y^^^^X^ LIBRARY OF CONORESS. PRESENTED BY i UNITED STATES or AMERICA. ^wv^\;^ '^-.^.^^ '-^^^g '^j^Wyjwg v7 V . ▼ •«';.;«v^L V . m^M'^ ^/,>Jv> V/ 'vGi^^^-;^i^K 'vwvy: ^''"^■^. r .w^ \ "■^•^ '"-■- --"-"'^,-; .^y^Vv "^.^'v'^ '^'a^:^vM^:.^^^^^^v, '^'''''^':^J^^ '^^^'O^vyOVi 1*^ys'**'''*i;'Ss of V NEW YORK Evening Post Steam Presses, 41 Nassau Street, COR. Liberty '^iQ^ / ?7o .1 No Donations of Public Property to Private Corporations; ^ Equality of Taxation. ^ THE STREET RAILROADS OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK. Over $10,000,000 of Franchises in the Public Streets Given to Railroad Corporations. Over $5,000,000 of these Estates Untaxed for the last Four Years. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON Political Reform of Union League Club, Made January 9, 1873. NEW YOEK: Evening Post Steam Presses, 41 Nassau St., coe. Libeett. 1873. New York City Council of Political Eeform. In October last, the New York City Council of Political Reform appointed Dexter A. Hawkins a Committee to take such measures as he should deem requisite to secure to the city just compensation for the use of the three or four miles of additional streets granted by the last Legislature to the Second Avenue Railroad Company. At the meeting of the Council, held at their rooms, No. 938 Broadway, on the 21st day of January, 1873, the Committee made the following REPORT: In the performance of the duty imposed by the Council, your Committee had the streets granted examined by gentlemen of long experience in both street rail- roads and steam railroads. Then, in order to deduce a just rule of valuation for the franchise of a surface street railroad in this City, the whole business for the year ending September 30, ISTl, of Eight of the City Street Railroads, covering over fifty miles of track, similar in location and patronage to the 2nd Avenue Road, was investigated, and the actual earnings of the franchise of each for the year determined. Numerous witnesses, skilled in street railroads, were examined under oath, the work occupying nearly three months. The facts disclosed seem to be of so great value to the public, as a guide for future legislative action, that, after argument before the Commissioners, your Com- mittee prepared a General Report, which appears below, upon the subject of the franchises of Surface Street Railroad Companies in the City of New York, their value, and the true rule of valuation of the estates of these corporations for tax- ation. The Report was read to the Union League Club, at their Annual Meeting, on the 9th inst., and the recommendations therein contained, and the three Resolu- tions at the end of the Report were unanimously adopted by that body. Your Committee now makes the same report and recommendations to you. DEXTER A. HAWKINS, Committee. New York, January 15, 1873. On motion of Dorman B. Eaton, the Report was received and accepted ; the three Resolutions at the end of the same, adopted by the New York City Council of Political Reform. The thanks of the Council were also presented to Mr. Hawkins, for his exhaustive and valuable Report, and the same was authorized to be published as one of the official documents of the Council. WM. H. NEILSON, Chairman. H. N. Beers, Secretary. The Committee on Political Reform of the Union League Club make the folloiving Report : On the first day of this month, Keform City and State Governments entered upon the administration of the affau'S of the City and of the State of New York. The people have received from the corruptionists and incom- petents, just expelled from office, a legacy of enormous debt, and of large deficits in both City and State revenues. In order to meet these and hgliten our burdens, the publiG 'property of the city can no longer he given away to private parties, nor can wealthy business corporations be suffered as heretofore to escape taxation. A prolific source of official and legislative corruption, has been Street Railroads. The land of the streets was acquired, and the streets graded and paved at public expense. The use of them for railroads is a source of great profit to the companies, as they afford ready for the track a road-bed that has cost the city many millions of dollars, and is worth as much to these companies. The promoters of these roads at first attempted to obtain their franchises from the City Government, and the following grants were secured : 1. Sixth Avenue E. E., June, 1851, see F. L. and E. E. G., 1866, p. 249. 2. Eighth Avenue E. E., Sept., 1851, see F. L. and E. E. G., 1866, p. 272. 3. Second Avenue E. R., Nov., 1852, see F. L. and E. E. G., 1866, p. 173. 4. Third Avenue E. E., Dec, 1852, see F. L. and E. E. G., 1866, p. 181. 5. Broadway E. E., Dec, 1852, see F. L. and E. E. G., 1866, p. 248. 6. Ninth Avenue E. E., Sept., 1853, see F. L. and E. E. G., 1866, p. 296. Besides the N. Y. & Harlem E. R., Dec, 1831, see F. L. and R. R. G., 186G, p. 221. Hudson R. K, May, 1847, see F. L. and R. R. G., 1866, p. 313. The immense vahies thus given away by a simple resolution of the Common Council opened up visions of sudden wealth to members. Rings were formed, candidates were nominated and elected simply for their readiness to plunder the city. The Broadway franchise for only two miles was valued by the company, who thought they had secured it, at $1,500,000. Unseemly contests for possession of the streets occurred between rival companies. The defeated and disap- pointed parties appealed to the courts. It was then found that the city had not the legal right thus to give away to corpora- tions to use for private gain, the public streets purchased and graded loitli money obtained from the people hy taxation and assess- ment. In 1854, the Legislature, by an act that appeared to be for a different purpose, yet by a clause skilfully thrust into the third section, confirmed and made valid the grants theretofore obtained from the city. The courts having decided that the city officials could not donate to their friends the city streets and squares, the whole business of giving to these corporations the public property of the city was then transferred to Albany. The Legislature at once became surrounded and beseiged annually by an army, called the Railroad Lobby. Members were chosen for their subserviency to this interest. Such proceedings were had that street after street was given away, until, when on the point of donating the Broadway franchise, Mr. A. T. Stewart checked the evil by offering to pay to the city for this grant two millions of dollars. This was justice ; but there was no plunder either for the Lobby or the Legislators in this offer ; and the grant was refused. Finally, the demand of the citizens for protection against the rapacity of these corpora- tions was recognized, and the Twenty-third street franchise was sold by public auction. The extension of the Dry Dock, East Broadway and Battery Koad was granted on condition that Jive per cent, of the proceeds of the cars run thereon should he paid annually to the city. The word " net " having been in- serted before proceeds ; the company, though doing a kicrative business, paid nothing for five years, till overhauled by a mem- ber of this committee last spring, when they paid up, for the five years, the sums due the city. The extension of the Second Avenue Koad was granted last winter, on condition that they pay to the city the value of the franchise for the exten- sion. After a long struggle against the Lobby, the Reformers have at last got the principle of imyrnent to the city, for the franchises, recognised. It now remains to fix a just rule of value for franchises that may be hereafter granted. A franchise is worth whatever sum it will, under fair man- agement, pay seven per cent, upon, as a permanent investments The Statute Law and the course of business in our State fix this as the value of money, though it is often difficult to invest for long periods large sums upon real estate at this rate, and capi- talists are content with less. The elements of the calculations to determine the value of the franchise are as follows : First. — The actual cost of constructing and equipping a road ready for use. This includes — (a.) The track, (b.) The rolling stock, (c.) The depots and stables. Second. — The net annual earnings of the road, after pay- ing the usual repair- bills to keep up the track, rolhng stock, depots and stables. Third. — Deduct from the net annual earnings seven per cent, on the cost of the whole road, and the remainder will be the net earnings or value -per year of the fi-anchise. It wiU also be seven per cent, on the gross value of the franchise. 6 Fourth. — Capitalize this remainder at seven per cent., and it will give, in a ronud sum, the value of the franchise. The cost of converting a street into a double-track railroad, including all the materials and labor, was proved in the Second Avenue Extension case, bj the witnesses for the cit}^ — men of large experience in railroad building and connected with city roads — to be not over $25,000 per mile. The cost of rolling stock of the best quality Avas proved to be not over $1,000 per car and $175 per horse, and $50 per set for double car-harness. By the law of this State (Session Laws 1857, Chap. 536, §§ 24, 25, 26), every railroad corporation is required, under penalty of $250, to deliver to the assessors of each city or town a classified list of its real estate in said city or town, with the valuation thereof, which valuation is prmw facie evidence of the value thereof. It was proved by several witnesses that the valuation for purposes of taxation in this city is intended to be, and should be, if all are treated fairly, sixty 23er cent, of the cash or market value of the property. The valuation for assessment, unless the corporations, in their annual returns to the assessors, have deliberately swindled the city, which we do not presume, is sixty per cent, of the cash value of the real estate of each city railroad. Each road is required to make, under oath, each year, a re- turn to the State Engineer, stating, among other things — (a.) Number of miles of track, {h.) Number of cars, (c.) Number of horses, {d.) Number of passengers carried during the year, (e.) Gross earning. (/.) Operating expenses, repairs, taxes, &c. {g.) The net earnings. A digested statement of these sworn reports of eight city railroad companies, for the year ending Sept. 30th, 1871, and the value — if new and of the best quality — of everything each possessed at that date, appears in the following table, pre- pared by this committee, marked No. 1 : •aiira jad esinoni;.! j 00 o CO 5 CJ> CI ■» CO H< 00 II JO onitiA jC:>.ia " o -.* o CO ct tc s T-* CO p- Cl -do.ij -^nao .i3cl i sy «» c« •diau jod asiqonujj CO c (M -* in 00 c- c c3 Cl CO ei r-T (M t-T 00 -* c 00 ■^ JO sSninJua: i^nnnv w tH " "" o 2 tK b- ^ Oa t- m CO ■;soD lunjoB no o s a 00 ^ § o •?U30 -d I Sai.itid s" o eo OS en oa CO J .lajju '9S!H,mi!.i^ 05 O) -* r-l t- c- to CO 10 B3nTn.U!a imumv f» iH CD~ in -* CO -^ ,_, lO to O O CO -* 00 00 Ht to •:jsoo CO CT> '^ (n c<; 05 Os" to g" vt C^ '"< CI r-i tH r-i yjf 'f> CO m o o C-l ,_^ 05 CO "n o> to tr- CS OS OS to C^ 5 CO i\ •saninxna; sbojo o o" ir t2 CO c cf o n lO "*. '" t- t- CO c: CO ^. try \ CO CD oi os CO 00 to o 30 •9SiqDni!,iji t2 S oc 02 CO CO o rH O o o %dooxa 'jgoo iT!n;,-)u -* CiS 00 oi 00 oo" o I— O CO t ■ju ifi.iodo.ij: imox «> rH fft o O o CO o 00 O o '^^ o o CO in o o OS •juain > a p^ IJ-I d -a CU O ■ m HP; ■d -d o 9 — w -d O 'S !zi ■5 < > u -3 a a S ►■ -d CO tff ■dtf _o w H i? n W « ci n V II tig 11 8 In the above table the real estate is valued at 66| per cent, above the sum on which the companies pay taxes, that is, if a company pays taxes on a real estate valuation of $G0,000, the same real estate is, in this table, put at $100,000 as its fair market value. The cars, horses, harness and track are all valued at the price of new, of the best quality. This makes the table more than just to the companies, as it puts gi'oss cost on which seven per cent, is to be allowed them out of the net profits, higher than it actually is, and hence makes the net earnings of the franchise, which determines the value of the franchise, less than it actually is. PUBLIC PEOPERTY DONATED OVER $10,000,000, This table shows, from the results of a year's business on eight roads, covering fifty miles of streets, that these eight roads, not reckoning their franchises, have actually invested in their property only $6,708,088 while their annual net earnings are seven per cent, on 17,009,559 In other words, it shows that their net earnings at present rates of fare are sufiicient to pay seven per cent, on actual cost of theu' property, and leave, as the annual earnings of the fran- chises, the sum of $721,103 which is seven per cent, on a franchise valuation of $10,301,471 This last sum is the actual income producing value of the prop- erty in the public streets donated to eight roads hy former City Gov- ernments and State Legislatures. VALUE OP FRANCHISE PEE MILE. The table shows further, from actual experiment on fifty miles of roads, that a city raih-oad franchise, well located, is worth on an average per year, per mile $14,546 or, as a seven per cent, paying property, is worth per mile the capital sum of $207,806 The railroad men, who were examined under oath to elicit these facts, expressed it as their judgment that it would be fair to donate half the value of the franchises to the capitalists who originate and build the roads. This is for the purpose of inducing them to put their capital into new roads as fast as the people may need them. On this basis of an equal division between the city and the capitalist, the city should receive, on an average, for the fran- chise of a city railroad, ^^e?