ed that a
testimonial signed by these men would make a great impression upon the
public. Yet, stripping away the halo which society threw about them
simply because they had wealth, these rich citizens themselves were to
be placed in even a lower category than Tweed, on the principle that the
greater the pretension, the worst in its effect upon society is the
criminal act. The Astors cheated the city out of enormous sums in real
estate and personal property taxation; Moses Taylor likewise did so, as
was clearly brought out by a Senate Investigating Committee in 1890;
Roberts had been implicated in great swindles during the Civil War; and
as for Edward Schell, he, by collusion with corrupt officials, compelled
the city to pay exorbitant sums for real estate owned by him and which
the city needed for public purposes. And further it should be pointed
out that Tweed, Connolly and Sweeny were but vulgar political thieves
who retained only a small part of their thefts. Tweed died in prison
quite poor; even the very extensive area of real estate that he bought
with stolen money vanished, one part of it going in lieu of counsel fees
to one of his lawyers, Elihu Root, United States Secretary of State
under Roosevelt.[153] Connolly fled abroad with $6,000,000 of loot and
died there, while Sweeny settled with the city for an insignificant sum.
The men who really profited directly or indirectly by the gigantic
thefts of money and the franchise, tax-exemption, and other measures put
through the legislature or common council were men of wealth in the
background, who thereby immensely increased their riches and whose
descendants now possess towering fortunes and bear names of the highest
"respectability."[154]

The original money of the landholders came from trade; and then by a
combination of cunning, bribery, and a moiety of what was considered
legitimate investment, they became the owners of immense tracts of the
most valuable city land. The rentals from these were so great that
continuously more and more surplus wealth was heaped up. This surplus
wealth, in slight part, went to bribe representative bodies for special
laws giving them a variety of exclusive property, and another part was
used in buying stock in various enterprises the history of which reeked
with corruption.

From being mere landholders whose possessions were confined mainly to
city land, they became part owners of railroad, telegraph, express and
other lines reac