Year: 1874

The Ring suits-what Has Become OF
Thems


While the debt of the city during Comp
troller Green's term of Office has increased by
the sum of forty million dollars and the taxa
ton has increased six million dollars, it may
be worth while to inquire what progress Is
making towards the recovery of the money
fraudulently distracted from the County
Treasury by Tweed and his oonfederates.
This debt. if it may be called debt, or this
claim, amounts to sum large enough to
offset the increased taxation. When the
frauds Of Tweed & Co. were discovered in the
autumn or 1871 Judge Edwards Pierre
pont, at the head of delegation Of people
whose political motive was apparent enough
went to Albany and publicly interviewed the
Governor (Hofman) on the subject.
The object Of this movement was to
make q noise that would injure the
democratic party. The Governor was asked
to direct the Attorney General to institute a
suit for the recovery of the money in the name
Of the State. The Corporation Counsel Mr..
o OGorman) was at that time preparing to
bring suits on behalf Of the county to recover
the county's own money. But, affecting dis
trust Of all local officials, the PierrepOnt dele
cation aimed at method OF proceeding
which would embarrass the democrats and
help to throw the State into the hands Of the
republicans by the notoriety and scandal that
would attend such proceeding. 1t is not to
be supposed that so good q lawyer as Judge
Pierrepont believed that an action in the name
of the State would be the proper remedy; but
he is an astute politician, and he saw what use
could be made of weapon that had been fur
nished to his hand by the democratic ''ring"
of old Tammany. He obtained what
he went for in the shape of q
letter from the Attorney General to
Mr.. Charles OConor. authorizing the latter
to institute, in the name of the Attorney
Generals Office, any suit or proceeding which
he might think proper. The Attorney Gen
eral was then Marshall B. Champlain dem
ocrat and o candidate for denomination and
reelection. He thought it for his political
interest to fall in with Judge Pierrepont's
plan. Mr.. OConor's famous action in the
name of the people Of the State, which has
lately come to grief in the Court of Appeals,
was then commenced. The Corporation Coun-
sci had previously commenced actions in the
name of the Supervisors OF the county OF New
York, under the advice Of associate counsel,
who gave him written opinion that the
money belonged to the county and that the
State could not sue for it. The imputations
,1t;x
are now of no more consequence to the public
ethan last years Clouds, as honest SanchO
Panza used to say. The result has proved
that O OGorman and his professional advisers
were entirely right; and while he remained
in Office the actions that were under his
charge were prosecuted as rapidly and sue
cessfully as they could be with the obstruc-
ton of the State suit standing in the way.
They could not be carried to the final stage of
o trial upon the merits, because the defend
ants interposed as demurrer the pendency of
the State action to recover the same money on
the same facts. But his actions were sus-
tanned by Judge Barrett at Special Term, and
afterwards by the General Term, both Courts
holding that the State had no title to the
money on which it could sue In the mean
time the State action was prosecuted through
various stages until it reached the Court of
Appeals, where it was twice argued, and more
than month ago that Court decided that the
State had no interest in the claim on which
it could sustain an action, and that
the claim belonged to the county of
New York, which was fully capable
of suing for it. Mr. OGorman resigned the
Office Of Corporation Counsel more than year
ago, and Mr.. G. Delafeld Smith became his
successor. The public is without any informa-
ton as to what is doing, or is to be done, in
the prosecution of the county actions. When
the late Corporation Counsel resigned these
actions were in condition to be brought to
trial on the merits as soon as the Court OF
Appeals should have put the State action out
of the way That bubble is now burst, and
it is time that the public knew what steps are
taking for the recovery of the money by the
municipal body to which it belongs. There
has been in all probability great shrinkage
in Tweed and Connolly's property since these
actions were commenced If the State action,
commenced on tanciful and wrong theory,
had not stood in the way, the county actions
might long since have passed into judgments
which could have been collected What the
prospect is now we should be glad to learn il
anybody can tell us?