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SESSIONS, OF A. OAKEY HALL, MAYOR OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, UPON A CHARGE OF NEGLECT OF OFFICIAL DUTY Opening Address of Mr. Clinton to the Jury, Containing a Statement of the System of the Tweed Ring Frauds ; also Astounding Figures Showing the Magnitude of the Frauds in Respect to the Court-house of New York City. A. OAKEY HALL, Mayor of the city of New York, was indicted in the Court of General Sessions for the City and County of New York, under a section of law, Chapter 382, of the laws of 1870, which reads as fol- lows : "Section 4. All liabilities against the County of New York incurred previous to the passage of this act shall be audited by the Mayor, Comptroller, and present President of the Board of Supervisors, and the amounts which are found to be due shall be provided for by the issue of rev- enue bonds," etc. The indictment charged that Mayor Hall, as a mem- ber of the Board of Audit, neglected to examine and audit one of the claims therein specified. His trial com- menced on the 26th day of February, 1872, in the City of New York, Hon. Charles P. Daly, Chief Judge of the New York Common Pleas, presiding. Lyman Tremain, Wheeler H. Peckham, and Mr. Clinton acted for the prosecution. E. W. Stoughton, John E. Burril, James M. Smith, Ira Shafer, Thomas T. C. Buckley, Joel A. Pithian, and A. J. Vanderpoel (of the defendant's law firm, Brown, Hall & Vanderpoel) appeared as Counsel for the de- fence. Several days were occupied in impanelling the jury. Everything depended upon the selection of a fair, impartial, and intelligent jury. This branch of the case Mr. Clinton attended to. Before the trial came on he examined the list of jurors carefully, and became familiar with the character, antecedents, and associations of all who were liable to be called. By reason of his profes- sional, political, and personal associations, he was able to obtain very accurate information on the subject. He did not desire that any friends of the prosecution should go upon the jury; he was determined that none of the special friends of the defendant or of any member of the Tweed Ring should be impanelled. Nearly, if not quite, all the jurors who presented themselves were challenged by one side or the other for principal cause and to the favor. They were examined and cross-examined thor- oughly. The first two jurors selected became triors of challenges to the favor. It was not an easy task to select a fair and, impartial jury. Mr. Clinton succeeded, however, in keeping out of the jury-box all who had any affiliations with the Tweed Ring. With respect to chal- lenges for principal cause, the questions involved were purely those of law. If the juror had a fixed and de- cided opinion as to the guilt or innocence of the defend- ant, the law rendered him incompetent to serve, and it was easy for the Court to so decide. But with regard to challenges to the favor, the triors had a large dis- cretion. They could infer from almost any facts or circumstances that the juror was or was not impartial. From his manner, from his appearance, or from his evi- dent anxiety to get on the jury, the triors could draw the inference that he was biased and unfit to serve, and therefore find the challenge true, even although the answers of the juror would imply that he was entirely 
HON. CHARLES P. DALY
Chief Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of the County of New York unbiased. After the first two jurors were selected and became triors, they generally sustained the position taken by Mr. Clinton, and found the challenge true, or not true, accordingly. In other words, they rejected nearly every juror whom he asked them to reject; and they admitted upon the jury nearly all whom he asked them to admit. This was simply because they thought Mr. Clinton was right ; for he was not acquainted with either of them, although he knew that they were straight- forward, honest men. The result was that an excellent jury was obtained. On the 1st of March, 1872, Mr. Clinton made the following opening address to the jury, which occupied the entire day "May it please the Court--Gentlemen of the Jury : "Sad and mournful is the spectacle this day presented. The first magistrate of our city is arraigned for trial in a criminal court upon a charge of most serious character. If he be guilty, the disgrace falls not alone upon him and those near and dear to him, but upon a million of people on this island. If he be not innocent, his guilt is a pall of infamy overhanging our city. In his fate, as in that of every person, however humble or obscure, placed upon trial at this bar, the people have a deep and abiding interest. If injustice and wrong in our criminal Courts be dealt out even to the most unimportant indi- vidual in our midst, an outrage is inflicted on the whole community. To the fate of our chief magistrate no one can be indifferent. The law, while it invests him with dignity, clothes him with protection commensurate with his high office. But high as may be his official position, it is not higher than the law; elevated as he is, he is not above the law. If he violate the law--if he set at defi- ance the criminal law, Justice, blind though she be-- blind though she has been too long--will put her hand upon him with as firm grasp as upon the meanest and the most lowly in the land. Wealth nor robes of office can protect him. Those who flock to the temple of Justice will look in vain for the inscription at its portals " `Plate sin with gold,"With me this day begins the most painful duty of my life. Since I first met the defendant at this bar, and was introduced to him by the late N. B. Blunt, (then District Attorney-elect) as his appointee to the office of Assistant District Attorney, more than twenty years have rolled by. Since then, when we were both young, often have we crossed forensic swords. Many have been the trials of deep and absorbing interest in which we have been opposed, not a few of them equalling, if not surpassing, the present. "Only a deep and stern sense of duty could induce me to appear here as the prosecutor of one who, at this bar, has so often and so successfully prosecuted others. I regret, gentlemen, that during the preliminary examina- tion of jurors in this case an attempt was made to induce you to believe that, on the part of Counsel connected with the prosecution, motives of personal animosity ex- isted. So far from that, if I know my own heart, I have no personal ill feeling whatever in respect to this defend- ant. I will disguise nothing from you, gentlemen. I will not deny that, although we both belong to the same political party--he to one branch and I to another--for the last two years I have opposed him and those con- nected with him--the Tammany Ring. I have denounced that organization. I have made many speeches upon that subject, but, so far as any personal feeling is con- cerned, I never entertained any towards him; and it was not until yesterday that I knew, or had any reason to believe, he indulged in a feeling which, were he not on trial, I should characterize as petty malice or childish spite on his part. I regret the exhibition of it, and I assume that the Counsel did him injustice, for I do not wish him--the defendant in this caus-e-to encounter at your