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 11 B P O R T 
 
 FA LIT I VE CO 
 
 HONORARY COUNCIL j 
 
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 CITIZENS' ASSOCIATION 
 
 NEW-YORK. 
 
 NO V BRIBER XTth, lSCiS. 
 
 NEW-YORK : 
 GEORGE P. NESBITT & CO., PRINTERS, 
 Corner of Pine and Pearl Streets. 
 
 186S. 
 
lEx ICtbrtB 
 
 SEYMOUR DURST 
 
 When you leave, please leave this book 
 
 Because it has been said 
 "Ever thing comes t' him who waits 
 
 Except a loaned book.'' 
 
 Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library- 
 Gift of Sfymour B. Di rsi Old York Lihr \m 
 
EEPOET 
 
 OF THE 
 
 EXECUTIVE COUNCIL 
 
 TO THE 
 
 HONORARY COUNCIL 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CITIZENS' ASSOCIATION 
 
 OF 
 
 NEW-YORK. 
 
 NOVEMBER 17th, 1866. 
 
 NEW-YORK : 
 ^Published t>y the Citizens' Association, 
 NO. 813 BROADWAY. 
 
 1866. 
 
Citizens' Association of IN ew- York, 
 
 813 Broadway. 
 
 At a Meeting of the Honorary Council of the Citizens' 
 Association, held at the Rooms of the Association, No. 813 
 Broadway, November 19, 1866, A. R Wetmore, Esq., in the 
 Chair : 
 
 After the transaction of the usual routine business, the 
 Secretary of the Council presented and read the following 
 report from the Executive Council : 
 
AA 
 
REPORT. 
 
 The Executive Council of the Citizens' Association respectfully 
 presents to the Honorary Council the following Report of 
 the work of the Association : 
 
 Before proceeding to the items of this work the Execu- 
 tive Council congratulates the Honorary upon the many 
 and multiplying evidences which the Association is daily 
 receiving of the esteem in which it is held by this com- 
 munity, by the State at large, and by the friends of honest 
 and good government in every portion of the Union. Hardly 
 a day passes without many personal applications for the 
 reports and documents of the Association from our principal 
 citizens. The Association is constantly in receipt of com- 
 munications from prominent men in various parts of our 
 State and country, and from the Mayors or other authori- 
 ties of oar principal cities, seeking information as to its or- 
 ganization and plans, and requesting a set of its reports and 
 publications. The Executive Council is happy to be able 
 to state that the next Legislature promises to make a better 
 record than that of the last Legislature. Those members 
 who made themselves conspicuous last winter in the support 
 of the reform measures of the Association, and who were 
 honest and consistent in the advocacy of good government 
 in this city, have nearly all been returned to the Legislature 
 by their constituents ; and the Executive Council is happy to 
 state that those members who were the open opponents of 
 the Association, or who pretended to be its friends, but 
 were, in fact, its most dangerous enemies in disguise, have 
 

 
 nearly all failed to be returned to the Legislature. It is to 
 be expected as well as hoped that next winter the Associa- 
 tion will have but little difficulty in maintaining the ground 
 it has already gained, and in taking those steps in advance 
 which may be considered advisable for the protection and 
 encouragement of the great moral, social and commercial 
 interests of this city. The position of the Association in 
 this community is now assured; its influence is fully 
 acknowledged by all. It is courted by those who wish its 
 favor, and by those who fear its power, and it has become 
 such a living force that there is now not a department of our 
 local government that is not anxious to merit its approba- 
 tion and to escape its censure. 
 
 The details of the work accomplished by the Association 
 since the last meeting of the Honorary Council are, first, the 
 part taken by it in the matter of inaugurating a system of 
 wharves and piers worthy of the wealth and commercial im- 
 portance of this city. It is needless to endeavor to impress 
 upon a Council, so largely composed of merchants, the im- 
 portance and necessity of good, ample and secure wharf ac- 
 commodations for the thousands of vessels that, year by year, 
 visit this port. It is a fundamental truth, a mercantile axiom 
 underlying the very foundations of commerce, that for a 
 city to attain or retain a commercial supremacy it must 
 have wharf accommodations suitable and ample for its com- 
 merce; and unless these accommodations are improved, 
 unless they keep pace with the natural tendency of com- 
 merce to increase at a port favorably situated for its pur- 
 poses, then a large portion of the shipping is driven off to 
 build up ports less favorably situated but affording in their 
 wharves better commercial facilities ; and not only is there 
 a great amount of loss in the present, but the city that does 
 not meet the wants of commerce loses throughout the 
 whole of its future the benefit of that geometrical ratio 
 
