Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 April 1877 — An Alleged Confession by Win. M Tweed. [ARTICLE]

An Alleged Confession by Win. M Tweed.

i New York, April 17. William M. Tweed, from his quarters in Ludlow-Street Jail, sends the AttorneyGeneral a proposition reciting that, in return for the favor of liberty and rest, he will yield up all his property and be a faithful witness on behalf of the people. He says he has suffered much and suffered long in silence, and has borne the burden of what others should have shared. Afflicted with disease, feeble from age and confinement, and ill at ease in mind, he seeks for the rest and relief he so much and so sorely needs. He adds that the only basis upon which he has a right to apply for leniency and pardon is that he will make a complete surrender of his property and full disclosure of his criminal companions. The proposition is a long and exhaustive document, and assumes the nature of a confession, which goes back as fas as 1867, when the Ring first began to assume form. It gives in detail the story of various conferences between the writer, Peter B. Sweeny, Richard Connolly, Henry Genet, A. Oakey Hall and others, by which Tweed was elected to the State Senate, Connolly, Comptroller in 1867, and Hall, Mayor. Jan. 1, 1869, Tweed, according to the story, transferred to State Senator Winslow in person $200,000 to secure the charter of 1870, which gave to the Ring the control of the city through the support of several influential Republican members of the Legislature. It was Tweed’s understanding with. Winslow at the time that the money was to be divided between Woodin, Samuel H. Frost, Augustus R. Elwood, William H. Brand, Norris Winslow, James Wood, Isaiah Blood and George Morgan, all of the Senate, ancLalso with Van Pelton, Williams, Crowley, Merriam and Beaman, for their influence in the Assembly. The confession gives the circumstances of the division of the spoils between himself, Sweeny, Hall, Conudfty and Woodward. It implicates Garvey, Ingersoll, Davidson, Watson and a majority of the Board of Supervisors. Mayor Hall’s proportion was 10 per cent. He shared throughout in all the profits. He was in full collusion with the fraud in its various details, and was fully aware of the fraudulent nature of the contracts presented . for his .signature. A document, purporting to be the record of the proceedings of the Board of Audit of May 5, 1870, by which Mr. Hall on his trial secured acquittal on the ground that he acted only in a ministerial character,. Tweed says was manufactured after the exposure. Hugh Hastings, of the Commercial Advertiser, is mentioned as having received a check for $20,000, and checks for smaller amounts at various times. Mr. Hastings is also credited with the diplomatic achievement of having brought Jay Gould and Tweed together, by, which alliance the Tammany and Erie Kings were operated to their mutual advantage. The confession, also, according to the World, says that all the house-painting and book-cases in Recorder Hackett’s house were paid for by the city. Mr. Tweed gives the name* of five persons who, he promises, if immunity is given them, will swear to the truth of all his statements. He has preserved all checks and kept memoranda of all his transactions, all of which will be placed at the disposal of the State. Of the five persons named, four are E. D. Barber, exCollector James Pierce, Alexander Frear, and William King, Tweed’s former Deputy Commissioner of Public Works. Shortly after the publication of the “secret accounts,” in July, 1871, Tweed says Francis N. Bixby and ex-Sheriff (then State Senator) O’Brien came to him arid offered to secure him against any furtiier investigation of bis bank accounts, his relations with the city, or, indeed, from any further trouble, if he would pay $150,000 toward O’Brien’s claim against the city for $296,000, for unpaid fees. The two represented to him that they had such influence over Mr. Tilden, Judge Barrett, and William C. Barrett as to Immediately quash any further steps in the pending investigation. Tweed says he paid them $20,000 in cash and mortgages, which they afterward collected, for the rest, and he understands they afterward secured the same amount from Connolly upon the same representations. He aays he does not consider O’Brien’s claim has any real merits. Hugh Smith, {sweeny’s particular friend, attended to all transactions with Judge Cardozo, by which judicial action was taken in behalf of the Ring. Tweed says the Navarro claim of sl,ooo,oooagainst the city for water meters is a fraud, He mentions 'Thurlow Weed by name, but does not connect him with any equivocal transaction. He mentions Judge Folger, of the Court of Appeals, and George H. Purser, of New York, as persons to whom he paid money. The confession concludes widia promise that the writer will be a witness for the city in any suit brought by the city for the recovery of moneys from any of the persons mentioned. He does not ask that suits against him be i uashed, but that he be released from con,nement without bail.

Relative to th? above statements, Mr. Hastings says the $20,000 check affair was a purely business transaction, andhe emphatically denies that, nporrariy occSsion’,’ any moneys passed through hrs hahds to Senator Woodin, to secure his vote, or for other purposes. Judge Folger denies that Tweed ever paid him any money. Senator Woodin says the confession 1 “iffabsolutely and unqualifiedly false in every particular in its assertions touching my conduct. I never received any money from William M.‘ Tweed, directly or indirectly, either from him. or from any other person on his behalf.” Other denials are also reported. —A bad hopper-ration—being forced to give up your fields as food for the grasshopper. )