P 198 
 ■ A21 
 Copy 2 
 
 OUR 
 
 LITTLE MONARCHY: 
 
 Who Runs It, 
 
 And What ]t Costs 
 
 By F. C. ADAMS, 
 
 JTHOR OF THK BIEGK OF WASHINGTON \ND OTHER WORKS. 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
 18 7 3. 
 
 FOR SALE BY 
 
 F. A. FILLS & CO., Cor. N. Y. Ave. and 15th St. 
 
 And by all Bookseller*. 
 
 - f 
 

 ;<■ 8, fourteenth Jfine from top, acts of government should read 
 lW of gqvernmeryi." 
 
 Pag'a 16, tenth Jfin« from bottom, the word different should read 
 1 differently." 
 
 Pjige 17, in tfeie ninth rind twenty-first line from the top, the word 
 effected occurs instead of "affected." 
 
 On page 28, fourth line from bottom, for < $2,80 " read "$2,800." 
 
OUR 
 
 LITTLE MONARCHY: 
 
 Who Runs It, 
 
 AND WHAT IT COSTS 
 
 By F. C. ADAMS, 
 
 AUTHOR OF THE SIEGE OF WASHINGTON AND OTHER WORKS. 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
 1873. 
 
 For Sale by F. A. FILLS & CO., Cor. N. Y. Ave. and 15th St., 
 
 And by all Bookseller*. 
 
HAVE WE A MONARCHY? 
 
 Letter ISIo. 1 . 
 
 Many persons may regard this as a very singular and inappro- 
 priate question, living, as we do, in what is called a great free 
 Republic, and under the very shadow of its Capitol. It may, 
 indeed, seem strange to many persons that I should even ask the 
 question. And yet it is an undeniable fact that we have got a 
 monarchical government in form and features, and these features 
 of the very worst kind, in Washington. It was our boast during 
 the war that we had the best government the world ever saw. 
 I propose to prove that we have here in Washington the worst 
 government the world ever saw. I say it is the worst govern- 
 ment the world ever saw, because it is a selfish, personal, and 
 irresponsible government, a government that sets justice and 
 right at defiance, and the highest object of which, as experience 
 has already shown, is to steal from the rich and oppress the 
 poor. I mean these things in their broadest sense. Stealing from 
 the rich is not an uncommon crime in this country. It is only 
 criminal when you steal not exactly in accordance with law. As 
 to the punishment, that depends very much on the amount you 
 steal. Steal a million or so and you are as fine a fellow as ever 
 the law elevated into a hero, or touched with dainty gloves. 
 Your petty thief, who steals only a coat or a pair of shoes to cover 
 his naked feet, will, of a surety feel the rigors of the law, and be 
 sent to the penitentiary. 
 
 I have said we have a government that steals from the rick 
 and oppresses the poor. And what is more strange, is the fact 
 that a Republican Congress gave it power to do both these things, 
 A year's experience proves that this new Territorial Government, 
 or rather the men who control it, are inspired only by selfish mo- 
 tives, and use their power to make money. And they not only 
 oppress the poor man, but they claim the right to control his 
 labor in the interest of a corrupt political clique. They also 
 claim the right to take possession of the poor man's little proper- 
 
ty, accumulated by hard labor and frugality, and deny him the 
 right of consulting either his pocket or his taste in the improve- 
 ments they shall put on it. Experience has already shown that 
 the sole object of these men is to " improve" the poor man out 
 of his property, and, by forming a corrupt ring, get possession 
 of it themselves. These men assume the exclusive right of say- 
 ing what " improvements" shall be put on every man's property. 
 And if the poor man has not the means of paying for these im- 
 provements, and in nine cases out of ten he has not, then these 
 men will sell him out and drive him from his home. Already 
 the work of selHng these poor people out has begun, and with a 
 harshness and cruelty sad to contemplate. 
 
 HOW AND FOR WHAT OBJECT THIS NEW "TERRITORIAL GOV- 
 ERNMENT" WAS ESTABLISHED. 
 
 Washington had, as is well-known, an old fashioned Muni- 
 cipal Government, simple in its form and economical in its work- 
 ings. The experience of live hundred years has shown that this 
 form of government, properly administered, is the best and most 
 economical for large cities. Ours was not a model municipal 
 government. It needed improving and so shaping as to meet the 
 demands of the times. But it was cheaply administered ; under 
 it our improvements were going on steadily and economically, 
 and the people had the right of choosing their own rulers. The 
 most responsible, honest and thinking portion of our people were 
 contented with this form of government. The laws were res- 
 pected, the checks upon official power good, and the opportu- 
 nities for plunder small indeed. The only men discontented with 
 this form of government were a number of well-known contract- 
 ors and pavers who wanted to control the paving jobs, and who 
 were notorious in Washington for their selfishness. 
 
 You could count these men on your fingers' ends ; but by 
 seducing the press from its legitimate duties, they gained a pow- 
 erful influence for evil ; and they did this by keeping up a clamor 
 against the government at home and misrepresenting it abroad. 
 Two or three of these men were known to our people as energetic 
 and enterprising ; but they belonged to that type of men of which 
 Mr. Tweed, of New York, was a good example, and in whose 
 hands political power is sure to be made a dangerous and cor- 
 rupting instrument. These men, as it has turned out, clamored 
 against our municipal government simply because they could not 
 use it to advance the schemes of plunder they had set their hearts 
 on. That there was no sincerity in all this clamor against our 
 
municipal government, and that it was raised for a bad pmpose, 
 is shown by the fact that the very men they were loudest in de- 
 nouncing as corrupt tools were the first taken into their confi- 
 dence and employ when the government was changed. If these 
 men were so notoriously bad and corrupt under the old gov- 
 ernment, why is it that the new government is in such haste to 
 take them into its confidence and give them places of trust and 
 responsibility ? This was the question our honest, thinking peo- 
 ple asked. Their appearance in the new government was the 
 signal for alarm on the part of our people. Their appearance in 
 the new government, and patronized by the very men who 
 had denounced them as scoundrels, made our people instinctively 
 feel that a system of plunder on a gigantic scale had been de- 
 vised and was about to be carried out. Experience has shown 
 that these fears on the part of our people were well 
 founded. 
 
 The experience of a year has also proved that all the clamor 
 raised by these bold, bad men against our old municipal govern- 
 ment, and the way it was administered, was for the purpose of 
 practising a deception on Congress, and getting a government 
 they could so manage, under a pretence of improvements, as to 
 parcel contracts out among themselves and fill their own pock- 
 ets. And that is what these men are doing now. I venture to 
 assert, that in no other country in the world where the English 
 language is spoken would anything so shameful and audacious 
 have been tolerated. It was, in fact, nothing less than changing 
 one form of government for another, destroying a good and res- 
 ponsible one, and giving the people a bad and irresponsible one; 
 and all this for the accommodation of a few designing men 
 known to the people as desperate and unscrupulous speculators. 
 The same thing was done in New York for the accommodation 
 of Mr. Wm. M. Tweed ; and with his example before them our 
 " improvers " not only copied, but so improved on the original, 
 that Wm. M. Tweed's exploits have been eclipsed in a single 
 year. 
 
