Year: 1875

former in canal management il is not little
strange that he failed to lend a helping hand
toward the adoption of amendments which
render extra payment to contractors impos-
sible.


Governor Tilden was not the discoverer of
the gross abuses which have so long prevailed
in canal contracts nor the first to propose
remedies. After prevention had been fixed
in the State constitution, without assistance
from him, he undertook, with laudable zeal,
to expose the robberies of the past in detail
and bring the thieves to justice-a truly
valuable service so far as it goes but not de-
serving to rank with the more quiet and un-
ostentatious efforts which bore fruit in the
amendment which makes the repetition of
the same kind of frauds impossible. The
great resource of the Canal Ring has been
the Legislatur1- After securing contracts by
deceptive bids it has been their practice to
apply to the Legislature to have the work SO
altered as to allow large use of the mate
rials which were put at twice or thrice their
real value in the delusive bids and such ap-
plications were almost always successful But
when they failed the rascally contractors
went to a subsequent Legislature asking for
extra compensation, and contrived to get it
smuggled through in an appropriation bill
during the confusion and hurly- -burly of the
last days of session. The constitutional
amendment which we have cited illustrates
such tactics for the future by stringent
prohibition to pay any contractor more
money than he stipulated for in his bid
The temptation to delusive bids is removed,
because the contractor is reduced to the
alternative of doing the work at the stipu-
lated price or throwing up his contract
altogether But he cannot evade his con-
tract at his mere pleasure. 1t requires the
action Of the Canal Board to release him,
and they are allowed to cancel the contract
only when, 'from any unforeseen cause"
the terms of the contract shall prove to be
unjust and oppressive. This shuts the door
and bolts it against relief from bids not
made in good faith, and holds the contrac-
tors to strict performance except in cases
in which hardship could not have been fore
seen. The amendment is perfect guaran-
tee against canal contracts not meant to be
fulfilled in strict accordance with their let
ter, and leaves Governor Tilden nothing to
do in his role of a reformer but to expose and
punish past swindlers In a comparison
between the value of his services and the
value of this amendment the people of the
State can have but one opinion. 1t will not
always be the good fortune of the State to
have exceDtional Governors with q burning
zeal against swindlers, like Mr.. Tilden and
the constitutional amendment makes such
frauds equally impossible, whether our
future Governors be men of strict or lax
notions of integrity. Governor Tilden's fell
low citizens will cheerfully award him the
praise of attempting to punish former rob-
bers, but they are too discriminating to
admit his claim as a reformer of abuses
which were rendered impossible before he
went to Albany to take his oath of Office


In the approaching canvass Governor Til
den's record and pretensions will be the sta
pie topic of discussion, and although his
opponents will not succeed in shaking/pub-
lie confidence in the excellence of his inten-
tions or the justice of his pursuit of the
canal thieves they will have no difficulty in
making it appear that he is only cleaner in
a field which was quietly reaped by the au-
thors of the new amendments to the State
constitution, to which there is no public
evidence that he contributed even his good
wishes and in favor of which it is certain
that he never displayed any zeal.