smithclay/nortonstories huggingface dataset:
Year: 1871

The Viaduct Railroad bill has passed
the Assembly. 1t will probably pass the
Senate, be signed by the Governor, and in the
course Of five years become the great quick
transit route of the metropolis. 1t is intended
to wbirl passengers through the back yards
and second stories, across the streets and
parks on stills, and, at intervals, along tho
surface Of pavements, by the agency Of the
steam locomotive from the Battery to Harlem,
and even 10 Yonkers. We are bound to have
quick transit some time, and it is probable that
this is the best plan we can get. There was
some most extraordinary legislation in con-
nection with it, some unusual scenes in the
Assembly, the dominant majority undertaking
by most useless and unrighteous means to
stamp out Weed, of Clinton, who conscicr-
tiously and strongly opposed the bill. Tho
zeal of the majority indicates that everybody
was securely fixed beforehand, and there was
no need for such display of wrath as they
visited upon Weed. On the contrary, the un-
seemly exhibition leaves no doubt that there
was corruption at work somewhere among the
Year: 1871

The st. Domingo Project-Let it Drop.


The President must be by this time fully
aware that his ST. Domingo project Is failure,
that it is popular with some politicians only,
and that to press it would make him more
unpopular with the masses than he has already
become. His best plan Is to send the report
Of the Commissioners to Congress and then
dismiss the subject from his mind, give 1t up
entirely and let 1t remain as it is-a dead letter.
Vnles, he is totally blind he mus. perceive
that the popular verdict is against him; that
throughout the length and breadth of the land
he is losing caste that his friends are leaving
him in scores, and il he wishes 10 retain even
his war reputation, and the standard he
obtained by reason of his services in the field,
he must give up this 81. Domingo scheme,
one that has become disiastoful 10 all
right-thinking people, who see in 1t
only political job, got up to benefit
few, leaving tho country to foot
the little bill that will be en;ailed upon it if
that mongrel Spanish American republic
should be added TO our domain. He cannot
afford at this crisis 70 add to his rapidly grow
ing unpopularity; he should no longer
cndcavor to work against the tide of public
opinion, but he ought by all means to strive to
regain some of the good opinion he has los.
This is his policy at present, and to carry it
out his first act should bo to remove our
turn Baez over to the tender merces of
CAbral, LuperoE and Others and then let st.
Domingo drop as he would hot potato.


The truth is we do not want st. Domingo,
ills President its people, its territory or any
thing appertaining to it. We should profit
nothing by its acquisition. On the contrary,
it would be source of expense from the
moment it passed under our control
We should be compelled to adopt its lazy,
worthless, semi-barbarian population, who
themselves. We must take them as they are,
with their habits, manners and customs, and
make them citizens of the United States We
shall fall heir to vast expanse of territory, un-
cultivated and uninhabited, cities and towns
in state of ruin, and a climate detestable in
the extreme during nine months in the year.
Besides all this, we shall have little difficulty
with Hayti, which is to be thrown in as part
Of the bargain, to say nothing of the debt of
the republic, for which we shall have to become
responsible. This is a true picture of what
we should come into possession of by the an
nexation of Dominica, aud our people know
it; and no matter how brilliant the project
may be made to appear by the report of the
Commissioners, the people will oppose it and the
man who still continues to force it upon them.
Hence we again tge upon the President to let
the matter drop.
Year: 1871

A cable telegram from Brussels which an.
pears in our columns to-day, reports that the
grand international desideratum of the neu-
tralization of private property during war has
been attained by agreement Of the European
Cabinets. The negotiations which were in
stituted some time since by the government
OF the King of Holland looking to this result
have, it Is said, been "entirely successful"
Should this intelligence prove to be exactly
correct it will afford vast relief to the great
commercial interests of the world by the
registry Of an executive declaration, which
will 60 far to obliterate all the technical in
tricacies Of the writings of the jurists from
the time OF Grotus to the moment of the
issue Of the latest publication of Sir Robert
Phillimore. The immediate cause Of the dis
cussion Of the subject was the sinking of six
British colliers in the Seine by the Prussans.
Count (Prince) Bismarck, Earl Granville and
Count Bernstorff entered into ministerial
communication, and there is little doubt
that the Dutch Cabinet appeared as an in
terested neutral intermediary at the proper
moment by mutual consent We illustrate our
cable despatch by the publication of the
opinions of the statesmen who were most
directly interested in the discussion. This
information will be of much interest to the
American people. 1t may be, also, oppor-
tunely available for the use of the members
of the Joint High Commission in Washington


