The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1878-10-24
The Recorder Of the City.
Philadelphia North American. Oct. ls.


phia has always been subject to APP
pointment by the Governor of the
Commonwealth. AS one of the curl
Gus results of this, 1t is especially wor-
thy of remembrance that during the
entire life time of the Wing party this
staunch Whig city never had a Whig
recorderl The old city always elected
Whig mayors and councilmen. but
always had aDemocratic recorder. In
those days nobody thought this an out
rage. 1t was fate, and it was submit
ted to and accepted as a mysterious
dispensation. In the same way the
county courts never had a single Whig
judge on the bench until the judges
were made elective. The whole bench
being thus permanently Democratic,
the entire judicial patronage went to
Democrats, and, as natural conse-
quence, the bar of the city became
strongly Democratic.
For period of forty consecutive
years the office of Recorder of Phila-
delphia was filled by Democratic in
cumbents. They had no salary, no
appropriation for office expenses, no
provision for clerks or other depen-
dents. Yet they managed to make the
office so valuable that the control of il
became an object in local politics. The
recorder had both civil and criminal
jurisdiction, and as his office was al
ways in Chestnut street, or in the
commercial centre, the business of the
court was large and lucrative. He was
not subject to'any supervision whatev-
er. He did as he chose, and he was
not accountable to any one for his re-
ceipts and expenditures. But during
the whole forty years of the Democrat
ic possession of the office no one
thought of complaining of this. The
recorder had special police of his
own, not subject to any one else, and
not paid any salary. Yet they all
managed to make living. One of
the most notorious of these officers was
the famous Ned MCGOWAN, who,
after getting into hopeless troubles
here about the election frauds in Moya-
mensing, which were organized by
him, went to California, and became
one of the greatest rascals on the Pa
cific coast. ........ ........
There were many dark and devious
ways in which Democratic recorder
could serve his party. All the GRIM
inal elements of his party could be
held in leash by an officer who could
only be removed by legislative i'm
peachment; and thus, while the
Wings held the old city firmly, the
Democrats most of the time managed
to control the county. In the changes
of time the Republican city of Phila-
delphia has had one Republican re-
corder for ten years term, and now
has another. The tenure of the Office,
is not changed in the least. 1t is pre-
cisely the same that it was during the
whole forty years of Democratic sway.
The only difference is that Republi-
can governor has appointed Republi
can recorder. The changes in the
character of the Office convert what
was mere private police shop into an
department Of the civil SER
vice. The recorder was always a mag
istrate, and so he remains; but now
his duties are, for the first time, really
useful and valuable. Now, what are
those duties? All legal methods of
preventing and furnishing the sale of
liquor without a license had failed.
The temperance societies furnished
witnesses, but juries refused tc convict.
The Democratic district attorney final
ly left the offence unpunished, and
when Recorder Quay commenced
operations he found over fifteen hun
dred unlicensed liquor shops open. OF
these he has closed seven hundred and
ninety-six, and compelled the rest to
pay. The North Americdn opposed
the passage of the bill enlarging the
functions of the office; but so far the
city has only benefited fronrits enact.
ment.