The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1873-11-27
Exit Ross Tweed.


1t is one of the cheering signs Of the
times that neither wealth nor position, lon
ger shield upper tendon criminals. Several
instances of this state of things have recently
been given in our courts, the most notable
of which is that growing out of the case
of William NJ Tweed, of New York.
Tweed, as our readers well know, at one
time literally owned New York city. Moth
ing in its municipal affairs was done without
his consent and if he had been an honest
man, entertaining the well being of the city
in reality, he could doubtless have made for
himself name which would have gone
honored to posterity. But honesty was not
Boss Tweed's forte. He knew no one but
himself, and if in the course of his c1reer of
official crime, others were placed in the area
of competence, it was only because there
was necessity that such things should be
in order that he might the more certainly
enrich himself The acquisition of dollars
was the height of his ambition, and he only
sought power and friendships to acquire
these, the means employed being matter
of no consideration whatever.
In the course of his official career, Boss
Tweed acts were only those Of official dis
honesty With the cunning of the burglar,
the bravado of the highwayman, and the
littlencss of the sneak thief, he entered upon
system of peculation which defrauded the
city government out of millions of the hard
earned dollars of its taxpayers. Every
thing was made to ponder in this way, to
his overwhelming desire to grow rich. Con
tracts, which were entered into under his su-
pervision, were only so many opportunities to
steal The lowest bidder was always sup
planted by the highest, and the bills and
estimates for work done, were so manipu-
lated, that fortunes reverted to the Boss as
his share, even after other fortunes had
been swindled out of the City Treasury into
the Golfers Of the Ingersolls. Gavits, Con-
nollys, Haggertys and the rest of the crew.
And for years this state Of things went on,
until it came that that was a remarkable
sale of valuale real estate, sold under the
pressure of sheriff's levy, which was not
knocked down to Boss Tweed-especally if
the property presented the shadow of a
prospect that it might be made useful for
city purposes, at an advance of from one
hundred to FIVE hundred per cent.
The end, however, came at last. The
life's blood of the people could not always be
,,,.I.oJ ,r,- ,;.Jo,+ +oll;n, ,,Do,, tbo ,,ubli.
powers of endurance. The Boss rapacity
gave no token of a letting up of his hold
upon the treasury, and the people groaned
under their financial Affections After
groaus came murmurs, and after these came
action, prompt and decisive Investigation
revealed most hiddeous municipal corrup
ton, and at once the lion of all the rascal
ties New York had suffered was bearded in
his den, and the arm of the law, fer long
time paralyzed was invoked to resume its
strength, and come to the rescue. The
work was slow, and the prospect for relief
anything but fattering, until, in the majesty
of public Indignation, corrupt judges were
hurled from their seats, and the hydra
headed ring, in the person of Tweed himself,
was throtted and dragged before honest tri-
bunals to give a strict account of its steward
ship 1t was only then that the people
saw light and were permitted to breathe the
pure air of Heaven freely.
And now we have the sequel to Boss
Tweed rascality, and glorious sequel it
is: the william condemned for his crimes,
and ANONYMOUSLY expatiating them in
felons cell. In the language of Judge Davis,
who tried Tweed, and fought most manfully
against the insidious wiles Of eminent coun-
sci from the commencement of the trial to
the end, while the prisoner was ''honored
and esteemed, he concocted plans to plunder
the city, and thus proved himself dis
grace to the civilized world and it was
right that he should have measured out to
him a sentence of twelve years in the county
prison, and sl2,75 fine. And yet, heavy
as the sentence appears, it is light in COM
parison with the deeds for which it was in
flicted, for the charges on which he was
tried-there are others yet untried cover
peculations, or rather fair, square robberies.
to over million of dollars.
It's, indeed, cheering that in this onslaugh
of the people against kid-gloved rascality,
right has prevailed over mammon's might,
and that hope may now be entertained that
the days of peculative abuses on the part of
trusted officials are rapidly approaching an
ignominious end.
THE WoRINGMAN' S FRIEND This is
a name given by the readers of the American
Working People to that paper, and it well
deserves it, for it is -eminently the work