TWEED.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5372, 15 June 1878, Page 1 (Supplement)

TWEED.

(From the Saturday Review.)

If the notorious Tweed, who lately died in prison in New York, had merely exceeded all past and present swindlers in the magnitude of his operations, there would be no reason for noticing the final close of his career. Ho was perhaps somewhat less guilty than the common run of vulgar criminals by reason of the peculiar opportunities which he for a time enjoyed, and also because in his malversations he acted with the connivance of those who had elected him to offices of trust. Any large number of persons have the power of forming a public opinion of their own, which may or may not coincide with the ordinary rules of morality. ■ Tweed committed his crimes in open day, with the approval of a hundred thousand accomplices ; and the political institutions which “rendered his frauds possible are more worthy of study than his personal delinquencies. With prudence and moderation he might have for many years retained his prosperity and power. His collapse was duo to extravagant cupidity, which at last provoked the respectable population of New York to resistance. Tweed began life ns a small tradesman; and a bankruptcy which ended his industrial career was the commencement of his fortune. From a comparatively honest occupation he transferred his energies to civic politics ; and in ten years, dining which he had scarcely any visible means of subsistence,, ho accumulated enormous wealth. No previous adventurer had so clearly discerned the possibilities which arise from the divorce between property and political power. The city of New York was and is absolutely governed by a majority of the lower classes, consisting in great measure of immigrants from Ireland. The city revenues raised by taxation amounted to £6,000,00® ; and both income and expenditure were ultimately regulated by the nominees of the mob. Tweed displayed in the manipulation of elections and in political or municipar organisation a skill which might bo envied by the leaders of the Birmingham Six Hundred ; but, instead of devoting himself to the ascendancy of . a faction, he concentrated his attention on simple peculation. His constituents and followers were well aware of the origin of the. splendour and luxury which they admired ; and Tweed cultivated popularity by lavish munificence to his needier adherents. The multitude took pride in the arbitrary distribution of funds which were levied from their fellow-citizens ; and merchants and shopkeepers found it less troublesome to pay black mail to the audacious demagogue than to resist his extortions. Among many forms of fraud, the, most flagrant was’apparently a plagiarism from the device of the unjust steward in the parable. Some of Tweed’s chief partners in crime wore tradesmen who ostensibly supplied goods for municipal purposes, and who sent in bills of which the proceeds were divided by arrangement among the members of the gang. The undertaking which at last excited public indignation was the construction and equipment of a County Hall at it cost of nearly a million sterling. The plasterer- and the upholsterer sent in claims of hundreds of thousands of pounds, although it was said that the floors were left bare, while the city paid for carpets which would have covered the area of the park. It happened that at the same time a largo hotel belonging to Tweed was profusely supplied with expensive carpets. Long impunity had made the conspirators reckless ; and when a portion of the New York Press and an association of respectable citizens undertook the exposure of the fraud, there was no difficulty in finding proofs. The purification of the civic government became for the time an object of popular excitement; and in a short time the chief criminals were either fugitives or prisoners. Tweed himself after a time escaped by bribing his gaolers, but he was. afterwards delivered up to justice by the Spanish Government. It is remarkable that,after the full exposure of his frauds, he was elected to the State Senate by the City conHis faithful followers, who had always been privy to his embezzlements, failed to understand the sudden outbreak of public

s morality. The municipal administration of | Now York has hitherto not relapsed into the same extremity of corruption. In Tweed’s time and afterwards public delinquents retained Judges iu their pay ; and one of the number, who exercised criminal jurisdiction, was elected with the active aid of the professional thieves. A sovereign populace taught by competent demagogues to appreciate its own omnipotence is unequalled as an instrument of fraud. An autocratic King or Emperor represses to the best of his power peculation practised at his own expense ; but a majority which pays no taxes is utterly unrestrained in its demands on the classes which contribute to the public revenue. Tweed and his associates had the accidental merit of calling general attention to the corruption which has since been found almost universal among American politicians. .Some years afterwards a large number of members of the Lower House of Congress were shown to have sold their votes on a railway concession ; and a Vice-President of the Union, who had been Speaker of the House of Representatives, after accepting a bribe of a few hundreds of dollars, aggravated his guilt by a long string of false assertions. Some of the most confidential advisers of the late President, including a Cabinet Minister, were guilty of peculation ; nor is it surprising that false charges of fraud, copied from actual experience, are now ordinary weapons of political warfare. It seems that adult males, more figuratively described as flesh and bood, fail to include among the conditions of their divine right to supreme power an aptitude for selecting honest public servants. The jealousy of social advantages which belongs to modern democracy accounts for much of the political immorality which prevails in the United States. The best class is excluded from public life, partly by its own choice, and also because refined and educated candidates for election are objects of popular dislike. Politicians are generally in turn regarded with distrust by the most respectable portion of the community. Members of State and Federal Legislatures and paid officers must necessarily have acquired the favor of election managers, who are themselves the least reputable among politicians. There are of course many exceptions to the rule ; nor is there ■ any reason to doubt that some constituencies would prefer a candidate of unsullied character ; but universal suffrage can, except iu times of public excitement, only be directed by professional agents. Tweed was not an average specimen of an American adventurer, but he was the ideal type of his class, as a prize ox exaggerates the peculiarities of his breed. The sound constitution of American society compensates to a- great extent for political defects which are in themselves unavoidable. Universal suffrage itself is a necessity in a country where there is little distinction of ranks. The wealthiest of nations can afford to be largely plundered, and the people of the United States have the great merit and advantage of being, in almost all the affairs of life, independent of the action of Government, Time will show whether even the most vigorous and most prosperous community can afford to laugh at the peculation of an impudent rascal like Tweed. There is no doubt that his frauds, when they were first exposed, caused as much amusement as indignation.. On the whole, the American nation' enjoys a position of stable equilibrium which defies any casual disturbance. But imitators placed in different economical and social circumstances run more formidable risks. Universal suffrage in England would resemble universal suffrage in the city of New York rather than the same system as it exists throughout the Union. At first there would be a risk rather of revolutionary excess than of pecuniary corruption ; but in course of time demagogues would study the methods of rendering their occupation profitable. The process by which political power is attained in the United States exercises a perceptible influence over legislation. The former agitation in favor of a discharge of the national debt in paper money, and the more successful movement for the romenetisation of silver, were promoted by the same parties which have defeated all attempts at Civil Service Reform. The President is at present generally unpopular, because he wishes to purify the public service, and also because he attempted to prevent the deterioration of the currency to the detriment of public and private creditors. It is perhaps invidious todilatoonthe failings or errors of a foreign country, even in language which might have been borrowed from their own best and ablest citizens. If satirists are justified in imputing to Americans an undue admiration of magnitude, there may oerhaps be a-tribute ,to national vanity or innnor in the recognition of the grotesque exaggeration of dishonesty in the person of Tweed.