Lights and Shadows of New York Life

J >> James D. McCabe >> Lights and Shadows of New York Life

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The Ring was all-powerful in the great city, and they there built up an
organized despotism, the most infamous known to history. No man's
rights, no man's liberties were safe, if he ventured to oppose them.
They even sought to strike down freedom of speech and the liberty of the
press. Mr. Samuel J. Tilden, in the speech from which we have quoted
before in this chapter, makes this distinct charge against them. He
says: "Mr. Evarts went to Albany last year, and carried with him my
protest against the passage of the law giving to the judges a power
unknown in the jurisprudence of this State--unknown in the jurisprudence
of the United States for the last thirty years--_whereby it was secured
that any member of the City Government that might be offended_, _could
put his hand upon the city press_, _and suppress its liberties and
freedom of speech_."

How long all this would have continued, it is impossible to say, had it
not pleased God that there should be jealousies and dissensions amongst
the members of the Ring strong enough to break even the infamous bonds
that had so long bound them together.

The citizens of New York had for some time been slowly coming to the
conclusion that they were losing their rights and property, and had been
seeking for some legal means of attacking and overthrowing the Ring.
Their great necessity was absolute and definite proof of fraud on the
part of certain individuals. This was for a long time lacking, but it
came at length. In July, 1871, a former prominent member of the Ring,
having quarrelled with the Ring over a claim of three or four hundred
thousand dollars, which Mr. Tweed had refused to allow, avenged himself
by causing the publication of a series of the public accounts,
transcribed from the books of the Comptroller. These accounts showed the
millions that had been fraudulently paid away for work which had never
been done, and furnished the first definite evidence of fraud on the part
of the members of the Ring that had been given to the public. The press,
with the exception of a few unimportant sheets owned or controlled by the
Ring, denounced the frauds, and demanded an investigation of the public
accounts. Mayor Hall, William M. Tweed, Richard B. Connolly, and all the
greater and lesser magnates of the Ring were implicated in the terrible
story told by the published accounts. The respectable citizens, without
regard to party, at once joined in the demand, and expressed their
determination to put an end to the power of the Ring. The whole
land--nay the whole civilized world--rang with a universal cry of
indignation. The temper of the citizens was such as admitted of no
trifling.

The publication of the Comptroller's accounts, which revealed the
stupendous system of fraud they had practised so successfully, burst upon
the Ring like a clap of thunder from a clear sky. It not only surprised
them, but it demoralized them. They were fairly stunned. At first they
affected to treat the whole matter as a partisan outburst which would
soon "blow over." Some of the more timid took counsel of their fears and
fled from the city, some even quitting the country. The more hardened
endeavored "to brave it out," and defiantly declared that the citizens
could not molest them. All the while the wrath of the people grew
hotter, and the demand for the publication of the Comptroller's accounts
became more urgent. Comptroller Connolly, conscious of his guilt, met
this demand with vague promises of compliance. Mayor Hall set himself to
work to prove that the whole affair was a mistake, that no money had been
stolen, that the City Government had been unjustly assailed, and by his
ill-advised efforts drew upon himself a larger share of the public
indignation and suspicion than had previously been accorded to him. The
great object of the Ring was to gain time. They meant that the
Comptroller's accounts should not be published, and to accomplish this
they began the attempt to get possession of the Comptroller's office, the
records of which contained the evidence of their crimes. With this
important department in their hands they could suppress this evidence,
or, if driven to desperation, destroy it. A council of the leaders of
the Ring was called, at which it was resolved to get Mr. Connolly out of
the Comptroller's office, and to put in his place a creature of their
own. They did not dare, however, to make an effort to oust Connolly,
without having some plausible pretext for their action. They feared that
he would expose their mutual villainy, and involve them in his ruin, and
they wished to prevent this. Still, they resolved to get rid of him, and
their plan was first to crush him, and thus prevent his exposing them.
We shall see how their plan worked.