^ mile, a capital sum of $103,903 or an annual payment, -per mile, of $7,273.21 But as the profits of a road and the value of the franchise depend, other things being equal, upon the number of jDassen- gers carried, a more just rule of valuation for franchises ivould he one based upon the number of passengers p^er year. WHAT SHOULD BE PAID TO THE CITY FOR A FEANCHISE. A generalization from the business of the eight roads shows that, at present rates of fare, a road can and ought to pay the city, for a franchise, that is, for the use of the streets, a quartei of a cent a passenger, or five per cent, of their gross receipts. The number of passengers carried by the eight roads for the year ending September 30, 1871, was 108,323,168 The number of passengers carried for the year ending Sep- tember 30, 1872, was 115,515,695 The increase of travel is over six and one-half fer cent, 'per year At a quarter of a cent a passenger, which is about five per cent, of the gross fares, these roads would have paid into the city treasury for the year 1871 $270,808 or $5,380 per mile for their franchises. For the year 1872 they would have paid into the city trea- sury $288,789 or $5,737 per mile for their franchises. 10 This sum, though at first k^ss than half tlie earnings of their franchises, would increase from year to year as the travel in- creased, and in the long run would amount to half of the earn- ings of the franchises, and so would be just to the city, and easy for the Companies to pay. WHAT PER CENT. ON COST ROADS NOW EARN NET. The gross earnings of the eight roads for the year 1871 were $5,683,213 After paying all expenses and repairs, the net earnings were for the same year $1,190,669 which is tiveniy 'per cent, of the gross earnings, and is seventeen and tioo -thirds per cent, on the actual gross cost of the roads and all their appurtenances. If, now, they pay five per cent, of the gross earnings to the city for the use of the streets, these roads would still have left, to pay annual dividend on cost, fifteen per cent., or $893,002 of the gross earnings, which would be over thirteen per cent, on their whole cost of $6,708,088 With such results as these, it is not strange that the stock of some of these roads that obtained their franchises for nothing should, even after frequent waterings, like the 3d avenue, still sell as high as 200 per cent. These roads, cd present rates of fare, can aford to run cars enough to furnish a seat to every passenger, and should be compelled by laio to do it. Profit to Corporators, over $10,000,000 To one not initiated into the ways and means of getting the public property of the city for nothing, it may seem incredible that over $10,000,000 worth has been given to eight of these Corporations. And in this eight, the Fourth avenue road, perhaps the most flagrant case of them all, is not included, as the exact figures of that road could not be obtained. 11 How IT IS DONE. An originator of several street railroads and President of one, while a witness in a railroad matter, thus laid open the modus operandi of getting a franchise for nothing, and dividing the profits. (1.) A route is selected, and the cost of track, equipments, stables and depots, &c., is calculated. (2.) The net earnings are then estimated, and 7 per cent, on cost deducted ; the remainder is the earnings of the fran- chise, which capitalized at 7 per cent, gives the value of the franchise as a 7 per cent, property, and is the profit to hemadehy those loho obtain the charter. (3.) As soon as the Charter is obtained, stock and bonds are prepared to the amount of both the cost of the road and the esti- mated, value of the franchise, added together . The intention being to issue as much stock and bonds as the net earnings will float, that is, will pay 7 per cent. upon. (4.) Then a contract is made by the Company with some party to build and equip the road, stables, depots, &c., for the whole amount of the stock and bonds. (5.) But this party enters into a sub-contract to turn over to a confidential friend of the Corporators cdl the stock and bonds, except enough cd the market price to pay him the actual cost, with a fair profit on his work ; which actual cost is agreed upon beforehand. (6.) This confidential friend, on receiving back the surplus stock and bonds from the contractors, then divides it among the Corporators, This surplus, less what they may have paid out at Albany, is the net profit of the operation. The judgment of these gentlemen as to the value of a street railroad franchise has, heretofore been singularly correct, as is shown by Table No. 2, as follows : 12 't? K C 5^ W ^i O CO ■>? • S~. o •"S cs « 5~ fts o s^ CD 6 !rr^ ^ f^ s, ^ s~ U 'P o i CJ 5>. o 00 ,, tf* CO o 05 lO o o o c^ t-H o o o ■* o_ CM_ o co__ ■*» (» t— co_^ ■*" oo' CO vo oo" •>*" co" co" , ^ ^ ' ^1 CO o >a ■^ f-H d o lO t- vz ':: <^ 1— t f-H ^ CI »-H CI o "x . €©■ 4& t- r- 3 ^ o P. O 1 O o o C2 o o CO o CO o CO o CO cri o o CJ o o CO C2 CO i- CO r-^ r-_^ i-^ o_ CO ^ <■< ^« t- .— 1 c: co" "T >o" co" Cl" '^ i^- i—i 'ti i-H CO t- CO 42 S €© C4 C-l r-t l-H r-H T— < 1— t " &( "^ < m o o o O ,_ la O C] 03 d lO lO o ia o lO CO CI uo 1— ■ i5 ^. £- — ^ CO o C^ m j:- CO__ rt -^ o" O o co" i-^ co" o" to" c-r s >o CO 0:^ oo CO o CO lO o "^ OJ CO CI lO CO r-H CO CO o ^ 4& «» !2; bT o 'P o +-> s t- ^ i~ 03 -t- CI 'i* CI CI >'^ 4^ -5 o CO .—I o CO C2 CO oo lO "^ «C C3 00 ^ I— ( CO o o_ a> t~ CO >o ■^ CO -* Ci ,—1 00 p— 1 Ci i- ^ CO c-l CO OD KO -* CI "*. "- ^ ^ 00 o a- CO o -g-s S^5 r-^ CO CO C.^ r~ ■^ ■ CI^ CS^ Cs co_^ CO 2^1 co" co" lO «K« ^t cc c o o o oo o o O CI o _ '■*-> o o o lO o o 00 •^ Bonds 3Floa Debt o o^ lO c^ o O Cl_ CO CO «o o' co" ca o" id id r-H o r-H CO r-H CO o O CO rH °i CO CO o^ £- CJ J::^ °° a cc" m ^ d P o o o o o C5 O O o o o o o o o o O o o o^ o o o_ o o 1— ' t^ 1-1 00 o" c" o o" o" 00 o CD 2 W I^- >o o o o ■* o lO o 00 r— 1 £- o^ C4^ t- Ci t- o m ^ ai oo" H ^ :/: (^ 1^ : s o fee < o d 6 o d ^f4 CS f^ •a P4 54 hH p-; ^ f^ ^'1 Cpd o c3 o c4 « pi 1^ 2i -S'f •yci COp; w < a >• < CO < ^5 -3(^ < CO a '3 ft c» 1 s > u a ^r 1 p^ 13 In 1871, on the eight roads investigated by the Committee, they had issued of stocks $8,756,100 Of bonds or debt.^ 6,881,341 Total on which they estimated the roads would pay 7 per cent $15,637,441 Seven per cent, on this, which would make the stock par, is $1,094,620 While the actual net earnings for 1871, were 1,190,669 Or seven per cent, on $17,009,559 Being, as already shown on 10,301,471 more than the whole actual cost of the roads, and making the stocks, on the average, worth more than par. "With such a fund to influence the City Government and State Legislatures, is it not easy to see how certain members, while apparently serving the public for almost nothing, become sud- denly rich? And why, to them, a seat is so desirable? No matter how many Reform Legislatures we may elect, this corruption will continue until its source, the giving away of these franchises, is cut off. Table No. 2 shows the profit resulting to the Corporators on each road, and the average amount of it per mile on Charters for city roads, so long as the franchises are given away. The enormous proportions of this wrong to the city is evi- dent from a mere inspection of the nominal cost per mile of the different roads, and comparison of it with the actual cost. The Eighth avenue road, which, having been chiefly owned by one man, was built, and the accounts stated with some de- gree of honesty, has an average cost per mile of only $137,555 While the Broadway and Seventh avenue road pretends, un- der oath, to have cost per mile $586,351 While Table No. 2 shows that the actual average cost per mile of the eight roads, with all their equipments, comprising over fifty miles, is only • $132,833 The obtaining of city railroad franchises without due com- pensation to the city for the use of the streets is the richest and safest mine that has been worked in this citv- 14 The injustice and wrong to the tax-payers is greater than in the cases of the Tammany Ring, for the city has no remedy. It must endure the loss of its property till the grant expires^ and even then, as last winter, in the case of the Fourth avenue grant, the owners may, with arguments accumulated from the profits of the former grant, obtain from the Legislature a new gift of the same. The absolute necessities of tlie City Treasury requires that no more of the city property should be given cncay. DUTY OF THE LEGISLATURE. In view of the above facts, the Reform Legislature now in session owe it to themselves and to the city to take care — (1.) That no increase is made in the fares ; (2.) That the present roads give amjyle accommodations to their passengers ; (3.) That no new franchise is granted unthout Just compensation to the city for the same. NO TAXErf PAID ON PROPERTY WORTH OVER $5,000,000. If the roads were liberal or even honest in paying their taxes and license-fees the case would not be so flagrant. But for the last four years they have annually escaped tax- ation on at least five millions of their net estate, while indivi- duals of moderate means, and who have received no gifts of public property, are taxed to the last dollar. Some pay no license fees at all on their cars, while the rest pay on only a part of their cars. TAXABLE ESTATE OF STREET RAILROADS. The net estate of a street railroad is what remains of its property after all debts to third parties are paid. It is what money would be left for the stockholders after paying all the debts. The regular market value of the stock is this sum. And whatever sum the stock of a company at the regular market rate for any year will produce is the net estate of that company for that year. On this they should pay taxes at the same rate as is paid by the great body of individual tax-payers. The following table (No. 3) shows the actual taxable estate of eight street railroads for each of the last four years : 15 •>! ^ '•-Ci S 1-^ •^ M CO '^ ?~. i^i. f-( O o ^ '^i ?^ t^ o N^ <15 OS ^ ^ r^ ^ c o r^ Sm CO .i "^ 1^ e^ IN<. 'fe- o ^ H o o GO ?^ f^ -^ tH •^ n S c^ H ^J ^" ^ 1-1 r^ ta f^ >0 O ■*<, « vo f^ ^ t < S "k^' '^ <^ ^ CO 5> ^ O W 9 c 1 1 c= Ui n c "^ t- C3 t- »- OS «> T- C^ ^ fH^ ,- T-^ csT 0} « ^ dj 4J N 10 05 05 y. 00 V a m -d t- CO c uU X " a rH c ^ (^ c <= ,^ ^ c C c 01 cT c C: lO c= to c: M cq <= ^ c c "^ ■ ^ "~o ;:^ t- c: c c t^ ^ C <= ^ T- c lt" t- (~ "3 -+ CO c=: CO 00 n CO CO r- (^ Ir- cc C» H *l» (C^ 1 N .2 " c in ° 1 "E^ t! c to en 00 ^ 1 H f^P. c 1 c c ^ 1 — c: -y T- <= c: cc c: c 0" C; i> ifi X t' Oi CO » ^ IC C CM 3 t- r- t- c 0" IT r-T "3 oc o: ^ ^ cr Cl^ IT , "^ t- 0- CO «» •V -f-' i> IT ir m in in 1^ '^ m tc c~ H '^ §, '~ "" c s ^ c ,M c c c 0" s 0" in -*j c cr cc •y^ rt cf r^ ~Q ~C CO ® 00 o_ c W c CO _2 c c. in CO C-l" CO ■3 to -tc t- Oi c- 130 0^ CO a ff.> a -w c .2 ^ 00 m 10 >H 5r! C: t' CO H a« "^ "^ ~~o ~~o ,!ii »" 00 0" c 0" t- 10 CO t- CO «# ^ (tJ ^ -- 6 — ^^^ « « d ■s « « w =1 a Is P^ > _2 c3 CD K-i >j f « > < S CS ■ ^ fe H ti ti c CD > CD !» ■a c C Pi m -a ID « 6D ID < IB > 11 C3 cj > c3 -+- C3 c 02 1 p p ft 'a "c a S a 3 m 16 HOW TO DETERMIKE TAXjU3LE PEESONAL ESTATE. The real estate of these companies is assessed specifically as real estate, and by deducting the assessed value of the real estate of each company from the assessed value of their whole net taxable estate, as fixed by the market value of the capital stock, the remainder is tJie taxable personal estate. This is so simple a problem that there would seem to be no honest reason why, for the last fom- years, their property has been free of taxes. HOW MUCH OF THEIR ESTATE PAID NO TAXES. In 1869, with a taxable estate of $8,193,360 They paid taxes on 36^ per cent., or onl}^ on 2,973,323 Amount of property untaxed $5,220,037 In 1870, with a taxable estate of $8,631,255 They paid taxes on 33^ per cent., or only on 2,893,050 Amount of property untaxed $5,738,215 In 1871, with a taxable estate of $9,059,170 They paid taxes on 30^ per cent., or only on 2,787,605 Amount of property untaxed $6,271,565 In 1872, with a taxable estate of $9,917,050 They paid taxes on 35J per cent., or only on 3,487,233 Amount of property untaxed $6,428,817 Average percentage of their estates taxed for last four years less than 34 per cent., while during the same period the estates of individual tax-payers have had to pay on fi"om 60 per cent, to 70 per cent, of the value of their estates, being double the rate of these rich and favored corporations. Last winter, this committee, through the press, exposed in part the immunity from taxes enjoyed by these street railroads ; and their valuations were raised $859,688 over the year 1871, makiug an increase of revenue to the city treasury of. .$24,930. If, this year, their estates are assessed at the same rates as the great body of individual tax-payers, they wiU pay taxes on a valuation of at least $4,000,000 more than for the year 1872, making an increase of the city's annual revenue from taxes, of at least $130,000. The following table, marked No. 4, prepared from the records in the ofiice of the Tax Commissioners, shows on what sums each of the eight roads has been taxed for the last four years : 17 O o o o ■•^ o a> o CO o t- o o o CO o -* o CO >a o lO o_ o_ o o X ci ^ ■^ r^f oo" o o o" en ^„ t^ t~r oT ft c3 CO o o o o X ?5 O H ^ «5 ^ -f 00 CO C) 5» 46 to CO o o "" '-JH o en o o o CC' o ^ o M o -^ o C3 t- j3 PW o f4 o a o r-1 o" o c-l ^ o o -* ^ t^ H !zi tz; <» o o o o — o o o o o o o o o o o "3 -^ 00 o o o o o o • w '^ cf o o cf o" lO Ci Oi « o 00 d } ^ 50 CO s-x CO d ^ . '. 