 Let us see who were the men that went before Congress and 
 got it to destroy our municipal government, and give us a mo- 
 narchical government in all its forms and features. Let us see 
 who they are that we may the better judge of their motives, 
 Chief among them was Mr. A. R. Shepherd, a plumber and gas- 
 fitter, a large shareholder and master spirit in several " street 
 paving companies;" Henry D. Cooke, our present Governor, and 
 
the great moving spirit of the Seneca Sandstone Ring ; Hallet 
 Kilbourn, a real estate agent and general speculator ; S. P. Brown, 
 government contractor; Dr. John L. Kid well, notorious as 
 president of the Seneca Sandstone Company, and so patriotic 
 during the war that he was caught serving his country on both 
 sides; and Lewis Clephane, president of several paving com- 
 panies, and owner of at least half a dozen patents for paving 
 streets. There was a conspiracy of Ring interests here; and that 
 it was concocted for a selfish purpose was only too apparent. 
 flow strongly. the street paving jobbers and the Seneca sand- 
 stone ring jobbers have arrayed themselves in this movement 
 could be seen at a glance. It were worse than folly to suppose 
 that any of these men cared a straw for the interests of the peo- 
 ple, or intended to give us a better and more economical govern- 
 ment. They were the last things such desperate and reckless 
 men would think of. They wanted power as a means of making 
 money ; and they wanted a government so constructed as to make 
 their acts of violence and plunder appear as if done under cover 
 of law. 
 
 The most remarkable thing in the history of this shameful 
 conspiracy is, that a Republican Congress should have been so 
 deceived by it, and have fallen as it were blindfold into the trap. 
 To change a form of government at the bid of ten or a dozen noto- 
 torious jobbers and contractors was, to say the least, something 
 new and unusual in the history of government. And there was a 
 time in our history when it would have shocked the moral sense 
 of our people. It was also more remarkable because not one of these 
 men who asked Congress to commit this act of folly and injustice, 
 had ever done anything to merit either the confidence or the respect 
 of the Republican party. Most of them had not even claimed to be 
 Republicans until the war was over ; and then only attached them- 
 selves to the party because they found it profitable to do so. Dur- 
 ing the war these men might have been found at home engaged 
 in jobs, and making money out of the misfortunes of the country. 
 After the war they were known in this district as " A.ndy John- 
 son copperheads." The meaning of this epithet is sufficiently well 
 understood here in Washington. And, too, with a single ex- 
 ception, these m^n had been active and outspoken opponents of 
 what was called "negro suffrage.' In truth, they had nothing 
 in sympathy with the colored man, and were, and had long been, 
 his bitterest enemies in this District They affected to fear that 
 if the colored man were enfranchised his vote would be controlled 
 
t 
 
 by demagogues against the best interests of the city. But expe- 
 rience has shown that this was only a pretence. Controlling the 
 poor colored man's vote, and making his labor depend on it, and 
 using it against the property and people of this city, is what these 
 men are themselves doing. We have indeed come to that con- 
 dition of tyranny in the Capitol of this great nation when the 
 rod of discharge is held over the head of every poor laborer, 
 white or colored, who will not vote as the Ring dictates. The 
 tyranny that makes the poor man's bread depend on the way he 
 will vote is worse than slavery. 
 
 There is another curious fact in this strange conspiracy, and 
 as it seems to have escaped the notice of writers generally, I de- 
 sire to call their attention to it. I need hardly say here that it is 
 a fact, that it was here in Washington, a city every member of 
 Congress should feel a pride in, that the first practical effort was 
 made to free the nation from the disgrace of slavery. A Repub- 
 lican Congress did that, and received the gratitude of the nation 
 for its noble act. And it was here in Washington that a Repub- 
 lican Congress made its first noble effort, and after a hard strug- 
 gle succeeded in elevating the colored man to the position of a 
 citizen, making him equal before the law, and a man. The na- 
 tion applauded this, because it was in accordance with the spirit 
 that had built up and made the Republican party great and pow- 
 erful. And it was here in Washington that a Republican Con- 
 gress, believed, as it were, to be acting from the purest motives, 
 invested the colored man with a vote, which gave him a right to 
 choose his own rulers and protect his rights as a freeman. Again 
 1 say, it was here in Washington that a Republican Congress in- 
 vested the colored man with all these rich and valuable gifts. Is 
 it not strange above all things then, that a Republican Congress 
 should have stultified itself and selected this very Washington, the 
 Capitol of this great nation, as the place where the colored man 
 was to be first stripped of all these rights and privileges, the right 
 to vote for his rulers taken away from him, and all this at the bid 
 of a mere handful of speculators ? Congress had given the poor 
 colored man rich gifts, gifts that would enable him to elevate 
 and improve his condition ; and a Republican Congress seized 
 the first opportunity of taking them away from him in the capi- 
 tal of the nation. It passed an act that deprived him of all con- 
 trol over his property, if he had any, and it struck from his hands 
 the right to vote for a single administrative or executive officer 
 of the government. And a Republican Congress committed this 
 great crime against Republican government because they were 
 
8 
 
 desired to do so by less than a dozen of the most desperate specu- 
 lators the world ever saw — men who went before Congress with 
 falsehood on their lips and fraud in their intentions. 
 
 Had Congress discharged its duty to the people it would have 
 punished these bold, bad men for their crimes, and exposed their 
 schemes. Congress did nothing of the kind. On the contrary 
 it encouraged them in their schemes, and now honest people are 
 suffering the result. 
 
 FOUR MILLION DOLLARS, OR MORE, THE GREAT OBJECT. 
 
 ~No sensible man ever supposes for a moment that the men I have 
 referred to, and'their confederates in crime, ever cared anything 
 for good government. Kespect for law is something foreign to 
 their intentions. ^You encompass the motives of such men in 
 the word money. The acts of government, as employed to pro- 
 mote the interests of a people and elevate mankind, such men as 
 these never made a part of their study. Their highest object in 
 this world is to accumulate wealth, and to that one thing all 
 their energies are directed. Body and soul are devoted to that, 
 and when, as very often is the case, they have accumulated 
 wealth by the meanest of means, they assert the right to use it 
 as a political power. Such men as these, generally vulgar and 
 ambitious, have always been the very worst enemies of Repub- 
 lican Government. And this for the very reason that their high- 
 est knowledge of government is that it shall be made a means of 
 profit to themselves. Few thing- could more forcibly illustrate 
 this than what I am about to relate. There is something won- 
 derful in the attractive power of $4,000,000. I know of nothing 
 more attractive except it be $8,000,000. Give me " $4,000,000. 
 and I will guarantee to corrupt the whole political life of any 
 city in this great Republic. You may pit all the clergymen of 
 the city against me, and yet I will do it, which is only a proof 
 that piety has no chance against money," said a member of Con- 
 gress to me once. It was always so, all over the world, from the 
 days of Adam down to the days of U. Sidney Grant. Money is 
 the great golden calf of the day; and the way we bow down be- 
 fore it, and worship it, is something that would astonish even 
 the oldest of Romans. 
 
 It was, I assert here, and without any fear of contradiction, 
 the power of $4,000,000, and perhaps $8,000,000, that found the 
 desperate men I have alluded to before Congress asking for an 
 organic act that would give them the power to tax and oppress 
 the people, and spend that amount of money. Constrained by 
 
their own necessities these desperate men saw, or rather fancied 
 they saw, relief for themselves in getting so large an. amount of 
 the people's money to spend. Hence it was that only three 
 years ago these very same m< n, moved by the same selfish mo- 
 tives, went before Congress and coolly asked for an appropria- 
 tion of three or four millions of dollars — and for what ? To get 
 up a " Great World's Fair in Washington " The press of the 
 country did its duty in exposing that scheme of fraud, and it was 
 kicked out of Congress. And that is what Congress should have 
 done with this twin scheme to destroy our municipal government 
 and erect a monarchy in its place. Mr. Shepherd and Mr. Kil- 
 bourn were the great moving spirits >n that grand " World's 
 Fair" scheme. "Give us money to put the building up," said 
 the former in a speech, "aid the thing will run itself." He 
 undoubtedly meant that the thing would " run itself " after they 
 had got and spent the three or four million dollars appropriated 
 by Congress. This gentleman is now the moving spirit of our 
 Board of Public Works, and the manner in which our " im- 
 provements " are being conducted is the best proof that the 
 " running itself" policy i~ being strictly carried out. 
 
