The Portland daily press., 1874-03-03
New York Letter.
The Rise and Progress of New York
Politician IA Story for interruption
Young Men.

Young Men.
NEW YORK, Mar. LIST, 1874.
If stranger had visited New York for the
first time, on the 26th ultimo, he would have
inferred from seeing the City Hall draped
in mourning, the flags at half mast, and large
bodies of soldiers and civilians gathering for a
funeral pageant that great bereavement had
fallen upon the city. If he had read the morn
ing journals of that day, he would have formed
the conclusion that an official life OF eminent
worth and usefulness had been brought 10
premature close. But ii his curiosity hao
prompted him to inquire what conspicuous pun
lie services the object of these fuherai nonors
had rendered to the community, 10 eh'itie MIN
to such manifestations of posthumcus respect,
he wonld have been struck dumb with aston
;semept to learn that all this parallel grief was
in memory of a man whose career had been
marked by an offensive disregard of the obliga-
tons of official duty and personal integrity
who had obtained place by doubtful means, and
used it for personal gain-who had borne a
leading part in that long drama of demoraliza-
ton and despoilment which brought reproach
upon the fame of the American metropolis, and
loaded its property with prodigious burden OF
debt-and for whom the EXTREMIST demands of
charity could claim no more than the pitying
forbearance of silence, when death had avenged
wrongs unatoned for and misdeeds OF which
there are no signs of repentance. The axiom
that nothing but good should be spoken of the
dead, has its limitations When man has
heldlimportant official trusts. he is accountable
to those who survive him for the manner in
which he has fulfilled them. If he has Been
faithful The deserves to be held in grateful re-
membrane: if derelict, the retribution of his
misconduct should serve as lesson to posteri-
ty, that ''the evil which men do lives after
them"
Shank" Smith, as he was almost universally
named and known, was one of that too numer--
GUS class peculiar to large cities who make a
business of politics. Originally of humble life,
and pursuing the calling of canal boatman,
his first appearance in public Was as an Alder
man. He was then, and ever since has been
called a Republican, although he represented
Democratic constituency and has at all times
been on the most confidential terms with the
Democratic leaders. Eleven years ago he manag-
ed 10 obtain the Republican nomination for
Supervisor. The law creating that body, gave
the defeated candidate having the next highest
number of votes, the alternate seat The theory of
this dexterous continuance was that it would
give each party an equal representation in the
Board, which consisted of twelve men. In
practice it operated to deprive the people of all
chance of preventing the installation of the
man who secured the regular party nomination
however unworthy, or unpopular he might be.
4E
a guild of knaves, wi o could steal without the
smallest apprehension of being called to &C
count for doing damage to their party. The
two leading spirits of this banditti were Tweed
and Smith. Their audacity, their activity, their
utter defiance of public opinion exactly answer
ed the requirements for the leadership of their
respective partizan associates. Holding place
for six years and having the whole County
Treasury to sack at will, they entered upon
such crusade of robbery, that it has always
been matter of inexplcable wonder to me,
how they escaped the vengeance of an outraged
people SO long. The two great sources of their
Ubiquitous enrichment were the Court House
and the Printing Company. On these monster
jobs vast sums of money were appropriated, and
divided by the gang annually. The money was
paid in the sight of the people. TWAS perfect
ly patent that the stealing was going on. DC
casonally some feeble protest was heard, on the
eve of an election. But no organized earnest
and effective measures were taken to remedy or
abate the evil. With every year of impunity
the amount of the plumber increased, the con-
. federates grew richer and holder and were able
to enlarge their circle of followers, strengthen
their political alliances and defy opposition and
investigation.
minority of honest Republicans in New
York were filled with indignation at the con-
duct of "Hank" Smith, and biushed with
keenest shame, that he should disgrace great
national party by perpetrating crimes in an
official post obtained through his professions
OF fidelity to Republican principles. 1t was
this that led to that protracted strife between
the two wings of the party, which finally cul-
minated in the reorganization of 1871 and the
recognition by the State Convention of the del
egates chosen by the re-enrolled constituent
cies.
Tweed and Smith acting, with their less
notorious, but equally dishonest confedoratcs
10 the Board, who constituted the essential
majority, always docile, and ready to stife
debate, and put through any measure on
signal from their leaders, pursued their course
with uninterrupted pecuniary success for six
years. Then Smiths term expired. Mean
time, he had been chosen by the Legislature
as metropolitan. Police Commissioner You
can imagine what sort of a Legislature it must
have been from the selection it made. But in
asmuch as the law distinctively forbade a
Police Commissioners holding any other office,
our tax-ridden citizens found some consola.
ton for having Smith inflicted upon them in
the new place by rejecting that 1t would lead
to his abdication of the old one. Alas! how
little they knew their mani He was not the
sort of person to be baffled by any mere trifling
getheI owned and engineered the Republican
General Committee, so that his denomination
was easily procured. Tweed of course had
nothing to do but wave his hand to secure his
own unanimous denomination from Tammany
Hall. And SO this precious pair, nominally
competing for the Office, of which each had
proved himself SO utterly unworthy were vir-
tually hunting in couples and seeking through
party machinery a renewal of their
license to steal To the credit of a
reputable body of seeding democrats be
it said, they placed third candidate in the
field in the hope of drawing off enough votes
from both the bad candidates to give there man
the second place on the poll, which would haye
broken up the political equilibrium in the Board
and driven one great rogue out of it. But the
experiment failed. Tweed, entirely sure of his
own election, directed his cohorts to give Smith
all the votes necessary to make his return GER
tain, and it was done.
After that came the question whether the
law should be ignored, so that Smith could keep
his two places. While it was in allegiance he
held them, and might have held them to the
end, SO slow are the proceedings of courts, if
the great uprising had not come which annihil-
ated the whole gang A few days before the
final breaking up, judicial decision was rem
dered, that the acceptance of the one office
worked forfeiture of the other.
While the Board of Supervisors lasted no two
men in the city held such tender fraternal rela-
tons as these twins of malfeasanee, .'Bilp'
Tweed and "Hank" Smith. Democracy to the
one, and Republicansm to the other, meant
simply, organizations by which masses could be
n, do tn snhsarva ba ;ntarocte IF y,ol;t;o;oo,