TIE ERIE LITIGATION refer to another
column for an extended report of the case of
John B. Heath and Others vs.. The Erie Rail-
way Company, which came up yesterday in
the United States Circuit Court before Judge
Blatchford on argument on demurrer to the
Year: 1871

to support the constitution Of the United States,
shall have engaged in insurrection or rebel
lion against the. same. or given aid or COM
fort to the enemies thereof" And then there
is Acknowledgement law, extending to these
and other parties conspicuous in the rebel
Ion. Here. !heD, is the difficulty.
These parties SO punished are the leading
white men in intelligence, political experience,
Influence and property in the Southern States.
Their late slaves may go to Congress, but these
disabled whites still bear the brand of traitors.
They have all tho duties of submission i'm :
posed upon them, but none of the personal
benefits Of q restoration to the Union. They
are held responsible, under pains and penal
ties, for the crime of whole people, aud the
whole people concerned sympathize with their
suffering conftderates, many to the extremity
Of these unlawful combinations" Reach this
officially, and you reach the seat of this South
era disease Of organized violence against the
law. OF the land


The remedy follows, in the fourteenth
amendment, its specified rebel disabilities,
and IL is in these simple words, referring to
the particular disability of any individual
"but Congress may, by vote of two-thirds of
each house. remove such disability" All, then,
that IS wanted to place the dominant and respon-
sible white classes Of the South in full rapport
with the government of the United States is to
restore these men to the full and equal condi-
ton OF loyal citizens. They will trust you if
you will trust them. Try it. The experiment
has been tried in scores of individual cases,
and no failures, that we are aware of, have
been reported among them. Try, then, a
universal amnesty, as provided for in the four
teenth amendment such an amnesty as will
make even JEFF Davis eligible again to the
Presidency, and you will do more TO disarm
these Ku Klux Klans than you can possibly
accomplish by the employment of the army
and the navy, and the United States courts and
marshals, and the suspension of the habeas
corpus, with the continuance of these rebel
disabilities.


Under these disabilities 1t is notorious that
the Southern men best qualified, from educa-
tioa, experience and influence, to assist in
restoring law, order and harmony in the
Southern States, are ruled out, and ignorant
Southern whites and blacks and unscrupulous
Northern adventurers and spectators, coming
into power, have done much to bring into
general disrepute these reconstructed Southern
Safe governments. Make it the interest of
the Southern white men who give the tone and
the public sentiment to Southern society, make
it an object with them to support the constitu-
tion as it is and the administration, and you
will gain them. In word, restore them COM
pletely to the "rights, privileges and immuni-
mites" of ''citizens of the United States and
of the State in which they reside, and you will
make friends of enemies and convert these
horrid Ku Klux Klans into law-abiding men;
for their present occupation will be gone with
the removal of the cause.
Year: 1871

OUTRAGEs BY PoLIcEMEN.-We are almost
daily in receipt Of TOO well founded complaints
of the reckless, not to say murderous use, Of
the policeman's club, and Of other outrages
which, like the inexcusably cruel treatment Of
a feeble old lady who had wandered last week
from her home, TO be arrested and thrust into
a station house cell and sent to Blackwell's
Island, cannot provoke too much public in
dgnation. Assuredly the very appointment
of policeman to his responsible Office pre-
supposes that he is at least potentially
gentleman-that is to say, that be is endowed
with instincts which make him capable of dis
eliminating between the weak and the strong,
the submissive and the refractory, and qualify
him to exercise his authority with no less dis
cretion than frmness. If his conduct betrays
that he IL, on the contrary, brute, it becomes
the immediate duty Of his superiors to inquire
thoroughly into the circumstances of the case
and to punish him by summary dismissal.
This is required in the interests of the police
force as well as for the protection of the
public.
Year: 1871

