Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-08-15
The ORIGIN Of HubbeIIIsm.


You printed, very SedsOnautyg q lew
weeks ago letter dated March 20, lS4l,
from Daniel Webster as Secretary OF
State under President Harrison, in which
he stated that 1.-The payment OF any con
tribution or assessment on salaries or
official compensation for party or cleo
ton purposes" would be regarded BY the
President as cause for removal. In all
probability Webster had in mind when
he penned these lines the scandalous
practices which had been brought to
light only two years previously by the
investigation into the defalcations OF
Samuel Swartwout, the Collector at the
port of New York, under Jackson and
Van Buren,, and the notorious de-
faulter for two millions and
quarter. This investigation was
made in January and February,
1880, by select committee OF
nine, elected by ballot by the House OF
Representatives. Any one who vii! take
the trouble to read the report OF TINS
committee and the testimony taken be-
fore it, will be convinced that political
assessments, as now levied by Jay A.
Hubbell,. had their origin in sink OF cor
ruption, and that they grew out OF the
relations between Tammany hall ana tue
custom house under Swartwouts al
ministration. The committee examined
four witnesses on this subject. The tirst
was Aren't s. De Peyster he mad been
weigher in the custom house with
salary of 81 500. He testified that the
weighers were called upon to pay $40 zone
per cent. each for the election OF charter
officers the previous spring. he at nrst
declined, whereupon Mr.. Vanderpoel,
the Deputy Surveyor, observed to him
that he ought to consider whether
his 81 500 per annum was not worth
paying SIS for. Under the impression
that it was the price OF his
situation he paid it. The money thus
collected, according to the testimony OF
the witness, twas intended to be used to
support the election of persons attached
to the present administration" The
next witness was David S. Lyon. He
was the first Deputy Collector during the
whole time that Swartwout was Collec-
tor; he said that he was frequently called
on to contribute to political objects; the
amount was from twenty dollars to one
hundred dollars; the tax was pro rata,
according to salary; it bore proportion
of from to per cent The witness
cOQCluQou as lOuOWSs luO OOllCCbO46
of the Tammany Hall General Com
mittee, one of whom was John Becker,
called on me several times; VIM. Tyack
once or twice called on me to collect the
| amount with which | was assessed; he
was not the regular collector, but was
one of the General Committee; l believe
that nearly all the officers of the custom
house, in doors and out, and the clerks,
were similarly taxed and generally paid
what they were assessed; it was assessed
by the General Committee of Tammany
Hall and for the support of the party
denominated the Tammany Hall party;
if the individual did not pay the amount
he was taxed with the collector would
remark: you will be reported to the Gen
eral Committee and everybody well un-
derstood that prescription would follow;
the collector of the General Committee
has an alphabetical book which contains
the names of persons taxed and the
amount each individual is required to
pay" The Deputy Surveyor, Mr.. Van
derpoel was sworn, but he proved an
unwilling witness and gave no important
| information. The same was true of John
Becker, the collector. He admitted that
he was the collector for the Democratic
Republican party" but he refused to dis
close the particulars. He was evidently
not so open and bold an operator as
Hubbell. He did not have so much of
the Bedouin blood in his veins.
1t is worthy of observation that IN the
days of Swartwout those who collected
the assessments had no official connection
with the government. Nobody thought
| of such thing as person in the public
service setting himself up as such col
| lector. Even Webster's great mind
| failed to conceive of such a scandalous
perversiOn of public trust. You will see
that in his letter he only speaks of the
payment of assessments by those in the
| service. 1t never occurred to him that
the holder of public office like n. M.
Curtis or Jay A. Hubbell would have
the shamelessness to advertise himself as
a collector of assessment in aid of one
| political party and in opposition to
another. Such degradation and infamy
were reserved for these latter days.
l am informed by exJudge Richard P.
| Marvin, who, as a member of the House,
had much to do with the selection of the
committee of investigation, that its re-
port was one of the strongest campaign
| documents in the canvass which resulted
in the election of Harrison. The MAORI
ty report was agreed to by six members
of the committee, of whom four were
Wings and the other two belonged to the
class of opponents of the administration
who went by the name of conservatives.
The names of the six we're as follows:
Harlan, of Kentucky; Wise, of Vir.
ginia; Dawson, of Georgia; Smith,
of Maine; Hopkins, of Virginia. and
Curtis, of New York, who was subse-
quently Collector of Customs. In their
report they make mention of what they
call ''the system of regular taxation of
public officers connected with and de-
irving patronage from the custom house
at New York by tariff proportional to
such patronage in each case. They say
there is no doubt remaining in the judg
ment of the committee that the direct
tendency of this system is "to reduce
public Office to the degraded character of
merchandise, and to demoralize and pre-
pare the mind of incumbents of office
for acts Of peculation and plumber upon
the public revenues"
The connection between this report
and Webster's letter is obvious Taken
together they form an interesting chap
ter in the history of the spoils system
and of civil service reform. E. +. Fl.