Year: 1874

missioners, Gardner and Charlick, by Mayor
Havemeyer is in violation of the law as well
as direct insult to the city of New York, to
the court before which the indictment was
tried. and to the Governor of the State.
Even the lawyers who have advised the
Mayor that quibble might be started sufi-
cient to cover the outrage with some specious
show of legality admit that the convicted
men have been stripped of the offices they
disgraced by the verdict of the jury, and
have no legal right to attempt an official
act. All that appears to have been hoped by
the Mayor when be sought to replace in the
hands of these unfaithtul officers the trusts
they had abused was that, as what is every
body's business is nobody's business, the re-
appointments would be permitted to stand for
the simple reason that no steps would be
taken to overthrow them. He trusted to his
own influence with the Police Commits
soners still in Office, or with one of
them, to secure q meeting of the Board
at which a quorum would attend and
reorganization be effected, and he sought
to use the withholding of the pay of the force,
through the cooperation Of Comptroller
Green, to compel such result. AT present it
seems as if the plot would fail. The question
of the legality of the reappointments will no
doubt be brought before the courts at an early
day and III shape that will insure prompt
decision and the two Police Commissioners
appear in no hurry to recognize or in any
manner to act with their convicted associates.
The law of the case is, in fact, SO plain that
no person Of reputation or holding an official
position would care to stand committed on the
side of the Mayor. A grand jury found sew
eral indictments against Charlick and Gard
ner for alleged wilful violations of the Elec-
ton law, which, as Commissioners of Police,
it was their sworn duty to enforce and obey.
One of these indictments was tried before
Judge Brady in the Court of Oyer and Ter
miner. The jury found the accused
persons guilty of the offence charged
in the Indictment The Judge passed
sentence on the convicted men,
imposing upon each of them fine Of two
hundred and fifty dollars in lieu Of imprison-
ment. The record Of the conviction was for
warded to Governor Dix, who thereupon is
sued to the Mayor of the city, the appointing
power, as required by the law, an official mott
fcation of the conviction and of the vacancies
created thereby. The Mayor Immediately re-
appointed the convicted men to the positions
of which they had been stripped by the law,
thus ignoring their Indictment their trial,
their conviction and the notice served upon
him by the Governor of the State, which re-
| uuired him to fill the vacancies sin accordance
with law"


Can there be any doubt Of the illegality of
such an act? The law says that on convic-
ton for misdemeanor involving violation
of their oath of Office these men shall forfeit
the offices they hold. They are found guilty
of wilfully violating law they
Twere sw9gp e ieI;s.h4f1ully j. observe,
and after ths issctd ifsescctord s. lheif CONVICTION r
is officially brought to his knowledge Mayo,
Havemeyer, in defiance of the law, puts them
back again into the offices Of which the law
has deprived them. In SO doing he not only
defes the law, but violates the' provision OF
the charter which, beyond doubt, disqualiies
the convicted men Of ever again holding any
Office under the city government. To believe
that such lawless act could be suffered to re-
main undisturbed would be to give up all
hope of the enforcement Of law and the pres
ervation of order in the city, But, aside
from this legal aspect of the case, the action
of the Mayor is crime against public de-
cency and morality which should excite
the indignation of all respectable citizens.
Only yesterday the demoralizing and disgrace.
full spectacle was presented at the headquarters
of the police force of a convicted Commits.
sioner, already found guilty Of wilful viola.
ton of law by one jury and with other in.
dictments hanging over his head, presid.
ing over the trials of patrolmen charged
with offences against the police law and
the regulations of the department. The
mere statement of this fact is sufficient


to illustrate the dangerous and scandalous
| character Of the Mayors action. 1t is calcu
lated to strike at the very root of the subordi
nation so necessary in such body. patrol
man is fined weeks pay by man whom ht
knows to have been convicted in crimina
court of misdemeanor involving violation
of his oath of Office and to be under othe
indictments Is it reasonable to believe tha


he will not go about among his associates


grumbling at the punishment he has received
and railing at his Judge as himself, a convicted
man, in illegal possession of an office of whicl
he has been stripped by the law9 Can w


suppose that, with the two existing Commits
sioners very properly arrayed against thei


unfaithful associates the force will not TAX


sides and become even more broken ant
demoralized than they have hitherto been
Can any one argue that harmony in the Polic


Board, efficiency in the force and fidelity il
the observance of the laws will be promoted
by the presence of Charlck and Gardner i,
the Commission? Can the Mayor point on