1 : J_, O ^ o" "o" o © o s o lO (M o 00 o o o o o tc o t- « o o o o o to *- ^ f-3 t-^ o to o -^ o" o Oi t-^ o ^ ft =^ C5 GS iH to 00 in t- CO •*-> § ^ la CO CO o c< CI CJ o it S a ^ ^ «* CO io' o o o t^ 00 o o o ^ B i d • • o o o o o o o a a o C3 o LO" o o" Ah O o CO .-I CI -* 02 ^ ^; o o o o ^^ o o o (M o o o o o o "3 o o o o o M t' o o C] o 00 CI €^ o c^ '^ o o •^ o ~~o o to o o IC o o o o t- o o C^ CO Tt IM o CO o_ o c c c ^ d o t-T o" t-T cS ira c" co" X ft c3 00 CO o » o o; 00 T-t O 4^ 'Jl tK -n o -' CO ■x^ '~ t- i^; 95 M (4 H Vj X «f CO > CO -^ Q ~o o to o^ 1 C-l o o X o o o 00 o < O 6 a o o o CI CC o o c CI t- 1 H tz; % 5 1 o o ^ o "^ o o o 1 o o o rr. l-O o o o o f^ c3 ^: c o o C-- o L-^ r^ « o c o 00 CI «& -^ CO CI 00 '"' '"' 1 o t. -^ o o o 05 o CO c t- 00 CI o -* o CI t£ 0- 6 « t- o tf o (T oi • a CD o" c ci o; o CO o 00 a 00 ^ «> ■* ^ c> « "-I o c - ;^ H Cl~ to g m «^ if # » 00 t- CI o o o a> o oc c o -K fc.'a c .- c o to c 4! fl O ® cd H o o- o ^ o fl4 O oc o -( o iH CI c rH H :z ^ o C c o o o o o o c o o o "3 c^ oc o v. o o : w ■^ o en uo o « «5 t- o o c oc t- c c^ CI Is PI u -a 1 '■ 3 6C P5 n g s f^ » : p^ aj a o o : ^ • i G o 3 >> p t4 a C3 a a ■6 : 9 '• Cm o r ; = 1 D -g o a ^ « c cS S : .HP • 'S : h 3* < pi p p: pi ■g ^3 ■g 3 1 3 c 1 » < g p; p; ri rt p; a a C3 £ t*-i ! o . >i ': 11 27 J o ?; > a; c > < > c3 2 c: E Ipi ■dp: 3q lp Sp; 1^ H "c 3 i 3 i -. (0 5 1 5 5 PI s ft ^ ■ s !» <1 4 i. d < 1 18 By comparing the estate of each road taxed in 1872 (see last cokimn of Table No. 4) with the actual taxable estate of each road for that year (see last column of Table No. 3) the following facts appear : The Second Avenue Railroad Company was assessed on less than 10 per cent, of its taxable estate. The Third Avenue Railroad Company was assessed on less than 25 per cent, of its taxable estate. The Sixth Avenue Railroad Company was assessed on less than 47 per cent, of its taxable estate. The Broadway and Seventh Avenue Railroad Company was assessed on less than 32 per cent, of its taxable estate. The Eighth Avenue Railroad Company was ass.essed on less than 46 per cent, of its taxable estate. The Dry Dock and East Broadway Railroad Company was assessed on less than 29 per cent, of its taxable estate. The Forty-second Street and Grand Street Ferry Railroad Company was assessed on less than 68 per cent. And the Bleecker Street and Fulton Ferry Road was as- sessed on 111 per cent, of its taxable estate ! The records of the tax-office show further, that in 1860 the Sixth Avenue R. R. Co. was assessed on $544,540 of personal estate, while, for the last four years, it has been assessed, on an average, for only $132,797 In 1868 the Broadway and Seventh Aveniie R. R. Co. was assessed on $342,500 of personal estate, while for the last three years its average as- sessment has been on onlj $166,783 of personal estate. In 1858, the Eighth Avenue R. R. Co. was assessed on $603,085 of personal estate, while for the last four years, its average assessment has been on only $371,621 of personal estate. In 1855, the Second Avenue R. R. Co. was assessed on $217,250 of personal estate, while, in the last four years, it has been as- sessed on no7ie. In 1858 the Third Avenue R. R. Co. was assessed on $809,225 of personal estate, while for the last three years it has been assessed on none. 19 Here is a decrease in the taxes on the personal estate of these five favored corporations of 75 per cent., while the great mass of the people have had their taxes nearly doubled. As the law now stands, a railroad company may issue bonds at any rate it pleases, and then report them as outstanding debt, and so avoid taxation on its 'personal estate. As these bonds, when issued at low rates, may be taken pro rata, according to their stock, by the stockholders, and after- wards paid at par, and interest out of net earnings, they also afford a convenient way of concealing from the 'public the actual net profits of the roads, and afford a cover for a demand upon the Legislature for authority to raise their fares. A president of one company is said to have replied to a stockholder, who complained of no dividend on his stock, that without an}^ dividend on the stock, he was receiving 21 per cent, annually on his whole investment, by way of interest on bonds, distributed at a nominal price. In view of the above facts, your committee recommend to the Club, the passage of the following resolutions : Besolved, That the Legislature should authorize no rise of fares on the street railroads of this city, but should require them to give ample accommodations to their passengers. Besolved, That in all future gi'ants of franchises for surface street railroads in this city, the Legislature should require that the corporations receiving the same pay to the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund, as compensation to the city for the use of the streets, five per cent, on the gross receipts from fares. Besolved, That the estates of the street railroads should be valued for taxation and assessment at the same rate on market value that the estates of the great mass of the individual tax- payers are valued. New York, Jan'y 7, 1873. DEXTEK A. HAWKINS, Chairman of Committee. Charles Collins, Secretary. 20 After the applause which followed the reading of the foregoing report had subsided, Mr. Jackson S. Schult/. moved that the report be accepted, and the resolutions suggested in it adopted by the Club. Carried unanimously. The iisual annual report of the Committee on Political Eeform was then read. It was as follows : The Committee on Political Reform for the year ending January 9, 1873, make the follow- ing annual report. Numerous subj(H;ts in the administration of the City and State Govern- ments requiring reform were brought before this Committee. They investigated thoroughly three of them. First. — The appropriation of i)ublic money to sectarian institutions. /Second. — The abuses in the License and Permit Bureau of this City. Tliird. — Donation of_ public streets to private corporations, and the non-taxation of the same corporations. 1. They made a report of sixteen pag(!S last February, showing that in this City over $750,000 annually of the piibllc money was given to sectarian institutions, and as our Govern- ment recognizes no State Church, but guarantees universal toleration in religion, they recommended that such ai^propriatious be stopped. The Club ai^proved of the recommenda- tion, advised an amendment to that effect to the then pending City Charter and to the State Constitution. Your Committee sent a delegation to Albany to carry out the views of the Club. Each member of the delegation gave his time and paid his own expenses. The recommendations were embodied in the then proposed City Charter, and a corresponding amendment to the State Constitution passed the Legislature by a large majority. As a further result, this class of approijriations by the City and State Governments to a great extent ceased. It only remains to take care that they are not renewed, till the amendment to the State Constitution becomes effective. That report of the Committee was extensively republished in full in newspapers and magazines, and given a very wide circulation. The reform initiated in our State was deemed of sufficient imi^ortance in other States to cause several of them to enact laws and pass amendments to their constitutions to secure the same desirable results. , 2. Your Committee, during the Spring and Summer, had the License and Permit Biireaus of the City Government, under the late Mayor, investigated, and discovered that the fees were in part not collected at all, and of those collected no proper accounts were either keiit or rendered, and that from this money received, seventy to ninety yer cent, was deducted, under pretense of paying salaries to parties employed to receive the money. Measures were taien, through the Comptroller, to reform this branch of Cily administra- tion. In consequence of there being no meeting of the Club in the summer months no report could be made at the time, but the facts appeared in the public Press. 3. The labors of the Committee in the matter of surface street railroads appear in the report on that subject just presented to the Club. The amount of money appropriated by the Club to the use of the Committee for the year is $1,500 00 They have expended of this stim, wholly for printing and copying only 520 95 Leaving a balance in the treasury to the credit of the Committee of $979 05 The other expenses of the Committee, amounting to several thousand dollars, have been paid either by the menxbere of the Committee themselves, or by money contributed by friends- of reform who desired the work to go forward with vigor. DEXTER A. HAWKINS, Charles Collins, Chairman of Commitiee. Secretary. POLITICAL REFORM! THE PERMIT BUREAU. How Mayor Hall Spends $2,842 to Collect Six Dollars. The Pay-RoUs of the Mayor's Office Examined— Twenty-two Men Paid for Doing the Work of Six— Slianielnl Corruption ! COISrTK.-A.ST. The Permit Bureau of the New York City Government is under the especial control of the Mayor, and is a perfect illustration of the Tammany system of collecting and accounting for the revenue. The amount paid for permits in this city, under any honest man- agement, cannot be less than $100,000 a year. Yet, in 186G, the return was $23,077.72; in ISTO, the amount was only $3,749.95, and in 1871, it was only $11,924:.92. No accounts are rendered by the Mayor or his bureau showing the items of receipts. No deposits of the money received are made into the City Treasury until the end of the year. The Mayor is supposed to keep it in his private pocket for the whole twelve months, and then what there is left of it, if anything, is sent to the City Treasury. Generally only two or three clerks are visible in the Permit Bureau, and except for about one month in the year they seem to have very little, if anything, to do. What became of the large sums of money in the course of the year paid for permits remained one of the Tammany mysteries until a few days ago, when Mayor Hall's private pay-roll for his Permit Bureau was discovered. The following verbatim extracts from it give a fair idea of the Tammany system of collecting and using the people's money before it got into the treasury. What was done with it, afteriuard the exposures of last year, showing a clear stealage by them of $20,000,000, may help one to surmise : 22 PERMIT BUREAU — ilONTHLT RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES FOR THE TEAR 1871. Months. Receipts. Expenses. January $4i7 OO $3,042 Gt February 104 00 2,840 GG March 145 00 2,843 70 April 6 00 2,842 G4 May 30,200 00 2,743 GG June 3,521 00 2,953 05 July 2,749 00 2,766 GG August 2,737 00 2,866 66 September 1,900 00 2,866 70 October 1,388 00 2,899 97 November 289 00 1,933 33 December 324 00 1,378 43 Total $43,990 00 $31,978 28 Deduct for permits during the year and fees returned 87 00 $43,903 00 Paid into the City Treasury to John J. Bradley, City Chamberlain, Dec. 30. 1871 $11,924 9'3 $43,903 00 From tliis table it api)ears that the expenses of receiving money under the Tammany regime at the City Hall, is seventy-three per cent, of the money received in 1871. Or, if the previous year is taken, 1870, when $38,646 is reported as received, and the expense reported at 134,896.05, the cost of receiving money at the City Hall by the Tammany Government in 1870 was ninety per cent. of the amount received. Under such management it is not strange that the debt of the city is now over $100,000,000, aud the people are oppressed with city and County taxes and assessments. SPENDING NEARLY 83,000 TO COLLECT $6. The most remarkable feature of the taljle is that in the month of April, 1871, the expense of receiving $6 was $2,842.64! In the month of March, in the same year, the Tammany receivers of money seemed to have been more energetic, and the expenses of receiving $145 in that month was only $2,843.70! In the month of February, the expense of receiving $194 ^vas $2,- 840.66 ! Truly it is a very expensive business to the people to have Tammany office-holders receiving money for the City Treas- ury. Curiosity led to a further investigation to discover the names of the efficient employes of Tammany in 1871, who were able, l)y diligent effort, to receive $6 at an expense to the city of $2,842.62- The following is a correct copy of Mayor Hall's Tammany pay-roll for the Permit Bureau until the November election in 1871, with the monthly salaries of each one of these Tammany office-holders : 23 IWENTY-TWO MEN" TO DO THE WORK OF SIX. Names. Salary per month. George W. Morton, Register |46G 6G PhiliiJ L. Hoffman, Deputy Kegister 416 66 George W. Bhint, Clerk 208 33 F. W. Hubbell, General Clerk 126 00 William Seaman, General Clerk 100 00 John Waters, General Clerk 100 00 L. T. Tingle General Clerk 83 33 Henry W. Shoridan, General Clerk 26 00 Oscar D. Hall, Inspector 183 33 William A. Collins, Inspector 150 00 John Bo we. Inspector 100 00 Thomas Rowan, Inspector 100 00 John Will, Inspector 100 00 Kobert Gamble, Inspector 100 00 Philip N. Ganlon, Inspector.... ICO 00 John H. Whitmore, Inspector 100 00 James F. Carey, Inspector 100 00 William Hoffman, Inspector 100 09 Ernast A. Bastianelli, Inspector 100 00 Francis Sheridan, Inspector 100 00 Matthew Murray, Inspector 83 33 Thomas Will, Messenger 100 00 Total $3,04:3 6* EFFECT OF A EEFORM VICTORY AT THE POLLS. The effect of the defeat of Tammany last ISTovember at the ballot-box so startled the Tammany managers that the very next month they cnt down the number of emyloyes in the Permit Bureau for that month from twenty-two to six, making a reduc- tion of sixteen, or over seventy per cent. This was a confession that when they did not fear the people, they employed nearly four times the number of officers the public service required, and thus, if unrestrained, would make the expenses of the Administration nearly four times what, under an honest Administration, they should be. AFRAID OF EXPOSURE — DISCHARGING SINECURISTS. The followiug is the pay-roll for December, 1871, the month after election. Compare it with the preceding list of employes : Pat-roll for December, 1871. George W. Morton, Register - . . $466 67 Philip L. Hoffman, Deputy 416 67 Joseph W. Hubbell, Cleik .. 