ANDREW H. GREEN, 
 
 CANDIDATE FOR MAYOR. 
 
iEx IGtbrtB 
 
 SEYMOUR DURST 
 
 IVben 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 Seymour B. Durst Old York Library 
 
ROOMS 
 
 or THE 
 
 INDEPENDENT CITIZENS' COMMITTEE, 
 
 No. 166 FIFTH AVENUE. 
 
 \/ TO THE CITIZENS OF NEW YORK. 
 
 PROGRESSIVE REFORM, AS ILLUSTRATED IX THE FUBLIC 
 SERVICES OF ANDREW H. GREEN. 
 
 NXW York, October 21, 1876. 
 
 Andkkw H. Grkex was born at Green Hill, Worcester. Massachusetts, in 
 the homestead which has been the dwelling place of his family for five genera- 
 tions. His early years were spent in this spot, fragrant with domestic recol- 
 lections ; and his education carried on at the academy in Worcester, with a view 
 to his future entrance into West Point through the expected appointment by his 
 mother's relative, Gov. Win. L. Marcy. This plan, however, was ultimately 
 abandoned, and it was decided that he should go to New York, where his father 
 had in early life studied law, and where a large circle of his family connections 
 still had their residence. 
 
 Accordingly, before his boyhood had fairly passed, he left the retirement of 
 his father's home, and the peaceful occupations in which his life had hitherto 
 been engaged, for the busier scenes and more active engagements of the metro- 
 polis. 
 
 On arrival at New York, he was employed in a prominent business house, oc- 
 cupying there at first the place of junior clerk, and rising, by dint of intelligent 
 application, to a chief position among the employees. His further progress in 
 this direction, however, was checked by the suspension of the firm, during 
 the panic of 1S.T7, with no promise of resumption and no business outlook 
 for those whom it had employed. 
 
 Dur.ng the <lepres>ion in trade which followed, Mr. Green turned his atten- 
 tion to trawl, and spent a year in the West Indies, dwelling for a considerable 
 time on the \ lantations, and acquainting himself thoroughly with the processes 
 of growing and making sugar. Here also he found a congenial study in the luxu- 
 riant vegetation of the tropics, and s > built upon the knowledge he had already 
 acquired of the woods and fields of his native country. There is no doubt that 
 these experiences gave a direction and stimulus to the taste for landscape 
 
4 
 
 gardening and arboriculture which afterwards found such ample scope and such 
 admirable expression in the construction of Central Park. 
 
 On his return from the West Indies, Mr. Green's acquaintance with New 
 York, and its opportunities having so much increased since his first introduction 
 there, and his knowledge of his own preferences and tastes having assumed so 
 much clearer form, he was the better able to settle definitively upon an 
 occupation ; and being impressed with the advantages of a professional career, 
 he accordingly devoted himself to the study of the law. 
 
 In the transactions of the American Agricultural Association, Mr. Green about 
 this time took an active interest, contributing some valuable papers on agricul- 
 tural subjects. While so engaged, Mr. Green began to take an active interest 
 in educational matters, and for a time filled the office of School Trustee in the 
 Fourteenth Ward, being subsequently, in the year 18o4, elected a member of 
 the Board of Education, and then President of the Board. 
 
 That Mr. Green's mind had been for a long time concerned with public: 
 interests, that he had arrived at a correct apprehension of the abuses then 
 existing in the local government, and of the dangers which threatened to result 
 therefrom, and that his judgment in these absorbing affairs had, in com- 
 paratively early life, reached a maturity which qualified him in no small degree 
 for positions of public trust and confidence, appears in his public addresses of 
 that time, mainly delivered before the Board of Education. 
 
 Those were the days when the Mayoralty of the City of New York was filled 
 by Fernando Wood, the scandals of whose administration are still fresh in the 
 memory of men, and were at that time conspiciious enough to excite the most 
 alarming apprehensions on the part of public -spirited citizens. 
 
 The following extract from the annual report of the Board of Education for 
 1855, written by Mr. Green more than twenty years ago, is no less a commen- 
 tary upon the evils then existing than a prophecy of what might be looked for in 
 the future : 
 
 " It needs not that anything be here said on the enormous and extravagant 
 " cost of maintaining our city government. The people see and feel this at every 
 ' 1 turn. The poor man. wearied with six days' toil, thankful for even the scanty 
 ' ' repast that is spread for himself, his companion, and their little ones, as surely 
 " counts out of his weekly wages a portion for the dishonesty and corruption 
 ''that riot in our municipal affairs, as though he actually dropped h's coin 
 " into the palm of their vulgar, perfumed and jewelried representative. 
 
 ' ' The laboring masses of this great city need to reflect on this. Those com- 
 " forts and luxuries which result from the gains of honest industry and frugality 
 "•are sanctioned by society; their possessor rightly enjoys the fruits of his own 
 ' ' labor without envy ; but the equipage guided by the same hand that has rob- 
 ' ' bed the humble pedestrian of his wages is odious in his sight as it rolls along, 
 " flinging from its swift wheels the dirt of the highway upon his garment. 
 
 " It is the duty of every reflecting man to examine into the public expendi- 
 li tures, and discriminate in his judgments upon those who preside over them. 
 " Our public affairs require the supervision and aid of experienced, able and faith- 
 
5 
 
 " M men; and it is altogether wrong that the public servant who faithfully 
 " discharges his duty should be overwhelmed with the same contempt and abvfM 
 u that is heaped upon the faithless and corrupt. Indiscriminate abuse and op- 
 11 probrium never will effect a remedy for these evils, and no relief will be se- 
 " cured until the public intelligence shall honor the officer to whom honor 
 4 belongs, and disgrace the man who deserves it, and disgrace him in such a 
 " manner as that his ill-gotten gains shall be a constant reproach to him.* 1 
 
 In the same report he urges a wise and economical expenditure of the money 
 intrusted to the Board of Education, and a judicious administration of the 
 school system, as the surest method of commending it to the people, and en- 
 listing their confidence and interest in its support. 
 
