Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-11-06

| assumed aDSofute control or the pol
tiles of the city, In every groggery
could be found crowd of loafers and
bruisers who could be relied upon to
pack primary or to insure the defeat
or election of certain nominees. From
these sources We're got the illegal vot-
ers. ballot-box suffers, and gangsters
who inundated peaceable citizens.
and We're prepared as n last resort to
smash the ballot-boxes. The city de-
partments reeked with frauds. 1t was
under Woods Administration that
Robert w. Lowber caused the Sheriff
| to sell at auction the City Hall, to
satisfy Judgment recovered by him
on fraudulent claim against the city,.
This claim arose from the sale to the
city for $4,000, of Il lot officially de-
clared to be worth only $4,000, and
TO two-thirds of which it was proved
that Lowber had no title" Mr.. Colby
ads:
Under Wood, the sale Of city offices
for a cash consideration was a COM
mon practice. No reliable accounts
of expenditures were kept in the III
nance Department, and the extent OF
his plundering cannot be even guessed
lat. 1t was Wood whom the famous
recorder, John X. Hackett, denounced
TO his face, as "a scoundrel, rascal,
land perjured Villain"
After Wood came the notorious
Tweed Wood hal demonstrated the
lpracticability of the boss system.
William NJ. Tweed developed the sys.
Item to its full stature and completion.
The history of the Tweed Ring is
Istill a subject within the memory of
living men. Long before his eleva-
ton to the boss-ship of Tammany, II
had been proved that he had accepted
La bride as member of the Board OF
Aldermen. Tweed developed govern
ment by contracts. To him and his
associates Sweeney, Connolly, and
Ingersoll, every person who did bust
ness with the city paid tribute in per-
centages and rakeoffs. Nominations
were sold. The revenue of city Of
Ihces was divided between the members
of the Ring. The Judiciary were cor
lrupted. The Ring reached out and
Iextended its operations to the Legis-
Nature. Tweed entered into open al
Ilianee with Wall Street. Jay Gould
land Fisk took him into the Board OF
Directors of the Erie Railroad. In
L IL,
plumber and fraudulent stock issues.
| His servi1e tools on the bench did
whatever Tweed directed them to do.
especially in favor of Gould and Fisk.
Tweed estimated his profits from
Expectations in Erie for three months,
1T s650,000.
| So insensible and callous was the
tone of the citizenship of the city I'M
der Tweed that committee of six of
the leading and richest citizens, Moses
Taylor Marshall o. Roberts, Z. d..
Brown, j. j. Astor, George X. Sis
taire, and Edward Scbell, after an ex-
animation of the books of Controller
Connolly. who was one of the arch
thieves, made report enlogizing his
honesty and faithfulness. The news
papers We're siIenced with huge appro-
priations for public printing and
worthless advertising.
| In 1871 a New York newspaper
(which is today the leading advocate of
Mr. McCalfs election, undertook to
raise a POPULAR subscription for the
erection of a monument TO Tweed,
calling him a noble benefacter and a
Igreat philanthropist. This was with
IN a few months of Tweeds exposure,
Indictment, Imprisonment, and flight.
Some $12,000,o0O were squandered
Ifraudulently in the erection of the
present County Court House; the
TENS of repairs alone representing an
expenditure of s3,50o.0oO in thirty-one
|months-enough, as the Times of that
day said, to have built and furnished
FIVE buildings such as the County
Court House.
citizens investigating committee
reported that s3,200,oo0 had been paid
i for repairs on armories and drill
rooms, although the actual cost was
less than $250,000; that 100000 had
been paid for $4,000 worth Of lumber,
and $7,168,e12 had been paid by the
Il city and county for printing, advertis-
ing, and stationery in two years and
i eight months; and that safes, furni-
ture, cabinet work. carpets, gas. plas-
Itering, painting, and plumbing in con-
nection with the County Court House,
the actual value of which was $624,-
IoOO had been the pretext for pay
ments by the city of $7,2S9,466.
The popular revolt against these in
Ifamies. which was led by the Com
fmittee Of Seventy, will never fade from
RECOLLECTION. Connolly, the Controller,
despite his endorsement By the COM
mitee of citizens, was arrested ana
held in a million dollars bail. Tweed
| was indicted for felony. Civil suits
were brought against him for the re-
covery of the amounts of his thefts.
In one of the civil suits, judgment
was rendered against him for over
$4,000, 900. His miserable death in
Ludlow Street Jail, the fight of his
associates in the Ring, the impeach-
Iment of their judicial creatures,
brought this amazing and unprece-
i dented chapter of criminality to
close.
| Amount Of Stealings Unknown.
No one will ever know the exact
amount which the Tweed Ring stole.
The prevailing opinion among those
qualified to judge, is that the total
Itakings of the Ring, including sums
distributed among their various hench-
,ra, and danandantS was 100000. 900.