 There is no longer any doubt that these men went before Con- 
 gress on false pretenses, and deceived Congress into granting 
 their request for a change of government. The Kepublicans 
 were deluded with the pretence that we were to have a less ex- 
 pensive and more simplified form of government. Democrats 
 were told that a change of government was necessary to get rid 
 of the predominant influence of the " negro vote " in this Dis- 
 trict. That was the most fascinating bait that could have been 
 used just at that time to catch such Democrats as Eldridge of 
 Wisconsin and Fernando Wood of New York, and they swal- 
 lowed it without a wink. (A Democrat will swallow anything ) 
 And with the aid of these Democrats our schemers carried their 
 point. 
 
 THE SORT OF MONARCHY W r E HAVE GOT. 
 
 People in many parts of the country have been deceived with 
 the idea that the District of Columbia was ten miles square. 
 Seven miles one way and five another would be nearer the 
 truth. Topographically speaking, it is about one-sixth the size 
 of a Saxe Coburg Prince's principality. But I will take a dozen 
 C«burg Prince's principalities, and throw iu all the New Eng- 
 land States, and it will outdo them all in the amount of money it 
 takes to run it and can squander on foolishness. And it will also 
 beat them in the complicated nature of its machinery of A gov» 
 
10 
 
 ernment and the swell and pomp it can put on. It is in truth 
 the most magnificent and yet the most expensive satire on gov- 
 ernment the world ever saw. And I say it with a feeling of 
 shame rather than sadness, that for this we are indebted to a 
 ^Republican Congress. It was the natural result of taking from 
 our people, white and colored, the right to choose their own 
 rulers and concentrating the power in the hands of the Presi- 
 dent of the United States. Under our new government the peo- 
 ple are not permitted to vote for any one of their executive or 
 administrative officers. That right was taken away from them 
 and the powetf invested in the President ; and how he has abused 
 that power, by filling nearly all the important offices with men 
 he was engaged with in speculations and Rings, is well known to 
 the country. A more severe blow at republican government 
 never was struck in this or any other country. It virtually re- 
 pudiated the people's judgment, aid exposes them to the dan- 
 gers of an irresponsible one man power — the very kind of gov- 
 ernment we are now suffering from. And for this also we are 
 indebted to a Republican Congress. 
 
 The experience of a single year has also shown that the people's 
 judgment was superior to the President's. They would have 
 selected the men best qualified to fill the offices of trust — men 
 whom the people respected and had confidence in. He selected 
 men the people had more than once shown by their ballots that 
 they had no confluence in. 
 
 We have a Governor who surrounds himself with a military 
 staff, of which he seems very proud. This Governor was appointed 
 by President Grant, and is his business partner in the Seneca sand- 
 stone business. Then we have a Secretary of State and Assistant 
 Secretary of State, and all for the government of a " Territory," 
 (that's the name we give the thing,) seven by five miles. Then 
 we have get a council, a sort of pocket edition of the House of 
 Lords. But although monarchical in spirit and semblance it 
 bears no relation to the House of Lords. I say this because one 
 of its members invariably spells Jesus with a small j, and an- 
 other signs his name with an X. Then we have got a Board 
 of Public Works, which includes the Governor, and is the most 
 expensive body the world has any account of. The members 
 of the Council are appointed by the President, and I am not 
 aware that he has a relative in it. That remarkable body, the 
 Board of Public Works, too, is appointed by the President, and 
 one at least of its members is a partner of his in real estate and 
 other speculations. This Board of Public Works is another 
 
II 
 
 of President Grant's appointments ; and anything more disgrace- 
 ful could not well be imagined. 
 
 " I have a right to do as I damn please," said one of its mem- 
 bers a few days ag3 to a citizen who had come to remonstrate 
 against the destruction of his property. And this Board of Pub- 
 lic Works (so called) arrogates to itself executive, administra- 
 tive, legislative, and judicial powers. It takes possession of the 
 people's property, spends their money, and drives them from 
 their homes to live on charity ; and yet the people have no re- 
 dress. President Grant has elevated the reckless men who com- 
 pose this Board into almost absolute power, and yet the people 
 can only look on while their substance is being squandered and 
 feel how helpless they are. 
 
 We have seen what rights were taken from the people by a Re- 
 publican Congress. Let us see what was left to them. The bar- 
 ren privilege was vouchsafed to them of voting for members of 
 what was called a legislature and a delegate in Congress. But 
 it very soon turned out that this was no boon at all, and that the 
 Board of Public works had the power to go into any district in 
 the city, and through the influence of labor elect every member 
 «f this so called legislature, and also the delegate in Congress. 
 The Board of Public Works, not the people, elects this extraor- 
 dinary legislature. And again we have the natural result of 
 one man power in this strange legislature, which is one of the 
 most stupid, illiterate, and venal bodies the world ever saw. 
 One of our wits has called it a House of Commons. But it is a 
 very common hou?e of Commons. Two of its members, I am told, 
 cannot even write their names. In short, it is the cleverest satire 
 on legislation within my knowledge. It can pass the most re- 
 markable laws, and with the most remarkable rapidity. But 
 it would require at least a dozen Doctors of Law to get sense out 
 of them, or tell what they really meant. And it will vote, at 
 the bid of the Board of Public Works, any amount of money, 
 and that without knowing where a dollar of it is to come from. 
 If this is not a monarchy, and unlimited at that, I should like 
 to know what it is ? Such a concern is certainly a disgrace to 
 Republican government. 
 
 But we call this a Territorial Government. It is nothing of 
 the kind. It is simply an old fashioned British Colonial Gov- 
 ernment, with the very worst features of that style of govern- 
 ment retained. And by destroying a municipal government 
 and erecting the one we have now got in its place, a Republican 
 Congress retrograded fifty years in legislation. Take the organic 
 
12 
 
 act under which this so called Territorial Government was es- 
 tablished and compare it with the system of government in force 
 in the North American British Colonies fifty years ago, and 
 you will find that they are identical. Then the Crown mani- 
 fested its want of confidence in the people by appointing one of 
 its relatives or favorites to govern the colony. As a general 
 thing this governor knew very little of the people, and nothing 
 of their real wants, Like the governor of our little " Territory' 
 he had his military staff and a large retinue of retainers, all liv- 
 ing at the expense of the people. And yet, like our governor, 
 he was little more than an expensive nonentity. The Colonial 
 Governor, by and with the consent of the Crown, appointed the 
 members of his Council, a sort of Upper House, and in fact filled 
 all the executive and administrative offices of any importance- 
 The only elective power vouchsafed to the people was that of 
 electing members to the colonial legislature. And even this 
 power was restricted to the narrower limits of the property 
 holders. In short, the Crown did then exactly what President 
 Grant is doing now in Washington. As under the old colonial 
 system, we have taxation in all its worst forms without repre- 
 sentation. Thus we passed almost imperceptibly from a respon- 
 sible to an irresponsible personal government. 
 
 The Colonial Council was generally composed of high old fogy 
 favorites, unprogressive, good Tories, and strong believers in the 
 a^iom that the King could do no wrong. In that they bore a 
 strong resemblance to those Senators whom Grant calls his own. 
 The Council and the Legislature never got along well together. 
 The foimer were continually wanting to move backward; the 
 latter to press forward in the interests of the people. They rarely 
 agreed, and indeed seemed to be moved by different instincts 
 and influences. Finding at length that this sort of government 
 was little more than an oppressive yoke about their necks, the 
 people rose in their might and demanded a reform and a govern- 
 ment in which they should be more fairly and justly represented. 
 But they were only successful after a struggle of twenty years. 
 It was a monarchical government in its worst form and features ; 
 and yet that is the very kind of government a Republican Con- 
 gress gave us a little more than a year ago, and from the bad 
 effects of which our people are now suffering. 
 
