The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-01-30

purposes. the very next night he taxes carriage
dence Of Mr. O'COnor, to make terms for himself IN
accordance with what he had in measure stipu-
lated for in the correspondence that passed be-
tween himself and his brother. Aud what was he
told in that interview with Mr.. O'ConorY marx
YOU gentlemen that he went on that witness STAND
with the words ringing In his ears; for upon
THE STORY HE TOLD
there was to depend his own chance OF liberty ana
OF immunity from prosecution. Why, In me iace OF
his own confession OF the part he played In reIer'
ence to these bills and then OF the conditions un-
der which he came upon this witness stand, no
liberty by his statements. Not even a dog in the
streets should be for an hour restrained OF MS lid
erty upo1 such testimony WIN read rom th ms ,esI
told the truth, ana they soere satisfied, no harm
should come to me-" or course do not mean to
lives nor indeed to any Of the gentlemen conducting
the other side OF this CASE We can well understand
that Mr.. OConOr would have nothing out the truth
told, and ne very properly required OF man IKE
Garvey that they should be satisfied that he did tell
the truth. Here, then, was his protection. Carney
says he snpposes "they'' meant the people. Yes,
the people; ali the people who have met on street
corners and elsewhere and have condemned Mr..
Tweed. But he knew that the Jury.that was to de-
well as outside OF 1t. He knew that there was
DESIRE TO CONvICrMR. TWEED
this court room that might want tt to make q com.
plant before the Grand Jury against him. Let US
see by what means and by what statements on this
harm. He has made himself guilty OF damnable
perjury. Notwithstanding the proof we have be-
fore u.s. as to the clear and distinct guarantee Of
immunity from prosecution made to Garvey, look
al the testimony in which he denied strenuousy
that there was any arrangement OF the kind made
with anybody. Yet, when closely pressed for his
answers, he confessed that such an arrangement
had been entered into with Mr.. OConOr. represent
ing the Attorney General, at Fort Washington.
The counsel then read extracts from Garvey's tes-
tmony on these points In support OF his assertions
and continued: He came on to this witness stand
and testified as to his own fraudulent bills with the
FRAUDULENT PROFITS IN HIS POCKET
to the amount of half a million dollars. But ''no
harm should come to him." though BY the breath
of his nostrils the doors of prison are to be
opened to receive Tweed. He says l will come
and tell all know If am only to be spared Gen.
tlemen you all despse q thief and liar, but this
man Carney sinks several degrees below either, as
perjurer and that lOathsome thing, public in
former. The prosecution ITSELF though 1t loves the
treason hates and despises the traitor, the mean
informer, whom that great Irish lawyer,
Curran so eloquently denounced. Counsel then
proceeded to quote authorities from the law books
as to the caution with which the uncorroborated
evidence OF inf0rmers and accOmplices should be
received. Andrew J. Garvey stood alone here; he
Strike his testimony out and there Is nothing left
on which to predicate any wrong done by this de-
fendant And IL would be novel thing II 1t were
to be lett to this jury, in the nineteenth century
convict man. to sacrifice his reputation and his
liberty on the unsupported evidence ofan informer
for the prosecution then arose to address the jury
and said that In opening this he had said that
nothing would please him more than to find before
it's close that the defence had been able to present
such cOntrOversiOn of the facts presented on the
side OF the people as to warrant the jury in acquitting
the defendant. But he now felt compelled to say
that he felt both surprise and regret to find that in
q case which had taken the past two weeks to pre-
sent before the jury the defence had not brought
forward anything to cOntrOvert these charges nor
khe testimony by which they were supported. He
Sid not propose to ask the jury to pay any atten.
ton to outside matters, to elOquence of counsel
or to rulings of Judges, nor to the denunciaton by
q famous Irish counsel Of informers who are the
tools, in many cases, Of a system of political op-
which he would ask the attention of the jury, and
they were as to whether or not this defendant had
been guilty as public auditing officer OF neglect
to audit certain accounts, or whether or not he
had made fraudulent and corrupt use Of the
auditing power vested in him. He was member
and the presiding officer of this Board Of Audit.
likewise with power to satisfy themselves,
correct and proper nature OF the bills
presented before them. But they say it was Wat
sons business to audit these bills as County Audi
tor. II they had themselves no power to audit,
who conferred upon them the power to delegate
the auditing power, as they claim to have done, to
Watson under resolution passed by their Board :
That resolution
it was passed was never intended by them to have
that effect. 1t merely "resOlved' that the County
Auditor be directed to collect from the several
committees all bills and accounts Of liabilities
on them, together with the evidence t thereon,
and that "thereupon the County Auditor
annex the proper vouchers, with their several
blanks, for our signature and actiOn.n Mark me-
1t was for "sgnature' first and faction" after
ward. The evidence shows that when these bills
were collected the blanks for the certificates OF
amount before they were taken to anybody to sign.
Mr.. Lynes says that those audit blanks and those
all went before this Board at the same time. Now,
when was this auditing denes These papers
regularly came from the supervisors ready Tor the
signatures of this Board and they did nothing but
sign them. But there is
NO EVIDENCE
to show that these bills were even IN some IN.
stances before them The defence has not brought
forward a single book from the Board OF Audit to
show that. The Clerk has testified here, and the
here and they should know II there is anything in
these books to show whether the bills ever came
Clerks IN the oce and Dir the w ony
paper produced by them is headed "COmptroller's
ONCE" and that one which they do pro.
power to Watson, IL appears, is the
only thing there is to show tnat they ever met as
Board at all. In order to constitute legal audit
ing OF these bills within the meaning OF the law by
which the Board was created there must have
been meeting OF the members who composed this
Board, with Joint action OF their minds In the eX.
animation and consideration of their accounts
There is no evidence that such meetings were
ever held, and in this view of the case It is not
necessary that you find any corrupt motive or any
element OF wrong-doing beyond the mere fact that
they
SIGNED AND PASSED BILLS,
without Joint action OF any kind, to constitute
proper auditing OF the bills as required by law.
The next point to which ask your attention is to
whether he has wr0ngfully used or abused his
power as an auditing officer, and with corrupt
motive to the injury OF the public interests. You
have the evidence before you, which is absolutely
uncontroverted by anything they have offered, that
the initial step in every case that came before this
Board. and which we here charge, was an act OF
the defendant. His signature as President written
across the face OF the bills was the first one ap.
piled. watson mad nothing to do with finding
whether these bills were true or false. He
merely audited the vouchers sent from this
Board after this Board had examined and certified
their correctness. Watson couldn't aflx his stamp
to ything unless Mr.. Tweed had first signed the
bill, and Mr.. Tweed knew that Watson merely
certified by his stamp that the bill in question had
received the signature OF Mr.. Tweed as President
of the Board of Audit and that they had come
through the proper form. What do we find when
Mr.. Tweed wrote his name across the faces OF
these billss Either that when he so certified he
knew the bills to be false, or that he didn't know
anything about them. We find that upon twenty-six
different occasions when he so certified to these
bills, upon these very dates, 81, 000 900, forming
PROPORTIONATE AMOUNT
pcrcentQQe of these bids. goes dirpcf1v into hs