New-York tribune., 1877-05-02
THE V00DIy INVESTIGATION.

What an amazing state of society there was
at Albany in 187Ol Mr.. Tweed at that time
was established in the Delaan House with
two sutca Of apartments; one he occupied with
his family, the other he used for the transac
action of " business" He had four or five
messengers, clerks, stcnogaphers, secretaries,
&c. 60 look after his ailairs-so many aids IN
deed that his banker did not keep the run OF
their names, but knew them ali as " "Iwccd's
"mcn." He drew large Sums OF money, ten,
fifteen. twenty thousand dollars at time, and
wished TO have II in large bills. lie carried
lis private safe with him TO the hotel. He
taxed the contractors and Oilce-holders III
this city two hundred thousand dollars foi
legislative purposes. lie held secret confer
enccs ia his rooms with all sorts of politicians,
Republican and Democratic. Ii was plain that
he had some strong hold upon Republican
Senators, to whom ne issued instructions like
a general giving orders to his col0ncls In
short, Tweed, who was n0lninally only one out
OF thirty-tWO Senator'S was really more i'm
portaut and even a buster parsonage than the
Governor, and more powerful in passing laws
than all the rest of the Legislature together.
The casual visitor at the Capitol If he kept his
T.
common sense, could not resist the conclusion
that Tweed was wholesale dealer in votes,
and that all this apparatus Of clerks and sec
rctares, this turning of tavern bedrooms into
u counting-h0us this secret traffic with poll
ticians OF the opposite party, this handling OF
large sums of money in large bills, was part
of a huge system of corruption. In point Of
fact. Twced's business at Albany was well un-
dcIstc1d, and public rumor designated the
very men with whom H. had his largest trans
actions.
Was well understood except in the Senate
itself. For the Senator. seem 10 have been
entirely ignorant of what was going on. 4
great many of them lar, appeared before the
WOodin Investigating Committee, with an
explanation Of thciI political course III 1870,
and not one of the whole party seems 10 nave
had a suspicion of TWerds business. We pre-
sume that 10 such conf ling innocants were
ever exposed to the myers of corrupt
capital as the Senators whom tho Repub-
lican party sent to Albany in that
year of bribery AID pcoulation. They
were all actuated-thcy tell us so themselves
lv the lofticst motives, Those who did not
vote for the charter with the ultcriOr view of
purifying thersulrage did so at the wicked
instisation of Horace Greeley, who, 10y attack
ing the chartc. in his newspaper and going to
Albany expressly to oppose 1t in the COM
mittce-IOOm and the caucus, left on their
Obfusticatcd minds an "imprcs>i0n" that he
favored it and that they ought 20 favor it too.
One Senator has turcd up who insists that
the charter would have been a very good
charter if the Ofiicial- whom it fastened upon
the city had been bcttr men. With what
anguish and amazcmcnt must this gentleman
have learned when - WAS too late, that
Tweed was a bad mar!
The farce of the Woodin Investigation is
growing tires0me. There is proof enough that
money was raised in Ncw-Iork to get the
charter through thc Legislature, but al trace
of it is lost before We reach the Capitol, and
il is plan that the unsu-pcious country gen
tlemrn who voted under ;he orders of the Boss
are never going to admit that they know what
became Of il. Meantime the only person who
acknowledges that lac does know is waiting in
Jail for his cyidenc" ID Ice accepted. II Mr.
Woodu is in a hurry TO, his vindicatiOn, let
him use whatever influence he may possess in
the state Government to persuade the Attor-
ncy-GcncInl 10 put Tweed on the stand and
open his trunk full vouchers We cannot
get any yiudcatiJn worth having from i COM
mittce before which all witnesses except John
Kelly and Andrew Garycy are as good as dumb,