 Noti-.— These letters were written more than a year ago 
 
OUR LITTLE MONARCHY. 
 
 Letter TNTo. 2. 
 
 Truth does not covet darkness ; integrity always invite? in- 
 vestigation. 
 
 What is called our Territorial government was hardly inaugu- 
 rated when it became apparent to every right thinking man that 
 the men into whose hands President Grant had given almost ab- 
 solute power, were bent on committing some great crime. " If 
 these men are honest in their promises to give us a better gov- 
 ernment, and improve the city," people asked one of another, 
 '• what need is there of spending all this money to silence the 
 press and purchase the influence of venal men ?" 
 
 One hundred and fifty-three thousand dollars of the people's 
 money spent to silence the press! And yet these men, so prof- 
 ligate in the use of the people's money, say we must not chal- 
 lenge their intentions. That was what slavery used to say to us. 
 Slavery, the curse of the land, covered its enormities exactly in 
 that way. 
 
 I know of no viler use you can put journalism to than that of 
 making it an instrument to shield crime ; and the men who have 
 no more respect for its high mission than to use it as such are 
 simply a disgrace to the profession. 
 
 . The country has already been made familiar with the kind of 
 men President Grant appointed for our '• Board of Public 
 Worlcs." But why President Grant appointed these men has 
 not yet been told. He had known them only as paving contract- 
 ors and plumbers and gas fitters. It seemed never to have oc- 
 curred to him that a contractor, intrusted with power to control 
 contracts, would very naturally use his trust as a means of mak- 
 ing the most money for himself. 
 
 No sooner had these men been appointed to power than they 
 proceeded to take charge of everything within their reach. They 
 took possession of our governor, an easygoing, good natured gen- 
 tleman, who affected religion and Sunday schools. But what was 
 more than all else in President ('rant 's estimation he was a banker. 
 
14 
 
 They took possession of our council, a body vouchsafed us by Con- 
 gress, and familiarly known as our House of Lords. And when our 
 legislature, another remarkable body vouchsafed us by Congress, 
 and familiarly known as our very common House of Commons, 
 was elected, they proceeded at once to gobble it up. Not only 
 that; the Board of Public Works, so-called, made oi' this re- 
 markable legislature a tail piece of the very smallest dimensions. 
 The Board had only to raise its linger and this remarkable body 
 called a legislature would pass laws such as man never beard of 
 before. As for appropriations, it began voting them with a reck- 
 lessness that made the " oldest inhabitants " look on with fear 
 and trembling. 
 
 The Board also made a desperate effort to get possession oi' the 
 Board of Health, a very yeasty body, composed of a number of 
 big and little pill doctors. Now thesedoctors were sharp fellows, 
 and although much given to quarreling among themselves., stub- 
 bornly refused to surrender to Mr. President Grant's plumbers 
 and bummers oi' tin; Board of Public Works. In short, the doe- 
 tors treated their assailants as if they were a pestilence, to be 
 kept at a distance with the free use of physic. 
 
 It soon became evident to all right thinking men that we had 
 a Boss Tweed in Washington, and that he had improved on the 
 methods the original W. 31. had introduced into the local im- 
 provements of New York. The only difference was thai 
 Boss Tweed was a particular friend of the President, and gained 
 all the importance he had from that source. 
 
 Having spread itself over everything, and taken possession of 
 everything, our Board of Public Works proceeded l 
 with such extraordinary haste a- to excite a suspicion thai 
 largest amount of plunder was to be done in the shortest space 
 of time. Avenues, streets, alleys, and highways were torn up 
 or cut down with a haste and violence that foretold an immense 
 destruction of property. 
 
 I would have my reader believe me when I say it began to 
 look as if the architect of Little Pedlington had come to life 
 again, and was at work with the evil intention of taking Wash- 
 ington entirely off i;s feet. 
 
 The Board of Public Work.-, encouraged and protected by 
 President Grant, at once set itself above law, above right, above 
 justice. Small property holders were widely told if they could 
 not pay for having their property improved, and improved ac- 
 cording to the "comprehensive plan, T ' they must 
 
15 
 
 " GIT UP AND GIT." 
 
 The meaning of this cruel vulgarism was that if these poor 
 people could not pay for such improvements as our Boss Tweed 
 chose to put on their property, theymust sell out to his strikers, 
 and at such prices as they choose to pay. 
 
 These men talked and acted as if they were intoxicated with 
 power. And. in their wild, reckless career of " improvement 
 robbery : ' it is strange that not a thought was given to the neces- 
 sities of tin- poor, [ndeed it is a painful fact that this speculat- 
 ing administration lias so favored the schemes of the rich and 
 the dishonest that there never \va.-. a time in Washington when 
 the wants of the laboring man and the poor were so little under- 
 stood and so much neglected. 
 
 It was the audacity of the way this " Honorable Board of 
 Public Works " went to work tearing Washington up by the 
 roots, and threatening us with a deluge of wood and tar pave- 
 ments, that gave tin- first signal of alarm to our people. And 
 yet, while this destruction was going on before their eyes, and 
 Hi' objeel of it apparent to every one, the people were told to 
 keep perfectly quiet — that like Grant's administration for purity, 
 they were in the end going to give us a government "fearfully 
 economical." That was a deception which they had played on 
 Congre - with considerable effect. But our people were not to 
 be deceived so easily. They knew the men they had to deal 
 witli better than Congress did, and a single year's experience 
 shows how correct were their predictions. Our citizens knew 
 that at least two <»f these men, and these the most grasping and 
 unscrupulous and selfish, were associated with President Grant 
 in speculations. 
 
 Each member of the " Board of Public Works" began illus- 
 trating bis love for economy in administering the government 
 by setting up ;) carriage and horses and living in a style of show 
 and extravagance nearly or (pule up to the. bad example set 
 them by the President himself. And all this on the small sal- 
 of $2,500 a year. No doubt these gentlemen were acting on 
 the belief that the Hoard of Public Works was a great thing, 
 and appearances must be kept up — that the new government 
 must look elegant on the outside, no matter how much dirt and 
 rottenness was concealed within. 
 
 Our tine old City Hall, where our old municipal government, 
 which these very men had described as insufferably extravagant, 
 had found ample accommodations free of charge, was neither 
 spacious nor elegant enough for our new monarchy. The thing 
 
16 
 
 we were to have so simple and unpretending, turned out to be 
 very fond of show, and to have very extravagant habits. To 
 use a cant phrase, it was as fond of upholstery as an upstart. Lt 
 was not a big government, topographically speaking, but it 
 could get on such an amount of finery. Business must be done 
 in the very highest order of deportment. And there must be 
 Brussels carpets, great mirrors with elaborately gilt frames, 
 frescoed ceilings, and black walnut furniture, all carved, in the 
 rooms where this very small, but very costly government was to 
 be administered. The big magnates, whatever that is, of the 
 new government, were not to be brought in contact with the 
 small magnates. They must not only be located in different 
 buildings but in different parts of the city. 
 
