Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-12-04
The Conviction and Sentence OF IWeed'

rendering or the verdict III the 1"eeu
case:
1t was to very many persons IN tne
court - by the way, there was not one iady
present to even give the great corruption
list a solacing smile-a most slgnlncant
moment as the burly figure OF brennan
stopped down to the side OF the bencn,
and, looking in the face OF the
Judge Davis, whispered a few moments
to His Honor. and the magistrate tnen as
senting, Sheriff Brennan picked his way
with great difficulty through the crowded
court to the side of the doomed and con-
victed man who was soon to fill a felon's
cell. Sitting near Tweed d the left hand
was Richard Tweed, the brother OF the
accused, an aged, white-haired and white
bearded man, with the same prominent
and marked Jewish features that are no
ticcable in all the male members OF the
Tweed family, both young ana Old.
Richard Tweed seemed greatly moved
at the disgrace put upon his brother,
whom he has always looked upon as one
who could, like Archimedes, move the
world if he chose, and now none were so
poor as to do him reverence. Closer IN
the circle sat young Bill Tweed, or
General" William III. Tweed, who
was made, it is said, a Gene
ral' in the militia and a member
of the Bar on the same day, and,
two weeks after being made a member Of
the Bar, was made an Assistant District
Attorney for the good County of New
York. This young man is a dark-visaged
person with side whiskers, and has the
name OF a oodnatured young fellow
about town. His eyes were red with
weeping, and he seemed overwhelmed
with the disaster which had befallen his
father. Behind the prisoner sat his SON.
in-law, Ambrose Maginnis, of New Or
leans, whose bridal hour had been crown
ed with bushels of diamonds, and silks,
and purple, and fine linen, that o%utshOne
the wealth Of Ormus and OF Ind" Ma
ginnis was crying, and his face betOkened
real sorrow at the doom Of the false pub
lie servant. At the right Of Tweed sat
Charley Lawrence, formerly a Spectator
in the ballet business, and who was now
up to his ears in a business Of Il far more
serious nature. He wore glasses, and
looked at Judge Davis appealingly, but
that face was like the face Of a rock set
against a storm. These people were the
special guard Of Tweed, and they seemed
to think, from the expressions which fit
ted to and fro uneasily in their counte-
UdICtS, tikdt TIC COltiCtlDII was Il uItAt
incredible thing to heir minds.
Tweed himself seemed struck with dis
may, and terror shone from every line OF
his large and usually jolly features: His
face b!anchcd as his old political COM
panion, a man whom he had led in many
! Il ward and General Committee struggle,
placed his hand on his shoulder-the
hand Of the laW-and asked him if he was
ready. Tweed tried TO smile, but the at
tempt was a failure, and he blanched like
a suuIiower in the rain as he nodded his
head that he was ready, and Sheriff Bren-
nan, warrant in hand-or rather commit
ment in hand-beckoncd to his deputy,
Shields, who had been deeply interested
in the drama. And now there is q hum,
almost amounting to z low roar, and
Tweed, the great p%lunderer, eX-prinCc Of
politics, proprietor Of palaces, diamonds,
and who vas at n time in command of
10000 ~retainers, rose To 90 forth in the
stern grasp OF the law. Passage was
made slowly, and the numerous bands of
Tweed sympathiZers gave way on either
sidc-Tweed and his friends passing into
an adjoining room. The doors were shut
to with a bang to prevent a rush upon the
| prisoner, who disappeared.
Then a small group gathered in the
little ante-chamber, and Richard Tweed
shook hands with his brother and said to
him:
4 guess it Will be all right in the end"
81 hope 50, | am sure" said the con
victcd eX potentatc OF the buried Ring.
An Associated Press dispatch OF the
22d gives the following account of the
sentence pronounced by the Courto on that
day:
After the counsel had concluded their
arguments on the motion for an arrest of
Judgment, Judge Davis delivered a few
preliminary remarks, after which Tweed
was ordered to stand up, which he did
slowly, and on being asked whether he
had anything to say why sentence should
not be pronounced, replied, almost inaudi-
bly,, "NOthing," his counsel adding, "He
has spoken through counsel"
Judge Davis then resumed:
Mr.. Tweed, you stand convicted bv iury of
twelve honest men of a large number of crimes
charged against you united in one indictments. and
that verdict, i'll the opinion of the Court, could not
have been otherwise without a violation of the
oaths which the jury had taken, an utter disre-
gard Of the obligations under which they rested to
speak the truth and the whole truth.
With all the opportunities you had-had you
faithfully performed your duties to the public
to win the honor and respect of the whole com
munity, you saw fit to pcrvert the opportunity you
| pUSsCeEtu- dlu Tue po"cIS Will which you were
clothed Ill a manner more wicked, more infamous,
and more outrageous than any instance of a like
character which the whole history of the civilized
world contains. Instead of protecting the public
you plundercd IL; instead of standing guard,
where the law placed you. over the treasury of your
county, you threw that treasury open, not merely
to your own rapaCity, but also to the avarice of
your associates, under circumstances that make it
transparent that you were engaged in concerted
conspiracy to plumber the treasury of this county.
in which both yourself and your associates in crime
were principally to be benefited.
The evidence on this subject can leave no man
ner of doubt in the m nd of any. The commence
ment of it all was the entering by you on those
duties IA President of the Board of Audit on the
5th day Of May. The very next day after that
your career of plumber began, and was followed
from that dav forward Consecutively till the whole
and certified and warrants issued and money
paid. The evidence is conclusive that the
whole proceeding was instituted to carry
out a concerted plan to enrich yourself
other testimony that, in my judgment, would be
conclusively established by the fact that on each
of these several claims as they were passed on and
ultimately paid, your share of the plumber was
clearly fixed and prescribed at twenty four per
cent. while the share of your associates has been
fixed by a somewhat similar standard of plumber.
1t is impossible to believe that i'll the distribution
of 1910 cases in which the moneys were received on
these warrants, Just twcnty-fOur per cent. of each
sum should always be allotted to you without an
understanding i'll advance, by a concerted arrange
ment. Why this exact sum should be your fixed
proportion of the moneys of which the county
should be plundered, it is vain to suggest.
Your trial and conviction has not been the re-
suit of any partisan feeling that this was. after all.
as one of the jurors summoned on the panel ex-
pressed it, a struggle between the ms and the
outs No.; the whole struggle has been a struggle
between honesty and fraud. between virtue and