hands, any such prejudice as would be likely to re- sult from such conduct. I therefore ask you to dismiss that from your minds, and not to attribute to this de- fendant any of these ill feelings of petty malice or spite which may have been supposed to exist from the conduct of one of his Counsel. Look at him, gentlemen, as a person charged with an offence, entitled to a fair and impartial trial at the hands of a jury of his peers; and, although we may think that the other side, in some re- spects, have committed error in regard to scenes which have been enacted before most of you, yet, if they have given rise to any prejudice against the defendant, I trust you will dismiss it entirely from your minds. "I come before you, gentlemen, at the request and by the appointment of the Attorney-General of the State. My associates occupy the same position. It is the posi- tion occupied by his Honor upon the Bench, who, by the request of the same high officer, has kindly con- sented temporarily to leave the Court of which he is the honored Chief-Justice and preside over your delibera- tions. When designated by the chief law officer of this State as suitable and proper professional gentlemen to conduct this cause, my associates and I did not feel at liberty to decline the important duty assigned us. In my judgment it would have been cowardly and unmanly on our part to shrink from the duty imposed upon us. I know that no one of us will shrink from that duty. At the same time, we will discharge it fairly, honestly, faithfully, and impartially. "Gentlemen, we cannot disguise the peculiar situation of affairs in our city which has given rise to this prose- cution. While I would desire to keep politics as far as possible out of this cause, yet we cannot ignore that which we all know, that a great reform movement re- cently swept over this city like a tornado, uprooting infamous abuses of long standing and scattering to the four winds the conspirators against the public welfare and the public treasury. We all know that during the last summer this community was astounded by the dis- covery of frauds upon the city treasury of the most gigantic character. And it was well that the publica- tion was made, for, in a very few years, at the rate we were progressing, this city would have been bankrupt, to say nothing of the demoralization which was spread- ing throughout this community. On the 1st day of January, 1869, the city and county debt of this city was . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $36,293,929.59 On the 1st day of January, 1870, it had increased to .. . . . . . . 48,033,741.59 On the 1st day of January, 1871, it had increased to . . . . . . . . 73,373,552.02 On September 4, 1871, it had in- creased to . . . . . . . . . . .. . . .97,287,525.03 "At the rate this debt was increasing, assuming that the city property doubled in ten years, it would have taken but just ten years for that debt to equal in amount all the property, real and personal, in this city. In eighteen years, had the debt thus continued to in- crease, doubling in two years--in fact, it was doub- ling every year and a half--it would have been greater than all the property, real and personal, in the United States! No wonder, therefore, that the public attention was aroused by this state of things. No wonder that charges of infamous misconduct were made against high officials. I ask you, gentlemen, not to visit upon this defendant any prejudice arising from that fact; not to visit upon him the consequences, except so far as we are permitted to prove in evidence his connection with one of the frauds, which forms the subject-matter of the present indictment. "It will be impossible for me to present this cause properly before you--to do justice to the people or to the defendant--without calling your attention to the law which clothes him with certain powers. The law upon this subject will have a material. bearing upon the question, whether the defendant properly discharged his duty in the particular case set forth in the indict- ment. "In the observations I shall submit to you, gentlemen, I shall pursue the following order : "1. I shall direct your attention to the extraordinary opportunities the law afforded the defendant to ascer- tain all about the frauds connected with the Board of Audit claim specified in this indictment, and kindred frauds connected with that Board. "2. I shall endeavor to show you that the law gave the defendant particular and special notice of the frauds in regard to the County Court-house, including the fraud specified in this indictment. "3. I shall call your attention to the duties of the Mayor, enjoined upon him by law, in reference to the alleged claim specified in the indictment, and kindred claims. "4. I shall call your attention to facts, showing that the defendant must have known, and in point of, fact did know, that the claim set forth in the indictment was fraudulent, if not altogether fictitious, and that he wil- fully and deliberately omitted and neglected, as a mem- ber of the Board of Audit, to audit or examine the same. "First, as to the opportunities afforded to the defend- ant by law to ascertain in regard to the frauds specified in the indictment and kindred frauds. Under this head I shall call your attention to the extraordinary powers conferred upon him. "You are all aware, gentlemen, that in 1870 a Legis- lature, Democratic in both branches, and a Democratic Governor carried on our State government. You are also aware that during that year a charter for this city was passed; and it will be for the purpose of showing you the opportunities the Mayor had to ascertain the existence of the frauds, and particularly of the fraud charged in this indictment, that I will call your atten- tion to the powers with which that charter clothed him. That was a most extraordinary charter. You have heard much about it. It was a charter concocted-at least some of its provisions were drawn--for the express purpose : "1. To cover up past frauds. "2. To enable those in power to commit new ones. "3. To prevent the people electing new rulers. "4. To protect from punishment those who had been guilty of frauds. "The Mayor, by this charter, was permitted to appoint all the heads of departments, except the Comptroller and the Corporation Counsel. Prior to that time the heads of the various departments had been nominated by the Mayor and confirmed by the Board of Aldermen. No such extraordinary power was ever conferred upon any other Mayor. After the charter had passed, reserv- ing to the people the right (which for many years they had possessed and exercised) to elect the Corporation Counsel and the Comptroller, a tax levy was passed on the 26th of April, which took away from them that power and conferred it upon the Mayor. Now, gentle- men, extraordinary powers were conferred on Mayor Hall--powers which never had been confided to any other Mayor, and which, in my judgment, never will be given to any succeeding Mayor. He, of his own voli- tion, without consulting any human being, was permit- ted by this charter to appoint the following heads of departments "To the Finance Department, a Comptroller. "To the Law Department, a Corporation Counsel. " Four Commissioners of Police, constituting a Board of Police. "A Commissioner of Public Works. "Five