 Our citizen governor, with his military staff — I mean the great 
 historical sandstone man and Grant's partner in government 
 contracts for stone — had an unoccupied building on the corner 
 of Pennsylvania avenue and Seventeenth street. That is at the 
 west or fashionable end of the city. Now our good governor is 
 a great financial moralist, if you know what that means. He 
 can carry the Young Men's Christian Association, the Freed- 
 men's Bank, the Freedmen's Bureau, and any number of prayer 
 meetings at th^ same time. And he believes, or rather says he 
 does, that a national debt is a national blessing. Whether for 
 the rich man or the poor man he has not yet vouchsafed to tell 
 us. Of course it occurred to our good governor, with the mili- 
 tary staff, that it would not do to have that building remain 
 without a tenant. So our governor had it put in thorough re- 
 pair and fitted up at the people's expense for the especial accom- 
 modation of himself and his secretary of state, rent $2,000 a 
 year. My reader will, I am sure, appreciate the high financial 
 morality of that little transaction. 
 
 " The Honorable Board of Public Works " did somewhat dif- 
 ferent It rented a row of four ill-contrived, small, dark, ami 
 very cheaply built houses, with passages and stairs so narrow 
 that two ordinary sized persons could not pass without an effort, 
 in Four-and-a-half street, at the unfashionable end of the city, 
 at a rental of $4, COO a year. That was economy for you ! The 
 men Grant selected for our masters did that. Two thousand dol- 
 lars a year would have been a liberal rent. What kind of per- 
 suasion it was that induced the owner to accept this unreasonable 
 rent I have not yet been able to ascertain. Of course, the • 
 buildings were not strong enough to bear up under the heavy 
 
17 
 
 weight of our Board of Public Works. An architect was called 
 in to devise a "comprehensive plan " of putting them in order. 
 This at first blush seemed somewhat strange, considering that the 
 Board of Public; Works included that great American architect, 
 (Mullett,) imported not many years ago, and who was known 
 to be a man after Grant's own heart. The architect went 
 to work as directed, and when he had done his work found 
 that the bills amounted to $87,000. The Honorable Board of 
 Public Works effected to believe itself astonished at the amount. 
 But it was not astonished at all. The architect, known to be an 
 honest man, had merely carried out the " comprehensive plan " 
 of improving these miserable buildings according to orders. 
 Now the lease of these buildings only ran four years, and to put 
 $87,000 worth of improvements on them, and the " improve- 
 ments" to'be the owner's at the end of four years, every sensible 
 man will admit is the most extraordinary piece of economy this 
 community at least has any account of. 
 
 That whole thing' was properly understood here in Washing- 
 ton, but is of a piece with the way everything has been done 
 under Grant's administration. The Little Pedlington archi- 
 tect of the Board of Public Works effected to be very much an- 
 noyed at Mr. Searle, the architect employed. But Mr. Searle 
 only did his duty in carrying out orders, and confessed that with 
 this $87,000 he could have put up a building that would have 
 been an honor to the city. To put $87,000 worth of improve- 
 ments on four cheap and meanly-constructed houses, leased for 
 four years, will strike the thoughtful reader as bad for a begin- 
 ning. There was something in this transaction that indicated 
 hands that were not clean. Such are the scandals we have to 
 sillier here in Washington, and such are the scandals President 
 Grant finds it in his heart to approve and applaud in his mes- 
 sage to Congress. 
 
 The very expensive upholstery. 5Tes, and our Boss Shep- 
 herd's plumbing and gas fitting bills was what so swelled this 
 amount. No one, not even the Little Pedlington architect, dis- 
 puted Mr. Shepherd's bills. Why? Because he was the << Vice 
 President," so called, of the " Board of Public Works," and, if 
 report be true, was granted the privilege of auditing his own bills. 
 That is the way we do things under our new and very economi- 
 cal government. Bullock, of Georgia, and Scott of South Caro- 
 lina, understood and practiced this kind of financial philosophy 
 exaetly, and the result is before the people. 
 
• 18 
 
 Well, it was in the building I have referred to that the Board 
 of Public Works set up it> empire. I say empire because there 
 was a mock grandeur about the thing, I hardly know what to 
 cull it, 1 always did admire, and would have admired more had 
 it not been so expensive. I had been studying Hayti, politically 
 and socially, for twenty years. 1 bad been foolish enough to 
 write a book on Hayti ; but for expense, for cheap pomp ami 
 circumstance, our territorial government, so-called, could beat 
 Hayti. I say this modestly. Ours had and Hayti had not its 
 " grand burettei of contracts," with an officer of the milil 
 rank of colonel for chief of bureau. We had and Hayti had not 
 a " grand bureau of picks and shovels," with an officer of the 
 military rank of major for chief of bureau. And we had our 
 " grand bureau of gas pipes and water closets," with an office] 
 of the rank of colonel for chief of bureau Not to be i 
 on military rank, so far . majors and colonels, I may 
 
 add that we h i d highways," with Briga- 
 
 dier General Balloch (brevet) of the Freedmen's Bureau for 
 chief of bureau. Heaven knows we had bureaus enough, and 
 chiefs of burea : -<- for a big empire, and all drawing 
 
 aries that would surprise the outside world. As Mr. Dickens 
 said, not to put too fine a point on it, the big salaries were the 
 first on the list; the amount of work the last to be considered 
 I bad almost forgotten to mention that we have a " bureau of 
 sewers," the chief of which complains that he is d »1 designated 
 by his military title. 
 
 Our House of Commons, elected by the people, with the aid 
 of the Board of Public Works, and our House of Lords, ap- 
 pointed by the President; these are the i trkable bodies 
 history, ancient or modern, has any account of. These *reat, 
 grave, and dignified bodies, so high and yet so low, made a com- 
 promise between the Governor and Board of Public W 
 called, and settled down in a place called " Metzerott Hall," on 
 Pennsj Ivania avenue. As the House of Commons were a drink- 
 [f not an eating body, the location was well selected. The 
 rent for these comfortable quarter 000 a year. I have 
 
 , ,i these items merelj to -how what a very economical 
 ernment we have got, compared, 1 mean, with our old municipal 
 rnment, and the extent of our territory. We can spend 
 a million dollars now under this very economical government 
 where we used to spend a thousand under our old and "very 
 extravagant government." But then we have got gentlemen 
 
19 
 
 skilled in the arl of doing these things. These gentlemen also 
 say they :tre not robbers, and T do not say they are ; things, both 
 commercially and morally, are so strangely changed now. On 
 that point! would much rather submit the question as to what 
 constitutes a public robber to the public. 
 
 Robbers may be differently classed. There are legal and ille- 
 gal robbers, one plundering the people under a legal disguise, 
 the other openly and deliantly pursuing his vocation in defiance 
 of law or the rights of property. The law makes a distinction ; 
 but I have never yet been able to discover where the crime of 
 the ono was a whit less than the other. The highwayman sees 
 the penitentiary before him and takes the chances — your money 
 or your life. Your "public improver" is none the less a rob- 
 ber. He demand- your money or your property; he outrages 
 society quite as much as the highwayman ; but he has made his 
 e with the law beforehand, and feels that he may still rob 
 and be protected by law and the officers elected to administer it. 
 
 And here again 1 am compelled to moralize. The world's 
 literature has been full oi' the exploits of great and skilful rob- 
 bers. And 1 have always found that where great and skilful 
 robbers set oul on their career of crime, the ingenuity employed 
 in their mode of securing plunder was only equalled by their 
 manner of calculating the chan ape. 
 
 Our public robbers were not an exception to this rule. They 
 found it necessary to have a law of Congress to shield fraud, and 
 a law adviser wh i would be always ready with opinions t" suit 
 the required circumstances, and who would not be over nice, 
 legally, in construing law to meet necessities. That was robbery 
 protected by law. in that the Board of Public Works fancied 
 itself secure. But nothing is secure against public opinion. 
 
