The Portland daily press., 1877-06-12
Our New York Letter.
The Brothers Sweeney--Giving mp the
swag--The Decapifafed Collectors
Gen. Grant in Europe--Gail HamiI-
toms LETTERS


able way when he first met the Siamese twins.
The fraternal tie between those prodiges of ma
ture could hardly have been matter of con-
lecture to anybody, because it was oculary
manifest The brothers Sweeney, Peter b. and
James M. were not born at the same time nor
conJolned by palpable physical tie. Iudeed,
tney were as unlike each other as possible
Peter was bright keen and active James was
dull and sluggish. Peter was ambitious and
intent on pushing his fortunes, pecuniary and
political, with very little scruple as to the
means be used. James was perfectly contented
to live under the shadow of his brothers wing,
picking up such crumbs of patronage as he had
the chance of throwing in his way, without any
special exertion on his own part. The only
desire that really had strong possession of him
was the love of drink. That overmastered every
other passion of his phlegmatic nature He gave
way to the self-indulgence so completely that
it carried him early to the grave
AT the time the great schemes of robbery
were being carried into execution James M.
Sweeney held the:unimportant oficeIof clerk of
the SuperiorI Court. 1t is little curious, by
the-by, that Sweeuey's three immediate pred
ecessors in this place all turned out badly. We
hear great deal-in talk and print-about the
dignity of the judiciary and the spotlessness of
the ermine, but the judges are Influenced by
partisan considerations in the appointments
they make about as much as the aldermen,
which is the reason why there are so MANY
scaly attaches in our courts of-I was going to
write justice, but don't like to misrepresent
things SO will substitute the word law
Well, Peter B. naturally disliked having his
share of the plunder paid over to him directly.
1t looked safe enough at the time, to be sure,
for there never was such besotted idiotic
community as this during that epoch of humil-
alton and crime. Still, he Lad been District
Attorney, he had sent many man to the
penitentiary and state prison for doing once
on small scale what he was doing every day
in an immensely large way. He was just ner-
vous enough about the business to deem it pru-
dent to have dummy in his service. James
was the very man to suit bis purpose. Besides
being the plant and unquestioning follower of
his brother his mental and moral perceptions
were altogether too obtuse to impress him with
any adequate sense of the risk or the sin Of
acting as receiver of stolen property.
What followed everybody knows. When it
N~NoSAOao
York any longer both Sweeneys fled, and after
wards turned up in Europe. Connolly followed
their example. Tweed and Hall staid and
took the chances. So much of rweeds hoard
was in real estate he couldn't get away without
abandoning millions. He had bought legsla-
tors, he had subsidized newspapers, he had done
large traffic with men Of all grades the lofty
and the lowiy. Venality seemed to him to be
the universal law of his race. He had no
doubt he could buy up two or three jurymen AZ
often as there was panel secured to try him.
His mistake was fatal one; but it happened
through his failure to realize the height and
depth of the popular wrath at that precise mo-
ment.
1t was paroxysm, terrible while it lasted
but very soon over. Sweeney would have been
swept under by it had he been within its reach
He indicated his reputation for sagacity by
staying away till it had entirely subsidized. Now
he returns having first secured pledge of i'm
| munity from criminal prosecution for such a
term as effectually protects him from any pos
sible loss of his liberty. He finds the story of
the "Ring' virtually forgotten, the people as
Indifferent to it as to the calculations Of last
| weeks weather, and nothing under heavens to
keep it in sight and hearing except the exer-
tions of a lot of lawyers to whom it has been
| prolific source of profit and notoriety.
Lawyers, however slow they may be in tax
| ing care of tn interests Of their clients, are
never backward in conserving their own. The
city, having naturally got tired of paying c.
lossal fees for infntesimal services, is no long
er an eligible point of attack from these de-
dicpip of frip tba a;,,
chance. They seem, therefore, to have been
casting about for new sources of revenue
Sweeny has always been ready and anxious to
| settle-not for himself! OH no! OF course not
his skirts are clear-its his 'long lost brother,
with the strawberry mark on the left arm for
| whom he wished to make expiation while he
was living, and whose purgatorial torments he
seeks to alleviate now that he Is dead. The
game has been played with enough mystery to
awaken public curiosity, and not with SO plain
an appearance Of intent to compound felony
as to provoke general indignation. The bar
gain is struck; the crime of the living Sweeney
is to be buried in the grave of his departed kins-
man, and people shall speak of him hereafter
| in the language of Toodles she had brother'
Now all this performance, speaking in seri-
BUSINESS, is shocking enough, from whatever
point of view it is looked at To accept mon
ey consideration as an atonement for great
public robbery under any circumstances, is of
extremely questionable propriety, but to take
sum so trifling in proportion to the amount
stolen, is q blunder in business light as well
| as upon the score of ethics If such rule were
| to obtain in our criminal courts, people would
| all have to turn thieves in self defence.
The argument may be advanced that mas
much as Sweeney was beyond the jurisdiction
of our courts he could not be prosecuted and we
might as well get $500. 900 out of him as to 90
without anything. That is not sound propo-
sition. He was an exile. The moral effect of
his Punishment remained to us. What under
the sun he wanted to come back for it is diff
cult to imagine unless he actually believed that
| the shallow pretence that it was his brother aud
not himself who gathered in the spoils of lar
ceny, would meet with some little credence
He must inevitably be social pariah as long
as there Is any moral sense extant in the COM
munity. Nevertheless, while he was abroad he
pointed moral and therefore served purpose.
He can never be of equal value to his country
men again, unless by standing as living ex-
ample that people endowed with and sup
posed to be capable of exercising the functions
OF self government, were mean aud base
enough to condone his offense on his paying
back to them three-fourths of one per cent Of
the money that he and his contederates had
stolen from them. But perhaps that people
will relieve themselves Of the imputation of be-
ing parties to such transparent chafering by
visiting their displeasure upon all the men who
aided and abetted it. If not, if they pursue
the same course of scandalous dickering In the
cases of Connolly and Tweed that they have in
that of Sweeney, nothing can save them from
the sweeping contempt of mankind.
Orders were said to have been received from
Washington this morning for the decapitation
of four Deputy Collectors of Customs One of
them is a battered veteran Of the Union army.
His body bears innumsrsble scars to attest his
valor; his mind is as clear as crystal II such
oblations upon the altar of reform are necessa-
ry there is nothing more to be said, but one
cannot so soon forget the brave fellows who
were crippled in defense of the flag as to FORE
.as-l