ances fraudulently increased their
amounts, and drawn fourfold the money actually due from the city. Thus
it appears in the accounts that hundreds of thousands of dollars have
been paid to private parties who positively deny the receipt of the
money, or any knowledge whatever of the false bills representing the
large sums paid to them. These investigations compel the belief that not
only the most reckless extravagance, but frauds and peculations of the
grossest character have been practised in several of the departments, and
that these must have been committed in many instances with the knowledge
and cooperation of those appointed, and whose sworn duty it was to guard
and protect the public interests."

Under the management of the Ring, the cost of governing the city was
about thirty millions of dollars annually. The city and county debt
(practically the same, since both are paid by the citizens of New York,)
was doubled every two years. On the 1st of January, 1869, it was
$36,000,000. By January 1st, 1871, it had increased to $73,000,000. On
the 14th of September, 1871, it was $97,287,525, and the Citizens'
Committee declare that there is grave reason to believe that it will
reach $120,000,000 during the present year (1871).

For several years the Ring continued their robberies of the treasury,
enriching themselves and bringing the city nearer to bankruptcy every
year. Taxes increased, property was assessed for improvements that were
never made, and the assessments were rigorously collected. Large sums
were paid for cleaning the streets, which streets were kept clean only by
the private subscriptions of the citizens residing in them, as the writer
can testify from his personal experience. The burdens of the people
became heavier and heavier, and the members of the Ring grew richer and
richer. They built them palatial residences in the city, and their
magnificent equipages were the talk of the town. They gave sumptuous
entertainments, they flaunted their diamonds and jewels in the eyes of a
dumbfounded public, they made ostentatious gifts to the poor, and
munificent subscriptions to cathedrals and churches, _all with money
stolen from the city_; and with this same money they endeavored to
control the operations of Wall street, the great financial centre of the
Republic. They built them country seats, the beauty and magnificence of
which were duly set forth in the illustrated journals of the day; and
they su