New-York tribune., 1879-03-29
REFORM IN EARNEST.


humanity demanded that Mr.. William j.
Moses should be appointed Warden OF Auburn
| State Prison on account OF HIS gallant De-
havor in voting for the Tilden party IN the
Democratic State Committee, nothing couId
have been more natural and becoming than
the choice of Mr.. Smith NJ. Weed as the
agent to carry this arrangement into effect.
Weed and Mosesl There is reform and civic
virtue in the very association OF those DIS
tinguished names. With such names enlisted
in the work, there could be no mlSglvlngs
about the adrOitness of the secret manage
ment or the high moral tone of the outward
proceedings Mr.. Weed addressed himself to
bnsipess in the same business-like manner
which characterized his operations III the cause
of Reform two years earlier. AS he informed
Colonel PeltOn, Immediately upon his arrival
at Columbia, that he wanted thirty thousand
dollars to buy the South Carolina Returning
Board. so after instructing Superintend-
ent Pilsbury to meet him at Albany
he promptly announced to that func-
tionary that he wanted Auburn Pris-
"on.r and was authorized to demand it,
Mr.. Pilsbury, to do him justice, was not dis
posed to accede to this demand. He seems
not to have questioned the authority of Mr.
Smith Weed to manage the administration OF
the State of NeW-YOrk but he made the IT.
relevant objection that Mr.. Wells, the incum-
bent of the Wardenship, was one of his best
officers and that there was no cause whatever
for his removal To which Mr.. Weed in effect
replied that if Mr.. Wells was not turned out, MIR.
Pilsbury would be turned ont himself. "Thcy
"wanted Auburn Prison" The argument was
conclusive. Mr.. Wells was removed, after
receiving certificate to the effect that he
deserved to be retained; and Moses was
straightway inducted into that citadel of
| power, where he is now standlng-more or
| less fast-in the uncOmfOrtably keen bright
sunlight of publicity.
| Up to the 27th of March, 1879, we had
never detected in Mr.. Smith NJ. Weed any of
the qualifications of humorist; but in his
examination on this matter at Albany he sud-
denly developed taste for certain grave
and dry sort of fun. He states that Wells
was relative of Pilsbury's, and that he
recommended Wels's removal as it would
"relieve Pilsbury from the charge of nepOt-
"ism." Mr. Weed dislikes nepOtism and
| he has good reason to. bad case of
nephew robbed him of one of the finest Op-
portunties of his life. If another celebrated
1eformer, whose name it is unnecessary to
mention, had not allowed himself to promote
a nephew to a place of great power and re-
| spOnsibility-a nephew who could not be de-
pended upon in critical mOments-the Demo
cratic party might have obtained pos
session of the United States Government,
at the ridiculously low price of $4,000, and
| Weed and Moses, instead of submitting to
the badgering of investigating committees,
would be Cabinet officers, or Ambassadors at
the gorgeous courts of European monarchs.
! Nepotism is fraud which neither Weed nor
| MOses-nOr yet Hardy SOlOmOn-will ever
| cOndOne.
| But out of this provoking affair we can at
| least pluck the comforting assurance that
while the cause Of Reform goes on prosper
| ing, and the confidential agents of the emil
nent RefOrmer instruct our excellent Governor
| how to exercise the power OF appointment
and removal with proper regard for the larg-
est and holicst interests of humanity, political
campaigns viii be fought with an absolute
trust in moral forces only-the people, their
voitions and their power, and, above all, that
! the public interest in an honest, skilful per-
| formance of official trust will never be sacri-
! feed to the usufTuct of the incumbents.