New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-03-10
THE nrvocpAT1o CENTENNIAL THIEF

Far down among the exciting para.
oraphs of the Associated Press-in insig.
nifcant importance when compared with
the arrest of Belknap-too triAing to be
thought of under the jubilant rejection Of
Pinchback-we find this modest little
item of public intelligence:
The jury in the 81, OOO, 900 suit against
Tweed found . verdict for the people lot
$4.7l9, $40 principal, and $l0,T interest,"
from September, 1870.
As this incident attracts no comment
from the virtuous organs now intent upon
making a national misfortune point OF
party advantage, We may be pardoned
some reference to the obscure little para
graph quoted.
William NJ. Tweed, otherwise known as
the Boss of the Democratic stronghold Of
Ia mmany, was q partisan politician Of
the worst and coarsest mould. Ignorant,
unscrupulous and insolent, he handled
his party as the tools of his rascally trade
The testimony has been published on oath
that Tammany Hall made the slate which
every Democratic officer was obliged to
obey, and that the contracts and Offices of
the city and State were as much agents of
political purchase and sale as the currency
itself. Tweed was also elected by the
Democracy to the Senate Of New York,
elected by them the last time while q
branded felon, under prosecution for the
crime Of public theft. That great theft he
had committed thus. The expenditures Of
New York city can not, under the laws,
be audited by the city authorities. This
act requires the appointment by
the State of auditing officers:
Tweed secured such . board O.
audit as enabled himself and associates
to impose upon the helpless taxpayers
the most unfounded and stupendous
debt known among modern cities. The
precise process by which this was done
may have been secured by Democratic
patent, but it has been family copied in
many other cities of the Union without
proper acknowled gment to the inventors.
The precise mode of theft was this: A
public work being under construction,
sach as city courthouse or canal repairs,
contractors we're told to add to the actual
worth of their work such an excess as
would afford a percentage for division
among the auditing officers who were to
pass their bill. AS the system advanced,
the auditing boards became so raveneous
that they authorized bills to be pre-
sented against the city for work never
done, and for materials never fur
nished. The scale of division was
somewhat thus: To Tweed, as the
chief, was assigned some ten or twelve per |
cent of the gross amount allowed to his |
subordinate thieves and strikers, o smaller |
share according to their several capacities
for fraud, to the party forging the claim
just enough to keep him from squealing.
The amount Of these frauds may be in
ferred from the frugal paragraph which
the Associated Press has vouchsafed. |
There was claim that this distinguished
Democrat had got away with six millions
of public money. The jury established
by verdict that this amount was subject to |
some deductions, but found upon their |
oaths that Tweed had stolen 81, 7l9, $40, |
which, with the interest, shows the stu |
pendous theft of s4,9O7, III; thus con-
shutting him, without competition, the |
most notorious thief of the century, and |
SO entitled to be represented at the CEN
tennial and in all travelling wax works and |
felonious statuary. We have regarded the
crime of which Belknap, the Secretary of |
War, has been accused, as q national dis
honor. We have ella lined that the Re-
publican party has been Inundated and
outraged by such an act committed in its
name or by its authority. We regard the
under which an American
minister is now retiring from q foreign
country as requiring explanation, and as
apprehensions that further
shame has been reflected upon the country
md upon the Republican party.
We ask the public to look at the differ
snce with which the two parties regard
The inevitable fra6ds practiced under our
system Of public appointments. The
Democracy make no complaint Of, and
mail allusion to the master villanies of
heir own partisans, but concentrate all
he batteries Of obliquy upon such knaves
IS may have quilted the Democratic
party, as in the unfortunate case of
3elknap, to bring reproach upon the Re-
oublicans.
We should like to see sincere and i'm
partial prosecution of all knaves who
nay have brought the American name
nto reproach. Such knaves can not resort
o the protection of the Republican flag.
Will the Democracy say the same thing
s to themselves? If SO, let them publish
nd rejoice in the fact that Tweed, the
hief thief of this century, has been
to conviction, and that though,
trough the connivance of Democratic
fficials, he has been permitted to escape,
ct his ill.gotten gains will be, as far as
ccessible, sequestered to indemnify the
'eople whom he has plundered and out
aged.
REJECTED CREDENTIALS.
1t is not necessary that we should re-