New-York tribune., 1872-03-27
MAYOR HALL.

MHfOk H9IL.
II is n little moro than eight months since
the publication of Controller COnnOlly's secret
accounts threw the TammaDy Ring into con-
sterlation. The officials inculpated by those
extraordinary documents treated the disclosures
ut first with an apparent bravadO. Tweed pre-
served the outward air of vulgar ease and
comfort for which the Boss bad long been
noted. Connolly wrapped himself in dignifed
professions Of integrity, and assumed belief
that s'anderOus assaults upon his personal
honesty deserved no answer. Garvey, Inger-
soil. Woodward and tho other less cOnspicu-
ous thieves, made haste to bury their stolen
treasure and get out of harms way before
Justice overlook them. And meanwhile Mayor
Hall. to whom, as the chief officer of the mu-
nicipal administration. the citizens looked as
the especially appointed guardian of their in
terests, wore u jaunty air of uncODcern which
might almost have deceived his own associates.
The pretended accounts were not genuine.
The true figures would be published by and
by, and would tell n very different story. Mr..
Connolly was too honest a man to steal. Dir.
Tweed was an ornament to the Democratic
party. The clamorOus newspaper editors were
disappointed applicants for public patronage,
and Mr.. George Jones especially was person
with sore eyes. So Mayor Hall went about
from club to club, chatting gayly with every
body, making jokes with reporters and bid
ding his newspaper The Leader, ridi.ule the
new reform movement and blackgu8rd lts
principal movers. Gu the 22d of July he pub
lshcd a card to the public The Controller
had never kept any secret accounts, he said
u. bod oln, ha1 oil haoy,
published over and over again in the proceed
ings of the Board of Supervisors. They bad
always been at the service OF any citizen
who desired to see them" They had been
for some time in process Of printing for pub
"liC information. and were annexed as appen-
dices to tho main report of the Finance De-
"partmeht which recently accompanied the
last Mayors Message But true or false, the
reports of extravagant expenditures did not
affect the Mayor: "The claims alluded 10 are
large, and they may have been ex0rbitant;
" but no responsibility for them really rests
" with either the Controller or myself. They
" were all audited by the late (and what is
" known as the old Board of Supervisors.
" The warrants then were signed
" and cOuntersigned as simply ministerial acts"
investigation of the frauds by committees Of
citizens began in earnest. The accounts were
not accessible. They were hard to get at, and
harder to understand. To this day they have
never been printed. They are huge undigested
masses of names and figures as carefully con-
cealed from the public as if they were written
in an unknown tongue and hidden in q secret
place Slowly, however, their disclosures were
dragged to light; and now Mayor Hall began
to waver in his friendship for the Controller,
and to hint pretty plainly that Mr.. Connolly
ought to make himself a scapegOat for the
Ring by res1gning. When the vouchers were
stolen Hall wrote to the Controller: "Our
" constituents will have right to hold You
" responsible. With great personal re-
" luctance officially reach the conclusion that
" the exigency requires your retirement from
" the head of the Finance Department
1t can hardly be denied that the Mayor had
given Mr.. Connolly excellent reasons to stick.
" So far as my administration is questioned"
replied that officer, "equsi responsibility
" attaches to yourself. In your answer and
affidavits read in the pending litigation, you
have adopted and vindicated those acts.
You could not justify yourself without so
/" doingr And that was true. Mayor Hall
had declared that neither the Controller nor
himself could be held responsible for the
act of signing warrants for the
of claims passed by the Board of
Supervisors. IF one was to be accounted
guilty, the other must be guilty too. But now
it was discovered that the worst of the claims
were never audited by the Board Of Super
visors at all. The great accumulation of Ring
charges against the county for work done be-
fore the passing Of the tax levy in 1870, in
cludng especially the accounts of Garvey and
IngersOll, and all the great Court-h house
swindle, had been referred to a special Board
Of Audit. consisting of A. Oakley Hall, Richard
Connolly. and William N. Tweed. The Board
never had bnt one meeting. and that
lasted fifteen minutes. The Only !
business it tfins4cto1 wJs - Da,s !