 t 
 
7 
 
 with which commerce adds to the weahh of a city that 
 administers to its necessities and answers to its calls. 
 When we look at the City of New-York lying almost 
 upon the bosom of the ocean, but sheltered and protected 
 from the fury of its slorms, a whole country tributary 
 to its power, a whole nation concerned in its welfare, the 
 centre of science, art and wealth — a city whose morality, 
 religion and commercial prosperity as they rise or fall affect 
 millions of humanity — when we observe what nature has 
 done for our city, and see how its well established laws 
 have raised it to its present position, and are now striving 
 to raise it higher and higher to a pinnacle of commercial 
 imperium grandeur and glory, and when we then turn and 
 contemplate what little has been done by art in the matter 
 of the wharves and piers of our city to improve the com- 
 mercial advantages which nature affords, we cannot but 
 stand amazed at the apathy that tolerates such a condi- 
 tion of things. Feeling 'the importance of the subject, the 
 necessity for immediate action in the premises, and that if 
 it should succeed in inaugurating some comprehensive plan 
 for the construction of our wharves and piers, it would be 
 doing a great good, the Association engaged in pre- 
 parations to appear before the Senate Committee appoint- 
 ed to investigate the matter of the wharves, piers and 
 slips of this city. The Committee met, for the first time, on 
 Tuesday, the 13th inst, at the City Hall. A large delega- 
 tion was present from this Association. The meeting was 
 well attended by our bankers, merchants and prominent 
 capitalists and citizens, who all manifested, by their pre- 
 sence and interest taken in the proceedings, their opinion 
 of the importance of the subject under deliberation. The 
 Association, to assist the Committee in its labors, pre- 
 pared for its use, and presented to it three volumes j 
 in manuscript. Volume one, containing the various 
 
3 
 
 grants and laws under which the city or third parties 
 have acquired title to the land beyond original high- 
 water mark on the island of New- York, and all laws in 
 relation to the building of our wharves and piers; and 
 volumes two and three, containing a survey, by its Corps 
 of Engineers, of all the piers and bulkheads around 
 the city, and drawings showing their actual condition. 
 The views of the Association were presented to the 
 Committee, by George F. Noyes, Esq., of the Executive 
 Council. The Association offered to the Committee the 
 use of a tug-boat for the purpose of making a personal 
 inspection of the condition of our wharves and piers ; but 
 the Committee had already accepted the offer of a like cour- 
 tesy from other parties. The Committee made a personal 
 inspection of the whole river front of the city and of the 
 wharves and piers in Brooklyn, and the result confirmed 
 the remark of Mr. Noyes that such inspection " would be a 
 melancholy voyage among ruins." 
 
 The Executive Council congratulates the Honorary Coun- 
 cil upon the successful termination of the suit brought by 
 the Association to restrain the Common Council and the 
 Street Commissioner from consummating the notorious 
 twenty years' gas contract. It will be remembered that a 
 resolution was introduced into the Common Council and 
 passed, authorizing and directing the Street Commissioner 
 to advertise for proposals, and to make a contract for 
 lighting the streets of the city with coal gas for the long 
 term of twenty years. It was represented by the Associa- 
 tion that, during these times, while all materials are so high, 
 it would be extremely unwise to make a contract for so long 
 a period as twenty years, and that it would be better for the 
 city to pay the present high rates for a year or two longer, 
 than to make such contract Moreover, the Association 
 assumed the position, that sections nine and ten of the Tax 
 
9 
 
 Levy, limiting the Common Council to certain specific 
 amounts of money for certain specific objects, and prohibit- 
 ing it from incurring obligations in excess thereof, or for 
 any purpose or object not therein specified, not only pre- 
 vented the Common Council from spending more for gas in 
 1866 than the sum allowed for that purpose, but prevented 
 them from making a contract for more than one year. 
 Mayor Hoffman returned the resolution to the Common 
 Council without his signature, but stated in his veto that, 
 "the right of the Corporation to direct the Street Commis- 
 sioner to make the contract cannot be denied. * * * On 
 this point I have the concurrent opinion of most able coun- 
 sel." A3 is stated above, the Association held the contrary 
 opinion. The resolution was passed by the Common 
 Council notwithstanding the veto. The Association then 
 appealed to the Courts, and, in the name of Councilman 
 Pullman, obtained from Judge Barnard a temporary injunc- 
 tion, which, upon argument, was made perpetual, forever 
 restraining the Ma} r or, Aldermen, &c, the Common Council 
 and the Street Commissioner, from taking any further steps 
 to consummate the proposed contract. The important 
 opinion of Judge Barnard settles, 1st, The right of a mem- 
 ber of the Common Council, as a trustee, to bring an action 
 against the other members of the Common Council to 
 restrain them as co-trustees of the city property and 
 revenues from the commission of any act which will tend 
 to endanger the trust property or dissipate the trust funds, 
 and from any act which is beyond or against the powers of 
 the trust. It settles, 2d, That under sections nine and ten 
 of the City Tax Levy, the Corporation has no power or 
 authority to make a contract for more than one year, or for 
 any purpose not expressly authorized by the other sections 
 of the Tax Levy. It settles, 3d, That the only remedy against 
 a proposed illegal contract of the Common Council is not to 
 2 
 
10 
 
 . wait until the contract is made and suit brought upon it, 
 and then to interpose the defence of its illegality, but that 
 the suit may be brought by a member of the Common 
 Council to prevent the consummation of the contract. 
 
 The result in this suit affords the Association great 
 pleasure, and gives promise of its increasing power. It is 
 the entering wedge by which a great portion of the corrup- 
 tion of the city can be broken to pieces. For, as long as 
 these laws remain on the statute books, every illegal scheme 
 of the Common Council, if not consummated, can be stopped 
 by injunction, or, if consummated, can be vacated or de- 
 clared null and void. The result of this suit marks an 
 important era in the cause of reform. 
 