 " Could tax-payers of this city," he says, 4i be shown that the appropriations 
 ' for the support of the common schools of the city are judiciously applied— that 
 " there is no wastefulness or extravagance — that every dollar expended by the 
 " Board is expended in such a manner as to make it go the farthest in doing its 
 • • woik ; that our teachers are paid somewhat in accordance with the value of the 
 ki services they render, and with some reference to competency ; that locations 
 " of new schools are made with main reference to the convenience of the 
 u people, and that our school structures are well planned, and thoroughly and 
 14 economically constructed; then we should hear no complaint of the cost of 
 '* the schools, no charge of extravagance, and no disatisfaction with the admiu- 
 ,k istration of the system." 
 
 It was in the following year that Mr. Green was chosen President of the 
 Board, and in his address on the occasion of his election, he expressed himself 
 with great clearness and intelligent discrimination on the various prominent 
 features of the school system; while in subsequent reports and addresses his 
 sentiments on these and kindred topics were as clearly enunciated. 
 
 u Irenew the recommendation, " he says in an address in ' ; made in a 
 
 former communication to this Board concerning a wider provision in the 
 ■ Academy for the study of the German language and literature. 
 
 "' Of the population of this city, fully one-eighth traces its origin to Germany. 
 M More than thirty religious congregations — and among them are those as large 
 
 as any in the city— are instructed in the German language from the pulpit. 
 
 4 " The :elations between this country and Germany are becoming yearly more 
 " intimate ; the emigration from Germany is greater than that of any other 
 11 country. Ten newspapers are printed in the German language in this city. 
 " and its literature is not surpassed, in extent or richness, by that of any nation 
 "in the word. Under these circumstances, it seems to me that a language of 
 " this importance to our citizens, in a business and literary point of view, should 
 "occupy a position less subordinate in the academical course, :m<l that it is a 
 " duty of thisBoard to afford the students of the Academy greater facilities for 
 11 its acquirement.'' 
 
 In the same address, delivered, it will be recollected, nearly twenty years ago, 
 ho alludes to the subject of State taxes in the following language : 
 
 11 Mi these general State taxes operate unequally upon this and other kcali- 
 
6 
 
 ' ' ties of the State in several particulars. Where property is aggregated as in 
 " cities, it is more easily ascertainable, and the valuation upon which the tax is 
 " based is much higher than that placed upon property in other parts of the State. 
 
 ' ; Indeed the valuations placed upon property throughout the State are un- 
 " equal, and so palpably unjust, as to demand the immediate application of the 
 " simple remedy that would be furnished by the appointment by a Board of 
 " State Assessors, whose duty it should be to equalize the county valuations. 
 
 " It is easy to see that where a tax to be borne equally throughout the State, 
 " is raised by a percentage, the valuation made by counties, the tendency is 
 " to reduce county values to escape the fair proportion of the burden of the 
 u State tax. 
 
 " A farm of equal value with one lying in an adjoining county is valued fifty 
 " per cent less. It may be urged that this is a remote matter, that neither con- 
 " cems the operations of this Board, nor calls for any action on its part. It is 
 " neither remote nor unimportant. In 1856, this law authorizing a percentage 
 " for educational purposes was passed ; it affects this city seriously, and it is at 
 " least the right of this Board to notice legislative action for educational pur- 
 u poses that so palpably affects the interests of this city." 
 
 All these extracts indicate the keen foresight with which Mr. Green regarded 
 the future of this community, the large appreciation which he had of its ne- 
 cessities, and his eminent fitness for the larger field of official usefulness to which 
 at that period he just had been called 
 
 In the year 1357, Mr. Green, while at the same time President of the Board 
 of Education, was appointed to the office of Commissioner of Central Park. His 
 entrance upon this latter field of duty was unexpected. He shrunk from 
 this, as he did fourteen years later from the call that brought him still more 
 prominently to the front, not from any unwillingness to aid in promoting the 
 public good, but with a clearer apprehension than others possessed of the scope 
 of the work, of its large responsibilities, and of the absorbing demands which 
 it would, in all probability, make upon his future life. 
 
 At that time the science of landscaj)e-gardening in this country was in its in- 
 cipiency. In no country, indeed, had it ever been studied or developed in any 
 systematic way, or its knowledge combined in any one person, with administra- 
 tive skill The laying out of the Central Park was an undertaking without pre- 
 cedent in America — it might be said, in the world — a venture upon untried 
 ground, the more hazardous because of the unpromising nature of the field, and 
 the discouraging obstacles it presented to any artistic treatment. 
 
 The work, as Mr. Green clearly foresaw, would involve the organization of a 
 force of architects, engineers, gardeners, skilled and ordinary laborers, on an 
 altogether novel plan, the constantly varying features of which would require 
 the exercise of inventive skill and executive genius on the part of some one 
 mind which should direct and operate the whole. 
 
 Nor was he mistaken. Under the act of April 17, 1857, the "full and ex- 
 clusive power to govern, manage, and direct the Central Park," devolved upon 
 a Board of eleven Commissioners, of whom Mr. Green was one, his name being 
 
7 
 
 included among the number at the instance of the late Dean Richmond, without 
 Mr. Green's knowledge, and at the very time when he himself was trying in 
 New York to induce the late Mr. Havemeyer to accept the office. Not long 
 after the organization of the Board, he was elected its Treasurer, and a year later, 
 as the administration of the Park grew on his own hands, both Treasurer and 
 President. The office of Treasurer, he held with but four or five months inter- 
 mission, for the ensuing twelve years ; that of President he exchanged a year 
 later for the office of Comptroller of the Park, a position which was created for 
 his occupancy, and involved the executive management of all the affairs of the 
 Park. 
 
