Archive:The Descendants of John Whitney, page 634
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The Descendants of John Whitney, Who Came from London, England, to Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1635, by Frederick Clifton Pierce (Chicago: 1895)
Transcribed by the Whitney Research Group, 1999.
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| 634 | WHITNEY GENEALOGY. |
might be on a firm, sound basis. When we departed from the path of virtue we were bound to lead the life of a spendthrift. This we did, and the day of reckoning has now come. Our building, firm and substantial though it appeared, was built upon a bed of sand. With the pinch of taxation came slack work. Other people saw through their burdens many things done by officials which were not in the line of their public duties. "Both parties were chargeable with this almost universal rottenness. But in New York the Democratic party took these rogues by the throat - men in their own party - and hurled them out, while the Republicans added the crime of concealment to that of commis- sion. A paper currency has fostered this depreciation of public virtue. The brunt of the battle of resumption has yet to be borne. It behooves all to bear a part. This question of money is not one of policy. It is one of pure honesty." Mr. WHITNEY was appointed counsel to the corporation in 1875, and as such he became the barrier between the city treasury and claims growing out of ring frauds, which amounted in the aggregate to millions of dollars. When he assumed office there were pending 3,800 suits against the city, in which were involved between $15,000,000 and $20,000,000, and new suits were being brought daily. Within two years he doubled the volume of business disposed of, at the same time lessening the expenses. One of his most gratifying successes was in the contest over the claim of the widow of the architect of the new county court house. The claim was for a per- centage on the actual cost of the building, or its honest cost. These commissions ranged from $100,000 to $400,000. All of the witnesses were either dead or had been forced to flee from the country, and it was thought impossible that the city could make any adequate defense. But Mr. WHITNEY evolved one - an ingenious one. The quality of every class of work was ascertained by employing competent experts. The history of the construction was traced, and the unnecessary substitution of iron for brick conclusively shown. As a result a verdict was secured for the city after a jury trial that took up the month of May, 1876. Mr. WHITNEY held the office until December, 1882, having been twice reappointed. He resigned when he had yet two years to serve. He greatly increased the effectiveness of the department by divid- ing it into four departments and employing capable subordinates. Through his personal efforts the Union Ferry Company was compelled to pay an adequate and substantial rental to the city instead of the nominal sum received by the TWEED ring. The expense of opening streets was reduced by an economical system. In two cases, involving Broadway and Riverside Park, the sum of $533,000 allowed by the courts, was by him lessened to $213,000. Nearly $2,000,000 was demanded from the city for printing and stationery furnished during the ring days. Mr. WHITNEY, with great secrecy, instituted suits for fraud against some of the claimants. He waited until those implicated could be arrested at the same time. Then his order of arrest was served on each of them, and within three weeks the claims for millions had been dis- missed and settled by the payment of $50,000. Probably no corporation counsel ever administered the office more vigorously than Mr. WHITNEY. But work, as he has often laughingly remarked, does not oppress him; he throws it off easily. When he was at the head of the navy department, and lifting it from the slough of decay and was astonishing the naval officers and bureaucrats by doing the work of half a dozen men in a day, he used to still more astonish them by often appearing at a dinner, a recep- tion and a ball in the evening, lively and brilliant, dancing and jesting with the young folks as if no cares were on his mind, and the navy department was an unsubstantial dream. The next morning they would find him devoted to his tasks with undimin- ished ardor. So when he was corporation counsel, he found plenty of time, some how or other, to attend to political affairs. In 1876 he attended the St. Louis convene- tion and helped nominate Mr. TILDEN for the presidency, and took an important part in the campaign. John KELLY, at the head of Tammany Hall, fought Mr. TILDEN fiercely in St. Louis. Mr. TILDEN was a man who provided against every adverse chance. He was not sure that Tammany Hall would support him properly election day, so, with the assistance of Mr. WHITNEY and the rest of his "boys," he organized a plan of campaign calculated to get the full Democratic vote of New York City in any event. In 1880 Mr. WHITNEY went to Cincinnati, and in 1884 to Chicago, where he was Mr. CLEVELAND'S most influential and conspicuous adviser. All of the Democrats in the state were gratified when Mr. CLEVELAND chose Mr. WHITNEY for his secretary of navy, and the review of the great work which he accomplished in making possible the splendid squadron of evolution, which was given, shows that he merited their ap- pause. At the time the Democratic party came to power it was well understood that the great mass of the people of the country demanded the construction of a new navy. The party which had just gone out of office had attempted in a measure to appease this demand. To do this they had given out in contracts to the shipbuilding firm of John ROACH & Co., the construction of four vessels. These vessels were in
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