JOHN MORRISSEY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5408, 27 July 1878, Page 1 (Supplement)

JOHN MORRISSEY.

TO THE EDITOR OR THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES. Sin,—The deaths of John Morrissey and “Boss” Tweed in New York deserve more than a mere obituary notice. They were both typical men in the political life of America, and both represented the very worst features 'of that life. But they were not only tolerated as accidental evils, bin had large followings of supporters, who saw nothing in them to condemn, and were proud to be represented by and governed by them. The one for several years ruled and robbed the municipality of New York ; the other, a prize-fighter and keeper of a gambling hell, enjoyed the confidence of a large majority of the electors in the double capacity of member of tho State Legislature and member of the United States Congress. ■ Some of our New .Zealand statesmen are great admirers of American institutions. No doubt there are many things in them which we might imitate to advantage. But there are other things which, if copied, would undoubtedly land us in Boss Tweeds and Morrisseys. Unfortunately some of the statesmen referred to would persuade us to adopt just those Americanisms which'are disgracing America, andwhioheveryhonestman in the States would gladly see expunged from their Constitution. The indiscriminate bestowal of the State and municipal franchise,. and the corruption arid intimidation of the Courts of Law, have been two of the most disastrous causes of the evils which now threaten the very existence of 'Government in the United States. On these bases have been built up the big financial and railway rings, the municipal robberies, the “ Molly Maguire ” strikes and murders, the railway riots, the existence of a vast body of tramps who live by plunder and intimidation, and tho war by a class, which falsely calls itself the laboring class, against the possessors of accumulated capital, which is at this moment bringing all business to a standstill in California and some of the central States and cities. Thinking men iu America see iu this condition of things a very gloomy future.

Tho policy enunciated by Sir George Grey during his last stumping tour seems to me to have tended very much in the same direction. It is satisfactory to learn from the utterances of some of his colleagues that his talk was only “ bunkum,” and that Parliament will not bo asked to endorse it. It is not pleasant, however, to notice the acceptance with which it was received by the audiences who listened to the new apostle of democracy. I enclose an extract from one of the best American journals, the Nation, containing a further criticism on John Morrissey. Agreatpartof the American Press, and even some of the governing bodies,-appear to have been base enough to put on record expressions of admiration and anproval of the deceased prize-fighter and hell-keeper. If you can find room for the extract from the Nation, it will, I think, be interesting to some of your readers.—l am, & Cii Observer.

' ' (From the Nation.) The importance of this department of public instruction has received a fresh illustration from the course'of some of our leading daily papers with regard to the late J"ohn Morrissey. They all published long biographies of him, mostly of the same tenor, and evidently drawn from the' same source. That of The H tines, which has done most honor to Mr. Morrissey’s memory, filled three aud one-half of its columns ; that of the Herald seyen ; that of the Tribune only a column, and this paper gave him in some degree his due. Three columns of the Times,, or six-sevenths of the article, are devoted to tellin how Morrissey, beginning .life as an ignorant aud vicious young laborer, forsook steady industry for gambling and pugilism, and became notorious by his offences against' the law, and by his. turbulence and violence. It is, in short, the history of a member of the criminal class, for whose benefit gaols are built, and whose activity and liberty reflect shame on the community which permits them. It shows also how at the age of thirty ho grew tired of fighting, as all pugilists do, and determined to become a professional gambler; and the last half column, devoted to his “ political career,” shows how, while keeper of a noted gambling-hell—or, in other words, a professional criminal—he made money enough to enable him to become active and influential in the politics of New York City or> jn other words, to succeed in the same field as Tweed, and win the suffrages of the same class of constituents. So he went to Congress, and then to the State Senate. To neither body did he bring any qualification for the duties of a legislator representing a great commercial city, or any experience of any kind' except that of a pugilist, bartender, gambler, stowaway, .and wondering romdi, or, what the old English statute calls a ro"uo and vagabond,” and he died at the early age of forty-seven, doubtless through the exhaustion of his constitution from his excesses. Nevertheless, the "Times says he was “in public affairs a man of sturdy common sense, clear perceptions, and unbending rectitude,” and “no man ever charged John Morrissey with being a venal politician or a dishonest legislator.” “ The errors of his early career” (he was keeper of a gambling, hell down to the day of his death) “ were fairly balanced by his, undeniable public spirit and unchallenged fidelity to public trust. That is to say, you may safely lead the life of a criminal if in your thirty-fifth year you go to Congiess and take no bribes ; and you may keep a gambling-hell, and live by it, if yon go to the State Senate and oppose Tammany. The .State Senate was not behind tho Press in its sorrowful admiration.* It expressed by unanimous resolution ** its respect” fo'r Morrissey’s “ great moral courage, for his devotion to principle, and for his rare and unquestioned integrity;” audit started for his funeral “in n body.” Tho Assembly also wept over him as a “ well-meaning and upright legislator,” aud recorded “ its high estimate of his character and official course.”

