The Portland daily press., 1873-03-05

had involved him in danger of exposure, he
began by demanding S2OOO The intended
victim offered him $40. His prosecutor
stormed, raved, threatened, coaxed, but
when he found the man he was deal
ing with was as firm as one OF his own anVllS
he pocketed the money and made no more
raid in that quarter.
But the plaintiffs were aroused to the highest
mitch of indignation at such bold attempt to
defraud them. and they moved to set aside
the report, as contrary to law, evidence ana
equity. Happily the bench has undergone
wholesome publication since the days when
this suit was initiated. In place of Barnard
we have Fancher, and Judge Davis wears the
ermine once deflcd by Cardozo. Judge
Fancher made shor. work Of the report, set
ting it aside, vacating the judgment and dis
charging the order of reference.
That will be the end of it. The defend
ants counsel made pretence of appeal, but
they will not be quite so foolish as to pursue
litigation through which their Shiny tracks
Tor nine years are distinctly visible and in
Which every new movement would only serve
10 show them up in mole glaring colors before
community whom the events of a few years
past have made exceedingly intolerant of all
devices to obtain money dishonesty, whether
practced in defiance of, or under the forms of
law.
Bainbridge died insolvent so that the plain
tifs have no longer a motive for pressing
their debt against his estate to Judgment.
Consequently this case belongs to the past,
and will serve no other purpose than to point
moral, showing what dangers lurk in a judi
cial system lodged in dishonest hands, and
how man may wreck the good reputation Of
life time, by fragrant abuse of trust re-
posed in him by virtue of the reputation
he has sustained so long and deserved so
little.
We have had recently another inside view
ofthe workings OF great corporation, which
is enough to appal holders of securities man
aged by Boards ofDirectors. One Frederick
A. Lane, a confederate and servitor of jay
Gould, while the latter was President of the
Erie Railway appears in print with what
sounds like confession and yet was evident
ly meant to be a voluntary narrative of the
negotiations by which himself and some of
his fellow directors were bought ap, at the
time when they helped to depose Gould by
summary resignation one by one of their
seats, and substitution in like manner of
new directors. Lane, with apparent uncon-
sciouSneSS that he is revealing anything dis
honor BILE to himself or his associates, claims
the doubtful credit of having been the origin
ator OF the whole bargain, and names the
amounts which he fixed for himself and his
colleagues as the price of betrayirg their
chief. This may serve as ielicitous iustra-
n IN rr,or, pI,or,
rogues fall out ;but how effectually it disposes
Of that other adage which was in vogue be-
fore the Goulds, Lanes, and TWeets came TO
the surface, about ''hOnor among thieves
shall be glad when the charter passes if it
were only to stop the flood of strong language
which fills columns of the Tribune, stirs up
that piously pretentious sheet, the Journal OF
Commerce (which was SO sound asleep while
the Ring were pushing their peculations),
calls forth such columns of rhetoric from the
World, (which has been by turns the lusty
champion OF Tweed and the bitter assailant
of Tilden, Green and Hayemeyer) and finds
more dangerous echo in the Euening Post
which when it does smell a grievance, pounces
upon it with vehemence of censure and
prodigality of epithet which quite blinds
casual reader to its unreasonableness as a
chronicle of facts.
mention, tor example, paragraph in the
Post OF Feb. 20, in which Mr.. John T. Daven-
port is vigorously assailed for being at Albany
promoting the passage of the charter, the
Post iting the fact OF his being U. S. Com
missioner as reason why his presence there
is a violation of the Presidents proclamation
in reference to Federal officers not interfering
with State politics. The Post forgets to state
what would deprive its criticism of all force,
viz. that Mr.. Davenport's Off ,e is especially
exempted from the quoted prohibition. A
IT s commissioner iS 1ilya Nntaru p,,bl;o
The value of his office depends entirely upon
his personal attention to it, and no interest
but his own is affected by his absence from
duty as there are other commissioners in at
tendance to render any service required.
But the Post omits to state something also
which if it had been told would have salts
fled any candid reader that no man in New
York has better right to share in the con-
struction OF an organic law for our local gov
ernment than this same Mr.. Davenport.
In 1868 when Tweed counted the--kalots
of New York State for Seymou albeit ma
| joritv ot item were cast for Grant, Mr. Dav
/ enport, then young and ambitious lawyer
was employed to sift and hold up to public
view the processes by which these frauds on
the ballot were perpetrated with impunity.
He did this invaluable work with such ability
industry and success that every succeeding
election has demonstrated the efficiency Of
his labors. When he began the Ring, was in
absolute power in the city, county and State
As soon as that cabal was deposed he perfect
ed a registry law, which has worked so ad-
mirably that every man in the city can now
cast one vote and be reasonably sure to have
it counted. He has given us pure ballot;
and for that one service I maintain that he
has done as much for real reform as any other
man in our midst. .-t
But Mr.. Davenport is an upright, practi-
cal. sensible man, and his presence at Albany
is by request Of legislators who desire minute
information in regard to the details of the
charter, which he is entirely competent to
give.
II is the tendency to assault indiscriminate-
ly the friends and the foes of reform, which
constitutes the greatest peril of all efforts to
amend our statutes, but T know of no exam
pie of graver injustice than that done by
the Post to Mr.. Davenport than whom the
cause OF good government has no ADLER or
truer champion. He organized the forces of
the Seventy at the polls in 1871, at that great
election when so many of the Ring-leaders of
democracy were swept out of political ex-
istence. He is slight pallid, youthful man,
with physique suggestive OF anything but
his superior for buckling to and achieving
hard work whether mental or physical. His
will supplies the Place of muscle.
have sometimes looked with apprehen-
sion upon this gentleman's rapid rise in fame
and consequence, knowing the temptations to
which it would expose him and remembering
the prevalence of Walpole's doctrine about
human nature. But knowing also what eff
forts have been made to capture hin-what
glittering prizes have been held up to his
view as the reward of mere Stencil have
been imbued with such infexible faith in his
integrity and courage that feel impelled to
resist any imputations upon his motives or
conduct, not at all on the score of personal
friendship, but because such imputations in
flict blowupo the reform cause, in the sue
cess of which New York has such tremen-
dous stake. YARMOUTH.