New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-06-11

Il O'~>seSS
them a subordinate section and mus
always keep them so2
THE CUsT0NH0UsB INVESTIGATIONS.
We are not surprised that the inquir,
into the affairs of the Customhouse for thu
past ten years should have brought t.
light the fact that the government has oc
casionally employed q dishonest mar
who has sold the government for the pay
of an informer. Notimpossibly such men
may have been proposed for the position
at the instance of those who were to pro.
fit by their dishonesty.
The examination has shown that the
patronage of the Office, like that of other
offices and OF this city, has been used by
the politicians here as elsewhere. We
reprobate the practice, and would like the
Democracy to give some guarantee that
they will not, if they ever obtain posses
sion of the Offices, do as has been always
done here and elsewhere employ political
agencies to effect political results. Both
parties should, however, perceive in the
general low grade of testimony that there
is class which has no other reliance than
that of spies and strikers for party. One
testifies that while he has taken pay to
aid the Republicans, he is a genuine Irish
Democrat at heart, and will never be any,
thing else, and intimates that if his SER
vices in the next campaign do not pay
better than they did in the last, he will
remain true Irish Democrat.
The whole land is full of persons who
will sell their services to this or that party
before the election, and resell the informa-
ton they have acquired to the opponents
Of the party to which they had first sold
their services.
We should think, how ever, that re-
spectacle men of both parties would see
that the aid of such mercenaries can not
be worth paying for, even with public
money. Trickery must come out, and
man of any character must lose more in
the inevitable exposure of venal agent
than could possibly be made by such sup
port.
We still ask public attention to the un-
commonly rich surface indications of
fraud in sugar, salt and cigars. The care
of the public revenues as much demands
the investigation into all such possible
frauds as in the cases of crooked whisky.
The seizure of large invoices of sugars
some years since and the compromise with
the government undoubtedly placed some
half million dollars worth of sugars upon
the market at lower than the rates of duty
paid sugars. The Bulletin regards an in
quiry into those circumstances as "a re-
surrection of buried occurrences. There
is no Limitation upon an inquiry into the
effect of revenue frauds as illustrative of
the effect upon trade. The witness in
these sugar cases said
Several men claimed shares in the amount
OF proceeds; these were Perkine, Bradley
and Long; they were all killed or found
dead within period of several weeks.
We hold no inquest over the remains of
those unfortunate men, two of whom
Long and Perkins-were estimable citi-
zens. The Bulletin offers an extraordinary
cause why Mr.. Long, United States dis
trict attorney, should have been 'found in
bis Office at the Customhouse dead, with
bis throat cut and deep gashes in each
wrist" The eccentricity of having cut
bis throat before he cut his wrists
is explained upon a physiological and
chronological theory, upon which our
knowledge of anatomy and metaphysics
does not allow us to comment. Here,
however, is what prominent physicians
Are said to have reported to the coroner:
After his death an autopsy was held on
The body, and prominent physicians as
serted that death occurred BY suicide, su-
perlnduced by thickening of the skull. 1t
was found that the pressure from the thick |
,ning OF the bone was SO great that the |
brain could not possibly perform naturally
ts functions.
Why this should have produced mental |
liberation instead OF cerebral intiamma-
ion or pressure. why the unfortunate
gentleman should have been excited to |
zill himself inste. d of somebody else, not |
'eing gifted as d professor, we can not |
'ffer suggestion.
The defense OF ''the customs officials"
'gainst a charge of having caused the
filling of these three men is generous,
tut wholly gratuit GUS. The Bulletin says:
1t appears to us hat the tempt to con-
ne affairs under tvestigation by the com.
alttee is not only mistake, but q very
rave mistake, for whatever else the GUS
Oms officials have done, no one here be-
leves, for an instant, that they were in any
Vay parties to the taking off of two gen
lemen whose deaahs by their own hands
vas established beyond peradventure at
be time they occurred.
Why should the Customhouse officials
ave assassinated man who claimed to
e an informer, another who was district
ttorney for the United States, and third
Tho was agent for the Havana steam line.
sugar carrier? Why not have also assas-
mated the three informers who received
everal thousand dollars a piece? We
an see no good reason why the customs
ficials should have assassinated these
len. We can not assert that they were
but we can imagine that if
lere was any general disposition to i'm