New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-10-02
IN IKPENENr THEE.

BILE value.
-
AN IBPUDENr THIEF.
On another page we publish a few facts re-
latve to MIR. Elbirt a. Woodward, Of Nor
walk Conn. The action of the Democratic
party of the XIIIth Senatorial District OF Con-
necticut, in making him their representative
in the State Senate, entities HIM by the
courtesy which obtains in Connecticut to be
called "The Honorable Elbirt A. Woodward"
This person, by the testimony of his associates
in crime, by undeniable documentary evil
dence, by the overwhelming array OF clrcum-
stances, by the fact of his fight from justice,
by his own confession of guilt and COM
promises with the law, is branded thief.
Not an accidental offender who fell in the
stress of a great temptation not ~ THIEF i'm
PEELED by want to the commission of solitary
crime; not a thief by gradual lapses from an
honest life; not a thief made so by the dsas-
trous environment, resulting from first false
step, from which he strOye in desperation to
free himself; not thief wrestling with fate,
and pursued by the stings of remorse; not any
of those for all such offenders the world has
charity. Elbirt A. Woodward is thief
by deliberate forethought, reconciliation
and provision: thief who shows
by his conduct that he was never corrupted or
seduced, but who dropped to his opportunity
as the wild beast to his prey, by the very in
stincts of his vicious nature. In a career in
which his spOIiatOns counted up to hundreds
of thousands, probably exceeding round
million, he constantly paraded with ostenta-
ton his ill-gotten plumber, and never gave
the slightest indication that its possession
caused a twinge of conscience, or a pang of
regret. Fleeing from s.ow-footed justice in
terror of the law, he carefully secured his booty
before making his escape, and after years Of
wandering, pursued by loneliness, but never
touched with repentance or haunted by
remorse, he returned, not to make
restitution, but to buy with the proceeds OF
his robberies immunity for his crimes. With
the methods and instrumentalties by which
this confessed and branded thief amassed the
means of purchasing political hOnOrs and so
cIal position, and dazzling the simple minded
citizens of a provincial town, every one who
has followed the course of the Tammany ex-
p0sure is fully acquainted. They are no
longer envelOped in secresy, or invested with
doubt, but are open and known to all the
world. No one doubts that every dollar which
this man holds was stolen from the city and
county of New-York.
There was q time when he seemed, Ivy COM
parison with the thieves who held higher po-
stions and welded greater power, and, in
consequence, bagged larger plumber, to be out
done by them in audacious impu1cnce and
brazen efirontery. The account of his per-
formances in Norwall since his release from
the T,mbs and return to that town, puts him
in a different relation. For incOncciyable
audacty, shamelessness and insOlence, this
fellow takes the palm. He need not
have been burdened with "a conscience,
but only with an average sense OF propri-
ETY. and common decency to have known that
his public reception at Norwalk before the
smell of the Combs was fairly out of his gar
ments, was an insult to the respectable citizens
of the place, and a shameless parade of his
own disgrace. But he seemed to enjoy his
prominence as a thief, and the knaves and
fools who lionized him saw nothing i'm
proper in accepting the hospitality which
successful robbery enabled him to offer.
They drank his wine and his whiskey and
smoked his cigars, knowing that they
were the proceeds of theft. They screnaded
him and congratulated him, and called him
Woody" and welcomed him home, knowing
him to be a thief-not only a thief, but an i'm
pudent and unrepentant thief, entertaining
them on stolen money. Such men are not
thieves, Of course. But why not 2 Is it for lack
of opportunity or of ability IT certainly is not
because they think il dshOnOrable To steal
But the returned rich and unrepentant
thief was not content with this parade. He
put his own Interpretation upon this gracious
reception. If he had dreamed before that any
disgrace attached to crime, he was undeceVed
by this demonstration. The citizens of Nor
walk, so soon as they should learn that he had
been successful in retaining half million or
more of his booty, would forget the means by
which he amassed it, and give him his old
position as good fellow" and public bene-
factor" Money would restore him to social
position, to his directorships in insurance
companies and banks, and even TO his place
as vestryman in the church. He struck out
for all OF them. And the mans callOusncss and
utter lack of moral perception moral sense.
are shown in the fact that when he found
himself repulsed he was actually surprised. lie
sought by an expensive banquet to inveige
the Governor of the State into social recOgni-
ton of him, but failed, as anyone who knows
Governor Hubbard could have told him before