 In order to make the road to the robbery complete, it was 
 essary to have a city treasurer who would "pay out," keep 
 .-ilent. understand the value of division, and pay over without 
 caring or knowing what the law in i : as. To fill the 
 
 office of law adviser, our highly moral governor .. man 
 
 • very worstch iracter in Washington — a man no 
 one respected, no one had any confidence in, and everybody 
 loathed. That our good and pious govern* . Cooke, 
 
 should have taken this bad and notorious character into his 
 fidenee and employ shocked every right minded man in Wash- 
 ington. This man had done much to bring disgrace on Mayor 
 Sayles J. Bo wen's administration. And yet the very men who had 
 
'20 
 
 been loudest in condemning this notorious man, and describing 
 him as unfit to hold any office of trust, now took him into their con- 
 fidence and employ, as if they had found in him a tool ready to do 
 any sort of work they needed. It was the appearance of this 
 notorious man, as a law adviser of this new government, and his 
 skill in the art of political rascality, that shocked and 
 alarmed our people. If this Honorable Board of Public Works 
 was disposed to be honest, why did it employ men condemned as 
 scoundrels out of their own mouths? Washington had honest 
 men enough in the legal profession ; what necessity had the 
 Board of Public Works to employ men i f . had before declared 
 unworthy of trust? Philosophically the whole thing reduces 
 itself down to a question of right in property between respecta- 
 ble and thinking people on one side, and plunderers and their 
 ignorant followers on 'the other. 
 
 Let us turn from this man to the man appointed treasurer of 
 the District. Here the criminal intention culminated. In ap- 
 pointing a treasurer to guard millions of the people's money, one 
 would naturally suppose that integrity, experience as an ac- 
 countant, and a man known to the people generally for his com- 
 mercial morality, would have been chosen as the guardian proper 
 of the people's money. But all these essentials of character 
 were entirely disregarded. A convenient tool was found in an 
 uneducated, obsequious, and very illiterate colored man of the 
 name of Johnson. Johnson was just the man to pay out and ask 
 no questions, if the big " buckra man" demanded. I have 
 known Johnson for many years. I have been a friend of his 
 race. But I never thought he was a good example of his rae£ 
 Not long ago this very same Johnson kept a small barber shop 
 on the avenue, but not being much of a barber he did not suc- 
 ceed. He added to the art of a barber the profession of a boot- 
 black ; and yet he did not succeed. Johnson's genius was not 
 quite up to either of these. He then went into the oyster busi- 
 ness, and served stews, roasts, fries, and broHs to hungry Con- 
 gressmen at the restaurant of the Capitol. How these occupa- 
 tions, shaving, blacking boots, and serving oysters in every style 
 to hungry Congressmen could have qualified » man in all the 
 mysteries of finance and rendered him capable of being a til 
 custodian of millions of the people's money, it will be very dif- 
 ficult for ordinary minds to understand. And yet there is one 
 thing the thoughtful reader will very readily understand, and 
 that is the motive our rulers bad in putting a 'nan in every way 
 
21 
 
 unfit in such a place. The Honorable Board of Public Works 
 was composed of men in desperate circumstances, financially, aDd 
 with Johnson the custodian of the people's money, they would 
 be li carried out safe.' ; And yet these are some of the transac- 
 tions which General Grant endorses and commends to Congress, 
 and for the only reason that the men who are perpetrating them 
 are his associates and partners in speculations. 
 
 Note.— Perhaps I have done this colored man an injustice. Find- 
 ing that he was not quite up to the requirements of the Ring— in a 
 word, that he kept his cash account unpleasantly straight, and was 
 not inclined to pay out and ask no questions, the Board set John- 
 son aside, and made a treasurer of one of its own members. The 
 gentleman signs himself" Treasurer of the Board of Public Works,'* 
 an office unknown to the law. 
 
 The Auditor, Richards, was found to be too honest a man for the 
 purposes of the Ring. He, also, was set aside, and an auditor of their 
 own appointed. 
 
OUR LITTLE MONARCHY. 
 
 Letter JSTo. 3. 
 
 " The orgapic act." under which this monarchy of ours was 
 created, not only placed the city of Washington under the con- 
 trol of five unscrupulous speculators, but, as they claimed, gave 
 them the power to issue bonds and mortgage the city to whomso- 
 ever they pleased. The very thought of the capital city of this 
 great nation, and representing the nation as it does, being mort- 
 gaged to a foreign people is repugnant to the feelings of every 
 honest minded American. And yet it is a reality at this time. 
 These desperate men lost no time in taking advantage of every 
 power the law invested them with. They issued their four million 
 dollars of bonds, fraudulently, as has been proven before a com- 
 mittee of Congress, and their next highest object seemed to be 
 as to who would buy and pay the monoy for them, and how 
 quick they could spend it. 
 
 But it was found necessary to go beyond this country, beyond 
 England, into a country where the English language was neither 
 spoken nor understood — in a word, among innocent Germans, be- 
 fore purchasers for their illegally issued bonds could be found. 
 And then it was found necessary to impose them on these inno- 
 cent people through a trick and a fraud that only the meanest 
 kind of a sharper would have resorted to. It was reported 
 abroad that these bonds were issued by special act of Congress, 
 than which nothing could be farther from the truth. Congress 
 had nothing whatever to do with the issuing of these bonds. 
 And unless I am very much mistaken Congress will have nothing 
 to do with paying them. The men who practiced this triek may 
 regard themselves as very clever ; but the fact that they imposed 
 on innocent purchasers will be none the less apparent, and in 
 the end will inflict a stain on our national character. 
 
 Any one at all acquainted with the history of the Mississippi 
 and Florida bonds, and the trick by which the latter was im- 
 posed on the English purchasers, will find an exactly parallel 
 ease in this. The case of the Florida bonds was the most flagrant. 
 
2S 
 
 Florida was a territory then, and her government was in the 
 hands of a set of desperate men, whom no one at home would 
 trust. But they must have money, and when they could not get 
 it by fair means they resorted to foul. They issued their bonds 
 to the amount of one million and a half of dollars, and inserted 
 in the body of them, in conspicious type, that they were issued 
 by special act of Congress, and that Florida being a territory 
 the Government of the United States was responsible for their 
 payment. And in this way they were put upon the English 
 market through an American agent, and the innocent purchasers 
 defrauded out of their money. Not one dollar, principal or in- 
 terest has ever been paid on these bonds, and like those of Mis- 
 sissippi they stand to day a warning to those who purchased 
 them and a reproach on our commercial integrity. 
 
 The writer of this was in London in 1854, and present when 
 the holders of these Florida bonds appeared by counsel before 
 the Mixed Commission for the settlement of all outstanding 
 claims between England and the United States since 1812, and 
 listened to their appeal for justice. But their appeal was made 
 in vain, as their claim was not oae which came within the scope 
 of the Commission to adjudicate. It was acknowledged that 
 these bondholders had been made the victims of a scandalous 
 fraud. The same species of deception was practiced by the 
 Territorial Government of Washington a little more than a year 
 ago in issuing four million dollars of bonds and placing them 
 on the German market. And it is quite safe to predict that de- 
 mand for their payment will be attended with similar dishonor. 
 The perpetrators of this wrong, however, flatter us with the as- 
 surance that as the money for these bonds were used to improve 
 Washington, Congress will step in and assume their payment. 
 In other words, that having perpetrated one great wrong, Con- 
 gress will be called on to perpetrate another by voting away four 
 millions of the people's money to save the honor of the nation, 
 and make good an amount, one-third of which it is safe to say 
 went into the pockets of the men who originally perpetrated 
 the fraud. 
 
