that he ought to aid in its punishment. Still, there was always the chance that the Ring might be better than it seemed, at least sections of it, and these sections might unite and control national Democracy in 1872. To be sure Mr. Greeley was not a Democrat, though as surety for Jefferson Davis he had invited the friendship of the "Solid South," and held out the hand of welcome across the bloody chasm. If, therefore, it should happen that the Republican party should conclude to renominate Grant, it was just possible that the many and various elements remaining might unite on Mr. Greeley, and of these elements Tammany was certain to be one. The Tribune criticised the Ring in a manner which, under the circumstances, doubtless seemed sufficiently

severe. Yet gentleness had never been regarded as one of Mr. Greeley's editorial weaknesses. "Liar" was his most frequent and favorite epithet, and his vocabulary was not lacking in special terms of severity. To have led in a great reform and denounced a corrupt gang as "thieves" and " villains "would ordinarily have given joy to Mr. Greeley's heart. It seems, therefore, fair to assume that, while he was never in league with the Ring, he was unconsciously influenced by his ambition to become the choice of a great nation. It was clearly a mistake, however, for him to have become at this particular time the chairman of what was organized as the " Tammany Republican General Committee," or of any other committee that exhibited the word Tammany in its title. A Tammany Republican is a somewhat difficult species to define, even in this day of new enlightenment, and Mr. Greeley, who was not supposed to be lacking

in political acumen, must have been blinded indeed by his desire for preferment to have linked himself then with an element that assumed the meaningless title as a flimsy concealment of double-dealing and Ring servitude.

The writer has thus considered at some length what would seem to have been Mr. Greeley's personal attitude at this time, for the reason that the great editor himself was very soon to become a target for pictorial satire. It would be injustice not to add that whatever his utterances may have lacked in vigor and epithet, they were delivered on the side of reform, and Mr. Greeley's paper, the Tribune, was first to join Harper's Weekly and the Times in the crusade against the Ring.

And the crusade was making headway. Sections of a hitherto inanimate public spirit were aroused to a semblance of life and resistance. On April 4th a meeting was held at the Cooper Union to protest against a legislative bill which would give to the Ring still further emoluments and powers. This meeting THE POLLS

HAS THE NATIVE AMERICAN NO RIGHTS THAT THE NATURALIZED AMERICAN IS BOUND TO RESPECT!
THE OTHER NATIONALITIES MAY VOTE, BUT NOT THE ORIGINAL AMERICAN

was called to order by William E. Dodge, while William F. Havemeyer presided. Among the speakers was Henry Ward Beecher, also Senator Evarts, who declared that it was no longer a pride to be a New Yorker, but a disgrace, if New Yorkers could not save themselves from infamy.

UNDER THE THUMB

hundred citizens of the very first rank-at least so far as wealth and public influence were concerned.* Tweed could well afford to ask of the reformers "What are you going to do about it?" and Nast's picture of the giant thumb of the "Boss" pressing hard on Manhattan Island exactly expressed the condition which inspired that famous line.

Indeed it looked as if the public would be able to do very little. "It will all blow over," said Hall. "These gusts of reform are all wind and clatter. Next year we shall be in Washington."

Hall's remark about Washington was based on the fact that at this particular time Governor Hoffman was the Tammany Hall candidate for the Presidency, and was thought to have a comparatively clear field. Nast's cartoon of June 17th shows Hoffman as the Tammany Wooden Indian on wheels being

*Looked at in the present light one must believe that men of the highest respectability then allowed their names to be used, provided they would be permitted to share profits, and that the press, which should have been guardian of the people's interests, openly sustained the general degradation of the times.-" New York in Bondage," by Hon. John D. Townsend.

pushed and pulled toward the White House by the Erie and Tweed combination.

The Ring made a fatal mistake at this point. It would far better have let national affairs alone. Samuel J. Tilden, one of the shrewdest politicians of that period-skilled at intrigue, relentless in action and an excellent hater-had presidential ambitions of his own. It was poor policy on the part of the Ring to push Hoffman in his way.

Tilden had been counsel for the Erie directors when Tweed and Sweeny were on that board, and knew them intimately. Also, as chairman of the Democratic State Committee, in 1868, he had been hand and glove with Tweed and his followers throughout that notorious campaign. Tilden therefore had an intimate knowledge of the Ring and its methods. He knew, too, by signs in the sky that the storm, which would not "blow over," was getting ready to break. Wisely and furtively he laid his plans, and patiently waited the hour when undeniable proof of the Ring's guilt and public indignation should make its downfall sure. Then he would be ready to strike home.

CHAPTER XX

THE PROOFS OF GUILT

It was James O'Brien, a close political friend of Tilden and sheriff under the Ring, who secured the proofs which resulted in its fall. The writer has never seen any statement connecting Mr. Tilden with the inception of O'Brien's scheme for destroying the Ring, but in the light of collected facts it seems fair to credit the shrewder man-the man with the greater motivewith the origin of the idea.

The Ring was no longer useful to Tilden, but, as we have seen, had become a bar to his political progress. It was greatly to his interest that it should be destroyed. If he could acquire credit in its destruction, so much the better. O'Brien too had ambitions of his own and old scores to wipe out. There could be no closer political bedfellows at this particular time than these two men, and Tilden had just the sort of genius to conceive the plan; while O'Brien, who was still in the Ring's favor, was the man to execute it. O'Brien himself, in a published interview, has admitted that Tilden was present during a conference with George Jones, of the Times, when Jones was urged by Tilden to make the most of the evidence in his hands.

Concerning O'Brien's enmity to the Ring, Tweed in his confession, long afterward, testified that it began when Connolly for some reason refused to allow one of the sheriff's exorbitant bills.