New-York tribune., 1874-10-29
TO CITIZENS OF BROOKLYN.

III Tamma0y Hall nad nOlnlnatcu NIL w imam
M. Tweed for Mayor this year. Mr.. Connolly
for Controller, and Mr.. Harry Genet for State
Prison Inspector, it would not have been
guilty of grOsser outrage upon public
decency than the Democracy of Kings County
have committed in setting up the ragged and
befOuled figure of Winchester BrittOn as their
candidate for Dstrict-Attomey. Mr.. Britton
was tried last Winter on a long series OF
grave charges affecting his official conduct and
his private character. The evidence was taken
by an impartial referee; the defense was fully
presented; and after patient consideration
Gov. Dix removed BrittOn from office. The
principal offense of which he was Judged
guilty was technically culpable failure to
bring to book the frauds of Tax-Colector
Badeau, but there was apparently no doubt in
the Governors mind that this delinquency in
volved something much worse than mere
criminal negligence. 1t was only one instance
of a long series of official malfeasances by
which the Brooklyn Ring had been enabled
to plunder the treasury and control the cleo
tiOns, and the Governor properly characterized
Brittons whole course towards the Ring as
ga palpable and culpabie failure" There
were two other charges against BrittOn which
the referee reported to be sustained. One was
"gross irregularity" connected with the i'm
prisonment of Mr.. Shanks,-Of which the
Governor says, "ThOugh not of itself suf-
Efficient to warrant the interpOstiOn of the
Executive on an application for his removal,
"it was inexcusable as calculated to overthrow
"the orderly administration of criminal JUS
"tce ;n-and the other was BrittOn's scandal
Gus manipulation of an inquiry ordered to be
made by the Grand Jury into his official con-
duct-an inquiry which he turned away from
its legitimate aim and converted into an in
QUESTION against his accusers. In passing
sentence of removal, the Governor said: at
"is my duty under the Constitution to see
"the laws faithfully executed. In this case
6 they have been grossly violated, and an
"Official malfeasance has been disclosed which
ais declared to be felony. The officer chosen
"by the people to prosecute offenses Of this
"nature has wholly neglected to perform his
"duty. One of the principal cities in the
estate has suffered in its character and in its
" finances by this great public wrong, and the
"offender remains unpunished. An example
demoralizing in its influence has been fur
" nished when the abuse of pecuniary trusts
"is one of the chief prevailing vices of the
"day 1t is one of its most deplorable conse-
"quences that it has made official profilgacy
"less striking by rendering the public mind
familiar with its constant recurrence" These
were sensible words, and the just and digni-
fed spirit of the Governors decision was uni
versally applauded. That partisan consider
ations had no influence in shaping it was
manifest not only from his own high charac-
ter, but from the fact that he Immediately
appointed another Democrat in Brittons place.
Serious as Mr.. BrittOn's delinquencies were in
themselves, their chief significance depended
upon their connection with network OF
frauds, extending over long series of years.
and duplicating a great number of Brooklyn
politicians, strikers, spectators, and miscella-
noous thieves, blackguards, and swindlers in
broadcloth. As the charge of misdemeanOr
upon which Tweed was tried really meant a
gigantic robberyof the public money, so the
Offense of which Britton was convicted meant a
great deal more than appeared on the surface.
The interlacing frauds which covered almost
every public department in Brooklyn had their
connecting knot in the District Attorneys office,
and every attempt to trace them out led the
Investigator thither.
The denomination of this disgraced and un-
faithful officer therefore is not merely an
attempt to "vindicate" political favOrite /;
twenty denominations or reflections would not
restore his ruined reputation; but it is frank
commitment of the Kings County Democracy
to the support oe the Brooklyn Ring, after it's
huge rascalities have been so fully exposed
that it has no longer even the pretense of re-
.4.. n
lyn therefore, not whether they can vote for
Winchester Britton, but whether they can
afford to support any of the local candidates
of party which sets the stamp of its approval
upon precisely the same practices which sent