Year: 1879




For months past work has been quietly
Ihu privately progressing within the
SUB treasury building, corner of Wall
and William streets, Of which the public
knew nothing. That massive and ex-
tenslVe structure is being converted into
q Federal fort, on the pretense of pro-
ttectlng the treasure deposited within it
from the hands OF rioters. Not satisfied
with adding for its protection stcel-ba
grattln2s the Federal Government is
Strengthening the present iron shutters
by quarter inch plates of steel, which
are to be pierced for rifles, and is about
to build Oh the roof three steel tunnels,
on which Gatling guns are to be placed
The riiiemen will thus be enabled To
sweep the streets, and the gunners the
tops OF the houses within range of the
guns. 1t is expected that this fort will
be completed and ready to rain down a
murderOus fire, if a riot should occur,
by the middle OF next September. A
fort in the midst OF IL great city i'll time
of peace is unprecedented in this cOun-
try. Never before has it even been pro-
posed to transform q treasury building
into an arsenal for Government arms
and fortress bristling with cannon. 1t
is q big straw which shows which way
the wind blows, and the inrepublicar,
ccntraIizing and dcspotic designs of the
Radicals. 1t is Of II piece with their
third term innovation and their civil
and military terrorism at the polls du-
ring State elections. The conversion
of the New York York Treasury build
ing into Il fort in the dense business
portion OF the city is but IL beginning
No one need be astoniShcd to see, tile
magnificent Treasury building in Wash
ington made a fortress, with Gatling
guns on its turreted roof, or heavier
ordinance pointed toward Capitol Hill,
and from whence Congress might he
menaccd by President III disagreement
with that body. 1t may seem but the
fantasy of an uneasy dream now, bnt
history has too many examples of the
unlawful and unhalloWed acts OF bad
and aspiring men to be passed by light
1y. In time every Treasury building i'll
every large city of the United States
may be made Il fortress to be used by
the Federal Government on the metest
pretense of danger to the public funds
in any local commotion. What is doing
in New York is precedent. There is
no more danger now to the Sub-Treas-
ury than ut any period of the city's
history during peace. No cloud por-
tends riot or amy other local distur-
bancc. Our National Guard are amply
sufficient to Quell any riot that may take
place within the municipal limits, and
protect Federal property, too. But if
the Government thinks Federal trrops
necessary, these can be called into i'm
mediate requisition from its adjacent
forts erected to defend the llarbor.
There is no reason why the SubTrsas
ury Building should be made standing
menace to citizens who have business
with its civil inmates, and to the metro
polls at large. The Federal Secretary
of the Treasury may think the people
of this city thieves whose eyes ere on
the funds in the Sub-Treaalry. 1t may
be the nightmare of tie man who
helped to steal the Presidency, but he
is assured that there is far lhsre danger
of robbing the Government in Wash
ington than i'll New York. Fort Sub
Treasury, by which name the new for
tress may be properly designated, may
be the first of series of forts, and
doubtless is, but as public buildings
for civil purposes are never garrisoned
and armed in despotic countries, the
people will not look upon this new
military move with favor in Constitu
tional Republic. IL.