 The Executive Council congratulates the Honorary Coun- 
 cil upon the successful termination of the proceedings un- 
 dertaken by it to obtain an inspection and copy of the books 
 and documents of the Street Department of this city. Upon 
 the return of the alternative mandamus, ordering Street Com- 
 missioner Cornell to permit the Attorney of this Association 
 to inspect his books and papers, or show cause to the contrary, 
 the matter was fully argued. Judge Barnard, in this case also, 
 decided in the favor of the Association, and ordered that a 
 peremptory mandamus should issue, compelling the Street 
 Commissioner to allow the Attorney of the Association full 
 and free right to examine and tike copies of the books, 
 papers nnd documents on file in his office. This decision 
 was most timely, and will form an important and useful 
 precedent in our future efforts. It opens the door of all the 
 departments of the city government, and gives every citizen, 
 as a matter of right, what the departments have hitherto in- 
 sisted was merely a matter of favor, of courtesy. Now, that 
 it has been established that the Association has the right to 
 examine all the books, papers and documents of the various 
 departments of the city government, it is to be hoped that 
 
11 
 
 the heads of these departments will, on that account alone, 
 hesitate as to their acts. 
 
 The Association has been busily engaged, through its 
 Bureau of Engineers, in investigating the amount of brick ? 
 marble and iron used in the erection of the New County 
 Court House. Accurate measurements have been made of 
 all the details of the work from the foundation to the roof, 
 and exact calculations made of the amount of the various 
 kinds of materials used. These results, wrought out upon 
 the severest mathematical basis, are to be compared with the 
 amounts of the different materials charged to the county 
 and paid, and the Association hopes thus to be able to 
 detect whatever fraud arises from the alleged furnishing of 
 the vast amounts of the various materials that have apparently 
 disappeared in the County Court House job. The Association 
 has also been engaged in investigating the matter of the 
 giving out of the iron, marble and other contracts in rela- 
 tion to the erection of the building at the exorbitant rates 
 at which the county is now paying for the materials used. 
 
 The Association^has also been engaged in investigating the 
 overcharges of the special Committee appointed by the Board 
 of Supervisors to investigate the accusations of fraud or 
 gross negligence made by Supervisor Smith Ely, Jr., against 
 the Court House Committee. It can scarcely be credited, 
 but, startling as it may seem, it is a fact that the special 
 committee appointed to investigate those charges obtained 
 from the County Treasury for their expenses in the inves- 
 tigation, lasting but for parts of 12 days, the enormous 
 sum of $12,062.25. The Association, startled at the gross 
 enormity and fraud of this bill, sent a communication to the 
 Comptroller asking for the details of the above amount, to 
 which communication the following reply was received : 
 
12 
 
 City of New-York, ) 
 Dep't or Finance, Comptroller's Office, v 
 Novcmbcr 13, 1866. \ 
 
 Joseph F. Daly, Esq., AiVy Citizens' Association of N. Y. : 
 
 Dear Sir, — In answer to your letter of the 12th inst., asking me to 
 furnish the Citizens' Association with " the items of expenditure by the 
 Supervisors' Committee on the New County Court House investigation,'' 
 I submit the following statement of such expenditure, viz. : 
 
 Voucher 45. 
 
 Clerk Hire, (the Com'tr gives names of 4 clerks) $1 250 00 
 
 Eugene Durnan, Sergeant-at-Arms 300 00 
 
 C. E. Wilbour, Stenographer 1,G88 50 
 
 Geo. W. Roome, meals furnished 205 00 
 
 Voucher 46. 
 
 New- York Printing Co., printing 5,000 Reports of 
 
 Committee on Investigation 7,718 75 
 
 Cram & Robinson, professional services 900 00 
 
 312,062 25 
 
 Respectfully, yours, 
 
 MATTHEW T. BRENNAN, Comptroller. 
 
 Mr. Smith Ely, Jr., appeared as prosecutor of the case him- 
 self, paid the expenses of the prosecution, which amounted 
 to about $900, including a stenographer, and it was not 
 to be expected that, at the most, the expenses of the de- 
 fence would go beyond that sum. Yet we find the Com- 
 mittee appointed to investigate fraud, itself making the 
 claim and pretence that $1,250 was honestly incurred 
 for clerk hire, $1,688 for a stenographer, and $7,718.75 
 for printing 5,000 copies of their report, and $ 900 for 
 counsel fee. It cannot be true that 5,000 copies of such 
 report were printed, for it was with great difficulty that Mr. 
 Ely himself was able to procure a couple of copies, and 
 then only as a favor. If 5,000 copies were printed, where 
 are they — whither have they flown ? It is a serious question 
 
13 
 
 whether more than 250 copies were printed ; if 5 : 000 copies 
 were printed they must have been immediately disposed of 
 to dealers in old paper. But can there be any stronger 
 evidence of fraud on the part ol the Board of Supervisors, 
 than that after attempting, by every means in its power to 
 prevent the inquiry into the fraud charged by one of its own 
 members, and after preventing the examination from taking 
 its full scope, it should be so grossly lavish of the funds 
 entrusted to it, and so bold in its measures as to have 5,000 
 copies of its white-washing report charged against the 
 country. The 5,000 copies were never printed, and if they 
 had been, this fact of itself would be a sufficient argument 
 for the abolition of a Board so recklessly lavish of the 
 public money. 
 