Meanwhile the public indignation had been growing stronger daily. On the
4th of September, 1871, a large and harmonious meeting of citizens,
without regard to party, was held at Cooper Institute. At this meeting
it was resolved to compel an exposure of the frauds practised upon the
people, and to punish the guilty parties; and committees were appointed,
money subscribed, and the best legal talent in the city retained for that
purpose. A reform movement to carry the November elections in the
interest of the citizens and tax-payers was inaugurated, and the power of
the courts was invoked to put a stop to the further expenditure of the
city funds. The popular sentiment was too strong to be mistaken, and
some of the leading officials, and several journals which had previously
supported the Ring, took the alarm and entered the ranks of the party of
Reform. The Democratic party of the State repudiated the Ring, and it
was plain that the Tammany ticket would be supported only by the lowest
classes of the city voters. The members of the Ring were now thoroughly
aroused to the danger which threatened them; but, true to their corrupt
instincts, they endeavored to meet it by fraud. They appointed a
Committee of Aldermen to act with the Citizens' Committee in the
investigation of the alleged frauds, and then withheld from them all
evidence that could be of service to them.

The Comptroller's office contained not only the accounts of moneys paid
out, but also the vouchers for all sums expended, properly signed and
sworn to by the parties receiving the money, and these vouchers
constituted the principal proof of the frauds. On Monday, September
11th, the city was startled by the announcement that the office of the
Comptroller had been forcibly entered during the previous day, Sunday,
and that the vouchers covering the principal transactions of the Ring had
been stolen. It was a bold deed, and was so thoroughly characteristic of
the Ring, that the public at once attributed it to that body. The Ring
on their part endeavored to produce the belief that the Comptroller had
stolen the vouchers to screen himself. Mayor Hall immediately wrote a
peremptory letter to Mr. Connolly, asking him to resign his position as
he (the Comptroller) had lost the confidence of the people. Mr. Connolly
was not slow to perceive that the Ring were determined to sacrifice him
to secure their own safety, and he declined to become their victim. He
not only refused to resign his position at Mayor Hall's demand, but set
to work vigorously to discover and bring to light the persons who had
stolen the vouchers. To have stolen the vouchers himself, or to have
countenanced the robbery, would have been worse than folly on the part of
the Comptroller. It would have damaged him fatally with the citizens,
who were disposed to deal lightly with him if he would aid them in
getting at and punishing the villainies of his former confederates.
There was no reason why he should seek to screen the Ring, for they made
no secret of their intention to destroy him. In view, therefore, of the
facts as at present known, it seems certain that the theft was brought
about by the Ring for the purpose of throwing the suspicion of the crime
upon the Comptroller, and thus giving them a pretext for crushing him.

Wisely for himself, Mr. Connolly determined to let the Ring shift for
themselves, and throw himself upon the mercy of the Reform party. He
withdrew from the active discharge of the duties of his office, and
appointed Mr. Andrew H. Green--an eminent citizen, possessing the respect
and confidence of all parties--his deputy, with full powers, and avowed
his determination to do his utmost to afford the Citizens' Committee a
full and impartial investigation of his affairs. The Ring made great
efforts to prevent his withdrawal, or, rather, the appointment of Mr.
Green. Says Mr. Samuel J. Tilden, who was the real cause of this action
on Mr. Connolly's part, and who was the acknowledged leader of the Reform
Democracy during the contest:

"When Mr. Connolly came to my house on that morning on which he executed
an abdication in favor of Mr. Green, he was accompanied by two counsel,
one of whom was half an hour behind time, and I learned, not from him,
but from other sources, that he spent that half hour at the house of
Peter B. Sweeny. When the conference went on, he said, not speaking for
himself individually, but still he would state the views taken by other
friends of Mr. Connolly as to what he should do. He said he was assured
that some respectable man would be put in the office of Comptroller, and
that then he would say to Mr. Booth, of the Common Council Committee, and
to the Committee of Seventy: 'I am competent to make every necessary
investigation myself.' And that then everything that would hurt the
party would be kept back; and that was the consideration presented to Mr.
Connolly in my presence, and in the presence of Mr. Havemeyer and the two
counsel. I told Mr. Connolly that the proposition was wrong, and would
fail, and ought to fail; that no man had character enough to shut off the
injured and indignant citizens from the investigation desired; and if he
attempted to do it, it would ruin everybody concerned in it, and plunge
him in a deeper ruin. That his only chance and hope was in doing right
from that day, and throwing himself upon the charity and humanity of
those who had been wronged."

