New-York tribune., 1890-03-29
MAYOR GRANTS CONFESSIONS.
o improve.

vestigations to-day. Valuable and important
as its work has been, there Is unhappily no
reason to suppose that the inquties of our city
government have vet been disclosed with any
thing like sufficiency. The committees probe
has still vast amount of work to DO Inc
corulptiOn which fourished undetected, or. If
detected. unrebuked in the SherlfFs ONCE
under Hugh J. Grant and James A. Flack, and
the outrageous eXtortions which they both en-
couraged and shared in, are with too much rea-
son believed to extend to other departments,
and TO be illustrative of methods employed al-
most without exception in all branches OF the
municipal government. If it is within the linn
its of human possibility to get at the bottom
of this yileness. the Fassett Committee will
show its extent and its effect The committee
will not be deferred from the performance OF
its fullest duty, either by reflections upon Its
motives or by the mputation that it is seeking
TO frighten Tammany Hall into making po-
Gtical deals and concessions. Such suggestions
disgrace those who'have made them, and show
the harrenness of their defence and the terrible
alarm INTO which they have been thrown. 1t
is the last resort of knaves to impugn the
motives of those who hunt thom down.
Tammany Hall has been again uncovered.
The fact that it is to-day what it always has
been-an association organized to loot the city
is one, more revealed to disgusted public.
Undoubtedly the largest individual sufferer up
TO this time is Mayor Grant Others, indeed,
have been indicted, disgrace he has thus lar
escaped But none of them had anything OF
reputation to lose or of ambition to sacrifice.
The Mayor is an aspiring young man, and had
homes greatly in excess of his brains. His
personal integrity, until he went upon the wit
ness-stand before the Fasett Committee, had
never been questioned. He was thought to be
weak and excessively vain. lie was known to
he iliterate He had shocking way of mix
ing his mood and lenses, his singuars and
plurals. But nobody supposed he would use
his official opportunities to take money except
as he had a legal right to make it, or that he
woud permit corruption to flourish under his
nose and eyes without word of censure or an
act of prevention.
He however is the witness of his own mis-
conduct. lie has not said that he ever actually
accepted q brbe, but aside from that, nothing
has been proved against his deputies OF which
he has not borne witness against himself.
Though he handled many millions OF dollars
annually as trustee upon which he had claims
for fees, he says he kept 30 books OF account
that would show what were his gross receipts
or his net income He kept no cash-book no
ledger. lie kept nothing that would show his
disbursements lie tumbled the public moneys
and his personal fortune into bank together
with no record to show which was which. lie
believed his net earnings as Sheriff were about
$4,000 year but Chat was only an I'M
presson-he had no certain knowledge nor any
way of making sure about it. lie had twelve
or thirteen deputies, who executed processes
and made returns to him less the amount or
their fees. but he didn't know what they col
ected as fees nor what their collections re-
allied. No books were kept showing such col
lections There were accounts OF sales, but
these were simply memoranda were not en-
tered into any permanent record but were de-
stroyed when the transactions they referred to
were ended. No system of checks was pro-
yided to prevent their taking what they could
get Whatever they did get or. rather what
ever they acknowledged they got he got half
| of. He was aware that they received com
pensation in the nature of gratuities from the
| LAWYERS lie did not regard this as blackmall
| or eytortion, but thought it lawful, though not
authorized by law lie himself had received
such fees. lie and Sexton, the Under-Sherif
appropriated to themselves all executions for
| AMOUNTS of $50. 900 more, and he and Sex
| ton took the "eNtra compensation " whenever
they could get il. He also received one-half
| of the auctioneers $ fees, though aware that the
law did not provide for such an office as auc-
tiOneer nor for charges in payment OF such
services What these receipts amounted he
| did not know There was no record of them
These are .Iayor Grants confessions. And
while he was thus engaged in knowing moth
| ing. and in keeping no records by which any
J thing could nfterward be learned, but in taking
| all he could get whether the law allowed 1t
or not, his deputies were robbing and plundcr-
ing the public at will and growing rich by
extortion and bribery. This is the picture oi
our Tammany Mayor, drawn by himself.