 In addition to the $7,718.75 above mentioned, some 
 $6,398.10 have been paid to the Transcript Association for 
 the alleged publishing the report of the Committee on In- 
 vestigation — thus making the whole expense of this noto- 
 rious Investigating Committee, $18,460.35. 
 
 The Association has been and is engaged in investigating 
 the conduct of the business entrusted to the Committee of 
 the Board of Supervisors, known as the Committee on 
 Volunteering. This Committee has had the entire and abso- 
 lute disbursement of several millions of dollars, and grave 
 charges of fraud and improper dealing have, for some time, 
 been in circulation as "to the disposition of the money. The 
 expenses of the committee have been extraordinarily large, 
 and the management of the whole fund has been very loose 
 and unsatisfactor}'. In connection with its duty of supply- 
 ing volunteers for the army, this Volunteer Committee as- 
 sumed the task of furnishing substitutes for persons who 
 deposited money with it By a law of the State certain 
 moneys were deposited with this Committee to be used in re- 
 funding to principals a portion^of the money expended in 
 
14 
 
 procuring iubstitutes. After the claims of the principal 
 had been allowed by the State Paymaster, and the money 
 transmitted to the Volunteer Committee with which to pay 
 them, the Committee, instead of paying such claims imme- 
 diately, put the principal off from time to time, until at last 
 persons in the confidence of the Committee bought up, at a 
 large discount, the allowed claims of those principals who 
 became discouraged and who felt that unless they took 
 what they could get they would be swindled out of every- 
 thing. In connection with this subject the Executive 
 Council directed the attorney of the Association to send the 
 following communication to Orison Blunt, the Chairman of 
 the said Committee : 
 
 Citizens' Association of New-York, J 
 Rooms 813 Broadway, > 
 New-York, Nov. 9, 1866. ) 
 
 Orison Blunt, Esq., 
 
 Chairman County Volunteer Committee. 
 
 Sir,— The Executive Council of the Citizens' Association has directed 
 me to inquire of you, as Chairman of the County Volunteer Committee, 
 when it will be convenient for you to allow the accountant of our Asso. 
 ciation the opportunity of examining the books, records and accounts 
 of your Committee in relation to the furnishing of volunteers and substi- 
 tutes for the Army of the United States. As you, no doubt, are aware, 
 there has been some discussion, and also dissatisfaction, in the community 
 as to the management and disbursement of the funds appropriated for 
 volunteer purposes, it is the desire and intention of this Association to 
 investigate this matter from its origin, and we trust that in our labors we 
 will meet with your co-operation. I am, &c, 
 
 RICHARD M. HENRY, 
 Att'y Citizens' Association of New- York. 
 
 To this letter an answer was received, in which Mr. Blunt 
 says that it will afford him great pleasure to have the ex- 
 amination made as proposed, and that he will aid our ac- 
 countant every way in his power — that " his clerks are at 
 present busily engaged in closing up and completing the 
 
15 
 
 records, and will finish soon," when he will again have the 
 pleasure of addressing our Association. 
 
 Mr. Blunts clerks have been " busily engaged in closing 
 up and completing the records, and will finish soon" for the 
 last eighteen months, and if allowed to continue will be 
 11 busily engaged in closing up and completing the records, 
 and will finish soon" for the next five years. The Associa- 
 tion does not intend to wait until Mr. Bluut's "busily 
 engaged " clerks complete their task, but as soon as con- 
 venient to it, its accountant will demand an inspection 
 of the books and documents of the Committee on Volun- 
 teering, and if an immediate inspection is refused, the Asso- 
 ciation will, in that event, apply to the Supreme Court for 
 a mandamus, compelling the Committee to allow the inspec- 
 tion sought. 
 
 The Association has also been engaged in arranging the evi- 
 dence in the case of its charges against Street Commissioner 
 Charles Gr. Cornell. The Association has procured from the 
 Comptroller copies of many of the vouchers appertaining 
 to these charges, and has also had made several surveys of 
 the work in which fraud is alleged. In the matter of work- 
 ing Eighth Avenue as a country road, exact soundings 
 have been made by the engineers of the Association of the 
 depth of the hard pan below the surface of the marsh upon 
 which the embankment is made, and from the calculations 
 it appears that the fraud is greater than we have charged. 
 The Executive Council anticipated that the investigation of 
 the charges of the Association against Cornell would develop 
 a series of official acts of the most startling recklessness, 
 wanton waste of the public funds, and of the most gigantic 
 frauds ever perpetrated upon the Public Treasury. The 
 resignation of Mr. Cornell, however, prevented the investi- 
 gation from being prosecuted before the Commissioner ap- 
 pointed by Gov. Fenton — but Mr. Cornell will not thm 
 
16 
 
 escape the consequences of his acts — for the whole matter 
 will now be taken before another tribunal. 
 
