New-York tribune., 1872-02-13

ton OF lnna. 1DcS6 are, IL ~ e'uo,
rather remote contingencies; but many
people were already thinking seriously
of them, and the tragic death OF Lord Mayo
will highten the anxious interest with which
the progress of the Wahabee movement is re-
garded in the Cabinets of England and of Russia.
---~-----------------
THAT TIE COMMITTEE ACCOMPLISHED.
The Senate Investigating Committee have
returned 20 Washington, and their work may
now he considered at an end. They Will III
vite the young gentlemen of the Presidents
official family and of COL Leets Mess to come
before them aud purge themselves in quiet
way of any imputations on their honor or IN
tcgrity. TO allow this to be done without any
noise or scandal the Committee excused these
incupated gentlemen from coming to New
York, and will probably allow them to
saw what and how much they please.
They will extend to them the same easy
courtesy and credit which they gave to MI.
Lcct, when they allowed him to swear he had
never before seen witness whom he had
daily for nearly week confronted in the
Committec-room. But, grown wiser by the
Leet incident, they will not expose his mess
mates to the hazard of contradiction and i'm
parchment. They icei that decent conceal
ment Of possibly disagroeable truths can be
much more easily effected i'll Washington than
in New-YOrk.
If there has been any guilty connivance of
persons in the neighborhood of the President
with the branded firm of Lcet g. Stocking in
their depredations upon the commerce of this
port, the Committee in shutting off the inves-
=. H. = ClN.1 20. bn
bottom, are guilty of q misprision scarcely less
criminal than the offenses they arc seeking
to palate. But if the persons so mys-
teriously sheltered and coddled by the
Committee are innocent of any wrong,
then the attempt to spare their sensl-
bilities by cxcusing them from that pub
lie testimony for which they volunteered, is a
folly which should seem beyond the capacity
even of blindfold partisans. Nothing can pre-
vent the public from drawing differences in a
high degIee DANA ging to the characters of the
public officers whose regulations are held by
these friendly Senators as thing too fragile
| and delicate to be exposed to the risks Of a
| crOss-examnatiOn.
Unfortunately, the conduct of the Com
mittee while here was not of nature
to allow them to bid defiance to sus-
picions of their partialty. Throughout the
| investigation, the Administration Senators
| PLAYED with barefaced and cynical uncOncern
the part of attorneys for the defense. Every
effort was made to brOwbeat and confuse any
witness who came before them to give the in
formation they prOfessed to be seeking
for. In every case the unfaithful or dishonest
officer mentioned by witness was promptly
summoned and politely invited to deny all that
| the disinterested witness had said. Men of
eminence, who are universally respected in
this community, who went before the Com
mittee, influenced by no motives but those
of conscience, to give instances of official bad
behavior which had come under their observa-
ton, were subjected to all the annoyance
which the experience of Western courts could
suggest to Senator Howe. He paid more re-
spect to the insolent staggering denials of a
thieving Inspector OF Customs than to the
word of resp ectable merchants who had been
robbed by him.
But in spite of all that was done to make
the investigation a failure, important results
were nevertheless reached, and the Committee
60 back to Washington with rueful showing
for their months work. They cannot deny
that by the indications of an independent
press, and by the testimony of public spirited
citizens it has been proved that the Gen.
eral Order system is an organization of
fraud and extOrtiOn that it was dishonesty
obtained by Leet g. Stocking, and dishon-
estly administered by them that although the
outrage and wrong of their conduct was frequent
ly brought to the notice of the Administration.
nothing was done to correct them until the
full blaze of publicity was turned upon their
performances, and the disgust of the public
excited the languid cOnsciences of those in
authority to a sense Of the discredit and
disorder of their acts. IL was also shown
that the commerce of the city was systematic
ally plundered and oppressed by the Gov
ernment carriers. the Government weighers
and the inspectors; that merchants were
cOerced into bribery to get the attention
to which they had a right; that an infa-
nous system Of terrorism and illegal seizure
kept business men under the control of spies
infOrmers and blackmailers. Ii also clearly
appeared that the collection of the revenue
was not the only object, nor even the principal
one, to which the enormous power and nfiu-
ence of the CustOm-hOuse was devoted; but
that this entire organization and actiy-
ity was directed not merely TO political
ends, but to the purpose of crushing one
section of the Republican party in this State