 Thenceforth Mr. Green devoted to this work all his time and energies, and, 
 though the relinquishment of his other business required no little sacrifice, the 
 field to which he had been called was not altogether an uncongenial one. 
 Here he found opportunity for the development of those finer and more artistic 
 tastes, which for so many years he had necessarily subordinated to his profes- 
 sional duties, and for the exercise of that executive ability which he possessed 
 in such large measure, and which had not until then found an adequate field. 
 
 Under Mr. Green's direction the Park Commission rapidly commended itself to 
 public favor and confidence. The people early began to enjoy the Park, which 
 it had been thought would only serve for the use of a succeeding generation, 
 and as its growth began to stimulate the development of the adjacent territory, 
 the Board \Vas charged by the Legislature with various functions beyond those 
 originally contemplated. Powers were conferred upon it, to lay out the north 
 end of the island ; to survey and lay out the lower part of Westchester County ; 
 to devise plans for the improvement of Harlem river and Spuyten Duyvil creek, 
 and for the location of bridges across the same ; to establish and define the 
 bulkhead lines on the North river, north of Fifty-fifth street; and to survey 
 and lay out that part of the island lying west of Eighth avenue and south of One 
 Hundred and Fifty-fifth street. On all these subjects, Mr. Green made exhaus- 
 tive reports to the Board, prepared with great care, after personal examination 
 of the various districts involved. These reports became a recognized authority on 
 the subject, and were made the basis of future operations by the Park Board. 
 The United States government, indeed, in its recent surveys of the Harlem river, 
 under the direction of General Newton, availed itself largely of Mr. Green's 
 previous investigations. 
 
 The Park also became the objective point of various metropolitan entorpist s, 
 for which a necessity had long been felt, and which only awaited some such 
 opportunity as this to spring into life. It is not improper to claim both the 
 American Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of .\rt. as 
 the outgrowth of the Park organization ; while these and the Meteorological 
 Observatory have come to be the foremost institutions of their kind on the 
 continent. 
 
 With respeet to the administration of the Park by Mr. Green, the utmost 
 vigilance and careful supervision were constantly exercised. Employees were 
 retained in office, promoted, and eomi>ensated according to merit; a classilic.i- 
 
8 
 
 tion of the Police and other force was maintained, and promotions made from 
 one grade to another ; gardeners were engaged and promoted with regard to 
 their fitness, which was ascertained by an examination as to their botanical 
 knowledge and practical skill, and other employees upon the same general 
 basis ; no politic il considerations were allowed to interfere with the system ; 
 and a practical civil service reform was established and successfully carried on, 
 years before the popular agitation on the subject had commenced. 
 
 It is hardly practicable here to enter upon Mr. Green's work in detail. Dur- 
 ing the period of thirteen years, amid constant strife with the growing Ring, 
 and controversies with those who desired to use the park for political purposes, 
 he never swerved from his desire of making it a pleasure-ground for the people 
 and a rich inheritance for their children. In all that time the Park Commission 
 was scarcely ever involved in a law-suit ; its affairs were wisely and economically 
 administered, while his own services, given exclusively to this work, were inade- 
 quately compensated at the average rate of about $5,500 per annum. 
 
 A striking evidence of his determination not to profit personally by his con- 
 nection with public affairs is seen in a letter written in 1868, declining the 
 offer of a complete equipage of carriage, harness, and horses, made to him by 
 Mr. Daly on behalf of several gentlemen of this city. 
 
 " While I highly value,'' he says, " the kind -sentiments expressed in your 
 " note, and fully recognize the liberal proposition it contains, and while I should 
 " have been very glad to have accepted the establishment, as an expression of 
 "the appreciation of the donors, I feel that I must decline to do so, and I 
 11 think on reflection you will agree with me that this is best. With the purest 
 " intention on the part of yourself and of the gentlemen you represent, as well as 
 " on my own, there are those who might make its acceptance the occasion of 
 ' 1 criticism. Will you do me the kindness to convey these sentiments to the 
 "gentlemen associated with you.'' 
 
 In the year 1870 the designs of the Ring against the Park culminated, and the 
 Commission, which up to this time had been a State organization, was super- 
 seded by a department of the Municipal Government, consisting of five Commis- 
 sioners, to be appointed by the Mayor. Mr. Green was the first to take the 
 official oath as Park Commissioner in 1857, and nearly thirteen years thereafter, 
 it wa,s left to him by his associates to hand over the great works under their 
 charge, to the " Ring " Department that succeeded them under the Charter of 
 1870. 
 
 The last official act of Mr. Green's associates in the outgoing Board was to 
 leave on record a testimonial of their recognition of his services, which may, with 
 very great fitness, be introduced here, and which reads as follows : 
 
 ''Having presented the above address as the official act of the Board, there 
 " remains to be performed by the undersigned an act of justice and of duty, in a 
 " full recognition of the obligations of the Commissioners of the Park, and of the 
 * ' community, to Mr. Andrew H. Green, their late associate in the Commis- 
 " sion, and Comptroller of the Park, with whom their official relations are now 
 ' ' severed. 
 
9 
 
 "At an early day, Mr. Green exhibited those characteristics, that justified 
 *' the Commissioners in committing to him a large discretion and important 
 " responsibilities. 
 
 ''His calm and reliable judgment and vigorous execution, and his cultivated 
 taste, added to a patient forbearance and singleness of purpose, rendered him an 
 *• administrative officer fully adequate to the duties and responsibilities of his 
 44 executive position, and it gives the retiring Commissioners unqualified pleasure, 
 * l to pay this parting tribute to his abilities, his efficiency and his integrity." 
 
