Year: 1871




Philadelphia, was before the Committee of Mu-
nicipal Corporations of the House of Represen-
tatives last evening, and made the folio wing
speecb:-


Gentlemen:-I appear before you simply as a
citizen, and not as a commissioner; but would
ask that your honorable committee would give
to the commissioners also an opportunity to be
heard. Whereas your honorable body have
created this commission, and believing that they
have faithfully performed their duties in accord
ance with the requirements of the law which
created them, they did not deem it necessary to
meet your committee, unless by your request
but will here state that they should be glad to
meet you in case such should be your
desire. We have in our board gentle
men who are able and competent to lay
before you in clear manner the reasons
why you should hesitate in complying with the
wish of the gentlemen on the other side who
are here urging the abolishment of this commits
sion. Mr.. Perkins, an eminent lawyer, gen.
tleman of high standing, and member of this
commission, would be glad to address you on
this subject and in justice to the commission it
would seem but right that you should, after
having heard the gentlemen on the other side,
give the commission the same opportunity.


AS already stated, l did not Intend to appear
before you this evening for the purpose of
l.
to answer the other side, but l cannot believe
that you will hesitate to grant hearing and
give the necessary time to prepare an
answer. l may ask that your committee
will pass resolution to this effect. l can
safely say that the commission will be prepared
with a statement on Thursday morning next.
Having heard the argument on the other side,
and the gentleman who will appear on the part
of the commission not having heard what was
said, / feel it incumbent upon me in my own
| way to answer q few of the leading points,
| although am not in possession of figures, not
having had time to prepare q speech. l will
| simply answer as the facts may occur to my
mind. 1 speak from the knowledge 1 am in
possession of as member of said board, and
from my general knowledge as a citizen of the
affairs of our municipality, although not pro-
Tossing to be able to give as detailed an account
as some of the gentlemen on the other
| side. They would make it appear that
they are the sole guardians of the city's inte-
rests, and that their representations alone are
to be credited. l will try to prove to you that
these gentlemen have not all appeared before
you in spirit of public interest and for the
public good, as they have represented.


No doubt some of the highly respectable gen.
tlemen who compose this committee are honest
10 their intentions, and in good faith appear
before you, but there are others actuated by
other motives than these. Such members have
been the most active in their efforts to abolish
this commission, and are solely prompted by sin
lister motives. They do not make fair representa-
tions, nor are they honest in their charges, and
they dare not as honorable men deny the cor
rectness of my assertions They have failed to
lay before you fair statement of the financial
condition of the city of Philadelphia; they have
assumed that there was but one side to be heard;
they have failed to tell you that this unjust at
tack on the commissioners has been brought
about by the Washington Square people and
the property-owners in that locality;
they omitted to say that they had
no reason to complain about the
act or any of the commissioners until after the
people at the ballot-box decided the location;
they failed to state how anxious they were to
obtain the Governors signature to this odous
bill, as they now term 1t; they failed to inform
you how much money they raised to carry the
election in favor of Washington Square, and for
other purposes they fail to tell you that after
the election, and after the people by so decided
majority of over $4,000 in favor of Penn
Squares, the almost united press of Phila-
delphia acquesced in the result. They did not
tell you that small and factious minority in
the board, in the interest of these Washington
Square locality people used, every means to SOW
discOTd. CERTAIN interested newspapers were
wholly in the interest of the Washington Square
ites and the editors being hostile, they, with most
: unaccountable zeal and bitterness, assaied the
commission, and with their continued efforts
and Interpretations, and with persons en-
ployed in various capacities to raise clamor,


they succeeded in misleading and deceving


the public mind, and have by their persistent
erdeaVors really SO poisoned portion of the
| people that it is well that your honorable


bodies should know the true history of the case


and that you should pause before


taking the hasty action of the
other house. Your commissioners did not take
> ! measures to counteract the gross wrongs heaped


upon them other than to perform their legiti


mate mission under the act and they challenge


investigation and stand ready to meet these


gentlemen face to face.


They felt secure at your hands. You created


them to perform certain acts, which they faith.
fully entered upon to do, and while in the act o
:. discharging these duties they are interfereC
y with by these parties who entered into fai
!, contest before the people, and lost by decide,
= expression of the people. They now propose
= to defy this popular verdict, and are asking
you to abolish it. Let me ask whether thes
V people are fair and whether they have a righ
. here First, They charge that the intersection


was the great cause for rebellion. Well, sur
- pose we grant this, what did the commissio


agree to do? Why, they at once abandoned th
. intersection plan and agreed to place the built
- - ings upon two of the squares, and did ask you


honorable bodies for additional legislation