Year: 1870

city.


Hints from tho Boss.


For the political philosopher and the tax
payer the letter of Mr.. Tweed to the Common
Council is paper OF rare and peculiar In
terest. ..s'i sssgriress .-@


Mr. Tweed is not the Mayor of the city he
IS not the occupant Of any position that
entities him to become ca c6lcio the instructor
or director Of the actions of the Common
Council, so that it can only be from the ex-
cessive wealth Of his wisdom and warmth Of
his friendship that any advice to these gentle
men can flow. He loves them. however. and
perhaps remembers that he is the Boss, and
as such is in great degree responsible for
their good conduct, and so he gives them q
lecture, just as he might if he had been spe-
cially appointed by the people guardian to the
Aldermen. s.rasA ~


He advises them to give up all hope Of
securing any personal plunder to themselves,
their heirs, administrators or assigns by the
Cremin gas burner job. His first reason is
that there is no authority In law for them to
vote the money. & Here is the hint of
new policy in the city government. The
authorities are to do nothing for which
there is not a warrant in law. This
will at first cripple them seriously on
many important points. Hitherto the plan
has been for each functionary to do just what
he chose. IF anybody called his conduct in
question he laughed if the question was per-
oio ho uiu,pIv otot od tho fO hia oftOv-
ney, and directed that person to find law for
the transaction. Al any good attorney has
several thousand volumes of law in his
library he can find law for anything, and thus
the warrant was always forthcoming in time.
If now the warrant in law is to be found first
the municipal government will be cramped in
every department.


There is something worse than this in it
also. If nothing is to be done that the law
does not warrant it is implied that everything
is to be done that the law requires. This side
of the difficulty will be worse than the other.


Mr.. Tweed feelingly calls tho attention of
the Board to the fact that it is new body
nominally; to the fact that it is created
by o charter that promised reform, and
therefore begs it not to disgrace that
charter thus openly-not to be the
first and only body existing by that new
charter to return to the plain old outrageous
stealing that distinguished the conduct Of
everybody under the former charter. He also
tacitly informs them that it is the new charter
that has taken away their power to profit by
these jobs, and that they are now in the
hands of the Commissioner of Public Works,
William M. Tweed.


All this is touchingly frank-especially tho
appeal to the Aldermen to be good because
they are new. Did Mr.. Tweed ever hear of the
white cat in the fairy story that was trans
formed into a beautiful woman and behaved her
self with perfect propriety till some mice ran
across the floor? Alas, instinct is equally
strong in the men whom he has covered with
the garments and the appearance of morality.


But what will the Aldermen do? There is
a good course open. Let them take q leaf
from the practice of that great constitutional
lawyer, Judge Bowling. He had a culprit
before him the other day whom he should
have sent to prison under the law made for the
protection of hotel keepers. He did not de-
sire to be harsh to this culprit, and he forth
with cut the gordian knot by an off-hand de-
claration that the law was unconstitutional.
Here is the course for the Aldermen. Let
them pass resolution that all laws which re-
strain their instincts and proclivities are un-
constitutional.