The New York herald., 1875-12-06
The Forfeiture OF the Tammany
Charter.

Cured, and at last patient people clamors
for the speedy execution Of righteous ven
geanee.
The legal cause exists in the inveterate
perversion of the charter from 'the purpose
of affording relief TO the INDECENT and dis
tressed members of the association, their
widows and orphans, and others who may be
found proper objects of their charity" (Which
was the sole purpose specified in the act of
Incorporation, to the purpose Of controlling
the political government Of the city, the State,
and even the United States. 1t is capable OF
/ legal proof that the income of the Tammany
I Society has not been applied to benevolent
objects, but expended in the disburse-
ments Of political intrigues that its
| funds have been grossly mismanaged
as well as misappled, and thereby
the poor have been robbed of accumulations
that should have been husbanded for their
succor that its only administration of any
| kind of charitable relief has been in the way
! of distributing offices or labor tickets to po-
! litical beggars, and that it has confused its
membership and functions with the member
! ship and functions of the General Committee
Of political party or faction-in single
phrase that it has both non-used and mis-
used its franchise
The legal way exists in the provisions of
the Code, which authorize the Attorney Gen
eral to bring action in the name of the peo-
pie to vacate any charter for the cause of nom
use or misuse of the corporate powers The
principle upon which he is thus enabled to
interpose to prevent or punish usurpations
or abuses of franchises, privileges or duties
by corporators, is that they constitute
usurpations or abuses of the sovereign
power ITSELF against which the people,
in their sovereign capacity, are bound
to interpose for their own protection.
But for the fact that the charter of the
Tammany Society, granted in 1905, contains
no provision for its alteration or repeal at
the discretion of the Legislative authority
which conferred it, the course would be
even easier and simpler. The Senate and
Assembly, in compliance with the public
desire, might by q statute in three lines
wipe the incorporated sinners out of legal
existence, without the necessity of establish
would have been wise if the subsection
of Tammany to the legislative power had
been required as a condition of the act
of 1857 by virtue of which the society holds
its Wigwam in Fourteenth street But that
precaution was neglected, and the corpo-
ration stands sheltered from legislative in
reference by the famous decision of the
&c - - I,
Dartmouth College case-in which Daniel
Webster exerted his utmost intellectual
| powers and won his greatest professional
triumph-that q charter of an eleemosynary
| institution is q contract, whose obligation
| is impaired by an amendatory or epealing
act for which power was not expressly
reserved and to which the corporation does
not assent. The judicial authority of the
government, however, remains unimpaired
| by the decision, and, in the Ian
guage of Judge Story, in that very
case is available Ito ascertain the validity
of the grant, to enforce its proper uses, to
suppress frauds, and, if the uses are chari-
table, to secure their regular administration
through the means Of equitable tribunals in
u
failure Of justice"
We anticipate the objection of men who
will ask if John Kelly will not be John Kelly
still whether the Tammany Society stands
or falls. The public Indignation, they will
say, is really due not to the non-use or the
| misuse of the Tammany charter but to the
spectacle of o single man debating the
| IL. 4
kinds of offices, manipulating the officers,
when elected like puppets in Punch and
Judy show, influencing the doings Of State
conventions and legislatures, invading the
Executive Chamber Of the State and modify
ing the policy of its occupant, and, finally,
reaching to Washington and seeking to guide
Congress with a view to control the selection
of the next President of the United States;
and all this, they will say, is done by this
man as the leader of an unincorporated
political committee, which will continue to
exist whatever may be the fate of the Tam
many Society. Perhaps it will. But the
people certainly have a right to say that it
shall no longer exist in combination with an
Incorporated society which is the creature Of
their legislation; and, with regard to the
future conduct Of the Democratic General
Committee, when the Tammany charter shall
have been vacated, we suggest to these
desponding critics the analogy of line of
troops fighting behind shelter or fighting in
the open field. Throw down the bulwark Of
the charter, behind which Mr.. Kelly now
conceals his political manguvres from pub
lie view, and we strip him and his battalions
Of an important element of their fancied in
vincibility Stark and his Continentals
never could have fought as they did at
Bunker Hill but for the rail fence and the
stacks Of new mown grass that shielded them
from the sight of the enemy, and Meagher's