THE New TAX LEVY BILL is still caught
Ike piston rod upon the centre 1t
can neither 60 backward nor forward until
some one gives the fly wheel a turn. 1t
seems the cause Of this break in the evolutions
OF legislation is Senator Graham, who for
some cause, only vaguely defined, keeps away
from the Chamber. Tweed, like O.d England.
expects each man to do his duty" for the
truth is that it takes every man that Tweed
bas TO do anything. The Tweed majority is
TOO slim at its full to do much, and between
Sickness late lobster salads, too convvial
companions and railroad disasters, it is too
shaky usually to do anything at all. Thus it
is that this man, Graham, by his persis tent
absence from his seat, has stopped the Tweed
Legislation of the moment, and is preserving
temporarily TO the pockets of New York tax
payers the indefinite sums represented by chat
Two per cent TO which the quartet of tax col
Icclors nominated in the bill propose in am
blguous terms to limit the taxes OF New York.
Graham, therefore, deserves a medal, but not
gold one. We hope there viii be no gold
mcddling with him.
Year: 1871

the proceedings yesterday was the freedom
and force with which counsel for the plaintiffs
pitched into the Erie management and de-
nounced what he termed the wholesale plum
der and devastation of the property of the
company. The argument will be resumed
this morning
Year: 1871

Railroad Corporations and M0n0polies.


We print elsewhere a numerously signed
petition to the Legislature asking redress from
the alleged grievances inflicted by the New
York Central and Hudson River Railroad
Company, which, as gigantic monopoly, has,
by its enormous moneyed influence, obtained
and maintained control of the great highway
of commerce in this State, imposing such
rates of freight and passenger charges as
shall enable the payment of dividends on
swollen and disproportionate capital. The
document in question is not without suspicion
as to the entirely dsinterested nature Of its
origin. But, whatever the speculative designs
Of those who first put it in circulation, the
HERALD is always willing to let all sides be
heard.


There Is no doubt that the country at large
is endangered by the existence and growth of
such enormous corporations as that of the
New York Central and Pennsylvania Central
Railroads, which latter, it Is said, had much
to do With shaping national legislation at the
last session of Congress, as well as State
legislation, in the interest of It's stockholders.
But the remedy is certainly not contained in
the suggestions given by this petition. AS
long as these companies are not given legal
monopoly of the routes they traverse there can
hardly be any equitable reason for limiting
their right to earn money. If they
earn over seven per cent rival capital
lists will soon build rival roads. The
New York Central has virtual capital
of ninety millions of dollars, on which it earns
eight per cent per annum. Yet If Mr.. II. B.
Claflin and few other millionnaires who have
signed the petition are really desirous of
remedy let them subscribe forty millions of
dollars and they may construct and equip just
as good road as the New York Central be-
tween New York and Buffalo and share its
traffic to the extent of not less than seven per
cent upon their Investment. Acain, figures
will show that freights are about the same and
passenger fares less than they were before
New York Central advanced from a nom
dividend paying to sixteen per cent stock.
Year: 1871

TwEED's New BILL for the distribution of
Croton water, which has jnst passed the As
sembly, provides for the extension Of mains
to the islands in the East river 1t is rather
magnificent idea in lis intention, but likely to
develop into magnificent job ere its compile
Year: 1871

Mr.. TWEED introduced a bill in the State
Senate yesterday giving himself power as
Commissioner of Public Works to change the
grades of streets within the area bounded by
Bleecker, Broadway, Chambers, Bowery and
Chatham. There is a heavy slope within this
area, about the neighborhood of the Tombs,
which makes it hard for the car horses; but
we cannot see that the benefit to accrue frem
levelling the grades will repay the expense.
Year: 1871

