The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-11-20
Our New York Letter,

What the city of New York has gained by
the reformatory crusade of the past sixteen
months can only be measured by COMPARE
son OF the condition of its affairs then and
now. In July 1871 this metropolis was I'M
der the ABSOLUTE control of the four men who
have given infamous notoriety to the term
Ring" Tweed was the executive head of
this quartette, holding the Office of Commission
er of Public works with unlimited patronage.
and an army of obsequious followers Swee-
ney was President of the Parks and popularity
believed to furnish the brains which conceiv-
ed the multifarious projects by which the
power Of the Ring was sustained. Connolly
in his capacity of Controller held the KEYS of
she exchequer, and possessed unlimited and
unchecked authority to borrow money by the
issue of bonds. Hall was Mayor, and al
though no money could be drawn from the
Treasury without his signature to the war
rant. not an instance has even been cited by
his defenders in which he hestated to affix
the fated autograph, whereby enormous sums
were squandered in the payment of forged and
fictitious claims against the city.
Under tais iron rule of profigacy and
crime, not only were the twenty-five millions
of annual taxes swept away but the funded
debt was swollen to such an incredible mag
nitude that when the explosion came, it was
found to exceed one hundred millions of dol
lars.
Thoughtful men had long been grieved but
helpless witnesses of the utter prostration of
the community beneath this CALLING despot-
ism. 1t seemed impossible to arouse the
masses OF the people to a sense of the dangers
and degradation, which were despoiling their
property and bringing reproach to the very
name OF New Yorker A single newspaper
wagedwas against the banditti. Its contempo-
raries received its structures in some cases with
the silence of indifference, in others with the
rancor OF abuse. Most of them were recipi-
ents OF the stolen money in the shape of lib
eral compensation for unnecessary advertis-
ing This mode of silencing criticism was a
favorite of the ring and proved efficacious
in all cases save in that of the Times which
nobly spurned the bride.
1t was on the goth of July 1871, that the
astounding revelations derived from an alb
stract of the Controllers books burstupon the
astonished ears of our citizens, demonstrating
with mathematical precision that they had
been for years the prey of horde of robbers
whose rapacity and daring exceeded anything
in the annals of crime. CONSERVATION soon
gave way to one of those grand surges of pop
ular wrath which for the moment threatened
cr1d lon afr,h 10 ~,
lance Committees were talked about and a
little "healthy hanging was contemplated
by a few of the more earnest reformers as es-
pecially appropriate to the emergency.
But peaceful coun,els prevailed and call
for great public meeting was put in circula-
ton. Even then, such was the terror with
which the Ring has inspired many wealthy
tax payers that several of this class refused
their signatures to the call, with tinid ex-
cuses, and in palpab,e dread of their tyrants.
A list of the names of parties thus declining
to join i'll the call, has been preserved, and
the very words in which they couched their
objections to participation in the movement
have been written down. One mans chances
for the mayoralty were spoiled by this record,
and there are others whose ambition NAV be
thwarted in the future by that unfortunate
testimony of timidity and weakness in mo-
ment of extreme public peril
Nevertheless the call was numerously
signed and the meeting which was held on
the 4th of September was one of the most i'm
pressive and eventful ever convened in New
York. With it originated the Committee
Of Seventy whose subsequent labors, great
er than were ever performed by any legisla
tive body during the same space of time
have wrought so healthful change in our
municipal condition.
The Committee was organized on the fol-
lowing day by the selection of Henry G. Steb-
bins as Chairman. Almost immediately.
Connolly, the purse-bearer of the 'Ring"
asked an interview with Mr.. Havemeyer, q
member of the Committee, and on its being
accorded, made a proposition for an uncon-
ditional surrender of his functions to any one
whom the Reformers might designate. An
drew a. Green was selected, and forthwith
invested with the control of the Treasury,
taking the Office of Deputy to conform with
the charter. but with the understanding that
Connolly's abdication was complete The
"Ring" made feeble resistance to this
scheme, and Hall issued from the Mayors
office ukase instructing the Department |
not to recognize Mr.. Green. The N. Y. |
World, denounced Havemeyer, Tilden and
Green Tor the bargain it alleged they had
MADE and defended the Mayor for refusin.
to consent to it. But public opinion proved
too strong for them, and Mr.. Green not onlv
took possession of the finances, but in n few
days, Hall yielded to the pressure and with
drew his futile opposition. This was the
first great triumph of the Reform movement.
and by taking the money power out of the
hands of the ''Ring" utterly paralyzed it, and