the citizens they have so greatly outraged and voraciously robbed. They were forced to resign their offices, and successors were appointed by the Committee of Seventy. Thus Tammany was completely and utterly overthrown. The question only a few months previously so insultingly propounded by "Boss" Tweed, "What are you going to do about it?" was triumphantly answered by the people.

As soon as this work had been accomplished, the committee next gave its attention to the corrupt judiciary; the basest, vilest, most abominable of all Tammany tools. The "New York Bench," from the Supreme Court down to the office of Police Magistrate, had fallen so completely under the control of Tammany and Erie, that all applications for relief or protection from the wrong inflicted or sought to be inflicted by the members, associates or servants of these rings were invariably refused. It was the sheerest folly in any one to appeal to the courts for protection or relief when the wrong was perpetrated by the minions of Tweed or Fisk. They owned the courts, and the judges dare not do aught against their masters. When an appeal was taken to the court of last resort--the high court of the people-all the cases were reviewed. The thieves, robbers, plunderers and murderers were brought to punishment, and the corrupt "bench" was overthrown.

The citizens of New York have fully demonstrated the practicability of a republican government for great cities. Crime may more readily find shelter in densely populated communities and corruption spread

more rapidly in great cities. The plunder of tax payers is more easily accomplished in large commercial and manufacturing centres; official intrigue and robbery finds greater facilities in the midst of a city comprising a great floating population, made up of accessions from all parts of the world. But in these large cities there are also a preponderance of stirring, active, honest, successful men, intensely absorbed in business affairs. They meet each other "on change," in the street, in the great mercantile, manufacturing and financial operations; they know and trust each other in matters that involve vast sums of money daily. Now, let these men be aroused to a sense of common danger; show them a public enemy, domestic or foreign, and instantly they stand together, give battle, wage war, exterminate the foe. The work is short, sharp and decisive. Business men of great cities do not trifle; they meet, deliberate and act. Their power is irresistible wherever it asserts itself. It was this class in New York that has settled the question for all time, that a Republican form of government is applicable to the population of one of the largest cities.

The danger is that men become so deeply absorbed in their private affairs, that they wholly neglect their public duties. Politics is turned over to those who make it a profession, and who live and grow rich by office holding. It is only when the robbery of their rulers becomes so glaring, and the sums of money stolen so enormous, as to excite very general alarm, that the real dignity and power of citizenship

asserts itself, and demands from the public servants an account of their stewardship. "Short settlements make long friends," is a maxim as true in politics as in trade. A more general adherence to it will save millions of revenues annually to Nation, State and municipality; for it is not the money required to defray the legitimate expenses of any government, that imposes high taxes, but the systematic, organized robbery of the public treasury by officeholders, that consumes the earnings of the poor and lays burdens upon the rich. The lesson of the Tammany frauds is one that may be studied with profit by the people in every community in the United States. Tax payers take courage! Officeholders take warning!

CHAPTER XI.

FISK'S ASSOCIATES.

Daniel Drew, the Leader of the Bear Clique—The magnate of Erio— Cornelius Vanderbilt, the leader of the Bull Clique-The king of railroad managers and manipulator general-Jay Gould, "Fisk's bosom friend" and business partner-President of Erie-William M. Tweed-"Boss" of the Tammany Ring-The most powerful leader among the robbers who plundered the tax paxers-Peter B. Sweeney, the Brain of Tammany-Mayor Hall-Richard B. Connolly, Comptroller of Finance.

If an attempt were made to judge Fisk by the company he kept, he would appear even a greater enigma than when judged by his public acts. It has already been recorded, that in Vermont he bore a good name as a boy, a man and a merchant. In Boston he was a conspicuous man in that "middle class," which inincludes by far the largest proportion of what is called good in society. He was an active, thriving, rising young merchant-was so recognized and classified. The single circumstance of his admission to a partnership, after due trial, into one of the most respectable business houses in New England, is in itself evidence of good standing.

It is

His first venture in New York was a failure. not worth while, therefore, to notice it. Upon his return to that city, the reader will recollect, he carried with him a letter of introduction to one of the leading men in the metropolis-leading as a banker-as a (266)

steamboat proprietor-as a railroad manager-as a stock broker—as a Methodist. Daniel Drew was pleased with Fisk, and gave him opportunities which were employed to the best possible advantage. He set Fisk up in the brokering business, and took him into his confidence, and finally put him into the "Erie Board." Of course no one will accuse Mr. Drew of having led Mr. Fisk into temptation, nor attempt to hold him responsible for Fisk's acts. It is true, however, that the heavy operations in Erie stock, the flight to New Jersey, and a considerable part of the increase to the Erie stock and debt, and also the "Currency Corner,' were perpetrated by the joint efforts of Drew and Fisk. The association between Fisk and Vanderbilt was not so long continued, nor so intimate; it was rather a dealing with each other, standing face to face; in Drew's case it was side by side.

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Fisk and Gould met in the Erie Board, of which both were chosen members at the same time. They were peers-warmly attached to each other-partners in business, standing firmly together to the end.

When Drew retired from the Erie management, Fisk, with his partner, Gould, fell into the jaws of Tammany. He became an associate plunderer with Tweed, Sweeney, Hall and Connolly, names that have become notorious throughout the civilized world, and in the city of New York. Biographies of these men are given, in order to more fully illustrate the business associations of Fisk. The social relations, recreations and episodes in his life are treated of in other chapters.