 (Signed) HENRY G. STEBBINS, 
 
 R. W. BLATCHFORD, 
 J. F. BUTTERWORTH, 
 CHARLES H. RUSSELL, 
 M. H. GRINNELL, 
 WALDO HUTCHINS. 
 
 During the interval which elapsed between the retirement of the old Park 
 Board, in April, 1870, and the final collapse of the Ring in September, 1871, 
 Mr. Green was still a Commissioner of the Department of Parks, though his 
 influence in the Board was altogether neutralized by his three associates, Peter 
 B. Sweeney, Henry Hilton, and Thos. C. Fields. He conceived it, however, to 
 be his duty not to resign, but to remain in the Board, and it is, no doubt, due 
 to the fact of his presence in the Board, and to his constant vigilance that the 
 ignorant and wanton measures of Sweeney and Hilton, which caused the de- 
 struction of Professor Hawkins' restorations of extinct animals, and the ruthless 
 sacrifice of whole plantations of trees and shrubbery, did not in like maimer 
 effect the ruin of other cherished features of the Park. 
 
 The circumstances under which Mr. Green was, in the fall of 1871, called to 
 the office of Comptroller of the city are so familiar as not to need repetition here. 
 It is enough to say, that he accepted the direction of the finances of the city 
 •with great reluctance, yielding unwillingly to the persuasions of the late Mayor 
 Havemeyer, conscious of the labors and responsibilities which he would assume. 
 He left a lucrative and congenial financial position upon which his exemption 
 from active duty in the Park Department had allowed him to enter, to become 
 the servant of the public in a larger sense than ever before, and to receive, as 
 he clearly apprehended, the lesser gains and thankless tasks of a public office. 
 
 More than five years have now elapsed since that time, during all of which 
 interval Mr. Green's life has been public property and his actions subject to 
 every variety of criticism. Setting out on the principle! of strict adherence to 
 the law, and impartial scrutiny of claims, with an inflexible determination to 
 protect the city from spoliation, and to do equal justice to all who might have 
 -dealings with the treasury, he, naturally enough, encountered opposition from 
 those whose purposes were thus frustrated. The people with whom he had to 
 deal, consisted almost exclusively of a creditor element. That element was 
 largely corrupt and the payment of their claims was delayed, till they could be 
 thoroughly examined, while current claimants were promptly paid, of whom no 
 
10 
 
 one ever heard, they taking their money and going 1 home entirely satisfied. The 
 corrupt claimants, however, were brisk to enlighten the public as to their pre- 
 tended wrongs, careful not to state the cause of the delay, confusing the public 
 mind with vague allegations of obstruction on the part of the Comptroller. 
 
 Of course, during the first two years of Mr. Green's administration, while the 
 bulk of rotten matters left by the Ring was still unsettled, his controversies 
 were the most severe. During that time he was on several occasions exposed to 
 personal assault from violent men, whose passions had been inflamed by their 
 own fancied grievances o» by the incitements of their political associates who 
 stood in the background. In proportion, however, as the old matters of the 
 Ring were settled, these disturbing elements were dissipated, and while the. 
 period of five years has not sufficed altogether to close up the confused and em- 
 barrassed estate which Mr. Green found on his hands, it has nevertheless dis- 
 posed of a vast mass of affairs, and extricated the city from what at that time 
 seemed inevitable bankruptcy. 
 
 When Mr. Green came into the office of Comptroller in the fall of 1871, he 
 found the tax levy of the year already entirely exhausted, the accounts over- 
 drawn, and no provision to meet either the revenue bonds of the city, then 
 rapidly maturing, the current expenditures of the Departments, or the salaries 
 of thousands of employees who then filled the pay-rolls. Every dollar had been 
 abstracted from the Treasury before the collapse ; the city had virtually sus- 
 pended payments ; its credit, under recent developments, was greatly weakened ; 
 and, had no change of administration been effected, it must necessarily have 
 ceased all operations. 
 
 The averting of these consequences by the transfer of authority to Mr. 
 Green cannot be too highly estimated. 
 
 His earliest step was to provide for immediate and pressing liabilities, by bor- 
 rowing money on his own responsibility. The legal authority to raise money 
 on city bonds had been exhausted by the Ring ; no fresh supply could be ob- 
 tained, until the Legislature met, three months later. But the merchants and 
 bankers of the city were prompt to recognize Mr. Green's determination to 
 i?ise the municipality out of the slough into which it had fallen, and came- 
 willingly to his relief. By his individual efforts, aided only by these citizens, 
 and contending against every other official and department of the government, 
 he succeeded in tiding over the emergency and in meeting such pressing- 
 demands as were ascertained to be just and proper. The work, however, of 
 liquidating the obligations of the Ring, has gone on without interruption from 
 that time to this, and more than twenty millions of them have been liqui- 
 dated. 
 
 The amount of unsettled claims left behind by Tweed and his coadjutors 
 was roughly estimated in 137i, by the Citizens' Investigating Committee, of 
 which William A. Booth, Esq., was chairman, at twenty-three millions of dollars 
 ($23,000,000). In October, 1874, in a communication upon the municipal debts, 
 Mr. Green reported that liabilities of this class, amounting to $19,885,591.08, 
 had been adjusted, and remarks that "the twenty millions thus accounted for 
 
11 
 
 "certainly do notrepresent the entire amount of the floating unliquidated claims 
 "existing when I [he] took office.'' To this he adds: "Their entire amount will 
 
 only be ascertained, after protracted litigation, and after the success or failure 
 "of the city has been demonstrated to defend itself against cunningly devised 
 " claims of vast amount and almost entirely fraudulent character." 
 
