Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-04-25
BOUTWELL, AND DAVIS.
The Beauties of the Spy System-A
Case That Needs Looking After.

The Beauties of the Spy system-A
Case That Needs Looking After.
~ From the New York Tribune, April p.
Mr.. Boutwell's statement of the case o1
Phelps, Dodge & Co., calls for further ex-
plantations from somebody. 1t was made
TO appear, in the narrative published by the
firm and confirmed by the letter Of Judge
Noah Davis, that the importers had been
innocently betrayed into q technical viola
ticn of the revenue Laws, and that the Gov
ernment took advantage of their mistake to
wiring from them S27l 600. The in
ference was thai the Secretary of the
Treasury was unable to withstand the pres
sure Of the informer and Customs officers
entitled to share in whatever might be re-
covered, and consented to a compromise"
which was no better than extortion. This
would be very serious charge to make, and
we cannot wonder THAT Mr.. Boutwell, has
tens 10 repel the imputation. He declares
thar anever, while Mr.. Boutwell, was at
the head of the Treasury Department, was
any compromise made with persons who
claimed to be innocent" the Department
being allowed by law to compromise
with offenders only after guilt is admit
ted. For this reason, Mr.. Boutwell,
saws he refused to entertain the proposal
made on behalf of Phelps, Dodge & Co.,
until they withdrew the assertion of their
innocence. he does not say that be COM
PEELED them to confess guilt; but be placed
them in the position of tacitly acknowledg-
ing fraud.
But Judge Davis, who in his capacity OF
Unite d States District Attorney passed up
on The case and reported it to the Secretary
with recommendation that the compro-
mise be accepted, writes to Messrs. Phelps,
Dodge s. Co.: "If l had come to the con-
clusioa that you had acted with an actual
design TO defraud the Government,
l should have insisted upon the
forfeiture not only Of the
value Of the articles above referred to, but
of the entire invoices of which they formed
q part, amounting to fully $l,OO0,OO0; but
my examination, with the explanations
made to me by you, showed clearly, as l
thought and still think, that the idea Of de-
fraudiDg the Government of its lawful du-
ties had ReUer entered your minds" OF
course, on Mr.. Boutwell's theory, the Gov
ernment had no right, either in law or NOR
ais, to accept the $27f, 900 if the case was
as Mr.. Davis represented it. The Secreta-
ry moreover had no right TO act ex-
cept upon the District-Attofney's
representation. The District-Attorney
would not have proposed q compro-
mise unless the firm had satisfied him that
they were innocent; the Secretary OF the
Treasury would not have accepted it unless
they had confessed themselves to be guilty.
Which is right? So far, the statement of
the Secretary makes the action of the Gov
ernment more odious than ever; for in ad-
dition to the wrong Of squeezing from hon
orable men more than aquarter of million
of dollars for technical offense which the
Governments own attorney reports to have
been unintentional, it imposes upon these
unfortunate merchants the cruel necessity
of constructively owning themselves to be
swindlers.
As we said before, the case illustrates in
the most forcible manner the Leed of a
complete revision of the laws regulating
seizures and moieties. The spy system is
the real cause of scandal. Its abuses
were exposed at the time of the last Gus
tom-house investigation; but in the heat
of the Presidential campaign all attempts
at reform were futile. Next Winter per-
haps Congress will be in better disposi-
tion to attend to such important measures,
and New York merchants should be pre-
pared TO make an early effort for a heaSng'