South Carolina declared the laws of the State
were equal to the emergency. After all, the
lawless acts Of the Ku Klux were confined
chiefly to sparsely settled, small sections of
the Carolinas and part of Georgia bordering
South Carolina, where there have always been
a degraded and uneducated class of poor
whites. Three-fourths or more of the crimes
committed in these parts have been wrongly
attributed to the Ku Klux. Many, in fact,
have been committed by the negroes
and their radical carpet-bag allies who
pretend to have such horror Of the Ku Klux


Apart from some outrages committed by the
Ku Klux-bya few degraded and ignorant
whites or misguided young white men Of parts
Of the Carolinas and Georgia, the whole
trouble is political. First, the radical party
in power at Washington and their negro and
carpet-bag allies in the South have combined
to oppress the Southern whites and to hold
the political power in that section. On the
other hand, the native whites, who are for the
most part democrats, have run into excep-
tionable or even lawless means to overthrow
radical rule. 1t h dreadful state Of things,
and both retards the peaceful development of
the South and endangers the fundamental prin-
ciples of liberty on which the republic rests.
Are We to have chronic Ireland or Poland
on American soil? Il sectional animosity
or trouble to be kept up for political
ends? The dominant radical party is
strong now, and there is every pros
pect that General Grant will be re-
elected. Why, then, cannot the disabilities
of the Southe-ners be removed and a kindly
hand be extended to them? Surely it is time
to bury the sad memories Of the war and to
restore the South. Surely there should be
some consideration for and some abatement Of
severity to the people of our own race and
blood. Every right thinking Northerner must
regret to see the intelligent people Of his own
race in the South placed under the heel Of
ignorant and emi-barbarous negroes. We do
not think General Grant and the radical party
can make anything politically by their policy
of repression and by attempting to make the
negro rule the white man. If broad and
liberal policy be inaugurated we shall hear
no more of Ku Klux, federal bayonets may
be withdrawn, the civil law will be found
sufficient enough, and the South will rise
from the disasters of the war to degree Of
prosperity it never attained before.
Year: 1871

SENATOR SoHURz, SPEAKER BLAINE AND
GENERAL BUTLER are supposed to be con-
cocting some political conspiracy at the Fifth
Avenue Hotel, where they are all sojourning
together, and it is rumored that Senator Conk-
ling is expected to join them soon. If the
consultation means anything at all-and it is
hard if three such men cannot happen under
the same roof without exciting apprehensions
Of dire conspiracy among our patriotic peo-
ple-it means that the friends of General
Grant are taking the most reasonable and
likely means Of binding up the wounds that
disable the republican majority in Congress-.
Year: 1871

SHALL TUE COMMITTEE OF SEVENTY Be
PERPETUAL?-The Boston Advertiser is Of
the opinion that the Committee Of Seventy
should not become permanent institution,
and argues taat il the people Of New York city
are In earnest in the work Of reform they can
In the future labor more effectively by other
means. ''If they have simply passed through
brief season Of virtue" continues the Adver-
tiser, ''the committee will be powerless to
keep them up TO their good resolutions" The
doings of the next Legislature will probably
demonstrate whether the people Of New York
have or have not passed through only "a brief
season Of virtue" By the acts Of the re-
formers 80 ye shall know them"
Year: 1871

WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH THE GAs?-The


gaslights in our streets are like the expiring
chickering's Of farthing candle. They do not
between pedestrians on the sidewalks nor
between vehicles in the streets. Is there no
remedy for this abominable nuisance? The
gas companies are not mixed up in the muni-
cipal muddle, and have no excuse for the
present lack Of light. We hope these few
words will bring the companies to realizing
sense of the darkness Of the present situation.
Year: 1871