Commissioners of Public Charities and Cor- rections. "Five Commissioners of the Fire Department. "Four~Commiasioners of the Health Department. "Five Commissioners of the Department of Public Parks. "One Superintendent of Buildings. "Five Commissioners of Docks. "Twelve Commissioners of Public Instruction. "So that, gentlemen, for the first time in our history, our Mayor constituted the entire city government. There is not a city on the continent of Europe where, in my judgment, so much power is conferred upon the Mayor. Another provision of law incorporated in that charter gave him the power to call upon the heads of depart- ments to make reports to him of the condition of their respective departments. No power existed on the part of any tribunal, on the part of any Court, on the part of the Common Council, on the part of the citizens, on the part of anybody in this city, other than the Mayor, to bring from those various departments any reports for the information of the public. He was the only man who could unearth frauds. "I will call your attention to the specific provision of law upon that subject. Section 31 of the charter (passed April 5, 1870) provides as follows : " ` Section 31. The said departments shall, at such times as the Mayor may direct, make to him, in such form and un- der such rules as he may prescribe, reports of the operations and action of the same, and each of them, and shall always, when required by him, furnish to him such information as he may demand, within such time as he may direct.' (Laws of 1870, page 373.) "Whose business was it to ascertain the state of facts existing in each department? Whose duty was it? The Mayor's. He was the only man who held the key that could unlock these frauds and spread them before the public. Therefore you will perceive that the most grave responsibility was cast upon him--a responsibility from which he had no right to shrink. "There is another provision of that charter to which I will call your attention. By the Constitution of our State, the Supreme Court, the Superior Court, and the Court of Common Pleas had the power to appoint their own officers. The Constitution provided that these Courts should have the powers which they formerly pos- sessed. One of these powers was to appoint their own officers. In violation of this constitutional right of these Courts, the following section was incorporated in the county tax levy which passed April 26,1870 (Laws, 1870, page 880) "`Section 9. Attendants on the several Courts in the City and County of New York, except Police and District Court officers, shall be appointed and removed, and their compen- sation fixed, by the Comptroller, but shall not be greater in number than at present.' "By this section another member of. this Board of Audit was invested with this most extraordinary power. It was necessary that the entire power of the city be concentrated in four persons. Why was this done? The object was that every officer attending the Courts should be under the control of one or more of the members of the Board of Audit. Not an officer could appear here ex- cept by the consent of one of these three members. He could not draw a dollar of pay except by the consent of one of these members: The Comptroller, under this ini- quitous provision, would be allowed to give one officer a thousand dollars, another five hundred, and another one hundred, or any sum he saw fit. What was the object? To get all the power within the hands of four men, as I shall show you presently. Section 1 of the city tax levy contained the following provision (Laws, 1870, page 888) "`The Mayor and Comptroller are hereby authorized to fix the salaries of the Civil Justices of said city, or any or either of them, as they may deem the legal business of the respective districts to justify, not exceeding the salary now paid to Police Justices of said, city.' "The salary paid to Police Justices was ten thousand dollars a year--several thousand dollars more than the salaries paid to Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. The Mayor and Comptroller--mark the intimate relations between the two--were permitted to fix the salaries of all the Civil Justices in this city. They could fix them at any sum they saw fit, not exceeding ten thousand dollars. Look at the power placed in their hands. What was the object? Why, the Mayor could go to a Judge and say, 'Here, I will put your salary at three thousand dollars, five thousand dollars, eight thousand dollars, or ten thousand dollars, according to the extent to which you are my supple tool and instru- ment.' It is a most extraordinary power. That pow- er was placed in the hands of these two men. Then, again, look at the series of legislative acts which clothed this Mayor with--I had almost said omnipotent power. Why, I shall ask you, by-and-by, on the facts of this case, to say whether a man who had such extraordinary opportunities and facilities to ascertain the existence of frauds--the only man in the city who had the power to ferret them out and expose them--is not chargeable with a knowledge of the existence of such as were per- petrated by those with whom he was so intimately asso- ciated. "Another section of the city tax levy provided that the Mayor of the city might designate the Police Jus- tices who should constitute the Court of Special Sessions (Laws, 1870, page 917), which is the intermediate Court between the Police Justice and this Court (the Court of General Sessions). Now, why was this? The object was to enable the Mayor to assign his particular friends to that Court, who would look after his interests and the interests of his immediate associates upon this Board of Audit. That is a fearful power to give one man--to permit him to organize a Court, authorized to send to prison or to set free thousands upon thousands of per- sons appearing before it as criminals! It is a most ex- traordinary and dangerous power, that ought never to be conferred upon one individual. "Before the passage of the charter of 1870 our Com- mon Council possessed what is called legislative powers. Nearly all those powers were taken from them by this charter and conferred upon four men--the Mayor, Comptroller, President of Public Parks, and the Com- missioner of Public Works--A. Oakey Hall, Richard B. Connolly, Peter B. Sweeny, and William M. Tweed. Before this it was for the Common Council to designate the number of clerks of each department and to regulate the operations and expenditures of the various depart- ments of the city government; but by the charter all that power was taken away and conferred upon those four men. They were made legislators. They were made not only Mayors and Comptrollers, but they were made a Common Council. They were almost made Judges. In fact, in them was concentrated all the legis- lative and administrative power in the city. It was pro- vided in the charter that the heads of departments may: "`Appoint and remove all chiefs of bureaus (except the Chamberlain), and also all clerks, officers, employés, and subordinates in their respective departments. [To that no objection need be made.] The number of all officers, clerks, employes, and subordinates in every department (except Police and Fire) with their respective salaries or compensations, shall be such, as the head of each department shall designate