The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1878-04-14
The Moral or Tweed.

Tweed contemplated it MS one OF the
inevitable consequences of his bad tate that
sermons would be preached about him !;
that no would be held up in moral dis
courses as an odious example that from
his career would be drawn lessons OF warn
ing to deter others from the paths he had
followed. Evidently this one in the num-
Der Of his later reflections on his own his
tory was the bitter summary of his defeats.
All his political successes, all his
financial glories and vulgar splendors
had ut last no greater result than this
to supply text on which the pulpit NOR
alists whom he despised should glory more
or less in his fall TO be held up as type
Of what is shameful, even by persons we
despise, cannot be pleasant to any human
creature; but when this has happened to a
man in whose character there is no real
strength, and with whom the love of adj
miration was passion, it may well be sup
posed that it added poignancy to the desc
lation and Indebtedness Of a pitiful end.
AS an example, however, the defunct Boss
will render his greatest services to his native
city not strictly in the moral sense OF an
example-tor in that aspect the instruction
to be derived from his history is triteness
itself-but rather in the morality of politics.
He presents the most remarkable instance in
our municipal history Of the absolute and
imbecile waste OF great opportunities.
What he might have been himself and
what his history would have been
if his unusual opportunities had
been improved under the honorable i'm
pulses Of man with pride and glory IN
the greatness Of the city of his BIRTH all
that contrasted with what he became through
the degrading use Of his opportunities in
the mere pursuit Of measures for pilfering
the public treasury that is the instruction
to be derived from his story, the moral Of
which cannot be too strenuously insisted
upon. That is the phase Of Tweed's his
tory that will be not merely important III d
moral sense, but OF definite value in our
politics; for no man that in the future rises
to great influence or honor in our local
struggles can ever shut his eyes to it. 1t is
a story that exhibits the crushing results OF
a mean motive.
Popularity, the confidence Of his associ-
ates, dependence upon his leadership, faith
in his fortunes and his capacity-all these
were enjoyed by Tweed, and were the pos
sible elements of great career in politics.
He had the talent to make them available,
and the great advance in the Importance
of this metropolis tended to open
a large future to the man who could
stand as political leader of our
people. But all that was bartered
for mess OF pottage. He gave himself and
his chances all up for the accumulation Of
money. To have mahogany managers in his
stables he consented to be scorned by his
contemporaries and posterity. And what has
Tweed or any OF his associates profited by
what they stole? Pitiful death in prison, or
more pitiful life in exile is the best result
that any of them can boast. All their mill
ions have secured them only the mere
physical Qualifications OF life and there is
not an honest. obscure man in the city who
would deliberately change places with the
best Of them.