The record-union., 1895-02-09
had been put upon inquiry as to it's mo-

Nemesis was in the person of a scriy-
ener, who was protege and an appointee
ana henchman of an ex-Tammany off,
clal, who had large pending claims
against the county, which his political
enemy, the President of the Board OF
supervisors, refused to audit, pending
politlcal pressure upon the claimants.
Nemesis had noticed the large and fre-
quent bills that came into the auditing
department where he was employed.
Although in circumlocution Office,
IKE certain hero of Charles Dickens
nctlon, Nemesis was one who wanted
10 know, you know" and he amused his
leisure hours by examining bills and
| books. Casually ne happened to men
| GIon MS inquiries and suspicious to his
political friend aforesaid. The latter, in
a sim ulated oh-hand way, asked the scriv-
ener to make faithful but furtiye copies
OF the documents and entries and bring
tnem TO him. Some months were neces-
sarlly occupied in this work, for it had TO
be performed clandestinely, but when it
was finished aud brought to the revenge
tul patron, the latter, who had been an Al
| derman, and long an adroit student of
| political human nature, recognized all
that laid behind the exposed entries.
Meeting, as If accidentally, one OF the
| largest contractors OF the Courthouse, he
Tell into conversation about theig pending
| Joint claims, and about his own difficult
ties IN getting them paid. WhereupOn
| the contractor, in the language of d pOpu-
lar song, 'winked his other eye'' and
cried: why don't you double and di-
! vide?"
The possessor of the telltale documents
! Immediately had them tabulated by
| bookkeeper, and carried them to Louis
j. Jennings, then editor OF the Times, a
| consummate journalist, who had gradu-
! ated from the staff OF the London Times,
| hn .lNN 4 81
its brightest actresses. Madeline Hen
riques, by marrying her and then re-
| turning to England to become and die
| member OF Parliament. Mr. Jennings at
| once recognized the importance OF the
! tabulated figures in connection with the
! newspaper war he had already waged
| against what himself had edltOrally
named "Ihe Tweed ring of Tammany."
L once had from Mr.. jennings lips in
| LOndon-where we were jointly on the
| staff OF the HerGid-the account OF the
| manner in which those figures were
! brought to him. Said he: Il at first
feared they might be inaccurate or eXag-
geraCed, and therefore unsafe to print;
moreover, L fancied there might be a trap
! in the matter. l was assured that the copy
| lsJ was a man whose fealty, founded on
Irish gratitude, could be relied on i'm
piicitly. L hinted at payment, for any Of
my contemporaries would have given
|
ment was declined. The pOssessOr
OF the Mss. used the New y ork phrase,
| Getting square with Tweed, when the
| quotation from OthellO rose to my
| mind
Had all his hairs been lives my great re-
! venge
Had stomach for them all.
81 saw that the motive of the exposure
was revenge, not profit. Late as was the
call L drove up town tor a confer
ence with Mr.. Jones. the principal
proprietor Of the paper, and he acqui-
esCed as to bringing out the matter, but
| first preparing the schedules with due re-
gard to a striking form Of newspaper
typographical millinery"
| Nothing that has recently been evolved
by the LexOw Committee equals the pop
ular sensation which the published and
ingeniously prepared table presented un-
| der dramatic headlines. The figures
running into millions as they did, how
ever, simply amounted after all to sus-
| piciOns OF fraud, for as yet there was no
! facts behind these. What John W. Golf
recently did towards converting suspi-
| cions of police misdoing into fact was re-
| served for Samuel J. IiIden then. Be-
sides, interest in public welfare and
| justice, be had personal animOsity to-
| ward Tammany and its leaders, who,
time and again, had disappointed his
/
| litiCal am bitiOnS, which have since be-
| come a strong historical picture. He
took the accounts and verified them by
the official books. Like Golf, he OBJ
tanned confessions, and those from pee
cant contractor. They led to other con-
| fessiOns and strong States evidence.
| MIR. Iilden followed up the clues OF these
confessions by inspecting and analyzing
the bank accounts of officials much in
the line that was borrowed from his ways
by the LeXow Committee. He traced
the main warrants from the City Cham
berlain TO their primary recipients iii the
criminal syndicate, and thence to the de-
posit account of Mr.. Tweed, President OF
the Board Of Supervisors, in proportion
| ate divisional accounts, and also to
Comptroller Connolly, but not to any
other Official.
With the result, which history has re-
corded, OF the conviction of the Chairman
! of the Tammany organization of a mis-
! demeanorI mot OF felony as some writers
! have enormously stated it, and in his
! imprisonment eventually. Nevertheless
! Tammany remained so strong that, not
withstanding the pending charges
against MIN, and the much popular be-
lief in their validity, Mr.. Tweed was tri-
umphantly reelected as a Iammany
Senator, but he made the mistake of de-
clining to take his seat and of braviD z
political consequences. The peccant
Comptroller took up European resi-
! dence and died few years later, leaving
a large estate. Connolly was also Tam
! many Sachem and a leader, and, like
| Mr.. Tweed, he had compromised the or
ganization. This, however, struggled to
regain power and supremacy with new
measures and new men. ''Downed'
overwhelmingly in 1872, it did not rally
| until two years atterWard, when, under
the "boss-ship" of the late John Kelly,
it regained municipal power which ii
has held until the late election, at which
event more revelations OF corruption
produced a second downing"
In 1871 a Citizens Committee of Sew
enty, chosen at a mass meeting of elect
ors, and called without regard to partisan
sympathy, gave aid to this downing OF
Tammany. 1t then elected as lately did
similarly another Committee Of Seventy
one of its members as Mayor, and others
among them Aldermen and Legislators.
1t has always been an undue but promi-
nent incident OF the many spasms of mu-
nicipal reform which New York has
been visited by during the past hall
century, that the retorners never omit
ted to take advantage OF the famous doc
trine enunciated in the Federal Senate by
Senator Marcy, 'To the victors belong
the spoils.'
1t is not generally known that as May
or, and Immediately after the Times SEN
sation, L addressed the Common CouacIl
asking 1t TO appoint committee of iu-
Yestgation OF the newspaper charges
against Messrs. Tweed and Connolly
While that body was considering the. aD-
plication eX-AttOrney-Genera Edwards
Plerrepont called at the Mayors Office
and said that he was engaged with others
In arranging public meeting that
should appoint committee who would
investigate, and remarked very posi-.
| tlVaIv that the