New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-11-19
GOOD RESULTS OF A GREAT EVIL.


The exposure of the Whisky Ring might
have been merely brief sensation. a nine
days' wonder. 1t bids fair, instead, to create a
permanent change in public opinion, and to
contribute to wholesome moral revolution.
Public plunderers all over the land will read
| the reports of the Mcdonald trial, aud see that
Justice is not dead. Those who associate with
or countenance public punderers will be re-
minded that men who steal from the Govern
ment ought to be in the penitentiary, and de-
| serve no better treatment than any other class
of jail-birds.
Exposure of whisky frauds does not mean
merely gain of revenue, or stoppage OF
public robbery by single method. 1t is n
step toward a general cleansing of the public
service, and will make other steps more easy
but this is not all. Since the war broke out
there has been great decentralization of pub
| Lie opinion respecting rObberies of the Govern
ment Exciting questions have engrossed atten-
| ton. REGULATIONS were thought unimpOrtant
as long as it was uncertain whether the Union
itself could be preserved, or the rightiu
results of the war secured. Because of services
to the cause nearest the popular heart,
public servants known to be corrupt were
tolerated, were permitted to WELD pollti-
cal influence, and were even elevated
to high position. Rapidly and surely
public sentiment was tainted. Men were wei
coined to respectable society whose crimes, no
one could doubt, would have brought them to
felon's cell had law been rigidly enforced
| People who would scorn to associate with
| pickpockets nevertheless invited to the society
of their wives and daughters men who had
| given or taken brides, swindling contractors
or whisky thieves. Few remembered that it
was crime to steal, whether from Govern
ment or from an individual. Nobody held
! tho one crime "a OdiOuS and disgraceful
| as the ether. In this respect, the de-
moralizaton had become almost universal. The
Young were educated, by daily observation of
social usages to regard crimes against the
public service as venial Of1enses, UNNECESSARILY
less disreputable than crimes against private
rights of property. The poor boy who stole
| loaf of bread was scOrned. The adroit official
who stole half million was half enyied. Pub
| lie opinion educated men to steal. For those
to whom crime no longer seems odious when
committed by others are not unlikely to COM
nit it themselves when tempted.
| 1t will help to rectify public opinion if men
|
of known crimes who have held positions of
! trust and influence and have commanded pre-
ccdence among decent men because OF their
stolen gains. may not only be exposed, but
placed with other felons i'll the penitentiary.
A few marked examples will do much to re-
mind society that he who robs the Govern
ment deserves no better treatment than any
other felon. The higher the rank, the greater
! the influence of the criminal has been, the
more effective will be the lesson of his con-
viction and punishment. In this respect the
war upon the Whisky Ring promises to be
peculiarly fruitful of results. Other investiga-
tons of misconduct in the public service have
| brought a certain sort Of censuro upon men OF
| high position, but hardly ever more than
censure. Not a single man has been
brought to the doom of a felOn by the
| Pacific Mail, or other disclosures at Wash
! ington. Even in NewYork, Tweed is still
fighting, and has not yet been followed to the
penitentiary by other leaders of the Tammany
| Ring or by any of the Canal Ring who de-
serve the same fate. But Col. Joyce, late
| Special Revenue Agent and member of a Re-
publican State Committee, is evidently not
! likely to languish in confinement for lack of
/ tDI-tllldl tDUlDdHl' HC III hiiO ''tfN
of Gen. Mcdonald, though yet incomplete, is
already enough to create Il strong presumption
| that he and others not less conspicuous
will be convicted. If this man, with Nc
Kee, proprietor of the most important
party organ in district embracing sew
eral States; Avery, recently Chief Clerk
of the Treasury and Mcguire, lately Collector
and candidate for Mayor of st. Louis, shall be
found guilty of robbing the Government and
sent to the penitentiary, to associate with
felons who have robbed individuals, the lesson
will not fail to produce a very wholesome
effect upon the public morals. Because they
were trusted, because they were men of large
influence in party and upon public opinion,
because they held prominent positions in So
ciety and in the business community, their
guilt, if they are guilty. was the greater, and
their punishment will be Of the greater bene
| fit to the country.