 President Grant having selected his friends and associates in 
 business for a Board of Public Works — having, as it were, 
 placed our city and its government in the hands of Alexander 
 K. Shepherd and his fancy pavement conti actors, it soon be- 
 came apparent to our people that they intended to use their power 
 to increase their own profits and enlarge their political patron- 
 
24 
 
 age. That "comprehensive system of improvements," like 
 Tweed's, was a signal to our people, where stealing was to be- 
 gin and incompetence end. 
 
 Proposals were invited for paving, grading and doing all 
 sorts of work. That was merely a sham. The " Board" did 
 not want proposals ; did not want fair competition. Fair com- 
 petition would have interfered with their own profits. When 
 proposals were sent in those who had made them were coolly 
 informed by the " Board" that they had been annulled, and a 
 scale of prices for work established. This was exactly what 
 William M. Tweed did in New York, and Mr. Shepherd knew 
 the value of following his example. 
 
 In very many cases these " Board prices " were fixed at 
 higher rates than responsible contractors had offered to do the 
 work for. This was conspicuously so in the prices fixed for pav- 
 ing. Not more than two years ago Mr. Nicholson put a speci- 
 men of his wood pavement down at the Capitol, at $3.0 j per 
 square yard. The Board of Public Works "fixed " the price 
 for Stow and other wood pavements at $3.40 and $3.60 per square 
 yard. I need scarcely assert here that it was because members 
 of the Board were themselves interested in these paving jobs that 
 the prices were fixed so high, and the people robbed. If con- 
 tractors outside of the Eing had been allowed to come in and 
 bid for work promiscuously, what would have become of the 
 Metropolis Paving Company, in which members of the Ping 
 were known to be stockholders ? 
 
 It was noticed, also, that wherever Shepherd and his Ping 
 confederates had any property there the largest amount of im- 
 provement was sure to be going on, at the people's expense. In 
 short the people's money was literally squandered. In regard to 
 paving the streets they proceeded in a manner that set even decen- 
 cy aside, parcelling out the contracts among themselves and th< j ir 
 Ring friends. For the first time in Washington we had the 
 singular announcement nearly every day that the contract for 
 paving certain streets had been offered to and accepted by Mr. 
 So and So. And this Mr. So and So was almost sure to be the 
 President, Secretary, or some one of the Metropolis Paving Com- 
 pany King, or the Seneca Stone Ring, in which President Grant 
 figures so conspicuously. If President Grant does not under- 
 stand the meaning of all this speculation, fraud and outrage that 
 is going on here in Washington, it is because he shuts his eyes 
 to it, and is criminally indifferent to what is going on around 
 
25 
 
 him. Had he been in Washington attending to the duties of 
 his high office and giving some little attention to what was go- 
 ing on at the capital instead of smoking his cigar and indulg- 
 ing his weakness for frivolity at Long Branch he might at least 
 have gained such information as would have saved him from the 
 humiliation of appearing before the American people as an 
 apologist for robberies, beside which those committed by William 
 M. Tweed and his gang are as trifling. 
 
 When General Grant appointed these men to office, friends, 
 whose advice he should have taken, went to him and warned 
 him as to what would be the consequences. He was told by 
 these friends, who had no other motive than to see his govern- 
 ment succeed, that the men into whose hands he had entrusted 
 the city were men the property holders had no confidence in ; 
 that they were notorious as speculators and contractors ; that 
 they were men incapable of appreciating a great public trust; 
 that they would violate their trust and turn their offices into a 
 means of robbing the people and filling their own pockets. 
 And that is exactly what they have done. They have created 
 for Washington the smallest specimen of a monarchy the sun 
 shines on, a debt of thirteen million dollars in as many months ;. 
 they have mortgaged the city to foreigners ; and all we have 
 got to show for it is a few streets and avenues paved with wood 
 and concrete pavements. And if the experience of other cities 
 be worth anything it is safe to say that in three years from this 
 time we shall be worse off for pavements than ever before. 
 
 But these gentlemen were men after President Grant's own 
 heart. They were vulgar, selfish men, whose highest ambition 
 was to make money, and unscrupulous as to the means they used. 
 President Grunt admired these men; and so did the Ring con- 
 tractors. Yea, even more, the Ring contractors admired Alex- 
 ander R. Shepherd so much that they sent him a delegate to the 
 Philadelphia convention with " instructions " to vote for Grant. 
 I thought then, and still think, that Grant got the worst of it in 
 that bargain. But as that Convention was chiefly composed of 
 office-holders, whose highest object was filling their own pockets, 
 our contractor's man, so far as political virtue is concerned, 
 must be accepted as a fair sample of the lot. 
 
 The Committee of Congress, before which the official conduct 
 of this precious Board of Public Works was investigated last 
 winter, notwithstanding the persistent efforts made by a majority 
 of the Committee to suppress the truth, elicited some startling 
 
facts. It was proved beyond question that the members of this 
 Board had persistently made war on the tax payers and property 
 holders ; and through their extravagance and profligacy the taxes 
 Tiad been doubled in nine months ; and, that, while these reck- 
 less men have filled their own pockets, and ride each one of them 
 in his fine carriage, the city is literally bankrupt. The Tam- 
 many Ring, in what Mr. Tweed would call its palmy days, was 
 nothing to compare with our Washington Ring, as approved and 
 encouraged by President Grant. The Tammany Ring robbed 
 the people of New York of millions of money, and did it syste- 
 matically. But the Tammany Ring gave New York improve- 
 ments that Will be of lasting value, and of which she is justly 
 proud. The Washington Ring have been in business a little more 
 than a year, improving and stealing, and spending millions of 
 the people's money, and yet we have little else than pavements, 
 wood and concrete, to show for it. Property to a very large ex- 
 tent has been permanently damaged, and in some instances what 
 are called improvements are simply a crime against good taste. 
 
 These men have spent, it is admitted, $280,000, improving our 
 canal ; and now our great Engineer, who is no engineer at all, 
 acknowledges that the whole thing is a failure. It would in- 
 deed be fortunate for the people of Washington if this was the 
 only failure. 
 
 In all these transactions, selfishness, as indicated by the finger 
 of our own Buss Tweed, is but too apparent. This man had a 
 row of showy, cheap and badly constructed houses built on the 
 corner of F and 18th streets. (He named this row of build- 
 ings after General Michler, then Commissioner of Public 
 Buildings and Grounds.) The architect made a grave mis- 
 take in the plan, and unless F street could be lowered and drained 
 they were a failure and a serious loss. Something must be done 
 to make them saleable and profitable. There was a quiet, rural 
 •air about F street, west of the War Department. Fine old shade 
 trees stretched their branches out and gave a cool, breezy look 
 to the old homesteads on either side of it. It was indeed a desir- 
 able neighborhood to live in before this man Shepherd and his 
 "improvers" invaded it. Shepherd wanted just six hundred 
 dollars to "level the street" and make it presentable. And he 
 got that six hundred dollars. But just here the great Mullett 
 came in and brought his engineering skill to bear on the subject. 
 Like the architect in Little Pedlington, Mullett is greatest on 
 ■dead levels, and a first class pretender. Mullet said — and Grant 
 
21 
 
 and Boutwell had great faith in what Mullett said — that the only 
 true way to improve an old city was to cut all the streets down 
 as low as you could get them and get the houses up as high as 
 you could. If you, according to the great Mullett, or Mullite 
 as Boutwell pronounces it, had to reach your front door up 
 forty steps of Seneca Stone of a slippery night, so much the 
 better. The higher you lived above the street the better it was 
 for your health and digestion. And to the end of carrying out 
 his theory, as well as for the improvement of his friend Shep- 
 herd's property, F street was cut down. Yes, in some places it 
 was cut down ten and twelve feet, and the houses were left just 
 as many feet above. In addition all the fine old shade trees were 
 cut down. Never was a greater piece of vandalism perpetrated. 
 And yet this was called an improvement. 
 