125 00 Henry W. Sheridan, Clerk 83 34 William A. Collins, Inspector 150 00 PhiUpN. Ganlon. Inspector 100 00 Total $1,34:1 66 WHAT THE TAMMANY GREELEYITES WANT. The Tammany Clreeleyites wish to apply this system to_ the New York Custoin-House and to the internal revenue collections. The Tammany Party, seeing that the people were fully determined to put an end to their political regime next November, after cast- 24 Ztfr assistance to enable them to hold on to the City and State Governmens for another tw6 years, Avith a possible chance no ^I'^^T'"'^ f '^'' ^"'^^ ^^^''' Gorernment, and ha? n| no pi obabk hope of success under their own flag and the leaders heretofore identified with them, hare persuaded" Horace Greeley to jom them as as standard-bearer. What the terms of the com^ pact between hem ai^Jias not yet been disclosed, but it is veTy easy to infer them Mr. Greeley, witli the liope of bein<. President gves Tammany the whole weight of his inflience ancl tlat of a 1 his followers Tammany, in return, tliink they have a certa ntv of securing, first, the City and County Government ami Trea ury Tr'easurv^fort/''' ".T ' ^'^°"'^^^' ^'''' '''-'' Government S Ireasuiy for the next two years ; and, if bv any possible streak of luck, or negligence of tlie people they should get Greeev into the Presjde.itial chair, they could then at once apply the pr^ndple of Halls Permit Bureau to the New York Cu tU-House, and the SlOOOon'or'^ revenue system of collections and eas^'y ^ock Slop 000 000 a year of the people's money. As the credit of the United States, under Eepul^licin administration has 1 en raised W forty per cent, to above par, and the bonds of the Unite thirt%if;w ';"'?'' Buchanan, were bid for by capitally" at ier Pptf ^f cent, per annum, now are rapidly taken at five per cent they could issue unlimited millions of Federal bond« ?heirr :^rnf '^"ir?"''^^ '^; "^^^^^ "^^ ''^^ deficiencies caused bv s cce of Ihf T ''^'"« r'' :'''.''''''■ T^^^ ^-^^"It' "^ case of the success of the Tammany Greeleyites, is certainly very attractive t^o every Tweed Hall, Sweeny and Connolly in the w^iole party But what would be the condition of the great body o he people' office ft r'^'V' ^'' '''}'' 'r!. '^'' population^ who l/old^no vfvnJl^ I ""T' '"^ \ ^^'^ "^''^ contemplation of the 1 emit Bureau for the month of April last year, when «fte was [o'sXfr' $2'S42.6f -^1-'"^^^ "' -ceivin'g it,' .vill be fnoiigh to sati!.;y every one ol the ruinous consequences of continuino- hi power m this City or State, the Tammany Greeleyite Party o"r of permitting tliem for one single day, much less for fou vlli^J to have control of the National Administratiom ' ' A COXTRAST-ECOXOMY OF THE GEXERAL GOYERXMENT. of Til!f f"'?"f a/ ^■'^y ''f "^^'^'^^ ^"^" Customs at the Custom-House was ^J 48,981 < .b 93. 1 lie expense of receiving this, under Grant's Pepubhcan Administration, .as 1 547-1000 per cent., or, in r^mc numbers, one and one-half per cent. Contrast this with the ZZW'^ "'"i .T^''"'"' f ^^'' Tammany Permit Bureau for the bnrl.,. f^:f?^i *^^%^^eventy-tliree per cent, expenses of the same bureau for 1871, and we get reliable facts from which to make the ratio of increase of our national expenses and debt, and decrease nLn\ "^^t'O"^! ^■e^.-e/iue, should the Greeley-Tammanvite Partv cany the next Presidential election. We wish every voter would leflect upon these figures m determinino- jiow to cast his vote New YoiS'l,f8^^'''^'^'' ^^^^-''^^^^ ^^''^"^^'^^^^- DOCUMENT No. 11, STATE COUNCIL OF POLITICAL REFOEM. Cherish, Protect and Preserve the Free Common Schools. SECTARIAN APPROPRIATIONS OF Public Money and Public Property, IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK. Over $2,273,231 taken from the Treasury in 1869, 1870 and 1871. Oae Sect grets, in Cash, .... $1,915,456 92 Besides Public Land, . . . 3,500,000 00 Total to a Single Sect, .... $5,415,456 92 REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON Endowment and Support by the State of Sectarian or Denominational Schools and Institutions in the City of New York, made March 6th, 1872. -NEW YORK: irOariNG POST STEAM PRESSES, 41 NASSAU STREin. COE. LIBERTY. ]S72. At a recukr meeting of the Ifew York State Council of Political Reform held intLr rtoms, 480 Broadway, City of Albany, March 5 and 6, 187 the Com- ^ttee on the Appropriation of Public Money or Public Property for the Endow- ^nt or Support of sLtarian Institutions, presented the following Report, covering ^he City and County of New York, for the years 1869, 1870, ^&'\- The Committee of the State Council of Political Reform upon the Appropriation f?^wr.V?^m.vnnl Public Property to Sectarian or Dcnominatu.nal Institutions Cr -St'at t Lnist niee\in.\hey appointed D.xx.a A- Hawkxxs, Es, o srYork City, ^ f "— ^^ijiS.^^ ^ mfaSSt h ii^s:^;;^!^' County of New York, for the ye^ 18b9 870 and 18 .1 n ^^^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^ from the City Comptroller, and find the following additional sums -. ^ ^. -Kr ic^o - - $151,063 IG In the Year 18C>9, - - -h » Ofwhich the Institution of ^^^t/^^ the Sisters of Mercy rcc'd $105,000^00 Other institutions of same religious sect, - ^t>, 1^1> U^ Total additional to one ^ $141,120 00 sect alone, - - '*' U 04.*? 1 6 All other sects, onl^^ ^'^^^ 250,919 31 In the Year 1870, - " ^"' ' Ofwhich Foundling Asylum ofthe Sisters of Charity rec'd - - - $100,000 00 N. Y. Catholic Protectory, 50,000 00 Other institutions of same ^^_^^ ,. relii;:ious sect, - 96, i >>^> ^^4: Total 'additional to one ^^^ ^^^ ^^ sect alone, - - ^1 <»'l ii'i <»0 All other sects togethcn-, only 10,10^ . 139,546 77 In the Year 1871, - - Of which N. Y. Catholic Protectory received t»X,J<»> w Other institutions of the ^ same religious sect, tj^,--U uv Total addditional to one ^^^ ^^ sect alone, - - «''i'v? 77 ■ All other sects together, only o,o._».> ^^ Total additional sums for the three years, - 7i>V702 15 Amount stated in report of sub-committee, - - m., * ^^y, » Total of public money taken from the treasury in last three years and given to sectarian ^ ^ ^ ^^ institutions intheCityofNew York alone - ^^{^-,- ^.^-^ Of this sum one sect alone receives, ^'^%p'l*t'4l ^7 All other sects together, only - ^o ^ , < < -> -* < The institutions are nearly all specifie^ in tbe^oUo^vii^g report TL^^^^^^^^ money ; 1st. from the City Treasury ; 'id, from ^^"^^ Comtj tiei.v^rj aua ^^ Ueasury. The Secretary of toe Commissioners of Chanties nl^^^.^^^^^ ^^ ^^_^ k^^^.^ turo in February, 1871. refers very trut . y ,^„*^^„^,^t'pp.rti«^7/-o»« the public treasury so Schools of the Citi, of New York, caused by building up ""'^.f"/^'"',;' ' ''•^ Se a number of rival sectarian schools. (See Report pp. 09 & 100. _ On motion of Mr. W. L. Woollktt, the following resolution was unanimously '1^:^^Z:L.. .f toe State -un.l^Poim^l ^m ^.^re.^^^ lication through the pre.s, and that the remedies for thx.no^^glsanJH^ ^^^ ^^ 1^. said report, are approved and most respectfully urged upon tne coubuiei ture and of Congress. „ \URICE E. "STELE, Chairman- Albany, March 6, 1872. mAbivi^i:. William A. McKisnet, Recording Secretary. The following is the Keport of the sub-committee referred to above. It was made first to the Union League Club of New York, and they passed unanimously the following resolution : Whereas, Tiie Constitution of the United States prohibiting Congress from making any law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof was intended to secure a perfect toleration and entire freedom of religious belief and action'; and inasmuch as any appropriation of property and money to sectarian uses, or exemptions from general public contributions, involves the danger of discriminations forbidden by the Constitution ; therefore Resolved, That the Legislature of this State be earnestly requested not to ad- journ until they shall have enacted a law prohibiting such appropriations or ex- emptions, direct or indirect, to or in favor of any religious sect or denomination of any creed or persuasion whatever. Nearly $2,000,000 from the Treasury of the City of NeWi York, in Three Tears, 1S69, 1870, 1871, A SINGLE SECT GETS $1,396,388.51 in cash, in adchtion to laro-e OTauts of laud. The Standing Committee on Political Reform of the Union League Club, on February 22d, 1872, made the following Eeport upon the diversion of Public Money and Public Land of the City from the legitimate objects of Political Government to Sectarian purposes. THE SPIRIT OF THE CONSTITUTION OPPOSED TO SECTARL\N APPROPRIATIONS. The entire separation of Church and State, the perfect free- dom of each citizen to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience ; his right to have any religion he chooses, or none at all if he prefers, are in the United States axioms of government. This spirit pervades the whole National Constitution ; but yet to prevent the possibility of any sect or combination of sects, from imposing or even attempting to impose a State Church upon iis, the first amendment to the Constitution, made in this city, March 4th, 1789, declared that, " Congress shall make no laio respecting an establishment of re- ligion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" The Constitution of the State of New York goes still further. It says: (Art. 1, Sec. 3.) The free exercise and enjoyment of religious i^rofession and " ^vorsldp without discrimination or preference, shall forever he " alloived in this State to all mankind." EACH SECT OPPOSED TO TAXATION TO SUPPORT OTHEE SECTS. Our forefathers in England and France did not enjoy freedom of religious profession and worship, and were taxed to support a Church they did not attend and in which they did not be- lieve. To escape this oppression and isijustice they came to America, The great grievance of the Irish in Ireland for the last half century has been, that they were taxed to support a religious sect, the '' Church of England," whose creed they rejected ; hence the Irish and their clergy have emigrated in milHons to our free land, where both the State and the National Constitu- tion forbids such an unchristian practice. We all agree upon the general principle of absolute freedom in matters of religion and worship, and the injustice of taxing citizens of one faith to support or propagate the peculiar tenets and doctrines of those of another and different faith ; yet so great are the charms of gold that even the most devout sects in our city caiinot always resist the temptation to grab public money and pubHc property whenever opportunity offers. A late writer estimates the number of religious sects in this country at two Imndred. PUBLIC LAXD AXD MONET GIVEN TO ONE SECT ALONE, $4,896,388.51. A single one of these during the last three years, by allying itself with the late Tammany Eing, has drawn from the pubhc treasury of the city and county of New York, in cash, for the support of its convents, churches, cathedrals, church schools and asylums, the enormous sum of $1,396,388.51. This same sect many years ago obtained a lease granted by the city for a nominal rent, of the whole block of ground ex- tending froni 5th to 4th avenues, and from 50th to 51st streets; and then in 1852 it induced the city for the sum of $83.33 to execute to it a release of the block ; thus divesting the city's title and gi\ang this sect an absolute title in fee simple to the whole block. A few years afterwards it charged the city twenty- four thousand dollars ($24,000) for permission to extend Macli- son avenue across this block, making it two blocks ; and re- ceived the money from the city treasury. Not content with this, it refused to pay the assessment for enhanced value to the lots caused by this opening of the avenue, but drew from the city treasury $8,928.84 to pay that. A moderate estimate of the present value of these two blocks of ground thus obtained for nothing is $1,500,000. Upon the Fifth avenue block this sect is now building a new cathedral ; upon the Madison avenue block they have erected a chapel. This same sect, by two leases, one made in 1846, the other in 1857, obtained from the city at the rent of only two dollars a year, the whole block adjoining the above, and extending from Fifth to Fourth avenues, and from 51st to 52d streets. The same extension of Madison