and approve, except that the aggregate ex- penses thereof shall not exceed the total amount duly ap- propriated by law to each department for such purpose. (Laws of 1870; page 373, section 32.) "Now look at this fearful power. Prior to this, as I have told you, the Common Council fixed and regulated salaries; but by this charter--which will figure con- spicuously in this cause when we come to give our evi- dence in relation to the identical fraud charged in the indictment--the head of each department could give any salary he pleased to any employe or subordinate. Under this charter Mr. Tweed could have given one clerk one thousand dollars a year and another clerk a salary of one hundred thousand dollars, and there was no law to prevent it. "Another peculiarity was that these departments kept their proceedings to themselves. Each department kept its own record, and Mayor Hall alone could com- pel them to make known their proceedings to the pub- lic. The Fire Department, and all the departments, could do exactly as they pleased, subject to the will of these four persons, chief of whom was Mayor Hall, as I will show you presently. "the Common Council were prohibited from passing any ordinance in relation to the internal affairs of any department. Section 102 of the charter provided as follows : " `The Common Council shall never pass an ordinance in relation to regulating the internal affairs of any of the de- partments herein authorized, or the workings of any of the bureaus, or the duties of any of the subordinate officers of the corporation, or the number of persons to be employed in said department, nor increasing their salaries, except upon the previous application in writing therefor of the head of the department to be affected by said ordinance.' (Laws of 1870, page 391.) "That is to say, the local legislature--the Common Council--of the city, elected for the express purpose of guarding the interests of the people, of ferreting out fraud, of protecting the taxpayers and citizens against corruption in any and all the departments of the city government, are permitted to do nothing to save the city from impending bankruptcy and ruin. The Com- mon Council, the only representatives of the people in the city government, can interpose no obstacle to the consummation of frauds, though they be so gigantic as to involve the city in universal and irretrievable ruin. All power was taken from the Common Council and concentrated in four individuals, at whose head was the Mayor. Dark as was the prospect, some looked forward to emancipation from the power of the four, and thought that, in the kindness of Providence, death might over- take some of them, and in that way relief might come to the people. The future was shrouded in impenetra- ble darkness by section 107 of the charter, which reads as follows " `The power of making appointments herein conferred shall only be exercised by the Mayor elected to that office, and not by an acting Mayor; and in the event of the death, resignation, or removal of such elected Mayor, such power shall devolve on and be exercised by the Comptroller of said city. In case of any vacancy in any head of department or chief officer thereof, it shall be filled for the full term in the like manner as if it were an original appointment to such office, except where herein otherwise provided for.' (Laws of 1870, pages 392-3.) " The charter provided that the Mayor might appoint these different heads of departments for four, six, and eight years; so that we had to look forward to the far- distant future for any reformation in our municipal government; and yet, if, by some providential dispen- sation, we should be relieved of the Mayor, or he should resign, or travel in Europe, or be gone for a considerable length of time, it was hoped that there would be some relief. But no! In that event the Comptroller--Mr. Connolly--is to appoint all the heads of the depart- ments. The Comptroller should no more be clothed with that power than should the head of any other de- partment. "Gentlemen, I have called your attention to some of the enormous powers vested in the Mayor and his asso- ciates. When this charter passed, although it deprived us of nearly all our municipal rights, it left a few. It reserved to the Common Council the power to provide for and regulate the opening, widening, and extending of streets below Fourteenth Street; and yet a few days afterwards this right was taken away by legislation, which, I fear, was influenced by the very money of which the city treasury was plundered--a part of it, I am afraid, was secured through that Board of Audit. That Legislature which on the 5th of April passed the charter, on April 26th passed a tax levy for the City of New York. This was smuggled tbrough, members not knowing for what they voted. Section 30 (Laws of 1870, page 905) takes away this power of the Common Coun- cil and confers it on the Mayor, Comptroller, Commis- sioner of Public Works, and Commissioners of Taxes and Assessments (appointed by the Comptroller). So even the power to regulate and take charge of the streets below Fourteenth Street, which the charter had left to the Common Council, was taken away. Mark you, gen- tlemen, every statute that passed conferred power on four individuals. No statute went outside of the four. In this case, it is true, that to the Mayor, Comptroller, and Commissioner of Public Works were added the Com- missioners of Taxes and Assessments, but they were ap- pointed by the Comptroller, and represented him, and him alone. "I will call your attention to another provision. Sup- pose assessments were made upon your property, and you thought you ought to have some relief. Suppose the foreman of the jury should be assessed five hundred dollars, and Mr. Reed, another juror, should be assessed twenty-five hundred dollars on property of no greater value. One of you would like to have some relief. To whom would you apply? You would have to go to the Mayor, the Comptroller, and, I think, the Commissioner of Public Works, a Board substantially composed of the same gentlemen. Now when departments made esti- mates for the expenses of the next year, who were to dispose of that subject? Departments such as Public Works, Board of Health, Board of Fire Commissioners, Board of Police, were to estimate the amounts wanted for the ensuing year, and those amounts were to be re- vised by the President of the Board and the Mayor and Comptroller. In other words, the Mayor controlled all these departments--first, by appointing to office the heads of them; secondly, by his power to call them to account; thirdly, by determining, in connection with the Comptroller, how much they should expend during the year. The Mayor was allowed, by his single voice, to prohibit the expenditure of any particular sum or sums of which he did not approve. That is to say, he and the Comptroller were clothed with absolute power to allow the amount estimated, or to cut it down, as in their wisdom they saw fit. After these various boards had fixed upon the amount they desired, and it had been sanctioned by the other board, composed of the Mayor and Comptroller and the president of the de- partment, then the Supervisors were compelled by law to raise that amount. The Supervisors were merely clerks to this combination of individuals, called 