 A recent contributor to one of the Nuo York d<ri!j/ jouvnol* remarks upon this 
 subject : " The floating debt of this city is like that of a more or less immethod- 
 w ical family, which runs one score at the grocers, another at the bakers, a 
 fl third at the tavern, and a fomth at the laundry. Such minor bills," he says, 
 ' 1 which are really demand-notes evaded and renewed, and yet bearing interest 
 " and subject to augmentation by the dishonesty or error of the creditors, 
 "finally assume ruinous proportions, and, if filed against an estate, are as bind- 
 " ing as one's bond and mortgage and taxes and insurance." 
 
 Of this same matter Mr. Green, himself, in the communication already 
 mentioned, speaks in bold and emphatic terms : 
 
 " Only a small proportion," he says, " of this monstrous legacy of corruption 
 " and misgovernment was free from evidence of the most ingeniously and dia- 
 "bolically contrived fraud. For three years the million headed hydra has been 
 " struggling to force the doors of the Treasury. It has bought, bribed, and 
 " brought to its aid, by the offer of a division of profits in case of success, the 
 " fraud, the craft, and the greed of the most unscrupulous lawyers, legislators, 
 " and plotters in the comnmnity. It has tainted the press, dictated political 
 "nominations, retained certain serviceable officials in office, and obstructed 
 " the development of reformed methods of government." 
 
 It was impossible to add this load to the weight of taxes, with which the city 
 was already burdened, and no course existed, except to pay off the claims with t he 
 issue of bonds, thereby augmenting the permanent debt at the time of Mr. 
 Green's report in 1874, by $20,000,000, for which Tweed and his coadjutors kn 
 as much responsible, as for the $50,000,000 of additional indebtedness which 
 they had openly incurred. 
 
 Tu prevent the growth of any more debt of this character by rigorously keep- 
 ing the expenses of the Departments within their appropriations, has ever Bin 06 
 been Mr. Green's persistent endeavor. 
 
 M I have bent all my efforts,'' he says in his same communication of October 
 13, 1874, "to correct this enormous evil of the creation of a floating debt, and 
 have endeavored to establish a system that would ensure the raising w ithin the 
 year, of all the expenses of the year. That system, so far as the Finance De- 
 partment can establish it, has now become the settled habit of the government, 
 and no new floating indebtedness of any considerable amount has been created, 
 since I came into office. What has been accomplished in this direction," he con- 
 tinues, " has been in spite of the precedents of a long period of misgovernment, 
 which die hard and slowly ; in spite of legislators, local and State, at each suc- 
 cessive session, contriving schemes, at the expense of the city, to reward j>er- 
 sonal favorites or political allies ; in spite of the most latitudinarian construc- 
 tions of law\ and in spite of the loose ideas and methods of administration pre- 
 
12 
 
 vailing in some Departments. The task has been by no means an easy one, and 
 it has invoked the persistent and virulent animosity of those in and oat of 
 office, who were not in sympathy with the motives which guided it." 
 
 This single phase of Mr. Green's work as Comptroller, may convey some idea 
 of the magnitude and intricacy of the affairs with which he has had to deal. 
 To treat of them here in any detail would be manifestly impracticable. To 
 summarize them even, is a work of no little labor. Perhaps no more graphic 
 generalization of the subject can be presented, than has already been written, 
 in the following language, by the same journalist already quoted: 
 
 "The above is an imperfect account," he says, " of the work of Andrew H. 
 *' Green in the least luxurious and the most laborious Department of the city. 
 u Dealing with figures and accounts, and resisting each if suspected, as if it were 
 " an armed enemy, he has made the stewards of the city, high and low, under- 
 * ' stand that the Corporation is not merely a machine to supply patronage, but a 
 1 ' business institution. He found the most confused and abominable government 
 " in the world with an empty exchequer, the public conscience debauched, no 
 *' responsibility for malfeasance, and the people indifferent, and he may be said, 
 
 in the language of Webster, as applied to Hamilton, to have touched the dead 
 *' corpse of public credit and it sprung upon its feet. As frugal of his time as of 
 " the public money, he wasted little of it upon delinquents, shysters, and the 
 " runners of men employed to take the taxes from the rich and put them upon 
 41 the poor. Blunt and fearless, he spoke directly and to the point, acknowl- 
 " edging but one tyrant — the city — and standing guard at the door of her 
 " treasury. Overgrown corporations, accustomed to own lawyers and judges too, 
 u felt exasperated that a single man dare to defy them, unaware perhaps that 
 *' the restrictions they desired to break through, were part of the great centre line 
 ' ' for the preservation of their property and the protection of the general camp. 
 " A military spirit, such as the paymaster of an army must assume, has marked 
 u Andrew H. Green from the outset, whose annual disbursement is equal to that 
 li of the army of the United States ; yet, with the noisy clamor about his obstruc- 
 " tion and delay, the average time for passing claims through the Department is 
 " less than four days. 
 
 " The terrible debauchery through which New York passed in the days of the 
 *' Ring, demanded the assumption of stern, magisterial powers, that the public 
 11 mind might feel a sense of example and authority, and be disciplined to the 
 " work of self-government again. Mr. Green will take rank in the fiscal history 
 *' of New York, as the great Comptroller— one of three or four who sprang back 
 <c from the lassitude of the long dominion of the Ring, with all the austerity of a 
 il Brutus, a Sully, or a Hardenberg. Inspired by his example, the other great 
 *' cities of the country which had modelled their corruption upon New York, have 
 14 taken their affairs in hand and learned the lesson, that the talents of a fiduciary 
 " officer are not plausibility, conciliation, or subterfuge, but honesty, firmness, 
 *' and civic patriotism." 
 