avenue made two blocks of this also ; and upon each is now erected a building used for one of the asylums owned by this sect. These two blocks of ground thus obtained from the city for nothing are worth another million and a half dollars ($1,500,000.) In 1866, the Archbishop of this sect, for one dollar a year, acquired from the city for the Sisters of Mercy, half a block of ground on. Madison avenue between 81st and 82d streets, estimated to be now worth two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000.) In 1870, for one dollar a year, he received a grant from the city for the Sisters of Charity, of a whole block of ground on Lexington avenue, between 68th and 69th streets, estimated to be worth now three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000.) This single sect has thus in a short time become possessed of real estate of the city to the value of $3,500,000 ; and making, with the money received from the public treasury of the city and county within the last three years, $1,396,388.51, the munificent sum of $4,896,388.51. No other city in the world has, in so short a time, contributed so much toward prac- tically founding a State Church. With such a facility for ac- quiring both the public land and the pubhc money, it will soon, if not restrained by law, control the city as completely as it has for centuries Mexico and Spain. Otlier sects are taking the disease, and beginning to feel an Helling for the city's laud. Tlie Baptists, in December, 1870, yielded to the temptation, and for one dollar a year received (10) lots of land between Lexington and Fourth avenues and 67th and G8th streets. These are estimated to be worth one hundred thousand doUars ($100,000). EESTRAINT OF JAW REQUIRED TO SAVE THE I'UBLIC LAND AND MONEY FROM TOTAL ABSOEBTION. At one period in England one sect had acquired nearly a third of the land of the kingdom ; and Blackstone says that but for the statutes of mortmain, ecclesiastical corporations would soon have engulphed the whole real estate of Tiingland. The priests were so skilful in devising schemes to avoid these statutes that it took nearly four centuries to perfect them suf- ficiently to afford protection against the rapacity of the church. If each sect in this city was treated the same as the most favored one, all the public land of the city would soon be con- veyed to them, and the whole income from public taxes would be applied to sectarian uses. This whole policy is wrong, and is admitted to be so, by the best men in aU the sects, and is not American ; PRETENCE — CHARITY ; REALITY — HYPOCRISY. Their pretence or excuse for plundering the pubhc treasury is that they use the money either for charity or education. Charity is the duty of all, and the highest Christian virtue ; but charity means to give away one's own money ; not the money of another taken without his consent. The sectarian charities in this city proceed as follows : _ A few good peojile organize within their church a charitable institution, to be owned and managed by parties of their own faith. This is right ; but as soon as the Charity begins to cost money and need land, they violate the tenth commandment, and covet the goods and lands of the public. They obtain from the City — first a grant of land for a build- ing site — second, money from the City Treasury to erect the building, and third, an annual subsidy from the City Treasury to support the inmates. This is spending, not their ovm money but other people's, and without their consent. On the part of tlie managing sect, it is not charity but hy]iocrisy. The duty of 'taking care of the poor and the fatherless imder our benign government is assumed by the pubUc. Munificent provision is made for them. In New York, the buildings are palatial and healthful, all sects have equal rights therein, and special favors are shown to none. If any sect is not satisfied with this, it is at perfect liberty to establish and support its own private charities and manage them in its own way, but it should be at its own cost ; not at the expense of the public treasury. UPON" PllINCIPLE XOT A DOLLAli OF PUBLIC MONEY CAN" BE APPRO- PRIATED TO A SECTARIAN INSTITUTION. Now, however excellent the sectarian charities may be, the mere fact that they are sectarian must uj^on j^rinciple under our Government exclude them wholly from the public treasury. The slightest deviation from this rule admits the principle of a State Church. It is permitting the thin end of the wedge to enter that in time will be driven home by some powerful sect, and fix upon us all the evils of a State Behgion. THE OTHER PRETENSE — EDUCA.TI0N"; REALITY — INCREASE OF THEIR OWN SECT. In our country, where every citizen has a voice in the gov- ernment, self-preservation requires the civil power to take care that education is universal. Hence the American doctrine, that the property of the State shall pay the cost of educating the youth of the State. The method adopted is the sj^stem of free Common Schools. They are supported at public expense in every locality where there are children of the school-age. The civil authorities prescribe a course of study and discipline free from sectarian bias, so that the youth of all sects may meet on this neutral ground, and qualify themselves for useful citizens. N"0 N"EED OF SECTARIAN SCHOOLS. ^ In the city of New York the public school-houses are educa- tional palaces ; large, comfortable, healthful, well provided with apparatus, teachers, and text-books ; judiciously near to the homes of the children, and with room for all. The parent has only to deliver his child, washed and clothed, at the friendly door of the school-house, and he has everything necessary to enable him to acquire a good common school education furnished him free of cost. The child of the poorest laborer and that of the richest mer- chant stand upon the same level in this great and beneficent republican nursery. Our Common Schools moM excellent citi- zens of a free and tolerant Bepnhlic, and furnish every thing the sectarian schools do, except the single item of sectarian religious instrndion. This should be received in the family or in the church of the sect ; not in a school supported by j)ublic money. WHY WAR IS MADE ON" THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. But a single sect is taught by its head, a foreign and despotic ecclesiastical prince, that the civil authorities in a Jiepuhlic have not the right to control and direct the course of study and the choice and appointment of teachers in the schools open alike to the youth of all classes, but that this right belongs to the chnir'h. Hence this sect makes war upon our public schools ; persuades its children to leave them ; sets up an opposition school, wherever it has a church, a7id admits t /tat it does tJds solely for the pmpose of in- doctrinating the young mind loith its peculiar sectarian tenets and observances. They then demand, and for the last three years have re- ceived, money from the public treasury to pay the expense of thus destroying the public schools and building up their sect. Many of their school-rooms are damp basements of churches ; so dark that gas has to be used on the brio-htest day. THE STATE A BETTER EDUCATOR THAN THE CHURCH. In no country where the education of the 3^outh has been, left to the church, has it been as well, or as generally, or tlior- ouglily performed, as when this duty has been assumed by the civil authorities. Italy, Spain and Mexico, are illustrations of the clerical sys- tem, and Germany and the States of our country, of the lay or civil system. Strictly speaking, in a country where the organic law, like ours, proclaims absolute freedom of religion, we have no right to appropriate any of the public money or land to sectarian schools. The legislation that has heretofore permitted it is the entering loedge of a determineel effort to destroy our System of Free Common Schools, and upon its ruins to build iqj a State Church and pmt the whole subject of education under the control of religious sects. However excellent a school may be, the mere fact that the course of stud}' and choice of teachers are not under the con- trol of tho public school authorities, but are under the direction of a sect or sects, should, of itself alone, wholly exclude it from the public treasuiy. Let the same authority sujjport it' that contr()ls and manages it. Every child is provided for, and liberally pro^dded for, in the free public schools. If any sect desires its children to leave the pmblic conveyance on the road to knowledge, and take a private sectarian coach, they cannot honestly object to paying the cost of this sectarian coach themselves. The tables below, forming part of this report, and which we hope every citizen will scrutinize, show that a church in this city that counts its blocks of houses and stores by miles, 9 and their value at millions, all paying to it rent, yet, hat in hand, knocks at the door of the city treasury annually for a few dollars in aid of its two charity schools. That church could well afford to support twenty such charity schools out of its own treasury. We have brought forward these alarming facts in no spirit of hostility to true rehgion, nor to any church, or political party as such, but exclusively in the character of American citizens, and we call upon our fellow-citizens, irrespective of sect or party, to oppose, in all lawful ways, taxation, or appropriation of pubHc monej' or public land for sectarian purposes. SECTAKIAX \PPKOPRIATIONS UXCONSTITUTFON'AL. Every dollar of public money or public land appropriated to a sectarian institution is showing a ^'■discrimination or prefer- ence" for that sect. The Constitution of the State of New York forbids "discrimination or preference" in rehgion and worship ; it protects all, but allows no favors to one over another. THE REMEDY. (1.) The Legislature is about to give us a new city Charter. We ask them to put in it a clause prohibiting the city govern- ment from giving or granting public money or public property to, or in aid of sectarian institutions ; and to make the pro- hibition so clear and explicit that no corruption or ingenuity can evade or get around it. This will at once stop the evil in this city. \ (2.) We ask the Legislature to amend the State Constitution in like manner, so as to impose a similar prohibition upon the State Government, and all County, City and Town Govern- ments within the State. This will require three years, as the Amendment must pass two successive Legislatures and then be sulimitted to the people for ratification. Nothing but a Constitutional prohibition can effect a permanent cure of the evil. (3.) We suggest to Congress whether a similar amendment should not be made to the Constitution of the United States, so as to preserve effectually and affirmatively in the whole country freedom and toleration in religion and worship, and to prohibit forever any sect in the whole land fi'om building itself U13 at the cost of the public treasury or pubhc property. The true interests of Religion as well as of the State seem ahke to require this. DEXTER A. HAWIONS, Chairman of Committee on Political Reform. Charles Collins, Secretary. 3 11' Nearly $2,000,000 of the Moxey raised by Taxes abstracted from the public treasury of the city AND County of New York, in the last three years ALONE, FOR SECTARIAN USES. — A SiNGLE SeCT GETS $1,396,388.51, besides a large slice of the City's Real Estate. Roman Catholic. .. $510,071 82 Convent of the Sacred Heart ,$10,000 00 Charity week-day school Academy of Sacred Heart 4,000 00 House of the Good Sheoherd 25,000 00 " 15,000 00 House of Mercy, Bloomingdale . . . 6,000 00 Sisters of Mercy - • 457 00 " St. Dominic 10,000 00 " •' " 106 20 " " " Asylum 5,000 00 Church of Dominican Fathers 2,774 73 Dominican Church, Lexington Av. 3,500 00 School of St. Nicholas, order of St. Dominic 6,800 00 St. Nicholas, School 5,000 CO Church 364 GO St Patrick's Orphan Asylum 8,153 44 Catliedral 8,928 84 School 8,000 00 " Orphan Asylum, Cor. Mott and Prince sts 5,000 00 St. Bridget's School 28,540 00 Church 5,000 00 Sister Helena 4,317 85 Sisters of St. Joseph 5,000 00 St. Joseph's Church 2,071 9 1 Orphan Asylum 5,000 00 " Parish School, Man- hattanville 2,000 00 Parochial Male School 3,180 00 Female " 3,410 00 St. Teresa's School 7,730 00 Church 640 00 School of St. Teresa's Chapel 5,000 00 In aid of School attached to St. Teresa's Church 5,000 00 St Ann's Parochial School 1,500 00 Church, 8th street 208 40 St. Peter's Free School 5,000 00 German American School, St. Peter's Church • 1,500 00 German American Free School. . . 