'The Ring.' If the amount were fifty per cent. more than it ought to be, if amounts were imposed so as to permit these enormous frauds to go on, the Supervisors, no matter how unwilling they might be to aid in the perpetration of these frauds, had no check upon them. The law says they shall raise whatever the Mayor, Comptroller, and the presidents of these different departments shall di- rect. "I have shown you that the Mayor and the Comp- troller, and, incidentally, the President of the Public Parks and the Commissioner of Public Works, had en- tire control of the appointments of the departments, of the internal working of the departments, and of the es- timates for the current year. Now who had the power of making appropriations? Appropriations for each year were to be estimated (section 101 of the char- ter, as amended afterwards) by a board, consisting of the Mayor, Comptroller, Commissioner of Public Works, and the President of the Department of Public Parks. They were to meet immediately (this is in 1871), and after that on or before the 1st of December of each year, to make and agree upon an estimate of the various sums of money which, in their discretion, would be re- quired to defray all the expenses necessary for conduct- ing the different boards, commissions and departments, whether executive, judicial, legislative, or administrative, of the city government ; and also for paying interest and.principal on the city debt, etc.; and thereupon to fix and determine the amount of all such estimates, which amount, when so established by said Mayor, Comptroller, Commissioner of Public Works, and the President of the Department of Public Parks, by the concurring vote of all present, thereby became appro- priated as the amount of money required. "We trace these laws through to this result: first, the Mayor has the power to appoint the heads of depart- ments; then he and the Comptroller, the President of Public Parks, and the Commissioner of Public Works have finally got the power, not only to control all the departments, but they hold the purse-strings of the en- tire city. Not an official--not a man in the whole city-- can draw a dollar--not even his Honor upon the Bench nor the Judges in any of our Courts--except by the per- mission of these four individuals, chief among whom is the Mayor. So that you will perceive they have finally absorbed all power. "At length, in 1871, by the laws of 1871 (chapter 583, page 1269, volume 2), the same officers (Hall, Con- nolly, Tweed, and Sweeny) are created a Board of Ap- portionment; and, after providing for the payment of principal and interest on bonds, etc., of city and county, falling due in that year, and for State tax, etc., it is pro- vided that they 'shall apportion the remainder thereof (i. e., the moneys raised under this act, known com- monly as the two per cent. act) among, and set apart to, the various departments and purposes of the city and county government by the concurring vote of all the members of said board present,' etc. The voice of any one of them is sufficient to stop any appropriation. It is provided that `the said board, etc., shall have power, etc., to limit and transfer appropriations which are found to be in excess of the amount required or deemed to be necessary to such other purposes as they shall find to require the same.' "After power has been conferred on them to regulate everything, to control everything, to disburse all the money after provision has been made for everything that human ingenuity can suggest, lest there be some outlet of the public treasury that they have not thought of, they are clothed with the power to appropriate to `other purposes' whatever they see fit. What those `other purposes' may be will be readily suggested to you by the gigantic and astounding frauds exposed to the public during the past year. And,.what is more, these four may `regulate all salaries of officers and employes of the city and county government.' During this last year they actually got a law passed by which they were permitted to fix the salaries of every of officer of the city government. [Mr. Stoughton, Counsel for the defence, here inter- rupted, and claimed that it was not proper for Mr. Clin- ton to state the provisions of the city charter, on the ground that the members of the Board of Audit acted as county and not city officers. After some observations from the Court, Mr. Clinton proceeded as follows:] "Gentlemen, I can only say that we propose to unfold to you the law applicable to this case. Every provision of law which I have cited I believe to be pertinent to the opening, and in some of its aspects will be pertinent to this case when you finally come to dispose of it. "Now, gentlemen, I have traced these various provi- sions in different statutes down to the point which clothes four officers--four individuals--with absolute power over the city. Not a dollar can be drawn from the public treasury; not a dollar can be appropriated for any pur- pose whatever; even his Honor upon the Bench could not draw his salary without the signature of two, at least, of these officials. What is more, gentlemen, any one of them can stop an appropriation. After an appro- priation or an estimate has been made, any one of them can cut it down to any figure he sees fit. "There is another provision of law to which I will call your attention. Prior to this charter--before the spring of 1870--the Mayor had simply a veto upon the action of the Board of Supervisors. If I remember cor- rectly, he could veto anything which passed that board, with perhaps the exception of taxes. Still, that board, by a majority vote, could pass the resolution or ordinance over his veto, and it would then become a law. But now a new order of things is inaugurated. By the statute (passed 12th of April, 1870, chapter 190, section 2) which abolished the old Board of Supervisors and created a new board, to be composed of the Board of Aldermen, the Mayor, and Recorder, it was provided that any res- olution, ordinance, or act which passed that board should not be a law unless it received the concurring vote of the Mayor. After the Ring got all these enormous pow- ers, and created a new board, lest by some hook or crook a majority or two-thirds or three-fourths of the Board of Supervisors might wish to pass some bill not agree- able to all of the four persons, the Mayor was clothed with an extraordinary power that amounted to an abso- lute veto--that is to say, no bill could pass that board if the Mayor said he was opposed to it. If the Mayor was present, and did not vote for it, the vote of every other Supervisor present went for nothing. "Gentlemen, I have thus hurriedly glanced at the extraordinary powers conferred on the Mayor, and the opportunities the law afforded him to ascertain the exact condition of the affairs of the city, and especially of those matters which came before the Board of Audit. "What better facilities for knowing the character of the claims which came before the Board of Audit could be afforded any one than were thus furnished to the de- fendant? The fraudulent character of the claims which came before that board, so far as they related to the Court- house, could be easily ascertained by any one who took the slightest interest in the subject. It will be for you to say whether the