Failing to prevent the appointment of Mr. Green, the Ring endeavored to
ignore it. The Mayor professed to regard the Comptroller's withdrawal
from his office as a resignation of his post. He at once announced his
acceptance of this resignation, and proceeded to appoint a successor to
Mr. Connolly. Here, however, the Ring met with another defeat. During
the early part of 1871, Mr. Connolly had some idea of visiting Europe,
and, in order to keep prying eyes from his official records, had procured
the passage of a law by the Legislature, authorizing him to appoint a
Deputy-Comptroller, who "shall, in addition to his other powers, possess
every power, and perform every duty belonging to the office of
Comptroller, whenever the said Comptroller shall, by due written
authority, and during a period to be specified in such authority,
designate and authorize the said Deputy-Comptroller to possess the power
and perform the duty aforesaid." Mr. Connolly thus had the legal power
to appoint Mr. Green, and the Mayor's refusal to recognize the
appointment was mere bombast. The best legal talent in New York
sustained Mr. Connolly, and the Mayor's own law officer advised him that
he must respect the appointment; and so the statute that had been framed
for the protection of the Ring was unexpectedly used for their
destruction.

[Picture: THE ROBBERY OF THE VOUCHERS]

Still another discomfiture awaited the Ring. A few days after the
appointment of Mr. Green, a servant girl employed in the family of the
janitor of the new Court House, unexpectedly revealed, under oath, the
manner in which the vouchers were stolen from the Comptroller's office,
and the names of the thieves. Her sworn statement is as follows:

"_City and County of New York_, _ss_.--Mary Conway, being duly sworn,
doth depose and say: I have lived with Mr. and Mrs. Haggerty, in the
County Court-House, for over fourteen months, as cook; for about three or
four months I did general housework; on Sunday morning, September 10th, I
got out of bed with the child that slept with me, wanting to get up; I
don't know whether it was half-past six or seven o'clock; Mrs. Haggerty
came into the room in her night-dress; and said to me, 'it is too early
to get up yet;' I said to her, 'being as I am up I guess I will dress
myself;' as I was dressed I went out into the hall; I heard a knocking
down stairs; I said to Mrs. Haggerty, 'it sounds as if it was at the
Comptroller's door;' I went over to the kitchen, unlocked the kitchen
door, and went down stairs to the head of the stairs that leads to the
Comptroller's hall; I saw Charley Baulch knocking at the Comptroller's
door, and calling, 'Murphy, are you there?' Murphy is a watchman; I came
up stairs and went back to the kitchen; shortly after I went down stairs
again and saw Charley Baulch with the door of the Comptroller's office
open, he holding it back on the outside, and I saw Mr. Haggerty come out
of the door with bundles of papers in his arms and bring them up to his
bedroom; the door where he came out is at the foot of the stairs, where
the glass is broken, going into the County Bureau; I came back, and did
not go down any more; each bundle of papers was tied with either a pink
tape or a pink ribbon round them; the next thing, I went over from the
kitchen out into the hall for a scuttle of coal; in this hall Mr.
Haggerty's bedroom door faced me; I saw a man with gray clothes going in
there with another bundle of papers like what Mr. Haggerty had; then I
brought back the coal to the kitchen, and put it on the fire; the next I
saw was this man with the gray clothes going down with a pillow-case on
his back, full, that looked as though filled with papers, shaped like the
bundles Mr. Haggerty had; at the same time he went down the stairs
Charley Baulch said to him, 'This way;' I kind of judged there was
something up, and I went to look in the drawer where the pillow-cases
were, and I missed one of the linen pillow-cases; I did this soon
afterward; soon after the man went down with the pillow-case, Mrs.
Haggerty came into the kitchen, giving me a key, and telling me to go
over to the drying-room; that is a room separate from the bedrooms; there
was a chest there full of linen, table linen and bed linen, and silver
right down in the bottom; she told me to get a nut-picker and bring it
over, as Mr. Haggerty wanted one; I took all the clothes out of the
trunk, and got the nut-picker and brought it back to her, and before I
got into the kitchen I said to Mrs. Haggerty, 'What is the matter? The
kitchen's all black with smoke, and the dining room's all black with
smoke.' She said, 'Mr. Haggerty wanted these papers burned, I told him
not to put them in, but he wants them burned;' I went over to the range
to cook some eggs for breakfast; it was full of burned papers on the top
and in the bottom; there lay a bundle of papers on the top that were
about half burned, with a piece of pink tape around them; I put on the
cover again; they were partly smothered, going out; Mrs. Haggerty had a
poker stirring up the papers on the top and underneath, where the ashes
were; the bottom of the range was full of burning papers, and Mrs.
Haggerty had the poker stirring them up so that they would burn faster;
from underneath the range and the top she took three or four pailfuls of
burned papers and emptied them up stairs on the attic floor, in a heap of
ashes.