14,000 00 464,681 05 421,625 64 25,000 00 6,0U0 00 2,774 73 3,500 00 11,700 00 8,928 84 13,000 00 5,000 00 3,199 69 5,000 00 2,000 00 3,042 00 2,574 00 3,825 00 640 00 1,500 00 580 40 4,500 00 2,496 00 2,170 00 5,322 22 6,000 00 7,000 00 13,972 00 5,000 00 5,'768 00 868 00 6,860 00 3,920 00 1,384 53 4,599 00 1,960 00 11 186 9. Roman Catholic. . . $510,071 82 St. Lawrence Clmrch S " Parish School St. Mary's School " Church, Grand street. . Sisters of Charity, St. Mary's Ch'ch School of the Most Holy Redeemer St.Francis' Female Parochial School Male " Hospital St. Michael's Parochial Scliool... . " Church, Aid of School attached to School St. Gabriel's " Churcli of Transfiguration Transfiguration Free School St. James' Parochial Male School . . " " Female " . . " Church School of Our Lady of Sorrow. . . . St. Columba Charity and Week-day school Church of the Holy Innocents. , . . St. Andrew's Church Church of the Immaculate Concep- tion School of the Immaculate Concep- tion Church of St. Paul the Apostle. . . Free School of St. Vincent de Paul German American School, 19th Ward Church of St. Boniface St. John the Evangelist Free School for Girls , Parish School Church of the Na- tivity Eomau Catholic Church, 2d ave., 2d and 3d sts Church of the Holy Cross Parochial School Church of the Holy Cross Church of Holy Name or St. Mat- thew Church of the Assumption " " St. John the Baptist. . . St. Vincent's Hospital " R. C. Orphan Asylum N. Y. Catholic Protectory St. Stephen's Orphan House Richard Burtsell, to pay taxes lots 22d St., purchased for Church property 1,500 00 5,000 00 20,000 00 200 00 70 00 11.000 00 4,250 00 3,'750 00 5,000 00 2,500 00 5,000 00 5,000 00 11,830 00 387 75 11,500 00 6,000 00 7,000 00 800 00 8,000 00 6,120 00 562 25 1,007 01 5,000 00 10,000 00 5.004 8-2 2,500 00 3,150 00 965 70 2,140 00 639 60 645 45 2,123 75 1,272 00 463 12 459 13 533 31 10,000 00 15,000 00 98,009 36 6,000 00 3,000 00 505 40 421,625 64 10,000 00 2,000 00 11,500 00 6,9ii0 00 5,900 00 7,500 00 5,750 00 562 25 1,007 01 182 43 10,750 00 4,999 82 2,700 00 2,700 00 2,500 00 6,441 60 459 13 502 00 10,000 00 114,252 92 9,800 00 6,000 00 3,556 00 11,550 00 11,340 00 9,618 00 4,200 00 6,510 00 11,354 00 1,428 00 2,240 00 6,000 00 178,856 43 12 18 6 9. 18 7 1. Roman Catholic... $510,07182 464,681 05 421,625 64 Free German School 5,000 00 German Mission Association 5,000 00 College of St. Francis Xavier St. Peters' St. Columba Church Church of the Covenant Sisters of Mercy R. C. Oipliau Asylum Church of the Nativity Church of the Epiphany St. Vincent de Paul Orphan Asy- lum St. Joseph's Home The Shepherd's Fold School of Bethlehem St. Boniface Church School St. Patrick's Free School St. Francis Xavier's Male School " " Female " ■ Sacred Heart Female Academy ■ Church of the Annunciation • .< " " School St. Gabriel's Male ^^chool St. Gabriel's Female do St. Alphonsus' School Free School of St. Vincent Church 00 19,050 40 Protestant Episcopal, $29,335 09 St. Bartholomew's Church 263 85 842 50 5,000 00 271 00 St. Luke's Hospital " for Indigent Females " Parochial School Church of the Incarnation 2,810 00 St. PhiUip's P. E. Church 290 4 6 Church 159 37 School of St. Paul's Chapel '^E^ o*^ Church of the Holy Trinity 1,2/0 80 Parish School of Trinity Church. . 704 bO Chapel. . 650 40 St. Timothy's Church 1,''85 51 St. Mary'3 " Manhattanvillle, 25 i 00 $17,665 65 j 1,250 00 ) I 263 85 S 842 50 $9,956 00 5,00i> 00 175 00 844 00 834 00 596 00 1,741 85 721 00 V.OOl 00 287 00 13 1869. Protestant Episcopal — Continued. Parish School of the Church of the Redeemer $1,000 00 New York Prot. Epis. Church 1,200 00 79th St. Miss. School N. Y. Prot. E. Missionary Society 600 00 School of St. John's Chapel 975 60 Shepherd's Fold of the Protestant Church 500 00 Church of the Holy Apostles 179 79 " " Sepulchre 750 or> St. Clement's P. E. Church 156 00 St. Mark's Church 689 22 All Angels 1,177 28 All Saints 529 88 Church of Intercession 1,749 59 St. Mary's Episcopal Church, Man- hattanville 323 00 St. Mary's Episcopal Church, Sis- terhood 3,000 00 Zion Church School of the Sheltering Arms. . . Memorial Church St. Thomas Grace Church St. Luke's Church Park Epis. School St. Bartholomew's Church School, 69 58 1,000 00 370 86 $764 00 500 GO 179 79 750 00 156 00 689 22 1,177 28 315 on I 214 39 \ 900 00 2,789 17 447 06 1,211 05 1,200 00 18 71 $518 00 280 00 672 00 560 00 742 00 Hebrew $14,404 49 Congregation Shearith Israel .... $940 99 " Anslie Chesed, Norfolk St. 402 20 Hebrew Free School, No. 1 2,260 00 Polonies Talmud Korah School. . . 542 00 Congregation B. Israel. 68 30 Adireth El 191 00 Hebrew Benevolent Society Or- phan Asylum 5,001 00 Hebrew Benevolent Orphan Asy- lum 5,000 00 C' ing. Schaar Hashomayine Hebrew Free School, No. 2 " S "4 $7,135 07 $940 99 $4,312 00 2,003 00 500 00 68 30 $3,892 00 420 00 810 78 992 00 1,150 00 1,170 00 Eef. (Dutch) Church, $12,630 86 Reformed Dutch Church, Harsen- ville, Bloomingdale $3,790 99 Reformed Dutch Church, Harsen- ville, Bloomingdale 6,748 41 Heformed Dutch Church, Wash- ington Square 1,143 46 $9,589 20 1,143 46 u 1869. 18 7 0. 18 71. Eef. (Dutch) Church — Continued. K. W. Prot. Ref. Dutch Church . . . $825 00 $825 00 123 00 813 24 True Reformed Dutch Churcli 123 00 Reformed Dutch Church, Harlem, " " " Bloom- ingdale 6,684 50 Presbyterian $8,363 44 $5,597 08 I I I I Canal Presbyterian Church Church of the Covenant Mercer Street Presbyterian Church. Manhattanville " " . . Eleventh " " . . 84th Street " " . . 13th Street " " . . Jane " " " . . Spring " " " . . Harlem " " . . Presbyterian Church, Cor. Houston and Thompson Street A Presbyterian Churcli " " Hospital Mariners' Church — Sea and Land. United Presbyterian Church, 44th Street United Presbyterian Ch. Charles Street Second Reformed Presbyterian Church First Reformed Presbj-terian Church Lexington Avenue Presbyterian Church 11th Street Presbyterian Church. $130 00 652 60 1.280 00 1,724 19 384 00 540 00 208 00 145 00 414 00 88 00 150 00 150 00 1,400 00 311 00 292 00 162 00 140 50 191 55 Baptist $2,760 Laight St. Baptist Church MacDougal St. Baptist Church.. . I^orth Baptist Church, Clirislopher Street 53d St. Baptist Church Abyssmian Baptist Church Berean " " Baptist Church, Madison Street. . Olive Branch Baptist Church. . . . Harlem Secon'^ " " .... Tabernacle " " .... It*, B*ptiet Mariners' Church. , . 60 341 $170 00 195 00 1,000 00 637 09 1 124 00 150 00 175 00 100 00 209 25 .., $130 OOi 1,270 00 1,724 79 136 00 414 00 88 OOj 150 go' 292 00 130 00 878 29 384 00 $2,565 29 $170 00 195 00 200 00 637 09 124 00 209 25 547 95 482 00 15 18 69. Methodist Episcopal. $3,073 63 Methodist Episcopal Church, 4th Av. and 22d Street $473 71 Methodist Episcopal Ch., Bloom- ingdale 102 96 Methodist Episcopal Church, York- ville 421 47 Sullivan St. M. E. Church 208 00 Bedford Street M. E. Church 306 00 Forsyth " " " 250 00 Green " " " .... 315 GO Jane " " " 129 00 John " " " .... 255 00 Janes " " " 10th Av. and 44th Street 91 09 Sullivan Street M. E. Bethel Ch. . 221 00 Second Church of Evangelical As- sociation of No. Am. 300 40 Willet Street M. E. Church... St. Pauls' " " 2d Street " " Lex. Ave. " " 18 7 0. $4,197 32 102 96 208 00 306 uO 250 00 1,272 72 91 09 316 16 273 7 246 99 1,129 63 German Evangelical, $2,027 24 German and English Day School Ger. Refd. Church $1,150 00 German Lutheran, St. Peter's Church 476 GO German Lutheran Church 54 00 Evangelical " 216 00 " American School Society 131 24 " Evan. Luth. St. Mathias' Church German Evan. Luth, St. Luke's Church German Reformed Church School $1,666 92 54 00 216 00 280 00 81 92 1,035 00 Miscellaneous.... $44,085 12 $91,309 90 $58,649 00 New York Magdalen Benevolent Societj' 5, Protestant Half Orphan Asylum. . 3, Wayside Industrial Home S, Free School New York Turiiverein 3, School N. Y. Juv. Soc'y and Or- phan Home School 4, An Evangelical Church Mission Church, 2nd Av., 125th St. (Congregational) Dover Street Free School 2, J5 : onn 12 GO 85 00 054 000 800 00 336 00 300 00 594 27 ,000 GO 5,000 GO 2,646 00 594 27 1,500 OOi 2,000 00 2,800 00 763 00 IG 1869. 1870. 1871. Miscellaneous — Continued. Union Home and School $10,000 00 5,000 00 7,000 00 Lying-in- Asylum, Marion Street. . 6,U00 00 $3,000 00 Third Universalist Church 195 3,260 423 10,000 10,000 3,000 5,000 6,000 3,000 8,000 5,000 3,000 10,000 3,000 2,000 139 2,500 00 75 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 16 00 Society for Benefit of Colored Orphans Society for Relief of Half Orphan an:l Desti- tute Children. Ladies Union Relief Association 10,000 00 N. y. .Infirmary, Women and Children Ladies' Christian Union 10,000 00 3,000 00 Patriots' Orphan Home Ladies' Union Aid Society Association for Befriending Children Society for Reformation of Juvenile Delin- quents 3,000 00 3,000 00 Female Assistance Society New York Dorcas Society American Female Guardian Society and Home ifor the Friendless 3,000 00 2,000 00 6,000 00 New York Juvenile Guardian Society School of Women's Prison ... Zion African Church 371 00 Wayside Industrial Home Ladies' Depository 1,000 OO Chapin Home for Aged and Indigent 7,000 00 German Church 532 300 168 51 1,000 .S2 40 00 00 0(1 Second Church of Evangelical Association . . . St. Paul's Church Emmanuel German Church School of the Epiphany Bethlehem Chapel School 735 00 German and English Free School 00 8(15 00 School for Deaf Mutes 1,000 175 00 Annual Totals $626,752 03 604,407 ^ 18 494,542 64 SUMMARY. Roman Catholic $1,396,388 51 Protestant Episcopal 56,956 74 Hebrew 25,851 56 Ref. (Dutch) Church 22,210 06 Presbyterian 13,960 52 Baptist 5,325 63 Methodist Episcopal 7,270 95 German Evangelical 3,694 16 Miscellaneous 194,044 02 Grand Total for three years $1,725,702 15 DEXTER A. HAWKINS, Chairman Com. on Political Reform CHARLES COLLINS, Secretary. NEW YOEK CITY COUNCIL rt OF POLITICAL REFORM. Official Dociiment on Extravagance of tlie Tammany Ring. Over $50,000,000 a year Spent and no Accounts tendered. Debt Increased in 28 Mouths, - - $50,134,138 65. Del)t Increased in last 4 Months, - 10,854,959 81. At a maeting of tlie Tweuiy-iirst Ward Council of Political Eeform, lielcl on the 29th June, 1871, the President, Honorable Thomas W. Gierke, in the Chair, General J. C. Jackson, Secre- tary, the following Report on the City and County Debt and Pinances was made by Dexter A. Hawkins, Esq., and by a unanimous vote ordered to be given to the press. At a meeting of the New York City County Council of Po- litical Eeform, held at their Rooms in the Plimpton Building on July 11, 1871, the Report was unanimously adopted as an Official Document of the Council, and ordered to be printed in pamphlet form for general circulation. Gentlemen : For two years and four months, ending on May 1st lust, the Mayor and Comptroller of the City of New- York kept the tax-payers and the public in ignorance of the manner in which they expended and disbui'sed the public revenue. NO ACCOUNTS MADE PUBLIC. In that period over $100,000,000 of public money passed through then* hands. Yet the law and the custom was clear and uniform that the Auditor should make a report quarterly, showing to a cent, first, for lohat every dollar of public money was paid out ; and second, to v:ltoiii paid ; and third, when paid : and that the Comptroller should make his reports at • the end of each year, showing for the year the whole financial transactions of the city and of the county, and a minute state- ment of the city and county debts and lialiilities ; and that on the 1st of January of each year the Mayor should, in his an- nual message, give to the public w summary statement of these important facts. The quarterly reports of the Auditor and the annual reports of the Comptroller were published and distributed to the press, and also to all tax-payers and bondholders who called for them. This honest and old-fashioned practice of our public serv- ants ceased on January 1, 1869 ! From that date till this present month of June, 1871, going on three years, they con- cealed from the public eye what they did with the public money. But in order to silence the public clamor, they did put forth, just before election, a false statement of the public debt, signed by three of the wealthiest men of the city, IMessrs. AsTOR, Egberts and Taylor. REPORTS MADE TO DECEIVE THE PEOPLE. Finally, on the 12th of this month, the Ma3-or and Comp- troller, in general statements and rounel numbers, claim to tell US what they liave done witli over one liundred millions of public money, and wliat is the present debt of the city and county. But no AndUors report is made puhllc ; yet it is only the Auditor's report that will show to lohom the money was paid, and lohen paid, and for what paid. No Comptroller's report even is made pubhc for the year 1869. These statements have not the clearness; footings, system or particulars that heretofore have characterized such documents. They hear on their face eiidence of an intention to mislead, and confuse, and deceive, instead of to enlighten the tax-payer and Ijuhllc creditor. ENORMOUS GROWTH OF DEBT OFFICIALLY ADMITTED. But the figures of the Mayor and Comptroller show : 1. A greater expenditure, 2. A larger indebledness, and 3. A more recMess extravagance than the bitterest enemies of the city rulers had ever alleged against them. In order to show clearly the financial character of their administration, I have compiled wholly from qfficlcd sources, and had examined by an accountant, the following annual tables, showing the city debt and the covmty debt fi^om December 31, 1858, to May 1, 1871, excepting the year 1869 ; no report has ever been made public for that year, and as the tax-payers are not permitted to inspect the public accounts, I could not fill out the table for 1869. The report for the year ending Dec. 31, 1870, was not made till the 12th of this present month of June; being after the adjourn- ment of the Legislcdure. The city and county are the same in territory and popula- tion, and up to January 1, 1859, their accounts were kept together. Since then two sets of accounts have been kept, and two sets of reports made, one for the city and one for the county. But the same persons and same property are taxed to pay the debts and expenses of both the city and county; hence they may be treated as a unit. •s Ss ^ % t^ o e •N oo o o o o o o i? CO CO CO 1—1 c: ■^ GO '^ Ct CO t- '^ CO ^ c c Ol O rH CM g: C^ O C5 Cs^CO^CO^O^ Ci" t-^ co" o" tH 1— 1 1— 1 CM 4^ OOt-Ht— lOCMO F^t^»0 -^---So H C: t>- -* UO t- >0 :M t^ '71 O O r? - ■= 2 (Z) "^ ■- H CO O w O LO O t^-O '-^OlrH '"'^f?