defendant, who was clothed by law with such extraordinary powers and possessed such remarka- ble facilities for investigation, was, in point of fact, or by possibility could have been, ignorant of the fraudu- lent character of these claims. The Counsel told you that this was a county board. That is true. But city officers were appointed to that board. The Mayor was a city officer. The Comptroller was a city officer. The Commissioner of Public Works was a city officer. So, although that was a proceeding on the part of the coun- ty, yet it was by city officers; and the city and county, in the various laws, and in the practice in reference to the execution of. them, are so intermingled that it is difficult to separate the one from the other. The city and county, as you are aware, possess exactly the same boundaries. In the country a county means something very different from what it does in New York; but here, where the boundaries are the same, the difference be- tween the two is almost an abstraction. I will now call your attention to my second proposition. "The law gave the defendant particular and special notice of the fraud in regard to the County Court-house claims. "Gentlemen, this is an indictment for a wilful neglect of duty in not auditing a particular claim which formed one of a large number of claims. This claim related to the County Court-house--the building in which you sit at present. It was important, therefore, that the Mayor should take notice of laws passed upon that subject. Every one is chargeable with knowledge of the law, and certainly a lawyer of over twenty years' experience, when Mayor of the city, is chargeable with a knowledge of the laws applicable to the city or to the county. Now, gentlemen, on the subject of whether this act of the Mayor was wilful, it will be quite important that your attention should be directed to the various statutes upon the subject of this County Court-house: They are cu- rious in some respects. In 1858 (Session Laws, pages 510 and 511, chapter 318, sections 1 to 5) provision was made for the appointment by the Mayor and Supervisors of 'Commissioners of the new City Hall.' The duty of the Commissioners (section 6, page 511) is as follows : "`Section 6. It shall be the duty of the Board of Super- visors of the County of New York, whenever called upon by said Commissioners, to raise a sum not exceeding two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, by the creation of a pub- lic stock, to be called the City Hall Stock, which shall be re- deemable in the year eighteen hundred and seventy-five, out of the sinking fund of the City of New York; and shall bear an interest of six per cent. per annum, and the said building, with all its finishing and furnishing, ready for use, shall not cost any more than the said sum of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.' "Gentlemen, I call your attention to this extraordi- nary provision, that the sum to be expended for building the Court-house shall not exceed 'the said sum of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.' "It only shows the extreme verdancy--inexperience --of those who legislated for this city on that subject in 1858. Since then we have made such rapid progress in finance that I think those who concocted that law must have belonged to an antediluvian race. That act was finally abandoned. Nothing of any importance was done under it. "The next we hear on the subject of this Court-house is that in 1861 (Session Laws, page 564, chapter 240, sec- tion 1) there is the following provision " `The Board of Supervisors of the County of New York are hereby empowered and required, as soon as conveniently may be after the passage of this act, to order and cause to be raised by tax, various sums, among others the follow- ing : Construction of new Court-house, fifty thousand dol- lars.' " That was a very small matter. The work was be- gun in earnest in 1862. "I now call your attention to the laws of 1862 (Ses- sion Laws, page 335, chapter 167, section 1), as follows "`Section 1. It shall be lawful for the Board of Super- visors of the County of New York to raise, by loan, from time to time, a sum of money not exceeding ten hundred thousand dollars, by the creation of a public fund or stock, to be called "The New York County Court-house Stock," which shall bear an interest not exceeding seven per cent. per annum, and shall be redeemable in such annual instal- ments, commencing in the year eighteen hundred and seven- ty-five, as the said board shall provide.' "Here, gentlemen, the work starts in earnest. A mill- ion of dollars is appropriated. I think, you, as practical men, will say that for this sum, had the work progressed with proper rapidity, the Court-house might have been completed and furnished in much better style than at present. "The next we hear of the subject is in the laws of 1864, page 497, chapter 241, section 1. And this is, I believe, the first of these annual appropriations for the completion of this Court-house. Section 1 is as follows " ` Section 1. The Board of Supervisors of the County of New York are hereby authorized, from time to time, to raise by loan, in the manner provided in the act, chapter one hun- dred and sixty-seven, laws of eighteen hundred and sixty- two, a further sum of eight hundred thousand dollars for the construction and completion of the New York County Court-house.' "Although a million was ample in 1862, yet now two years have rolled round, and but little progress has been made. From that time this became a fund for ex- travagance and corruption. The Legislature, in 1864, never contemplated the appropriation of another dollar for the Court-house. They had made one appropriation of a million, and, two years afterwards, when importuned on the subject, they had appropriated enough, and more than enough, to complete it. And hence that body was careful to provide that the sum appropriated was for the `construction and completion' of the New York County Court-house. The other act, I think, was only for the construction of it. We have now reached the point of completion. The Court-house is to be finished for the sum appropriated. I will also call your attention to the manner in which the payments were to be made. Sec- tion 3 provides " `No portion of the moneys hereby authorized to be raised shall be used except in payment for work done and materials furnished, or to be done and furnished under contracts al- ready made in respect to said building, or of contracts here- after to be made therefor, and no contract shall hereafter be made, nor any moneys paid, on account thereof, unless such contracts shall be approved by the present architect of said building.' "The legislators were careful then. They saw the end of the matter, and, in order to guard against any further abuses, they provided that no money should be expended except upon contracts already made, or on contracts to be made and approved by the architect of the building. The Legislature, it appears, had confi- dence in that gentleman, and believed that he would not wantonly squander the public money. " In the year 1865 another appropriation was asked for, and the eternal work of flnishing this Court-house went on. In the Session Laws of that year, pages 1252- 1253, chapter 605, section 1, it was provided that the Board of