 The Executive Council respectfully solicits the advice of 
 the Honorary Council in relation to the following : The 
 Common Council, in December, 1865, authorized and directed 
 the Comptroller to execute a lease to the Sisters of Mercy 
 of about three-quarters of a block of ground between Fourth 
 and Lexington Avenues, in the neighborhood of Eighty- 
 third street, for the term of ninety-nine years, at the nomi- 
 nal rent of one dollar per annum. This lease has been 
 executed. The Common Council also in December, 1865, 
 authorized and directed the Comptroller to lease to the 
 Nursery and Child's Hospital of the City of New- York, for 
 the annual rent of one dollar, for so long a time as the same 
 should be employed as a Home for Illegitimate Children and 
 a Lying-in-Asylum, certain lots of ground with the buildings 
 thereon, at the south-east corner of Lexington Avenue aud 
 Fifty-first street This lease also has been executed. These 
 leases are in direct violation of the City Charter, which 
 provides that the city shall not lease its property for a longer 
 term than ten years, and that all leases of public property 
 shall be made at public auction, and to the highest bidder. 
 These leases can be set aside. They are an illegal disposition 
 of the public property, and form very dangerous precedents. 
 Considering the uses to which the property leased is put, 
 the Executive Council wishes to have the suggestions of 
 the Honorary Council as to the advisability of directing 
 suits to be brought, to set the leases aside as illegal and 
 void. 
 
 The Association is about taking steps to have the proper- 
 ty owned by the Corporation inventoried, and will apply to 
 the Legislature at its next session, to have this property 
 sold and the proceeds applied towards extinguishing the 
 debt of the city. 
 
17 
 
 The Executive Council congratulates the Honorary Coun- 
 cil upon the decision of the State to call a Convention for 
 the alteration and revision of the Constitution. The Asso- 
 ciation has every reason to believe that its voice will have 
 great weight with the delegates from all parts of the State, 
 and it hopes to be able to have the government of our city 
 wholely remodelled, and reduced to such form as will ensure 
 economy, wisdom and energy. Of one thing, however, the 
 Association feels assured, and that is, of its power to induce 
 the Convention to abolish our elective judiciary, and to 
 return to the old system of appointing our judges. 
 
 The important matters to which the Honorary Council 
 were invited to give their attention, are : 
 
 1. The matter of our Wharves and Piers. 
 
 2. The successful result of the Gas Suit. 
 
 3. The successful result of the Mandamus against Cornell 
 
 4. The investigations into the new County Court House. 
 
 5. The matter of the overcharges of the County Investi- 
 
 gating Committee. 
 
 6. The matter of the County Volunteer Committee. 
 
 7. The matter of the Charges against Cornell. 
 
 8. The matter of the Corporation Leases. 
 
 The Executive Council feels the that welfare of our whole 
 State and country depends, in a measure, upon good govern- 
 ment in this city. 
 
 Great cities have always wielded a moral sovereignty in 
 human affairs. Thebes, Nineveh, Babylon, Palmyra, Rome, 
 gave laws and manners to ancient times. London, Paris, 
 Vienna, Constantinople, St Petersburg, sway nations now, 
 and advance or depress the standard of civilization, freedom 
 and social economy. As are its great cities, so is Europe, 
 so is Christendom. In like manner this western hemisphere 
 will be moulded and ruled by its imperial cities, its political 
 and commercial capitals. As Ronie, in olden times, was the 
 3 
 
18 
 
 mistress of millions in remotest provinces, so must imperial 
 New- York fulfil a like destiny to the teeming States and 
 temtories which commerce, science and other interests shall 
 attract towards her bosom. 
 
 We call Kome the Eternal City. Yet the eye of the 
 traveler meets there little besides decay and desolation. It 
 is a dead city, entombed in the fragments of its ancient 
 grandeur. But New- York is just bursting into giant life. 
 Its location is on a point where all the continents meet. 
 The Atlantic washes its feet, the tropics pour their riches 
 into its lap, the Arctic brings its products, the vast inte- 
 rior of our own country fills its warehouses, while by the 
 Pacific Railroad the regions of China, Japan and the East 
 Indies are brought to its doors. If commerce ever finds an 
 immovable, magnificent centre, it will be here on this small 
 island of Manhattan. 
 
 This Empire City, thus grandly enthroned on the point 
 where all the great interests of the world meet, where all 
 wants may be supplied, all exchanges made, this great Me- 
 tropol s, with its magnificent capabilities and exalted destiny, 
 ought, in all reason, to enjoy the wisest and best government 
 that man can bestow. Its rulers should be capable of com- 
 prehending its vast power for good, for the promotion of 
 social security and happiness, and for the highest achieve- 
 ments of the most advanced civilization ; and they should 
 be resolved that the government of this city shall be as dis. 
 tinguished for its wisdom, its purity and uprightness, its sa- 
 gacious, far-seeing statesmanship, as is the city for its unparal- 
 lelled location and other physical advantages. There are 
 men in this city, who could in a few years make this me- 
 tropolis the first city in the world in all that pertains to the 
 interests of commerce, trade, general industry and enterprise, 
 and in everything conuected with life, health, order, comfort 
 and happinesa of the people. They would concentrate and 
 
19 
 
 embody in our municipal administration, the highest result* 
 of experience, science and art, and give the people the full 
 benefit of the wisest and best local rule, conducted on prin- 
 ciples of honesty, justice and enlightened philanthropy. 
 
 How, and by whom, is this great city governed ? It is 
 not pleasant to speak evil of persons holding official positions 
 if we can avoid it. But if we speak at all, and speak truth- 
 fully, we must say that no community of which history gives 
 any account, ever had the misfortune to fall under the con- 
 trol of men so utterly destitute of every right principle, so 
 grossly incompetent, and so thoroughly selfish, corrupt and 
 wicked as are most of the rulers of this city. 
 