 Reviewing, then, Mr. Green's life during the past twenty years, we notice a 
 steady progress, not only in official elevation, but in the development of his 
 
13 
 
 qualifications for important public trusts. From the sc hool officer of a score 
 of years ago, dealing tentatively with questions that were then just beginning 
 to excite popular interest, he has become the successful administrator of an en- 
 terprise involving singular responsibilities and demanding talents of a peculiar 
 and varied character; and, later still, has grasped the subject of municipal 
 finances with an intelligent comprehension and firmness of hold, unparalleled 
 in the later history of New York, applying to it all the convictions of his earlier 
 years and the experiences of public life, through which he has subsequently 
 passed. 
 
 Mr. Green's term of official life as Comptroller is drawing to a close. It is 
 difficult to say, in the uncertainty of political movement and combinations, 
 whether his eminent services are to be retained by the community in this or 
 in some other capacity. But it is certainly the part of good judgment to confide 
 the direction of affairs, to those who have had the largest experience in public 
 life, ard whose success has demonstrated the greatest fitness and fidelity in 
 dealing with important trusts. 
 
 In a published letter to the late Mayor Havemeyer, the Hon. Daniel F. 
 Tiemann, then in the Senate, and formerly Mayor of the city, referring to his 
 experience as Senator, said : 
 
 "I have known Mr Green well for many years; he has done as much for 
 " the improvement of the city as any man in it. * * * 
 
 kt It was an almost daily necessity for me to obtain information from the 
 ** Comptroller, to oppose and defeat these schemes. He always furnished it 
 '* fearlessly and ful ] y, without any of that squirming and dodging of the 
 " politician, who fears that he may lose the vote of some thief, by refusing to 
 
 aid some scheme of plunder.' 1 
 
 Mr. Green said in a speech in the maket-place, soon after entering on 
 his present field of duty, " that reform meant progress and development; it 
 14 meant better administration, honesty in public affairs, the increase of the com- 
 * 4 forts of living, and the lessening of the burdens of taxation. \Y*e must have 
 * ' wiih any continued growth, which I look for with steady confidence, new 
 "docks and piers, new school-houses, better paved and cleaner avenues and 
 streets, new and better connections between the island and surrounding cities, 
 •• better market buildings, an extended water supply, and a continued improve- 
 " raent, in the class of men who are to administer the affairs of the city." 
 In a report to the Board of Aldermen, in 1874. Mr Green said : 
 44 A clamor against the Finance Department has been g< tt<-n up by holders of 
 fraudulent claims, and festered by certain unprincipled newspapers, on the 
 n charge of delay ill the adjustment and payment of bills, incurred by the 
 various City Departments. This is without just cause as respects the gTeat 
 " bulk of the immense number of accounts and vouchers, audited by the Finance 
 M Department. 
 
 M Their average time during 1874. for passing through the Department from 
 *' the date of receipt to the date of payment, including all classes of claims and 
 44 liabilities for contracts and supplies, is less than four days. 
 
14 
 
 " No claims, perhaps, were, as a class, more audaciously fraudulent and dis- 
 ' 1 graceful, than those for newspaper advertising, during the Ring administra- 
 " tion. The 1 Transcript Association ' alone was paid $783,498.09, and an un- 
 " adjusted claim of this concern is now presented for $186,160.20. 
 
 " The moneys actually paid for advertising during the three years, 
 
 u 1869, 1870, and 1871, were $2,586,477 00 
 
 " Total outlay for the three years following that period, 1872, 
 
 " 1873, and 1874, including the cost of the 1 City Record,' is. . 212,^38 37 
 
 ' ' Showing a decrease in this class of expenditures during the pres- 
 
 "• ent Comptroller's administration of $2,374,038 63 
 
 — being a reduction or saving of over ninety-one per cent. 
 
 " The current claims for which value has been given to the city, are and have 
 " been recognized and promptly liquidated. The other class of claims for 
 " which no value has been given, which were conceived in the lobby and are 
 " held and promoted by that disreputable class, who are enabled by craft and 
 " cunning to live without labor, out of the earnings of honest and industrious 
 " men, have no foundation either in justice or in equity. The courts ought to 
 ' ' find some ground for discrimination against them, and every agency of the 
 " government should be prompt to intercept their progress to the door of the 
 "^treasury and to frustrate and defeat them. 
 
 " Why should the tax-payers of this city, and by the tax-payers I do not refer 
 " alone to that class to whom the payment of a thousand dollars, more or less, 
 ' ' involves no diminution of comforts, but especially to those less favored, who 
 ' ' in these times of depression find it difficult to keep the wolf from the door, 
 " and to maintain a roof over the head of their families — why should these have 
 " their frugal earnings diminished, to pay a monstrous class of fraudulent 
 " claims, for which no value has been given, and which are principally held by 
 " public leeches, who have never done an honest day's work in their lives ! 
 
 "There are men among us who are now marshaling the influence, the inge- 
 " nuity, and the greed of attorneys, lobbyists, and journalists, to get from the 
 " treasury, on single claims, without value rendered, amounts that, if distributed 
 *' for honest service, would, in these pinching times, gladden the hearts of a 
 " whole community. 
 
 "Is there, in the whole machinery of justice, no process by which such wrongs 
 " can be prevented ? Must the whole train of precedents be harnessed to the 
 1 ' service of the idle, the crafty, and the depraved against the frugal and indus- 
 " trious ! 
 
 " In my official action I shall not cease to recognize the rights of those who 
 " have rendered a fair equivalent for the amount they seek to obtain, and every 
 " energy that I possess shall be exercised to defend the trust which I have been 
 " set to protect against depredators, whether , in the garb of seeming respecta- 
 " bility, or that of corrupt or dishonest conspirators. 
 
 " It is quite natural that the shareholders in those gas companies, who have 
 " been in the habit of receiving from 30 to 50 per cent, per annum in dividends, 
 " should consider the Comptroller an obstructionist. I presume, however, tax- 
 
15 
 
 " payers will not object to that sort of obstruction which has effected a reduction 
 44 in the cost of lighting- the streets of the city, as shown by the following coin- 
 M parison of prices charged per lamp per annum, in 1871 and 1874: 
 
 Company. 
 