Supervisors of said county (New York) are `Empowered and required, as soon as conveniently may be after the passage of this act, to order and cause to be raised by tax * * * the following sums of money for the several purposes hereinafter specified: * * * New York County Court-house, construction of, three hundred thousand dollars. No portion of said moneys shall be used except in payment for materials furnished, or to be furnished, under contracts already made in respect to said Court-house, or of contracts hereafter to be made therefor, and no contract shall here- after be made, nor any moneys paid on account thereof, un- less such contracts shall be approved by the present architect of said Court-house, and no work shall be paid for except upon the approval of said architect.' "Here, in 1864 and 1865, you find substantially the same provision. The only check upon this enormous ex- penditure of money was the approval of the architect. "In 1866, it would seem that the completion of the building had gone backward instead of forward. Al- though three hundred thousand dollars was enough to complete it in 1865, in 1866 it required five hundred thousand dollars for the same purpose. It is provided in the Session Laws of 1866, page 1893, chapter 837, section 1 " ` In addition to the several amounts authorized and re- quired by existing laws to be raised by tax in the City and County of New York for the use of the State, and for de- fraying a portion of the contingent and other charges and expenses of said city and county, for the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, the Board of Supervisors of said county are hereby empowered and required, as soon as conveniently may be after the passage of this act, to order and cause to be raised by tax * * * the following sums of money for the several purposes hereinafter specified : * * Court-house (new), construction of, five hundred thousand dollars.' "It would seem now as if the Legislature had aban- doned all idea of the Court-house ever being built, and therefore they place no restriction upon the expenditure of the money. No provision is made in that act as to how the expenditures are to be audited and paid. It is interesting to observe the way the annual appropria- tion increases. In 1865 the sum of three hundred thou- sand dollars is sufficient to complete the Court-house. In 1866 the additional sum of five hundred thousand dollars is necessary. In 1867 the sum of eight hundred thousand dollars is required to complete the building. It seemed that the longer this work progressed the more it required each year to finish it. There is a provision in the Laws of 1867, pages 1993-94, chapter 806, section 1, similar to the one that I have read. It provides for an appropriation, as follows "`Court-house (new), for completion of, eight hundred thousand dollars ($800,000).' "No provision was made--and it would have been a work of supererogation to make any--in regard to the manner in which the money was to be expended, or upon whose certificate payments were to be made. It was of no consequence whatever, for the Legislature evi- dently had in despair given up the whole subject. That amount was expended, and then, in 1868, it required eight hundred thousand dollars more. By this time the Legislature had discovered that unless some check were put upon this enormous expenditure the pres- ent generation would never see the work completed, and therefore, to save posterity from attempting such a task, a limitation upon the expenditure was made in the year 1868. That statute uses the following language " ` For the completion, fitting up, and furnishing of the new Court-house, in the said county (New York), now near com- pletion, the Comptroller of the City of New York is hereby authorized and directed to raise the necessary money, not exceeding eight hundred thousand dollars.' "Mark you, in this act the Legislature determined that under no circumstances should any more be ap- propriated. And you perceive this appropriation of eight hundred thousand dollars is not for the construc- tion alone--not for the fitting up alone, but for the com- pletion, fitting up, and furnishing of the new Court- house, now near completion. "Here, gentlemen, is the source of much of our mod- ern difficulty on this subject. Up to a certain time the money was to be expended under the approval of the architect. In later years the money was to be expended (as far as the particular tax levies were concerned) upon the approval of nobody in particular; but this act has the following provision: "`The money so raised shall be paid by the Comptroller on bills audited and allowed by the Board of Supervisors of said county.' "The moment the subject got into the Supervisors' hands it assumed an apparently perpetual, eternal con- dition of expenditures. When the bills were to be au- dited by the Board of Supervisors--among whom, or chief among whom, was William M. Tweed--it would appear by these various statutes that no progress was made whatever towards ending this expenditure. " In 1869, according to the statute (pages 2113 and 2116, chapter 875, section 1), another provision of six hundred thousand dollars ($600,000) was made. And what was that for? Precisely the same thing as the year before. That was 'for the completion, fitting up, and furnishing of the new Court-house in said county, now near completion, six hundred thousand dollars ($600,000).' The year before, when it was near comple- tion, it required eight hundred thousand dollars ($800,- 000). In the year 1869 it required six hundred thousand dollars ($600,000) to complete and furnish. The sum so raised was to be audited by the Board of Supervisors. In the tax levies of 1868 and 1869 are contained the same provisions. Then, again, in 1870, when the Legis- lature met, the building was no nearer completion. Ac- cording to the Session Laws of that year (chapter 382, section 1), it was provided "`In addition to the several amounts authorized and re- quired by existing laws to be raised by tax in the City and County of New York, * * * the Board of Supervisors of said county are hereby empowered and required, as soon as conveniently may be after the passage of this act, to order and cause to be raised by tax * * *the following sums,' etc. "Now a flood of light breaks upon us. Great hope is expressed here : "`Section 11. To provide for the final completion of the new County Court-house in New York * * * the sum of six hundred thousand dollars ($600,000). "Now, gentlemen, starting in the year 1858 with a provision that we shall have a Court-house which, with all its furnishing and finishing, shall cost two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and no more, we have arrived at the end of 1870 with annual appropriations running from a million to as low as three hundred thousand dol- lars; and, with one exception, there has been an appro- priation every year. In the year 1863 no appropriation was made, there having been an appropriation of a mill- ion of dollars the year before. In 1870 it was provided that "`The money so raised shall be paid by the Comptroller on vouchers approved by the commissioners herein authorized, and to be filed in his office.' "Now, gentlemen, you would have supposed that we had reached the final completion by this time; but no such good