 The mode of government devised by these men seems to 
 have been expressly intended for the largest number of 
 offices, and the most lavish use of money. They have a 
 double government, each with its long list of officials and 
 salaries, one government being for the city, the other for the 
 county, covering the same ground exactly. They divided 
 these governments into sixteen departments, and in five of 
 these departments are eighteen distinct bureaus, each with a 
 chief with large salary, and each having a corps of well-paid 
 clerks, &c. And then, to crown the system, all the depart- 
 ments are independent and without responsibility to any 
 central, superior authority. 
 
 Enormous as have been the revenues of the city, the taxes 
 having risen in thirty years from $2.50 per head to $20 for 
 every man, woman and child, those who misrule us have 
 contrived to spend twenty millions a } r ear without anything 
 to show for it in public improvements. They spent largely 
 for cleaning streets, and gave us the filthiest streets in the 
 world. They spent, nominally for Health purposes, but gave 
 us a Sanitary Police whose business was rum-selling, and the 
 whole system was a disgrace to civilization. And thus 
 fruitless of public benefits have been all their immense ex- 
 
20 
 
 penditures. The money has gone into private pockets. In- 
 stead of noble river fronts lined with magnificent wharves, 
 piers and warehouses worthy of the greatest commercial city 
 on the continent, we find miles of dilapidated wharves, filthy 
 docks, tumble-down piers, and other like evidences of im- 
 providence, incompetence, neglect and fraud. 
 
 The more the greed for corrupt gain has been indulged, 
 the more insatiable and daring it has become, till now, the 
 conviction is fixed in the public mind that most of our city 
 officials are nothing less, nothing better, than a band of con- 
 spirators, leagued together for the plundering of the people 
 to the utmost extent to which their official positions will en- 
 able them to carry it. 
 
 If any should take courage from the public disgust and 
 indignation felt for our officials, to hope for a speedy change 
 of rulers through the ballot box, we must check that hope 
 by reminding them that the adroit and experienced officials 
 have amply provided against the possibility of an election 
 that shall oust them and elevate honest men. Let anj one 
 visit the election districts on charter election day, and he 
 will soon see that our officials are not chosen by the merchants 
 and tradesmen, not by honest mechanics or the sober and 
 industrious laborers whose toils bring in their daily bread, 
 but he will find every district patrolled, every poll watched, 
 every stranger and decent-looking man scrutinized by the 
 friends of the "Ring," who feel that honest people have no 
 right which they are bound to respect. 
 
 Against all possibility of reform through the ballot, our 
 rulers have provided a standing army of voters, who are 
 bound to carry them to victory In every contest The ten 
 thousand rum-sellers, with all the customers they can in- 
 fluence by free drams and otherwise, the thousands of sala- 
 ried officers and hangers-on of the various departments, 
 together with .the hordes of employes on roads, streets and 
 
21 
 
 public works and buildiDgs, are always at command. The 
 expenditure of twenty millions a year can easily be made 
 to control a vast number of votes, and in these and various 
 other ways, which we need not specify, the officials now in 
 power can keep themselves there in spite of any efforts the 
 better classes of citizens may make. 
 
 In ordinary circumstances the ballot is the security and 
 the glory of a people. A fair expression of enlightened, 
 virtuous public opinion is the most reliable wisdom and 
 safety. But our circumstances are most extraordinary. 
 Our city is the common sewer for the dregs of Europe. 
 The rascality of the old world flows into it, and all that is 
 vile and wicked, whether imported or home-bred, is pan- 
 dered to by our officials and becomes subservient to them. 
 Not only can our officials continue their power, not only 
 can they prevent all reform and all protection to property 
 and person in the city by,the ballot-box, but they are drill- 
 ing and marching to the polls masses of ignorance and 
 wickedness which threaten to overwhelm the whole State, 
 and neutralize the vote of the entire body of free, intelli- 
 gent citizens in the counties and rural districts. And 
 though the Rings of the city complain of Albany interfer- 
 ence with our local affairs, they are doing their best to de- 
 prive the whole State of its rights. 
 
 Much as the friends of reform may desire the redemption 
 of the city by its own citizens from the terrible wrongs it 
 endures, they are compelled to abandon all hope in that di- 
 rection at present. The Citizens' Association, after patient 
 and earnest investigation and effort, has been forced to the 
 conclusion that the only practicable and safe course is in su- 
 perseding the clumsy, numerous, corrupt and costly depart- 
 ments of our city government by a few thoroughly able and 
 honest boards, composed of our wisest and test citizens, 
 and authorized by the State Legislature. There is no other 
 
23 
 
 power that can relieve us in our present exigency, and there 
 is no other way in which we can so soon and bo surely get 
 rid of the oligarchy of Rings and restore to our own citizens 
 the right of managing their local affairs. 
 