 1871. 
 
 1874. 
 
 Number of 
 Lamps. 
 
 li Mannattan Gas-light Company. . . 
 " New York " " 
 "Metropolitan " " 
 " Harlem " '* 
 " N. Y. Mutual " " ... 
 
 $53 00 
 45 00 
 53 00 
 53 00 
 
 $33 00 
 33 00 
 39 00 
 39 00 
 35 00 
 
 6,501 
 3,010 
 3,488 
 4,025 
 
 583 
 
 "In 1871 the cost of gas was about $1,000,000. and in 1874 the saving was 
 * 4 more than one-third of that amount. 
 
 THE AMOUNT SAVED TO THE CITY BY LITIGATION DURING THE SAME 
 PERIOD BY DECISION IN ITS FAVOR. 
 
 "The judgments obtained against the < ity within the last three years were, 
 ' 1 as has been stated, very generally based on claims of fraudulent or extravagant 
 " character; it therefore became the duty of the Comptroller to resist such as 
 "were not clearly exempt from any objections of this sort. The courts of this 
 " city are maintained out of the public treasury, at the cost of more than one 
 
 million of dollars per annum. They are furnished with criers, clerks, attend- 
 14 ants, juries, and all the means of ascertaining the truth ; they can summon 
 *' witnesses and punish them for false testimony. The city is provided with a 
 " Law Department, having a retinue of counsel, clerks, and assistants, main- 
 " tained at a cost of nearly two hundred thousand dollars per annum. Cases 
 "against the city are, by law, given a preference before i 11 other cases, and are 
 u speedily reached. What is all this machinery of courts and lawyers paid by 
 11 the city for, unless it be to act in just such emergencies as have arisen ? It is 
 11 the business of the courts to examine and determine upon the legality of these 
 u claims. T. at is what they are constituted for." 
 
 The following statement shows the total saving effected during Comptroller 
 
 Green's administrrtion to December 31, 1874 : 
 
 M On suits thus far decided in favor of the city £8,496,682 68 
 
 11 On claims adjusted in the Department '. S5M.912 S7 
 
 " Total savings $3,31::.:.!:) 96 
 
 " It will be seen that the great bulk of judgments against the city obtained 
 "since the present Comptroller took office originated in transactions which took 
 " place before that time, in an era of unexampled official corruption and reckl. m 
 "extravagance. They grew out of laws framed by conspiiators and public 
 "plunderers in their own interest. These claims very generally bore th" badge 
 
16 
 
 " of fraud and official malversation, but being apparently contracted under some 
 "color of law, they have, under the faintest pretext and technicali;ies, often 
 "without equity and justice, been pressed upon courts under the prevailing 
 "influences of the hour, to the detriment of the City Treasury, whose protectors 
 ' ' are but few. 
 
 " Laws framed to promote private interest at the public expense still remain 
 " on the statute book, giving rise to unjust claims against the city, for which no 
 "monetary provision is made. The claimants, and their attorneys practised in 
 "the art, knowing that their claims cannot be paid until put in the form of a 
 ' ' compulsory judgment, readily resort to this favorite method. 
 
 "But the fact remains to be stated, that notwithstanding the bulk of 
 " rotten claims precipitated upon the Comptroller from a previous regime, the 
 k ' amount of judgments obtained against the city during his administration is 
 " less by one- third than it was during the previous three years. The amount of 
 " judgments and costs against the city for three years prior to September 1G, 
 u 1871, was $3,221,821.05. Amount for the same period since September 10, 
 " 1871, was $1,935,389.04." 
 
 In his efforts to prevent the payment of corrupt claims, Comptroller Green 
 has been compelled to leave the claimants to establish their claims, if they 
 could, in the courts, and that class of people who were the recipients of the 
 millions of corrupt payments, made by Connolly, have not failed to falsify the 
 facts in this matter. 
 
 In the same report Mr. Green says : 
 
 THE AMOUNT OF THE JUDGMENTS OBTAINED AGAINST THE CITY DURING 
 HIS TERM OF OFFICE, WITH THE COSTS TAXED UPON THE CITY. 
 
 " From September 1G, 1871 , when the present Comptroller took office, to De- 
 " cember 31, 1874, a period of more - than three and a quarter years, the total 
 " number of judgments obtained against the city, including costs taxed upon 
 "the city, was 844, including 272 for vacating assessments, amounting* to 
 $1,935,389.04, in which sum was included for costs, $63,082,28. 
 " Five hundred and seventy of these judgments, amounting (in- 
 
 " eluding costs, $45,831.97) to $1,371,380 73 
 
 ' ' Or about two-thirds of the whole in number obtained, and 
 
 " more than one-half in amount are on causes of action 
 
 " originating prior to the present Comptroller's accession 
 
 " to office. 
 
 " Forty-three of them are for salaries of Supervisors in addition 
 
 " to their salaries as Aldermen, amounting to 13,987 82 
 
 1 ' Fifty-six are for wages of Boulevard men, supposed to have 
 
 " been illegally employed, amounting to'. 8,819 18 
 
 " One hundred and seventy-five are miscellaneous, amounting 
 
 "to 541,201 31 
 
 " Total $1,935,389 04" 
 
17 
 
 4 * Judgments obtained in favor of the city are not included in the above. n 
 
 These statements were carefully compiled up to January 1, 1875, and the> 
 *aving as the result of litigation since that time has been much greater. There 
 has been saved to the city, in all probability, in each one of twenty individual 
 cases more money than all the costs have amounted to in all the eases since Mr. 
 Green came into office. 
 
 As a specimen of the character of some of the judgments given against the 
 city, the following will suffice : 
 
 Forty-three judgments were given for salaries of Supervisors in addition to 
 their salaries as Aldermen, notwithstanding express provisions of law to the 
 contrary. 
 
