Year: 1877

reproaches ITSELF that it is able to give the
text of Tweed's famous confession on this
10th Of October, after an interval of nearly
six months since it was presented to the
Attorney General, on the 18th Of April.
1t has not often happened that paper
! known to be in existence, and which the
public was curious and eager to see, has
been kept from the HERALD for so long
period. As usual, the HERALD is the first to
get hold of document which -piques uni
versal curiosity and lay it before the public.
But we do not congratulate ourselves that
our enterprise which is commonly 80
prompt in achieving success, was unable to
get possession Of this remarkable and closely
guarded document for period of nearly six
months after its existence was known. 1t is
a singular attestation Of the caution and
reticence of Attorney General Fairchild that
he frustrated ell the ingenuity Of the news
paper press, and left it to one jour-
nal to execute flank movement
which has at last bafled- all his
precautions. We owe no gratitude either
to him or to Tweed for having 30 long foiled
us, and quite as little to either of them for
our ability to publish the document which
both have taken such extraordinary
pains to withhold The ways Of
journalism are great secret both
to the public and to reticent officials.
and not only Attorney General Fairchild,
but Tweed and his counsel, John D. Town
send, will open their eyes and rub their
spectacles when they see spread out in the
HERALD this morning the full text of the
document which they have taken such in
finite pains to keep burrowed in darkness
These gentlemen will learn that however
successful they may be for time in
Withholding secret document from
great newspaper journalistic enterprise is
pretty sure to get the better Of them sooner
or later. No matter how the HERALD pro-
cured the document, it lays it before its
readers this morning and vouches for its
genuineness. Indeed, it carries the evidence
of its genuineness on its face, since no
person can read it without thorough con-
viction that it is the production of Tweed,
and that no other person could have sup
piled the details Of such story.


This remarkable statement is Of singular
interest quite apart from its bearing on the
legal and personal questions to which it
will be applied. There may be in it mis-
takes resulting from inexactness Of MEN,
ory, and perversions of fact consciously made
to help the object of the confession, which was
to procure the release Of Tweed; but, in spite
Of such grounds for distrusting the accu-
racy of the author in points of detail,
nobody can doubt that he has described with
substantial truth the methods he pursued i'll
corrupting legislatures and controlling To-
cal affairs Whether Tweed bribed this man
or that man is question on which his un-
supported statement may be of little value,
but even on points where he may have
substituted invention for memory there
is no reason to doubt that he faithfully repre-
sents the spirit and general drift Of his trans
actions. Even ifparts of his statement be fc-
ton il is like the fiction of novelist, who is
true to the manners Of the period in which
! he lays his scene and correctly represents
the local coloring. Tweed may have tried
/ to damn some men and to exculpate others,
with view to his release from prison, but
there can be no reasonable question that his
modes of action were substantially such az
he describes them and what a picture Of
political corruption it is The utter debase-
ment Of political morals which Tweed de-
scribes was not caused by him; he merely took
advantage Of the state of things which he
found. If members of the Legislature had
not been purchasable Tweed could not
have purchased them. He did not bribe
men Of one party, but of both parties and
the success of such q man attests the low
ebb to which political morals had sunk at
the period when he was SO powerful In every
act OF bribery there is necessarily o bribee
as we'll as briber, and both are equally
guilty. When one corrupt man, who un-
derstands the corrupt element in which he
acts, succeeds in bribing hundred others
his ability to accomplish his objects by such
stigma which is fixed upon his own char
acter. The period Of the scandalous
Credit Mobilier ut Washington was the
same as that in which Tweed and
his corrupt accomplices enriched them
4


selves by bribing the Legislature as q
means of plundering this city. The expo
sure of both these gigantic swindles and Of
so many kindred swindles which astounded
the public created such moral revolt
and so quickened the public conscience
that both parties have since raised
the banner of reform. Let US hope
that our politicians will never again
sink to such point Of debasement as that
from which they began to recover after the
astounding Tweed exposures and Credit
Mobilier exposures. II some great Credit
Mobilier rogue would tell rs much as has
been disclosed by the great Tammany rogue
the public would get valuable hints for
watching Congress, as Tweed has furnished
it with hints for watching the State Legisla-
ture.


10 1orr