fortune was in store for us. "In the laws of 1871 (pages 1268 and 1273) there is a provision that " `The Board of Supervisors of the County of New York are authorized and required to raise by tax * * * Section 7 (page 1273), for the completion of the New York County Court-house [it had been completed three years before ; it had been finally completed once before ; now it is merely for the completion of the New York County Court-house] the sum of seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($750,000).' "This is in 1871. " `Under the direction and supervision of the commission- ers appointed under the provisions of section 11, chapter three hundred and eighty-two, of the laws of eighteen hundred and seventy.' "That is to say, after this matter had gone on so long and the charter had been passed, it was then taken out of the hands of the Board of Supervisors, and a special Com- mission created to finish the Court-house. And who had the appointment of the commissioners? Now the work was to be done in earnest. A charter had been passed conferring imperial powers upon our Mayor. A com- mission had been created, and then the work was to be done, and the law prohibited the expenditure of another dollar for that purpose in addition to the amount appro- priated. Who was the fortunate officer to appoint the commissioners to actually complete the Court-house? That man was A. Oakey Hall, Mayor of the City of New York. The power was conferred upon him to ap- point, I think, five commissioners for that purpose. The seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($750,000) pro- vided for the completion of the new Court-house in the City of New York, was to be paid on the certificate of those commissioners. He appointed them. The duty was cast upon him by law to see that they faithfully performed their duty. He had the supervision of them; and he had a fund which was more than ample for the particular purpose for which it was appropriated. "I have shown you that the Legislature in different years has appropriated over six millions of dollars for the construction, completion, and furnishing of our County Court-house. The money has been raised upon bonds. The interest which we have paid is over one million eight hundred thousand dollars. In round numbers, the Court-house has already cost over eight millions of dol- lars, probably four times as much as it ought to cost when properly completed and furnished. "You would suppose that was enough, and that a Mayor who himself was chargeable with a knowledge of these various statutes--and, if opportunity should be afforded, I would like, when the proper time comes, to ask him whether he drew any of them--you would suppose that a Mayor cognizant of these various laws, who was aware that six million two hundred thousand dollars had been appropriated for this Court-house, which, on no conceivable estimate, with all its furnish- ings and finishings, can be worth three million dollars, would use some caution when bills were placed before him to audit, or when warrants were placed before him to be signed, for any further expenditure on the subject of this Court-house. "There has been paid, in addition to these enormous sums to which I called your attention--what amount do you think? I called your attention to six millions and upwards appropriated by the Legislature for this specific purpose, and yet, gentlemen, extraordinary as the announcement may be, in addition to these enor- mous amounts, according to the actual figures, there was paid, in the years 1869 and 1870, about six millions of dollars upon warrants signed by the Mayor and Comptroller. "Let us stop right here and figure up, as far as prac- ticable, the cost, up to the present time, of this far-famed building-the New York County Court-house. "I invite your attention to the following Statement showing Appropriations of the New York Legis- lature, from 1861 to 1871, for the New York County Court- house ; also, Amount of Interest payable thereon. (Time calculated from July 1, 1861, to July 1, 1871.) Also, amounts paid in excess of Legislative Appropriations.
1871..................................................... $6,200,000 Total interest on Legislative appropriations to July 1, 1871 ........................................... 1,876,000 Legislative appropriations and interest ...... $8,076,000 In 1869 and 1870, amount paid in excess of Legislative appropriations. . . . .... ........... 6,336,004 Total cost up to July 1,1871 . . . . . . . .. ....... $14,412,004 "At the present time this County Court-house, not worth three millions of dollars (worth but little, if any, over two millions), with all its furniture, has cost the city upward of fourteen millions of dollars ! We are actually paying yearly as interest a sum greater than the Court-house would have cost had it been completed, as was intended, within a reasonable time after its commencement. One million dollars a year interest, in round numbers, we are paying for this Court-house ; and if we go on and pay this interest for eleven or twelve years--it is probable that we shall continue to pay it for a much longer period--the whole cost, principal and in- terest, will be not less than, twenty-five millions of dol- lars! At all events, the interest is a most important item. Can you wonder that your taxes are. so large when you have to pay such enormous sums and get so little in return ? [Mr. Clinton then proceeded to call attention to the duties of the Mayor, enjoined upon him bylaw; also to facts showing, as he claimed, that the defendant must have known that the claim set forth in the indictment was fraudulent. After speaking at great length upon these points, Mr. Clinton concluded as follows:] "Gentlemen, on behalf of the prosecution we ask you to render a verdict in accordance with the law and the evidence. With entire confidence we call on you to discharge your duty fairly, impartially, and fearlessly between the people and the defendant. "In times like these, when corruption, like the pall of death, overhangs our city; when fraud, brazen with success, defies a long-suffering, patient, plundered com- munity; when larcenies are conducted on a scale of im- perial splendor; when forgeries nestle in the bosom of justice; when amateur burglars convert the very temple of law into a theatre for the exercise of their skill and daring; when the signs of the times are read by the light of burning records; when names of high officials are encircled with a halo of infamy, our only hope is in an upright, independent judiciary, and an honest, fearless jury. The eyes of the people of this great metropolis-- the first city in America--are upon you. The attention of the people of this State is riveted upon you. This whole nation is anxiously awaiting your verdict. The deep interest of not alone this nation, but of every civ- ilized nation on the globe, in the result of this trial must admonish you of the importance of the rendition of a true verdict; a verdict which will show to the world that you have, indeed, been true to the great public in- terests involved in this case--true to the law, whose ministers you, are--true to the cause of public justice committed to your keeping-true to yourselves. To each of you, I say, " ` . . . To thine own self be true;or to the community in which you live." |