 A judgment was given against the city for over $130,600, for paving Seventh 
 avenue with wood The whole cost of the job was $483,000. 
 
 A judgment was given for $366,926.80, against the city in favor of the Man- 
 hattan Gas Co., for gas of 1871, being a reduction of $60,000 on the amount 
 claimed by the company. 
 
 A judgment of $389,224.66 was entered on the report of Delano C. Calvin, 
 for law services in petty excise cases. 
 
 This whole claim, it has been stated, was offered for $1,250. 
 
 These are but a mere sample of hundreds, if not thousands of claims, and is 
 it expected that Mr. Green is to pay them without resistance ? 
 
 Often the decision of one case involves many others ; thus, with a decision 
 on one newspaper claim of about S : {.000, fell more than S300,000 of a similar 
 character. 
 
 A decision on one armory suit, involving $15, COO. carried down with it claims 
 of a million and a half of dollars. 
 
 These are samples of cases where the claimants were dereated, and judg- 
 ments were had in favor of the city. 
 
 JOHN KELLTJM sued, for services as architect on the new Court-house, for 
 aboui #192,000, and was defeated. 
 
 MATTHEW T. BreNKAN, late Sheriff, sued for about $50,000. 
 
 He not only failed to recover, but the jury gave judgment against him for 
 s:J5,000, making a difference in favor of the city of $85,000, and tin prin- 
 ciple of the decision settled an amount in favor of the city of about $ 1 50,000, 
 besides influencing for all time the charges of the Sheriff's Office. 
 
 Tiik Transcript NEWSPAPER brought a suit for some $S } 0fl0 ; a judgment 
 was given in favor of the city, which determines the claims of the same pa per 
 of over $200,000. 
 
 A suit of Ed WARD JONES and W.M. 0. ROGERS is now before a referee for 
 nearly a million of dollars, for stationery ; it is jet undecided. 
 
 Another suit on the NayARRO WATER METER Claim, ol KHARL1 v mil 
 Lion, is still before a referee. 
 
 A suit brought by the TENTH RATIONAL BANK, for $230,000, has been 
 decided in favor of the city, all the way, and finally, by the Court of Appeals. 
 
 These nre but a few of many similar cases. 
 
18 
 
 From 1865 to 1870, Mr. Green contribute! valuable essays on the plan for 
 laying out the north and west sides of this island, and of the lower part of 
 Westchester County, for the improvement of the Harlem river and Spuyten 
 Duyvil creek, for bridges and tunnels across the same, and for the supply of 
 the annexed district with water. These essays were practical discussions of 
 subjects of immediate importance to this city, and have become the basis of 
 action of every public body since charged with any duty respecting them. 
 
 A report presented February 16, 1874, is the first effort made to systematize 
 the constitution of Police Courts find places of detention of prisoners. This re- 
 port said : 
 
 " I have taken pains to ascertain the conditions that should control in the 
 location of a new prison. This is not an easy task. Various elements are in- 
 volved ; that of transportation of prisoners to the prison, their safe detention 
 till trial, and, after trial, their transportation to their ultimate place of confine- 
 ment." 
 
 Mr. Green has made efforts every year at Albany to reform the City Govern- 
 ment, to reduce its taxes, and to limit its debt, but there he has been met by 
 those in and out of the Legislature who were urging claims against the city, 
 which he had to resist; if they could not get their claims through, they 
 would, as a matter of retaliation, prevent legislation to improve the condition 
 of the city. 
 
 Mr. Green has been called upon since he became Comptroller not only to 
 settle the vast mass of floating debt of the Ring, but to settle and adjust the 
 accounts of the towns of West Farms, Kingsbridge, and Morrisania, and bring 
 the village system into accord with the municipal organizations. 
 
 The accounts and affairs of these towns, somewhat complicated with those of 
 the county of "Westchester, and especially the town of Morrisania, were a con- 
 fused mass, the result of loose administrations for years. 
 
 Mr. Green has been always the consistent advocate of those public improve- 
 ments that tend to the development and adornment of our city. In carrying out 
 these improvements, whether it were a school house, a prison building, a bridge, 
 a road, or a park, his rule is to engage the best talent to perfect the plan, and 
 then to execute it in such a way as to ensure the best results for the money 
 expended. 
 
 His modes of administration are careful and strict ; before he proceeds he 
 must have the authority of law, and where the details of administration are left 
 to his discretion, he constructs a conservative and sound system, within the rules 
 of which he acts with as much persistency as though they were law, and from 
 these rules it is impossible, by any arts, artifices, or seductions, to divert him. 
 
 The same rules govern his actions toward poor and rich, and high and low, 
 and he does not hesitate to disappoint the expectations of those who claim 
 exemption on account of wealth, or what is called social position. 
 
 In all history there is no parallel to be found to the task he has had to pre- 
 
19 
 
 form in the Comptroller's Office, in extricating the city from the mass of 
 corruption in which he found it, and in restoring- system, and order, iind 
 economy iuto our public affairs. 
 
 In this unprecedented work he has been vilified, abused, and maligned, not 
 only by hordes of rascals, thieves, and scoundrels, who have now mainly 
 vanished from dealings with the city, but by seeming respectabilities who could 
 not get him to let them off from their just dues to the city. 
 
 Mr. Green has never been what is called a politician. Though a Democrat, 
 his mental organization is such that he cannot become a violent partisan, and 
 one will look in vain for his name in the party conventions and cabals of the 
 last twelve or fifteen years. 
 
 OSWALD OTTENDORFER, 
 
 Chairman. 
 
 RUSH C. HAWKTNS, 
 
 Chairman Ex. Com. 
 
 Louis M. Dorscher, 
 
 Secretary. 
 
•2. k 3 S