 Pleasant old F street that was, now has the appearance of a 
 dry canal with double walls of brick on each side, coped with 
 Seneca Stone, and ramparts and redoubts, and the houses high 
 above all. And this is what our great American engineer Mul- 
 lett calls improving and beautifying the people's property. The 
 residents whose property has been, as they say, damaged in this 
 way, feel very much like brooming Mr. Mullett. They cannot 
 sell their property at a less price than they could before the 
 " Improvers" invaded the street, and hence cannot see the value 
 of the improvements. But Shepherd's houses were not in the 
 highest position, and hence the improvements were of real value 
 to his property. This improvment of F street, which was to 
 cost only $600, has already cost the people $230,000, and the 
 work is not more than two-thirds done. Indeed, if the "economi- 
 cal idea " of our Board of Public Works be carried out it will 
 cost at least $75,COO to finish the work already begun. 
 
 Here again the selfishness of this man Shepherd exhibited it- 
 self in the very strongest light. Having the power to do so in 
 himself he had F and 18th streets paved as far as his own houses. 
 Beyond this, and in the rest of the Ward the streets remained 
 torn up all winter, and the people left to suffer a mud blockade. 
 Indeed beyond this man Shepherd's property the streets during 
 the whole winter resembled General George B. McClellan's rifle 
 pits after a rain storm To me no stronger proof could be pro- 
 duced of the utter unfitness of these men to have charge of a great 
 public trust. 
 
 In another instance Shepherd wanted what is called the Skat- 
 ing Pond property, and in order to frighten the owner into sell- 
 
28 
 
 ing it, sent a gang of laborers to begin improvements. That 
 was enough. Rather than be improved out of his property the 
 owner offered to sell at almost any price. But just here Shep- 
 herd found his modesty likely to be overturned. It would not 
 do to face the owner and say " here, you poor grumbling devil," 
 language quite common with him, " if you are so poor that you 
 can't pay for your improvements, take this for your property 
 and clear out." He sent his next best friend to do it. And that 
 next best friend was my very young and much esteemed friend Ed- 
 win M. Stanton. The poor, frightened property holder surren- 
 dered to Stanton at once, while the modest Shepherd stood in the 
 background, but seeing the bargain struck. Shepherd got the 
 property for about a third of its value. The Board of Public 
 Works stopped improving that property in a day or two after. 
 Tweed had a way of doing these things. Like Shepherd he al- 
 ways did it to accommodate and relieve the necessities of the owner 
 of the property. 
 
 Grant thinks his friend Shepherd was "smart" in getting 
 that skating pond property so cheap. Again we have Shepherd 
 improving his own property at the people's expense. He had 
 a farm three miles out of town, on the Seventh street road.- 
 With improved means of reaching the city this farm could be 
 made very valuable. If, in short, a horse rail-road could be built 
 to it, its valne would be more than doubled. The idea was a 
 good one, but it required .more than ordinary audacity to do the 
 work at the people's expense. But wken a man is in a tight 
 place financially there is no knowing what he will do. A be- 
 ginning was made, and the Board asked for the modest sum of 
 $2,500 to improve that road to Shepherd's farm. The reader 
 will be surprised to hear that the " improvements (?)" on that 
 road have already cost $130,C00 ; and it will require at least 
 $50,0C0 to finish them. The scamps had quietly perfected a rail- 
 road scheme, and concluded that as they had a clear swing at the 
 people's money, they would use it to forward their own interests, 
 and to that end they put down the road-bed, graded it, and made 
 it ready for the rails, and all with the people's money. Could 
 audacity be carried farther? Now this road is only three miles 
 long, and when you take into consideration that the very best 
 of Macadamized roads only cost about $2,80 a mile, you will 
 agree with me that we have introduced a new and very extra- 
 ordinary system of road-making. 
 
 These are but examples of one hundred other cases that might 
 
be cited to show how flagrantly these men have abused their 
 trust to fill their own pockets and increase the value of their 
 property. And yet President Grant looks on with indifference, 
 smokes his cigar, and caresses his dogs. The people have looked 
 to him in vain for redress ; and they must suffer on to the end. 
 I have written enough, I think, to convince the reader that 
 we have here in Washington, under the very dome of the Cap- 
 itol, the smallest, meanest, and most corrupt and expensive 
 Monarchy the world ever saw. 
 
 Note.— What the debt of Washington really is, no one outside of 
 the Board's Ring has been able to find. We have the funded debt, as 
 given to us by the Sinking Fund Commissioners, nearly ten million 
 dollars. But what the floating debt of the District amounts to, in- 
 cluding, I mean, the various kinds of bonds and certificates of indebt- 
 edness that have been illegally issued by the Board, is one of those 
 things, to use the language of Dundreary, " No fellow can find out." 
 It is safe to say, however, that the floating debt exceeds by one or 
 two millions the funded ;debt, and that together they will amount 
 to over twenty million dollars. Add to this the fact, that Congress 
 has in a little more than a year made the following appropriations 
 out of the people's money, and soma idea rnxy be formal of the ex- 
 travagance of this Little Monarchy of ours. 
 
 Appropriation under act of Jnne 10, 1872 $263,365 12 
 
 Do do January 7, 1373 1,240,371 92 
 
 Appropriation to reimburse the city for past expenses.. . . 1,000,000 00 
 To pay the Board of Works for improvements now in 
 
 progress 913,497 00 
 
 Total $3,417,234 04 
 
30 
 
 Nor must the fact be forgotten that the concern has onty been run- 
 ning a little more than two years. Let us contrast what it costs to 
 run this Little Monarchy with what it costs to run the larger cities 
 of the different states of the Union. Here are the figures. It will be 
 seen that we head, even New York, which has heretofore had the rep- 
 utation of being the best plundered city in the country. 
 
 Largest cities of 
 States noted. 
 
 la 
 
 15 8 
 
 0-1 
 
 i 2 r - 
 ■irt 
 
 .S3 
 
 New York 4,887,464 
 
 Maine : 626,915 
 
 New Hampshire 318,300 
 Massachusetts.. 1,457,351 
 Rhode Island... 217,353 
 
 Connecticut i 557,454 
 
 New J erseyT — 906,096 
 
 Ohio 2,665,260 
 
 Wisconsin j 1,064,985 
 
 Iowa ! 1,192,092 
 
 Illinois 2,539,891 
 
 Dis. o; Columbia 131,700 
 
 47,000 
 
 31,760 
 
 9,280 
 
 7.800 
 
 1,300 
 
 4,670 
 
 8,320 
 
 39,9,J0 
 
 53,920 
 
 55,040 
 
 5},410| 
 
 60) 
 
 $139,550 
 65,133 
 12,341 
 234,2 5 
 16,908 
 59,8H0 
 46,187 
 73275 
 65,963 
 41,205 
 •26,753 
 449,220 
 
 M 75,000 
 35,000 
 
 9,830 
 98,531 
 
 3,500 
 98,875 
 82,625 
 75,300 
 54,569 
 49,495 
 5 ,000 
 143,635 
 
 $19 200 
 
 17,400 
 
 2,<99 
 
 30,390 
 
 Includ'd 
 
 Incluci'd 
 
 7,653 
 
 13,250 
 
 17,008 
 
 22,133 
 
 39,1 OS 
 
 200,000 
 
 *323, 750 
 117,533 
 
 24, _ 70 
 363,036 
 
 -.0 408 
 158,675 
 136,468 
 183,925 
 137.540 
 113;i33 
 115 861 
 792,855 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 014 369 541 4