Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1874-01-02
CORRESPONDENCE.
OUR NEW YORK LETTER.

! THE GREAT RINo--WHAT IT Is-WHAT
! KEEPS IT UP,AND WHAT Will KILL 1T
| "A BRIEF HIsToRY--THE PANIC
| LUXURIEs.
Nelc York. Dec. 80, 1873.
| When noXious weed is cut down, ii is
not always sure that IL is exterminated.
The roots must be dug up and cast out be-
foro the work should be considered COM
pleted. When Boss Tweed was arrested,
tried and sentenced to the penitentiary, the
good people Of New York iancied they had
cleansed the Augeon stables, and that
henceforth all they had TO do was TO fold
their hands and sit down to the enjoyment
of good government Mistaken souls
Tweed was simply the trunk, the roots or
list as vigorous and full of life as ever. and
new shoots are showing their heads every
day.
propose to devote this letter mostly to
the Ring for il is ole of the most curl
Gus chapters in the history of this country.
| The ring was, of course, u Democratic in
vention. The Tammany Society had con-
troll of the City of New York, and, conse.
quen.ly, of the State. 1t became well
| known that the solid mass of ignorance,
ruin and crime in the city, having but one
| head, could nominate whomsoever it pleas
ed, and then elect or defeat. Every De-
mocratic politician in the State swore ale
glance to Tammany. 1t became the party.
At the beginning this strength was used
simply for purposes of plumber in n rather
moderate way but when VIM. NJ. Tweed
secured the control he was not content with
that. He aspired to the control not of the
City and State of New Y ork, but the ma
ton. AS the politicians of the State bowed
| to him, because he could control n State
Convention, so the politicians of other States
! cOutted his Influence, for New Y ork is
large State and has power in q Nation
al Convention. Doubtless the great Tweed
had an idea that after making President
or two, he might fill that great Office him.
self
1t is not 10 be denied that he played his
game shrewdly. He first got control of his
own party, and then proceeded to debauch
the Republican party of the State. He
found enough vcnial Republicans who were
willing to share his stealngs, and he or
ganized Tammauy ring inside that party.
Editors of prominent Republican journals,
| Republicans ct influence i'll all parts of the
State, came TO a private understanding with
him, the service required being the dcmora
lization of the party by bolts and splits, and
the consideration being share, plopor-
TONED to the service, in the millions of
stealings he had control of. New York
| City and State was thus bound hand and
| foot, and Boss Tweed welded more active
! power than any man in the United States.
| lie stretched forth his hand TO New Jersey,
| Pennsy lvania, and Connecticut, and had
commenced to work in Ohio and the States
farther West when he mot hio Waterloo
! atIu won't down
Boss Tweed is i'll the peuiIcntiary, on
| Blackwells Island but Tweedism is neither
'Gflh0, or scotched, it is rooted in the rum
! thieves of 'tnegn vote, the gamblers and
vigorous to-day as evd it is as strong and
is all there, and other men, iIst tIdie 'hateLi", m
Tweed and as unscrupulous, ale there u
mould it and use 1t.
Several of the principal men in Tweed's
ring are out of the way Conan, Miller,
Mike Norton, John ii. Walsh are in hid
ing Connolly took flight in time and went
into hiding. Connolly, it will be remem-
bered, put the salt say'' between him and
| prosecution shortly after proceedings were
| commenced against Tweed. lie took with
hlm not less than an even million, aud is
! living i'll great splendor in Ireland. The
others mentioned got out OF the way rs
soon as they were convinced that the prose
cutlon OF Tweed was in earnest, and cannot
be found. Harry Genet, one Of the most
Drazen OF the thieves, was caught, tried
ana convicted, and on Monday last he was
TO have been sentenced TO Join the thronr
day morning nc was not to be found Mr.
Matthew L. Brennan is Sheriff of New York,
ana Mr.. Is. is Tammanyitc whose term
Is nearly out. and who desires a reelection.
How could Mr.. Brennan go before the De-
mocIacy of New York with his hands
stained with the punishment OF man like
Genet 7 So Mr.. Genct's Imprisonment
was merely nominal. Harry was about
the streets of the city, in care of Deputy,
II Is true, for days, and on Friday night he
went to his home in Harlem, the Deputy
accompanying him. He retired with his
wife at the usual hour, the accommodating
Deputy lying in an adjoining room on "a
SOFA. In the morning Mr.. Genet was not
to be fonl d, "much TO the chagrin of the
Deputy
This instance proves what stated at the
beginning. The Tammany snake is HYDRA
headed and Tweed is only one of the heads.
Harry Geuet's friends, l. e., the rum-mills. |
thieves, gamblers and murderers, whom he |
controls; have power enough in their hands |
10 peat MIR. Matthew L. Brennan, for re- |
nomination, and had Harry gone TO Sing |
SlnS' they would have beaten him. There. |
loIe; this perlured plunderer-this convict |
ed thlei, is permitted to quietly walk off |
and the courts are set at defiance.
Who are these fellows, who ride so boldly |
over the taxpayers OF New York Most |
~ lrlsh. The great mass of Irish emi- |
grants who land have no more idea of an |
Intelligent exercise of their newly acquired |
rights than Virginia mule has of the |
creek alphabet. They organize about
Sro9Serles, the keeper of the mill controls |
"a hundred of them for which he receives a |
small olhce. lie, in turn, is controlled by /
a leader little higher up, whose power in
tue government is guaged by the number
Il A -
head.
a brief history of one of these fellows win
throw little light on the way they do it.
An lrlshman. whom, for the sake Of name
we will call O'Brien, though tnat was moi
ms name, was ten years ago. Il reporter on
Liverpool paper. lie had wife and four
children who were kindly permitted to care
Tor themselves, for it was all Mr.. O'Brien
could do to keep himGef in liquor and other
Injuries. An affair which amounted TO a
lelony brought Mr.. OBJ. TO Jail. from which
by technicalty he escaped aud made his
way to New York. Here he found his op.
portunity. lie was a glib talker and lost no