The Portland daily press., 1875-12-07
Our New York Letter.
Tweed and His Escape-Randall and
Kerr-The Minority in the House.

New YORK, Dec, 5, 1875.
1t will hardly do to express satisfaction at
the exodus of Tweed because it seems like
miscarriage of justice. And yet to every body
but the lawyers engaged in prosecuting and de-
Tending him, he has been such troublesome
or expensive nuisance, that it requires great ap-
titude at dissimulation to affect successfully
any thing like poignant sorrow at his escape.
His legal pursuers and defenders will miss and
mourn him with unfeigned sadness. To them
he has been source Of constant and plentiful
revenue. But to the unfortunate tax payers,
who have already suffered heavily by his depre-
dations, it comes hard to be wasting more
money in sbadowy and fruitless devices to get
back some of their lost spoil.
As long as Tweed was a co nvct and brought
under the stern discipline of Penitentiary life,
the element of retribution entered into his case.
But since he has been an inmate of the debtors
Jail, he has held sort of imperial state quite
inconsistent with any theory of punishment.
He has been circumscribed, to be sure, in re-
spect of his freedom to travel. That was the
limit of his prvations. And even in that re-
gard, as it seems, great Difference was paid to
hAS "AS-So' AAO "~c NoAhP POh0u " 6os ehAouSh
the form of asking leave of absence, but there
is nothing to show that it was ever refused
him. He was treated very much as nations
treat eminent prisoners of state, with watch
fulness that was apologete rather than vigiant,
and with homage that conveyed to him a
sense of the profouL consideration of his obeis-
ant guardians.
This line of treatment was all the more &C.
ceptable to the great captive, because it fol-
lowed upon his seventeen months of incarcera-
ton as a felon. If he had gone at first to the
sponging house in Ludlow Street he might
have found its limitations irksome in spite of
all the privileges accorded to him. But after
being draped In the degrading garb which
marked him as a condemned malefactor, and
compelled to 60 and come at the command of
his keeper-after hearing the sullen door close
upon him with knell- like clang every weary
night at half past six oclock-after fretting be-
hind bars which shut out from him the world
and hope-the change to spacious furnished
apartments, the substitution of a troup of lack
eys, for frigid turnkey, the undisputed right
to receive or exclude visitors-the introduction
of the luxuries of the table in lieu of the un-
paatable fare of Blackwells Island must have
made the contrast between the two situations
very marked.
But this mode of life must have been costly
enough to make serious inroads upon the hoard
which Tweed had gathered during the ten
years when he was stealing the peoples money
directly in their sight. The drain on his purse
for mere living, however, was nothing COM
pared to what he had to pay for legal advice
imagine Tweed has escaped not so much from
Jail as fIom his counsel, He must have fore.
seen that the utter exhaustion of his means
was merely question of time, and that it was
far better to get away while he had something
left than to run the risk of finding chance
when his pockets had been emptied. don't
see any other motive which could have
prompted his flight. We have heard an i'm
mense deal of talk about suit to recover the
money he has stolen. There have been mo-
tions and proceedings in court and in the news
papers, times without number But nobody
seems to have any kind of idea of the method
by which restitution can be enforced. The
ablest lawyer in the country devoted a year OF
more-without charge, be it said, equally to
his honor and everybody else's amazement-
in considering the steps necessary to be taken
to ensure the recovery of the stolen cash. But
it was subsequently discovered that he was en-
'irely mistaken in his exposition of the law.
Inferior members of the profession have since
undertaken to perform the miracle of securing
public rights through judicial procedure, but
they get on no better. The case stands on the
calendar, and will remain there as all suits do,
as long as the clients can pay. That there
should be an end of it, while there are fees to
be got, will appear to any one at all acquainted
with litigation, as one of the widest of im-
probabilities. If in the course of ten or fif-
teen years-the ordinary period which elapses
between beginning a suit and bringing it to a
first trial-a verdict should be obtained-why
then another interval of the same length will
barely suffica to secure a hearing by the gen.
eral term. The general term will be very likely
to reverse the decision of the court below.
However, if, as sometimes happens, IL affirms
the Judgment, there is still the court CT last
resor. to go to, and by the time you reach that
stage of the eventful history, there will be so
little left of anything on which the dispute
was founded that it won't matter much what
conclusion is arrived at You are reasonably
safe in assuming that the three tribunals will
not concur either in their views of the law or
the fact in any issue presented to them. But
few men outlive law suit.
This commentary on the expense, delay and
uncertainty of law, applicable to the most or
dinary and commonplace affairs, bears much
more forcibly upon controversies like this ol
the state against Tweed-in which many little
technicalities will be resorted to to prevent a
verdict against the defendant. Whatever be.
comes of the money which Tweed stole and
hos NOT o1rao To- pdored II 10 folarahlv "a