^^ £o io cC' ic; CO CO 1— 1 1^ o o I— I ^ ;:: 1 1^ »v occt^t-ooo fZcO'^«"c; 'c-s. 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OtH o ilo 1^ CO CO CO CO o CO o CO CO t- t— COGOCOCCCOCOCOCOOOOOGOGOCO'OO rHr-irHrHrHi— IrHi— li— li— IrHi— li— It— I S rH^rH rH"rH"rH"rH"rH"rH"rH"rH"rH"rH"T— I ^ !^ CO CO CO CO CO CO CO CO CO CO CO CO CO "^ c5cic5ddc5c5c5c5c5cit5 c3*ih Q)(Di^ © c a a lO £ c a cc o c: y © rt CO j: ca a CO 3 GO a« o o o QO ffi a ci I* a _ a — ^ n © i "^ e 00 CO •H g i,- g « *^ OS •s © 42 © <£ a © sa ^ €fc E o o s o CO I-t o o CO o WITH HONESTY THERE WOULB BE NO INCREASE OF BEST, There was no necessity for adding a dollar to the city or county debts since 1868, for the taxes, assessments and annual income from various som-ces, called in the accounts the Gen- eral Fund, were sufficient, if administered with common pru- dence and honesty, to pay all the expenses of the city and county, as the following figures show : 1870, Taxes levied $23,569,127 71 1870, Assessments, new lists of 1870 5,715,071 09 1870, GeneralFund 2,457,772 35 Total for 1870 ■. $31,741,971 15 No account was rendered for 1869 ; but assum- ing it to be the same as 1870 (if not so they can give the public the accounts) . . . $31,741,971 15 Total means without resort to loans . . . $635483,942 30 The additions to funded and bonded city and county debt in 1869 and 1870 were $39,279,178 84 Hence amount expended in the two years $102,763,121 14 Average expenditure per year $51,381,560 57 The above tables include only the funded and bonded debt of the city and county. How large the floating debt now is our city rulers refuse to disclose. We know it is reckoned by millions, and nothing but the " Consolidated Debt Act" which authorize the issue of long bonds for the whole debt of the city and of the county, and the stay-laio clause of the so-called " Tiuo Per Cent. Act," staying judgments against the city, has saved the City and County Treasury this year from bank- ruptc}^ This floatmg debt in 1868 was so large that the revenue of the year 1869 had to be anticipated to meet it. (See Sections 7 and 8, Chapter 853, Laws of 1868.) 6 ACCUMULATED DEBT BONDS IN TWO YEARS $12,500,000. In 1869 it was overcome by authorizing tlie issuing of long seven per cent, bonds, called " Accumulated Debt Bonds " (see Section 4, Chapter 876, Laws of 1869), and in that year $6,000,000 were issued. In 1870, for a like purpose, six and a half millions ($6,500,- 000) of these bonds were issued, and all upon claims adjusted and paid by and through one and the same man, the Comptroller. WHERE THE RING GOT THEIR SUDDEN WEALTH. In a sound fiscal system one officer adjusts claims and another jxiys them. From the weakness of human nature it is not deemed wise or prudent for the government of any great city or county to allow the same officer to adjust a claim who is to pay it ; lest he may be tempted by a share of the money to conspire with the claimant and allow an unjust claim. But in our city, in 1869 and 1870, a siiuile officer, the Comp- troller, adjiisted and paid, by adding so much to the permanent debt, $12,500,000 of claims ! The United States Government requires every claim to be investigated, first by an Auditor, then his decision to be re- viewed by a Comptroller ; after that a third officer examines the account, and, if found correct, issues the warrant on the Treasury for payment. There cannot be too many checks on these public plun- derers. At the close of the Mexican war, the Third Auditor, alone, by an Act of Congi-ess, was empowered to adjust and pay cer- tain claims for lost tools, wagons, animals and boats. The amoimts were small. But, during the EebeUiou, the word "boats" having been held to include " sfea?«-boats," the claims became large, and Congress immediately took the power from the Third Auditor, and required these claims, Hke all others, to go from the Auditor to the Comptroller, and then to a third officer for payment. Accumulated debt bonds, $12,500,000 in two years, have to tax-payers and public creditors a disagi-eeable sound. The Comptroller, liowever, in liis report, kindlj saves their nerves bj gi^'ing no liglit upon, and saying the least possible about, this unpleasant item. April, 1870, there were many milhons of floating claims against the county ; claims that the holders did not wish to submit to judicial investigation. By Section 4, of Chapter 382, Lav/s of 1870, the scrutiny of the Courts was avoided, and the Mayor, Comptroller, and the then President of the then Board of Supervisors, were author- ized to audit these claims, and the Comptroller to pay them by revenue bonds, payable in 1871. Some tax-joayers ivere so iU-mannered as to allege that these claims were owned or con- trolled by the friends of the three adjusters. But the public nerves are again saved by giving no explanation upon this matter. In one year these three gentlemen, with commendable dili- gence and silence, audited and paid $6,312,541 37 of these claims against the county, and, in so doing, absorbed in ad- vance the county revenues of this year. These ofl&cers have been repeatedly requested to give the pubhc a statement of the claims audited and paid under that section, but they disclosed nothing. They were then charged with having paid out on these claims, doubtful at best, ^^ ye millions. The Comptroller's Eeport shows $6,312,541 37 paid by issu- ing $6,312,000 of bonds, falling due next December. But as there is no money to pay these sliort hands, they are, under the " Consolidated Debt Act," to be converted into long bonds, and added to the permanent debt of the county. This secret Court may have audited millions more, and they may go on auditing and paying by issuing short bonds and then converting them into long bonds mthout limit. It is a mine almost as rich, to the workers of it, as the Erie Eailroad — and controlled by the same King. We have in these two items, -vaz. : Claims adjusted and paid by the Comptroller alone, $12,500,000, and claims adjusted by the trio, $6,312,541 37, and paid by one of the trio issuing $6,312,000 of revenue bonds, the modest sum of $18,812,000 added to the permanent debt of the city and county. 8 THEY BORROW MONEY TO PAY OUR SHARE OF STATE TAX. Thej squandered the money wrung from the tax-payers in 1869 and 1870 to such an extent that they were unable to pay the city's quota of the State taxes, and then borrowed the money to pay State taxes by issuing seven per cent, long bonds, called, by way of joke I presume, " Tax Belief Bonds," which of $5,767,000 they admit to have been issued, and are now outstanding. ■r "We might in that way, if capitalists would lend to us, be relieved entirely from taxes until the " Tax Belief Bonds," and interest, equaled our property, when the public creditor could foreclose upon us, take our whole estates, and so reheve us from taxes for all future time. The financial management of om- city rulers for the last twenty-eight months would seem to indicate that this is their benevolent intention ! Our city rulers were charged last April, by their political opponents, with having swelled the city debt up to seventy mil- lions, and that, for fear of public indignation, they dared not make the usual reports. They now officially admit the funded and bonded debt at that time to have been over eighty-four millions — in addition to this is the floating debt. THEY INCREASE OUR DEBT ANNUALLY $21,486,059.40. They admit officially that in the last twenty-eight months they have added over fifty millions ($50,134,138 65) to the city and county funded and bonded debt, besides the floating debt. They admit officially, that in the last four months they have added nearly eleven millions ($10,854,959 81) to the city and county funded and bonded debt, and this does not include the floating debt. If the wealthiest merchant in this city would allow his em- ployees to manage his finances in this way, he would soon be found in the Court of Bankruptcy. The city and county are subject to the same inexorable law of finance, and are going at a gallop down the same road. The Mayor sees it, and as counsellor for the party that for ten years haye ruled the city, took six weeks to prepare and shape his message, so as, if possible, to appease or turn aside the public indignation. He tries to save himself and friends by reference to the na- tional finances. CONTRAST BETWEEN CITY AND NATIONAL FINANCES. liet us see how the fiscal management of the, city compares %\ith that of the nation. The city rulers showed no account for twenty-eiglit months. The national rulers report in full and minutely on thefrst daif of each month, for the preceding month, furnish the report to the press, from Maine to California, and mail a tabular state- ment to eveiy one who asks for it. The city rulers in the last two years more them doubled the city debt. The national rulers in the same period reduced the debt of the nation eight per cent., and reduced taxation some tiventy per cent. Comptroller Connolly gives not a line of explanation of the $18,812,000 added to the city and county debt in two years, on claims adjusted by himseK alone, and himself and the Mayor and President of the Board of Supervisors, hut he devotes seven •pages to a vain attempt to shoio that the debt tuill pay itself in forty years without resort to taxation, and leave a balance of twenty- seven millions in the treasury ! . "Where does he and the whole Eing propose to go for that forty years? For, judging the future by the past, the debt will never be paid, or the Treasury contain a dollar of balance, so long as they hold the keys to it. 10 OUR WHOLE PROPERTY TO BE ENGULFED IN DEBT. Their own figures sliow this : The total vahiation of the real and personal estates in the county is $1,047,520,224 00 The net city and county funded and bonded debt April 30, 1871, '.vas 84,541,186 56 Present amount of real and personal estates not already swallowed up by the debts. . . $962,979,037 44 Now the Mayor, Comptroller and the Eing have, in the last twenty-eight months, added $50,134,138 65 to the debt. At this rate, in forty-five years, they would add 966,872,573 04 To the debt, which exceeds all our estates, real and personal, by 3,893,535 60 We then shall need no more " Tax Relwf Bonds'' for we shall have been kindly reUeved by these gentlemen of our whole es- tates, and hence have nothimj to be taxed. At the rate they have added to the debt in the last four months, in thirty years they would swallow up in debt our whole estates and $1,396,685 46 over. Public servants never refuse to obey the law and shov/ their hands when they have honest hands to show. The municipal extravagance, corruption and incapacity of the last twenty-eight months is unexampled in history. No city or county can show its equal. Until our city rulers produce their accounts and vouchers, and dehver to the public the regular quarterly reports of the Auditors for the last twenty-eight months, showing to ichom, luhen and/or what they paid the /owr millions a month spent by them in that period, tax-payers and the public creditors can- not avoid the behef that a large part of it was stolen, traitor- ously stolen. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL OF POLITICAL REFORM. W. F. Havemeyer, Geo. C. Barrett, J. H. Ockershausen, Robert Haydock, Cephas Brainard, Hooper C. Van Voorst, James M. Halsted, Jackson S. Schultz, Henry Nicoll, E. L. Fansher, Charles Butler, Zopher Mills, Isaac H. Bailey, Thos. C. Acton, C. C. Colgate, Hiram Merritt, J. C. Havemeyer, Robert Hoe, Geo. Hencken. Jr., Richard Kelley, C. L. Brace, John Hecker, John Elliott, F. C. Bowman, J. C. Holden, John Wheeler, D. Willis James, Dexter A. Hawkins. John Stephenson, Geo. J. Hamilton, A. R. Wetmore, R. H. McCurdy, Alfred C. Post, M. D., W. Walter Phelps, E. B. Wesley, A. S. Hatch, J. Pierpont Morgan, 0. S. Strong. John Falconer, Geo. P. Putnam, S. S. Constant, Allan Hay, W. H. Jackson, Elisha Harris, M. T>., S. D. Moulton,^ Robert Sewell, James Davis, W. H. Nelson, Theophilus Brown, Richard Warren. H. N. BEERS, Secretary. HENRY CLEWS, Banker, 32 Wall Street, Treasurer. POLITICAL REFORM DOCUMENT No. 4. At the meeting of the STATE COUNCIL OF POLITICAL EEFORM, held in Tiveddle Hall, at Albany, on the 12^/i and 13th days of April, 1870, the Committee on Endowment and Suppoet, by The State ofl' Sectarian Institutions, 'presented the folloM*= ing Report and Resolutions, which ivere by the Council unanimously adopted. EEPORT : In governments like ours, one of the first and highest duties of the State is to take care that every child is educated sufficiently to qualify him to discharge the duties of a citizen of the Eepubhc. Aristotle taught that the education of youth ought to have the principal part of the Legislators' attention. The founders of our Government fully appreciated this. Congress, in the Ordinance of 1787, enacts that " Schools and the means of education shall be forever en- couraged." Washington, in his first message to Congress, said : Knowledge in every country is the surest basis of pubUc nappiness. To the security of a free constitution it con- tributes by convincing those who are entrusted with the pubKc administration, that every valuable end of government is best