There is something better stillto come, however. A Washington correspondent of Monday's Times filled a column and a half in the moat conspicuous part of the paper with an “In memory of Morrissey,” giving anecdotes of the illustrious deceased. One passage in it has never been surpassed for naivete in the political biography of the modern world «Last evening a number of gentlemen sat together in a leading hotels here and talked about him until bed-time.* All except one of them had been his personal friends, and that one was no less a person than the venerable bat still halo and hearty Simon Cameron. One after another they told their little story of the dead man’s life, and the ‘old Senator’ listened in silence and with much attention. At last, when tho rest had apparently finished, he broke tho silence he had kept so long by exclaiming suddenly, and in his own quick, nervous way, ‘ X never had much personal knowledge of Mr,- Morrissey, but X

heard one story of him which always impressed me very deeply.’ * What was it ? What was it ? ’ asked the others in a breath, and in reply Mr. Cameron related the following incident. X give his own words as nearly as possible, only omitting names at his request. ; He said: 4 When Morrissey first came to Washington X must confess that I \ya* not very favorably impressed with him, He had a bad record, of course, and.somehow or other most people.in this world have a mean habit pf remembering nil the bad things a man does and forgetting .all the good ones. At all events, Iliad never heard anything good of Morrissey, i? or this reason I was very much surprised on© day to hear my friend (Senator Cameron named one of the best known Republican leaders in New York) speak in terms of great kindness of him, I gave expression to this surprise, when my friend told me that I was very much mistaken in Morrissey’s character, and to prove what he said related the story to which X alluded. It was to'the effect that a young man of great promise, a resident of Now York City, and a clerk in a large business bouse, bad found bis way into Morrissey’s gambling saloon, and while there had lost in play 12,000d015., which was fertile moment in.his possession, but which belonged » the firm in whose employ he was.. The next morning, the young man, fully realising his position, went to his mother and told her the whole story. She, almost with grief, ivcut to her husband and repeated it to him, The old man was so stunned by the information of his. hoy’s dishonor that he could suggest no plan by which he might escape public disgrace and punishment. In fact,’ continued Mr. Cameron, ‘ they were all in a mighty bad way, but, as usual, the old woman was the first to get her wits about her, and she suggested to the-boy’s father to go to his friend fthe Republican leader already alluded to), and to get him to go to Morrissey and see if ho would not help them out of their trouble. The friend consented, much against'bis will. He went to the gambler, told him the whole story) and assured him that disgrace and ruin would be brought upon an estimable family if the money lost by. the young man was not returned. Morrissey listened quietly to all that was told him, and then said ; “ Well, that’s all very well, but the young fellow lost the'money fair ; and ns for him bein’ a poor innocent. young dove, that ■didn’t know nothing of the World, that's all stuff; he’s been in our. place often, and won many a pile, but for the bid, woman’s sake I’ll see what I can do. Come to my . house .tomorrow morning, and like as’ not I can make the thing all right.” The next prorning the gentleman came as he was directed, and with the simp'e words : “Tell the old woman to keep her - hoy away from sportin’ houses," Morrissey handed him the exact sum that the young clerk had lost. It such an action,’ said Mr. Cameron, in conclusion, ‘does not coyer a multitude of sins, my seventy-nine years of life have taught me no lessons and brought me no knowledge.’ ” , , One naturally hesitates about differing from a Pennsylvania moralist of. seventy mine years’ standing, but’we must remind him that the deceased statesman was, under the statutes of this State, liable to the young man for the money of whi’h he stripped him, and, besides this, in stripping him of it exposed himself by law to the pains and penalties of a “ common gambler”— i.e.; to two years' hard labor iu the penitentiary and one thousand dollars fine, with further imprisonment until the fine was paid. It is, of course, a very surprising and unusual tiling for a common gambler to restore their losses to his victims, as it is for a pickpocket to give back her watch to *a widow. This latter sometimes happens, however, and wa are gratified when we hear of it.; but we do not take out our pocket-handkerchief and whimper over it, and describe it to our children as the act of a good and lamented citizen.. The impunity with which Morrissey for years pursued his nefarious calling, both here and at Saratoga, was a disgrace to the Government oi this State. But it is a more serious matter still that recognised public instructors should declare that going into politics for a few years and- resisting the temptation to take bribes can atone lor a youth of ruffianism, and a middle life of crime, especially when we consider that the money to which Morrissey undoubtedly owed his political “integrity ” was acquired by just such villanies as the Pennsylvania Nestor described and sniffled over. This looks like discredit, to'our civilisation itself. No man ought to be publicly praised as'Morrissey has been praised by any one who is hot prepared to say that he would like to see such myn indefinitely multiplied. Morrissey’s admirers ought to be ready to declare, if their eulogies mean anything, that they would like to see the Stato of New York peopled by-such men. They ought to he ready to go still further and say that there is not, and ought notto be, any connectisn between public and private morals, and that a good Legislature might be made .up out of the inmates of the Sing Sing and Auburn.penitentiaries, and that Madame Bestell might have made an excellent Commissioner of Charities and Corrections. If they do not mean this, and arc not prepared to say this, their funeral discourses over the dead pugilist and gambler are not only trash but pernicious and disgusting trash. Morrissey was a criminal whose efforts to turn “respectable” in Ids latter years showed the contempt in which he held the morals of the community which tolerated him, and on which he preyed, and this contempt the obituary laudation of him iu some quarters certainly seems to justify. .. • , - • ~ l , ■