 The Boards already established through the efforts of the 
 Association, and which, without violence or parade, have 
 quietly displaced old follies and abuses, and introduced real 
 and valuable services at a vast reduction of expense, may 
 be regarded as samples of the character and bearing of the 
 whole series of boards deemed necessary for the good gov- 
 ernment of this city, and which, when complete, will present 
 a municipal administration unrivalled in either hemisphere. 
 Excluding political parties and cliques from the control of 
 interests in which all parties and classes are vitally con- 
 cerned, frowning down office-seekers and their corrupt 
 devices to gain place and profit, and selecting from our 
 citizens men of character, intelligence and thorough know- 
 ledge of the branches of public duty to which they may be 
 assigned, the result must be a great simplification of civic 
 rule compared with the cumbrous, multiform, ignorant and 
 corrupt system now in vogue. Instead of forty or more 
 irresponsible, incompetent and often clashing departments 
 and bureaus, each with its troop of salaried officials and its 
 regiment of hangers-on living on the crumbs of patronage, 
 some seven Boards or Commissions, each with its well-defined 
 work, and with its special qualifications for that work, and 
 each held to a rigid accountability to the people, will meet 
 all the requirements of the public service on a scale of 
 excellence, efficiency and wise economy which will secure 
 to the city all the advantages and prosperity which indivi- 
 dual enterprise and sagacity usually realize on the same 
 principles. 
 
 The plan of the Citizens' Association proposes, in addi- 
 tion to the measures already inaugurated, a Board of Public 
 
23 
 
 Works, to have charge of all public buildings, &c. Second, 
 a Board of Estimate and Revision, without whose sanction 
 no appropriation of the public money or sale or lease of the 
 public property can be valid. Third, A Board of Wharves 
 and Piers. Fourth, the final and crowning board is to be 
 the Board of Metropolitan Trustees, which will supersede the 
 Common Council, the Board of Supervisors, and all other 
 departments of the local government not provided for in the 
 other Boards. This Board will be under the control and 
 direction of seven Metropolitan Trustees, three to be ap- 
 pointed by the Governor of the State, by and with the advice 
 and consent of the Senate, and four to be elected at large by 
 the people, one of whom shall act as President of the Board 
 and be the Mayor of the city. This will still leave the 
 ballot-box in use, and it is hoped at least one good and 
 reliable citizen out of the four can be elected, though, we 
 confess, past experience does not warrant hopes of a very 
 sanguine order. 
 
 Our local government will then be conducted by the fol- 
 lowing Boards : 1st, The Metropolitan Board of Trustees ; 
 2d, The Board of Public Works ; 3d, The Board of Health ; 
 4th, Board of Revision and Estimate ; 5th, Board of Fire 
 Commissioners; 6th, Metropolitan Police, and 7th, A 
 Board of Wharves and Piers. Instead of sixteen depart- 
 ments and forty-two bureaus, as formerly, and at a merely 
 nominal expense when all the legitimate sources of revenue 
 are developed, honestly collected and used in defraying our 
 necessary liabilities, we shall have a compact, congruous 
 and efficient government, simple in its arrangement, and 
 adequate to all the beneficent purposes it is intended to 
 subserve. 
 
 Among those who oppose the reforms now in progress, 
 and insist on continuing the cumbrous system under which 
 the great abuses in the City Government have been main- 
 
24 
 
 tained, much complaint has been made of interference with 
 chartered rights. They have assumed without foundation 
 that the method of governing the city is fixed by ancient 
 charters, and that the city, in respect of its government, is 
 mainly independent of the State. The truth is quite the 
 contrary. While the city is vested with certain chartered 
 rights over its own property, which of course cannot be in- 
 terferred with, the proper business of government within 
 the city belongs to the general policy and administration of 
 the State of which the city forms a part 
 
 The State of New-York never allows any portion of its 
 territory, be it town, county, village or city, a local inde- 
 pendence, but subjects all parts of its domain to the supreme 
 authority of the State itself. When a charter is given to a 
 village for the convenience of its inhabitants, the better pre- 
 servation of order, the protection of private right and the 
 suppression of local evils, the State confers upon such village 
 certain special powers, which may be recalled by the Legis- 
 lature at will, and differ widely from irrevocable grants of 
 property. In the exercise of such powers, the village of- 
 ficials, in effect, are merely deputed to perform a portion of 
 the functions of the State government at that particular 
 place. So, on; a larger scale, the City of New-York, from 
 time to time, has received authority from the State for the 
 purposes of local government, but always subject to the 
 superior power. The great amount of property, and the 
 large population of this city, render it expedient, and even 
 necessary, that the provisions for the local government here 
 should be ample and comprehensive ; but the fundamental 
 principle of the subordination of the local government of 
 a district to the general government of the whole State, is 
 the same here as in the case of any mere village. This 
 controlling power of the State, over the government of the 
 City of New- York, has been exercised at all times, and 
 
25 
 
 material changes in the government of this city often have 
 been made. Thus, in the legislative department of the 
 city, a Board of Assistant Aldermen has been abolished ; 
 two differently constituted Boards of Councilmen have been 
 established in succession ; the function of Supervisors has 
 been taken from the Aldermen and given to a distinct 
 Board of Supervisors; several independent departments 
 have been instituted ; particular functions have been taken 
 from the Common Council and conferred upon new boards 
 of officers; and innumerable lesser changes of a distinct 
 character have been made by Acts of the State Legislature. 
 
 In respect of the power of taxation for local purposes, 
 this city has been kept for many years strictly and constantly 
 under the authority of the State Legislature, much more so 
 than other cities of the State. This city has no chartered 
 authority to raise the moneys annually required for its ad- 
 ministration, nor to contract loans nor to incur debts; but 
 is required annually to apply to the Legislature for the pas- 
 sage of particular Acts for those purposes. While smaller 
 cities, for the most part, have a standing authority in their 
 charters, to raise money by tax or loan sufficient to cover 
 their necessary expenses, yet the Common Council of this 
 city does not possess such authority. 
 