answered by the enlightened confidence of the people ; and by teaching the people themselves to know and value their own rights, to discern and provide against invasions of them. In liis farewell address lie says : Promote as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. Thomas Jefferson says : A system of general instruction which shall reach every descrij)tion of our citizens, from the richest to the jjoorest, as it was the earliest so it shall be the latest of all public concerns in which I shall permit myself to take an interest. Give it to us in any shape, and receive for the inestimable boon, the thanks of the young and the blessings of the old. John Jay says : The importance of Common Schools is best estimated hy the good efects of them, lohere they most abound and are best regulated. Benjamin Rush says : Establish and sujDporf Public Schools in every part of the State. DeWitt Clinton says : A general diffusion of knowledge is the p)f'€-cursor and pro- tector of RepidMcan Institutions ; and in it we must confide as the conservative power that will watch our own liberties and guard them against fraud, intrigue, corruption and violence. I consider the system of our Common Schools as the paladiuin of our freedom. Chancellor Kent says : The parent who sends his son into the world uneducated, defrauds the community of a laivful citizen, and bequeaths to it a nuisance. Milton uttered this great truth : To make the j^sople fittest to cJtoose, and the chosen fittest to govern, we must teach the people. Lord Brougham, speaking of the strength and defence of the Enghsli government, said : The schoolmaster is abroad,, and I trust to him, armed ivith his primer. Guizot, Minister of Public Instruction in Prance, said : Universal education is henceforth one of the guarantees of lib- erty and social stability. As every principle of our government is founded ou justice and reason, to diffuse education among the people, to develop their understandings, and enhghten their minds, is to strengthen their constitutional government, and secure its stability. Horace Mann, the great apostle of popular education in this country, says : For augmenting the aggregate amount of intelligence and mental power in any community, the grandest instrumenialily ^vcr yet devised is the institution of Common Schools. The Com- mon School realizes all the facts or fables, whichever they may be, of the divining rod. It. tries its experiments over the tvJiole surface of society, and wherever a buried fountain of genius is flowing in the darkness below, it brings it above and pours out its waters to fertilize the earth. Under the magic touch of the Common School, Shermans rise from the shoemaker's bench, Beechers from the black- smith's anvil, Bowditchs and Frankhns from the soap chand- ler's and tallow chandler's shops, and a new galaxy shines forth over all the firmament of genius. Education in a repuUic must be universal, tJie ivhole land must he loatered toith the streams of hioivkdge. All 'admit that education is essential to the intelligent exer- cise in a free country of the rights of citizenship, and to the preservation of our free and tolerant government : hence the Jmerican doctrine that the State owes an education to all its chil- dren as an obligation, and not a charity, and each child has a right to demand from the Stcde a generous and unseciarian secular education, such as shall fit Mm. to be a citizen of a free and tolerant Tcpuhlic. Since 1867 this obligation has been recognized and fulfilled by the State of New York. All property subject to taxation is taxed for the Common Schools, and the money distributed according to the number of children. The estate of the childless millionaire contributes its due proj)ortion to make intelligent citizens of the children of his penniless neighbor. The accumulated wealth of the Metropolis, drawn from every corner of the State, lielps sup- port Primary Schools in the poorest and least favored towns. In every country, as in Prussia, Switzerland, and the United States, where the State assumes this obligation, intelligence and prosperity increase ; while on the other hand, in every country, where secular education has been left to the churcli,^ or to voluntary contributions, as in Italy, Spain, and Mexico, ignorance, bigotry and oppression, political and religious, de- gradation, poverty and misery among the masses, jDrevails. American Liberty says to her children: "Come all ye wha thirst for knowledge and drink, free of cost, at the Pubho Fountains of intellectual health." But "No," says European and Theocratic Despotism, " thirst on, until I can poison the fountains with Sectarian bigotry, or if the State will not allow me to jjoison them all, it must at least set off to me a part of the public money, that I may build fountains dedicated to Sectarian Hate." Years ago we had Sectarian Schools in New York City, and boys of the Schools of one sect amused themselves by pounding those of another sect. Boys soon become men, and prejudices of the School-room become ruling principles of manhood. Germany at one time had only Sec- tarian Schools, and she reaped a full harvest of Sectarian: thistles and thorns in a terrible thirty years' religious luar. The founders of our Government read history, and they guarded us effectually from Beligious wars by excluding any form of Religion entirely fi-om affairs of State. Our Gov- ernment recognizes the perfect right of every one to have whatever religion he pleases, or none at all if he wishes, and protects him in the peacefid enjoyment of that right. Beyond this it cannot go. It has no power to teach the tenets of any sect, and has no right to appropriate public property or public money to any sect. But we have a very respectable body of citizens, most of them not bom in this country, but led by a highly cultivated priesthood, nearly all of whom were educated iinder a foreign theocratic despotism, who demand the destniction of our American System of free Non-Sectarian Common Schools, and the substitution of the Sectarian Charity System of Italy. As an entering wedge to bring about this revolution, they demand from the PubUc Treasury, money to support their Church Schools; and corruption in high places has granted their request. They admit that our Public Schools give an excellent secular education ; but they complain that they cannot enter there and teach at public expense the pecuHar doctrines and practices of their sect. Hence and hence only their complaint, and their coarse denunciation of our Free Schools as coming from the devil. We cannot yield one jot or one tittle of their demand,/b?* it involves a principle to us sacred and vital. It means the Union of Church and State. It is a fundamental principle of our whole civil polity to keep Church and State entirely separate — a principle incorporated into our National Constitution, and also into every one of our State constitutions. It is our profound conviction that the sacred interests of religion, of conscience and of domestic peace, require this separa- tion to be strict and perpetual. The moment the State takes under its protection any church by appropriating public money or property to the uses or sup- port of that church, or the teaching of its peculiar tenets or practices, it in that act and to that extent, unites State and Church, and estabhshes a principle that revolutionizes our whole political and religious system, and brings back upon us the spiritual tyranny that the founders of our country fled from England and France to escape. The union of Church and State, in all ages and in all countries, has led to oppression and bloodshed. The sect that seek the destruction of our Common Schools have entrenched themselves in New York City. Their Bishop, forty years ago, demanded a j)art of the School money. It was refused. Ten years later the demand was renewed with a like result. He then came to Albany," fixed " the Govenor and lead- ing politicians, and went before the Legislature for a law to compel New York City to let his church into the city treasury. The Legislature, with almost unanimity, rejected his proposal. Then the plan of attack upon the Public Schools was altered. Church charitable institutions, many of which were sectarian schools in disguise, were started, and pubHc money from City and State was obtained from year to year to support them. Finally, last year, a bill was reported in the Legislatm-e to appropriate some $200,000 of public money, directly to sectarian institutions by name. The bill was rejected. Then fraud and deceit were resorted to, and Section 10 was secretly smuggled into the New York City tax levy at the last moment of the session, which takes over $200,000 a year out of our public treasury, and gives it to a few useless sectarian schools ; useless because the Free Non-Sectarian Public Schools of the City already amply provided for all the children. The enormity of this legislation led us to investigate, and to our astonishment we found that, aided by this statute and a city government controlled by one religious sect, more than half a million of dollars annually of the public money of the City of New York is abstracted from the city treasury and given to cer- tain Churches, and Church and Sectarian Schools ; thus uniting Church and State, and making the State support the Church. Besides this we found that a single sect had obtained from the city government more than three milhons of dollars' worth of pubUc property, and applied it to sectarian uses. These startling discoveries show that a new, a foreign, a des- potic, a destructive principle has crept into our legislation, State and Municipal ; a principle so fatally poisonous that un- less speedily uprooted, it will soon reach every town, destroy our Free Common Schools, control legislative bodies, establish a State Church, and bring upon us the ignorance, corruption, and alternate anarchy and despotism, with which it has cursed Italy, Spain and Mexico. To save our State from that we must first demand the re- peal of all State Laws appropriating or authorizing the appro- priation of Public Money to sectarian uses. Second, to secure the future we must effect an amendment to the Constitution of the State so as to prohibit any such legislation by Town, City, or State. EESOLUTIONS : " Therefore, Resolved, That we enter our emphatic protest against the appropriation of public money or property, by town, city, state or national authorities, for the endowment or support of churches, convents, sectarian schools and institutions. " Resolved, That every such appropriation is in fact a union of Church and State, a violation of the sacred American prin- ciples of religious hberty, and of equality of all denominations before the civil law ; principles which have been the glory of our institutions in the past, and iiave been illustrated in the complete separation and independence of Church and State. " Resolved, That any and every rehgious sect which attempts to support its churches, sectarian schools, or church charities by the public money raised by general taxation, or by pubhc property is, by that act, uniting Church and State, introducing sectarian bitterness into politics, and deserves the condemna- tion of all good citizens. "Resolved, That every appropriation of public money to sectarian schools is an attack iipon the free non-sectarian j^uhlic schools of this State, ivhich schools noiv — ivith a liberality ivorthy a great republic — qfer, free of cost, to every child in the State a generous and tolerant education ; such an education as qualifies him for the duties of citizenship. " Resolved, That section 10, chapter 876 of the laws of 1869, relating to the City of New York, which in fact, though not in name, appropriates nearly a quarter of a million of dollars annually to a few sectarian schools in this city, is unnecessary, was not called for by the people, is a violation of the American doctrine of equal toleration and p>rotection to all religious sects, hut public su2')port to none, and unless repealed, will at once, and for the first time, introduce sectarian rancor into American politics, and array at the ballot-box the Protestants against the Roman Cathohcs. " Resolved, That the Legislatui-e be petitioned, and is hereby called upon, to repeal the said section and all similar Jaws, and to take the yeas and nays on the vote, in order that the people may know what members are for the Free Schools, and what members are for a State Church, and for tm'ning education over to the bickerings of religious sects. " Resolved, That an amendment to the Constitution of the State, absolutely forbidding all appropriations of pubhc money or property to the endowment or support of rehgious or sec- tarian institutions, is imperatively demanded, and next to direct and immediate efibrts to preserve our Free Public Schools, shall be a special object of our State organization for Political Reform." DEXTER A. HAWKINS, New Yoek, Chairman of Committee. \,Cvi'v;;/C;i?S' '^m^^<^^r-[^'-^ijM::A :^vyuc,v. v-^C;vO', '^^■"wvN wmM ^iy,^^w ;V^^v^'N^^uu ;^wVC/VW^vvv:;^s^--v«v^ ^-"few vr*V.^.,^V;^^^u^ M Y^V'^'U'v'^ w*'\i'v'w VV\3,'^Uv, ■ f' ^l V,' -, •»•!'. /.-.;"-■ 'x:'^ i«.WM@«*V^ ■^ , j^^'^^'-^.s' yti^WM^^^ww' it jV^-J'J ^^:;^^' ^\.^Ww^vyVvv; ;5fc:^s>s-e.^^-w.^,^ ., .^iV A/V ^^^-^S^ ^J^.---^-;.u::-.^-. .:.:?-, ---^-^ ../■■-' , ,, -v, ,, ^^^y^^i^^ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 014 221 623 1