THE CRY OFFICIALS IN BROOKLYN generally
hold strongly to the opinion that no frauds
have been committed in Office. They do not
deny that there have most likely been out
rageous repeating and ballot stufing at the
election; but they believe that both parties
are implicated in such rascality, and that the
ofice-holders who compose the ''Ring" are as
innocent az lambs. That is a hopeful way to
look at 1t; but 1t is discouraging to remember
that Tweed and his fellows looked at their
own case pretty much in the same way several
months aRo.
Year: 1871




THE ASSOCIATION FOR THE CURE OF me
BRIATEs held its second annual Convention
yesterday, when some facts were adduced
relative to drunkenness that are likely to serve
the good purpose of temperance societies more
completely than any sermons or comments.
DR.. Parker, the President, stated that thirty
three and third per cent of all deaths in this
city were occasioned, directly or indirectly,
by the use Of alcoholic drinks, and that in the
last thirty years one hundred and ninety thou
sand persons in New York city had thus come
to their deaths. DR.. Harris, Inspector Of
Prisons, stated in his report that on visiting
ffty-six prisons in the State he had found
that seventy five per cent Of all crimes COM
mitted were traceable to the use of liquors.
These statements are enough to startle order
loving and philanthropic people from their
propriety, especially when 1t is known that
the Excise law, even modified as it was by the
last Legislature, is simply dead letter. DR..
Parker held that drunkenness was q disease
like scarlatina or smallpox, and therefore
durable; but viewed in that light it is even
more requisite than ever that the unresirained
sale Of liquors in this city at all hours Of the
day and night and during every Sabbath
should become the subject Of strong and earn
est legislation.
Year: 1871




The Troy Wing (republican) declares that
Tammany ID not killed. II has only been
beaten at q single election. The only way to
destroy Tammany, according to the WAig, is
to repeal its charter (Which was granted in
1903 or l8O5), otherwise the Society will be
the nucleus of strong political faction" Our
rural friends seem to entertain the notion that
Tammany possesses the eyes of Argus and the
arms Of Briareus, as well as the riches Of
Crnsus. When the charter of the Tammany
Society Is repealed then it will be time for the
sachems and braves to sell out their wampum
and smoke their calumets Of peace in peace
and obscurity. 1t would not however. be
matter Of much surprise to find that when
the test touching the repeal Of the charter ID
made there are about as many influential
republicans who were original Tammany men
ss there are democrats now actively working
Ia the organization. Tammany is something
like . certain jointed snake they once had
down South. Hit it crack and it would fy
into hundred pieces, but let 1t alone few
minutes and it would rejoint itself and become
as lively and cheerful as ever. sswhat will
they do with it2" will be an interesting question
for the next Legislature to decide when the
subject Of repeating the Tammany charter
comes before it.
Year: 1871

TIE TAYLOR WILL CASE was yesterday
before the Supreme Court General Term.
According to agreement of counsel the papers
were submitted without argument, the UNDER
standing being that the Court will confirm the
decree of the Surrogate and SO allow the case
to 60 to the Court Of Appeals without delay.
Year: 1871

TIE PRINCE is still at sea. The storm
which prevailed all day yesterday may have
compelled the remaining vessels Of the feet to
put out to sea again, even when they were
within only few hours Of land, and his long
delay may be made even much longer.
Year: 1871

TIE SULrAN's GOVERNMENT has made q
vigorous and generous effort for the further
ance Of the work Of industrial development In
the empire by the construction Of great PUBLIC
works, and particularly by the extension of
the railroad system in the territory. This is
really movement in the right direction, as
will be seen by our cable telegram to-day.
Year: 1871

A HORSE CAR WAS RUN INTo by railroad
train In Jersey City yesterday and demol-
ished. The car was crowded with passen-
gers, ten Of whom were severely injured and
several of whom will die. The wonder seems
TO be that any Of them escaped at all. The
negligence Of gatekeeper was the cause Of
the disaster.
Year: 1871

THE MOBILE Register is Of opinion ''that
New York was lost to the democracy through
their own folly" Very true. And to the
same cause may be attributed many disasters
10 the Southern democracy heretofore.