 In no other city do the people of the State have so large 
 an interest as in this. Here is the great seaport of the State, 
 the business centre of its wealth and commerce, the place of 
 its payments and settlements, the common point where its 
 people for intellectual moral and social purposes constantly 
 meet, and where all therefore have a peculiar common in- 
 terest. Every inhabitant of this State is interested in the 
 welfare and prosperity of this metropolis ; and the Legislature 
 being the equal representatives of all the people, and 
 charged by the Constitution with the whole legislative 
 power of the State, are the proper guardians and protectors 
 4 
 
26 
 
 of those common interests at this point. The Legislature, 
 therefore, in interposing to correct abuses in our local 
 government, and to make such changes in its organization 
 as shall protect the people and property of the City of New- 
 York from misrule and waste, lighten the burthen of taxa- 
 tion, improve the public health, increase the facilities for 
 commerce, improve the administration of public education 
 and repress crime, not only guards the interests of this city, 
 but most eminently serves the interests of the great State 
 it represents. 
 
 The idea of local self-government in the City of New- 
 York, recently promulgated in some quarters, has no foun- 
 dation in our past history, and is at war with the fundamen- 
 tal principles of State sovereignty ; and this Association 
 constantly looks to that honorable body, in which the Con- 
 stitution has vested the legislative power of this State, for 
 the enactment of such laws for the government of the City 
 of New- York as the interests of the w T hole State (the city 
 included) shall, in its judgment, require. The destiny of 
 the great city of the American continent is too high, and 
 the interest of our whole country in its prosperity is too 
 great, to be placed at the risk of petty combinations in local 
 parties and of selfish and speculative arrangements of ward 
 politicians, and require the intelligent attention of the good 
 and w r ise men of the whole State. 
 
 On the motion of William Wood, Esq., the Eeport was 
 sent back to the Executive Council, with the recommenda- 
 tion that it be printed for distribution. 
 
 RICHARD M. HENRY, 
 
 Secretary Honorary Council Citizens Association. 
 
 On December 6, 1866, the Hon. Geo. G. Barnard, presid- 
 ing Justice of the Supreme Court, delivered the following 
 charge to the Grand Jury : 
 
27 
 
 u At every term of the Court, gentlemen, at which a Grand Jury is 
 summoned, it is required by the statute that you should be charged on 
 the duties you have to perform, and the manner of performing them. 
 Most of you, if not all, have probably served on the Grand Jury before, 
 and if you have not you have all read the charges which have been deli- 
 vered by different Judges to different Grand Juries. It is, therefore, 
 hardly necessary for me to refer at any length to the nature and charac- 
 ter of those duties. There are, however, certain statutes which I am 
 required by law to call your attention to, and these are the statutes 
 against bribery at elections, the statutes against usury, the statutes 
 against lotteries, the statutes agaimt selling rum, the statutes against 
 soliciting passengers illegally, and the statutes against disclosing the fact 
 that an indictment has been found against any person for larceny who is 
 not actually in custody. 
 
 " I had intended, gentlemen, to charge you — indeed, I had carefully pre- 
 pared, with the intention of delivering to you a charge — in regard to the 
 offences which are constantly being committed in the City of New-York 
 by public officers ; but, on reflection, I have concluded to suppress it, 
 and for tbi3 reason : No one single man can, unaided and alone, fight 
 against the corruptions of New-York City. I have determined here- 
 after, when I have information or seek to accomplish anything in opposi- 
 tion to this bad influence, to use the Citizens' Association — an associa- 
 tion in New-York City composed of gentlemen of wealth, of intellect, 
 and of sterling integrity. I have determined to use them as an instru- 
 ment for the purpose of reforming what I consider the most glaring 
 •abuses in New- York City. So far as my' Court is concerned, so far as I 
 have the power, by injunction, mandamus or otherwise, to stop these 
 abuses, I intend to do it ; but, as one single, unaided man, I shall look to 
 the Citizens' Association for aid and assistance. The law provides that 
 not more than twenty-three or less than sixteen shall be sworn as a Grand 
 Jury, and it takes twelve of that number to find a bill, and the same number 
 to re-consider a bill, when once found, before it is presented to the Court, 
 Your foreman has the power to excuse any of yqp, provided he has not 
 less than twelve in the room at all times. No person is allowed to appear 
 in your room when a vote i3 being given, or an opinion expressed. The 
 District Attorney will be your legal adviser, and he will be permitted to 
 come before you at all times except on these two occasions. He will 
 send for witnesses for you, and examine such witnesses as appear before 
 you, if you desire it, and he will at all times hold himself in readiness for 
 
\ 
 
 28 
 
 the purpose of giving you advice. My experience as a Judge on the 
 bench, running back now some ten years, emboldens me to say to you 
 that you should keep secret your deliberations in the Grand Jury room. 
 Detailing what takes place there may create bickerings and animosities, 
 and can make no friendships, and therefore it should be sacred and secret. 
 With these few remarks, gentlemen, you will proceed to the discharge of 
 your duties."