"On Tuesday next, when Mrs. Haggerty came home from the market, she asked
me if there was anything new about this robbery in the Comptroller's
office; I told her I did not know; I didn't hear nothing, no more than a
man came up stairs to-day, and asked me if I let anybody in on Sunday, or
if I knew anybody to come into the building on Sunday; I told him I did
not know who came in; I didn't attend to the front door; I was cooking,
and had nothing to do with the front door; and I asked the man who sent
him up stairs; and he said a man down in the hall sent him up stairs to
inquire; next, I told Mrs. Haggerty that if I had known it was Charley
Baulch sent him up stairs to find any information from me, I should have
told the man to go down stairs, that Charley Baulch knew as much about it
as I did, and more, for he was one of the men that helped to rob it; she
said to me, 'Christ! If Charley Baulch knowed that, he'd run into the
East River and drown himself--if he knowed you saw him;' this was on
Tuesday night I told her this; Mr. Haggerty left town on Tuesday, saying
he was going to Saratoga with Hank Smith, and he would be home on
Thursday or Friday, and on Wednesday night he got home from Saratoga;
Mrs. Haggerty told him the remarks that I made to her on Tuesday night
about the robbery; that I saw all that passed; she told me on Thursday
morning that she told Mr. Haggerty about it all, last night; that he was
going to wash his feet, but he felt so bad over it; they sat up for two
hours in the room talking, and he didn't wash his feet; on Thursday
morning when Mr. Haggerty came into the kitchen, he came to me, running
in, and said, 'Mary!' I said, 'Sir!' Said he, 'I don't want you to
speak of what you saw passed here on Sunday morning; I don't want you to
tell these old women or old men in the building; Charley Baulch done it
for me, and I done it for another man;' I said, 'I haven't told it to
anyone;' He said, 'You did tell it to Kitty' (his wife); I said, 'She
knew as much about it as I did; she saw the papers burning;' on next
Friday of that same week I saw Mark Haggerty, Mr. Haggerty's brother, who
is a detective in the Mayor's office, I think; I called him up stairs and
asked him to come in; he said, 'No, I am afraid to come in; I am afraid
of Ed.,' that is, Mr. Haggerty; they have not been on speaking terms in a
year; I then told him the occurrences that happened in the Court-House on
Sunday morning; I told him I didn't feel like staying there; that I was
almost crazy about it; he told me to keep it still; that if anybody would
hear about it outside they would be collared; I asked him would it be
prison; he said certainly.

