer ever de-
claimed more grandly of his own purity, spoke
with more enthusiasm of his own virtues, de-
nounced with lOfher scOrn the peculations of
Tweed and the eOTuptions of a Barnard,
than this extraordinary product of an elective
judiciary whom death, in the very hour of his
disgrace has snatched away from the liter
"ary leisure" the social delights, the "splen-
" DID library,r and the "income of hundred
thousand a year." in which he bOasted that
he should find consolation from the persecution
of conspirators and the tyranny of the Senate.
He was a man of a different and in many
respects a better nature than the judges with
whom his name has been associated. He was
satanic roguery of CardozO, or Of the de-
fiant. sensual daredevil wickedness of Bar
nard. Fortune, and political decentralization,
had placed him in a position where his worst
qualities had every influence to promote their
development. He WAS avaTiciOus, and the
temptation OF safe and easy peculatiOn dangled
every day before his eyes. He was ambitious
and the luster of the Tammany ermine shone,
at the low level from which he rOse like the
most magnificent of dignities. He had all the
love of consequence which distinguishes the
ignorant and vain, all the thirst for social
recognition which tOrments the incurably
vulgar. 1t was his pride to sit in fine
house, look at rows of big books and study
a comfortable bank accounts or to cul-
tivate among his unlettered admirers that
sort OF hospitality which consists in leav-
ing the bottle always uncorked. What should
such q man know Of the nice sense OF Judicial
| honor, the dignity of simple honesty the up
right walk and conversation of a worthy
| MI nistrate7 There were baser men than nc
had ever been. robbtng the treasury, plunder-
ing clients, taking bribes, teaGtlng at Del
mOnico's rioting in bar-rOoms, Hiding n gor-
| geOus coaches with the dissOlute barons OF
| Erie Teveling in gTeen-rOOms with the painted
eoddesses Of the ballet, heaping up wealth,
and getting political power and professional
promotion why should not John McCunn do
| as much
But McCunn never grew callOus like the
viler rogues he tried to initiate. His reputation
was thorn perpetualy In his side. When
the popular revolt against municipal cOrrup-
ton began, he became-and it is rather to his
credit than Otherwise-an arrant coward.
He haunted the newspaper offices. He
fawned upon reporters. He went about de-
nouncing corruption in all manner of unsea-
sonable times and places, and protesting by
all the SAINTS in the calendar that he was a
very different man from the rest of the Tam
many judges. The Nemesis of his misdeeds
overlook him months before the Bar Associa-
ton began its inquiry into his conduct. He
could not console himself, as he boasted that he
could, with his money and his books he could
not retire contentedly to the comfortable and
| infamous seclusiOn which satisfies CardOzo and
awaits Barnard. 1t was part, and surely
not The least part, of his punishment that this
| uniust Judge covered with disgrace, should
be so greedy of the respect of his associates,
SO fearful of losing the personal Importance
which the judgeship conferred upon him. He
looked forward to the result of last week with
a fear that almost amounted to terror. The
dreadful apprehension scoufged the last months
of his life, and when the blow fell, after all the
vain struggles, the entreaties, the humiliations
by which he had tried to escape it, the wretched
man was broken to pieces.
His fate cannot but stir our compassion, and
may soften the public judgment OF his charac-
ter. He was not the worst OF the accused
Judges, and he is the only one as yet upon
whom the outraged majesty of the law has
been signally avenged. If we could believe
that his story would be taken to heart by the
scores of petty, low-bred political lawyers who
have been dazzled by his pompous prosperity
and corrupted by his easy virtue, and would
teach those whom he has led into rascality
that even in long-sufering New-York there is
q bitter punishment for crimes ike ms and