"On Saturday night I went down to the market where Mrs. Haggerty keeps a
stand, and told her that I was going to leave for a few days until this
mess would be settled, for fear there would be any arrest, and I should
be a witness; she told me all I had to say was that I knew nothing about
it; I told her a false oath I would not give; what I saw with my eyes I
would swear to; she told me I could do as I chose about it; that I might
go against Mr. Haggerty if I chose; she said, 'It's foolish of you to
think so; you ought to go to headquarters and consult Mr. Kelso about
it;' I told her no, it was none of my business to go and consult him
about Mr. Haggerty's robbery; then she and I came together to the
Court-House; I got a couple of dresses and a night dress; I went down
stairs; she went with me; I met a policeman at the door, and he asked me
where I was going; I told him I was going to see my uncle's wife; she was
sick; I then went down to Washington street; I came up for my clothes
yesterday (Tuesday); the rooms were locked; I went down to the market to
where Mrs. Haggerty does business, and the first thing she said to me
was, 'By Christ Almighty, Mr. Haggerty will take your life!' I says to
her, 'What for?' she said, 'What you told Mark;' I said, 'I've told him
the truth about the robbery;' she says, 'Your life will be taken, by
Christ Almighty!' I said, 'I want my clothes;' She said, 'You can get
your clothes any time, what belongs to you;' she did not come up, and did
not open the door; I left my trunk in the hall of the Court-House, that I
brought to put my clothes in; they are over there yet; on that day,
before I saw Mrs. Haggerty, Mr. Murphy came to me and asked me if I
knowed anything about the robbery; if I did, please to tell the
Comptroller; I kind of smiled, and said I knew nothing about it; 'Well,'
said he, 'I know you know something about it;' I was making the bed in
Mr. Haggerty's room when Mr. Murphy came up and asked me if I knew
anything about it; I kind of smiled, and said 'No;' Mr. Murphy says, 'I
know better, you do;' I says, 'Why?' says he, 'Suppose you should be
arrested, then you'd have to prove about it whether you knew anything
about it or not;' that was in the hall; said I, 'When I'm arrested, it's
time enough to prove it then;' I then promised to see him on the stoop on
Saturday night, but I did not; I came up on Sunday morning, and left word
at the Hook and Ladder House to have Mr. Murphy come and see me on Sunday
night at No. 95 Washington street; Murphy came to me, and I told him I
would go up to the Comptroller's house with him and tell the Comptroller
all I knew about it, and that I was not doing it for any reward or money;
I was doing it to clear the Comptroller in the eyes of the people; I went
on Tuesday morning with Murphy to the Comptroller's house, and made the
above statement; this morning there was a policeman came into the house
where I was staying at No. 95 Washington street; the woman in the house
told me he would give me advice about the clothes I had left in the
Court-House; he asked me if I had any charge against Haggerty; I told him
no, no more than what happened there and what I saw on Sunday morning
week, and I explained it to him; he asked me, 'Have you been speaking to
Mr. Connolly?' I said, 'Yes, certainly;' the policeman went out of the
house; the captain (as the woman called him) came to the door and
knocked, and asked the woman about me; she said I had stepped out; he
brought her out on the sidewalk, and was talking to her a little while,
and as I was in the room I heard him speak Hank Smith's name to her once;
when she came in she said he told her that he would like to see me and
have a talk with me, because they would do as much for me as Mr. Connolly
would in this business.

"MARY CONWAY.

"Sworn to before me, Sept. 20th, 1871.

"THOS. A. LEDWITH, Police Justice."

In consequence of this disclosure, Baulch and Haggerty were arrested on
the charge of stealing the vouchers. Search was made in the Court-House,
and the half-charred fragments of the vouchers were found in a room used
for the storage of old lumber. Naturally, the Ring endeavored to treat
this discovery as a trick of the Comptroller's, and they furnished the
men charged with the theft with able counsel to defend them.

The citizens on their part endeavored to bring matters to a satisfactory
termination and secure the punishment of the Ring; but the members of
that body met them at every step with defiance and effrontery. They used
every means in their power to prevent an investigation of the public
accounts, and to defeat the efforts that were made to recover the money
they had stolen from the city. Meanwhile the Citizens' Committee labored
faithfully, and, through the efforts of Mr. Tilden, evidence was obtained
sufficient to cause the arrest of Mr. Tweed. Garvey, Woodward, and
Ingersoll sought safety in flight. Mayor Hall was arrested on the charge
of sharing the plunder obtained by the Ring, but the examining magistrate
declined to hold him on the charge for lack of evidence against him, and
the Grand Jury refused to indict him, for the same reason. Mr. Tweed had
been nominated for the State Senate by a constituency composed of the
most worthless part of the population, and, in spite of the charges
against him, he continued to present himself for the suffrages of these
people, by whom he was elected at the November election. In due time the
various committees appointed by the citizens made their reports,
presenting the facts we have embodied in this chapter. The guilt of the
members of the Ring was proven so clearly that no reasonable person could
doubt it; but still grave fears were expressed that it would be
impossible to bring these men to justice, in consequence of the arts of
shrewd counsel and legal quibbles. The determination of the citizens
grew with the approach of the elections. Their last great victory over
the Ring was achieved at the polls on the 7th of November, when the
entire Ring ticket in the city, with but one or two exceptions, was
overwhelmingly defeated.

Whether the guilty parties will be punished as they deserve, or whether
the citizens will allow the prosecutions they have instituted to flag,
the future alone can decide. At the present there is reason to fear that
the guilty will escape. Should this fear be realized, the citizens of
New York will have abundant cause to regret it. The Ring is badly
beaten, but it is not destroyed. Many of its members are still in
office, and there are still numbers of its followers ready to do its
bidding. Until the last man tainted with the infamy of an alliance with
the Ring is removed from office, the people of New York may be sure that
the danger is not at an end.