-Caveat Lector-
an excerpt from:
The Breaking of a President 1974 - The Nixon Connection
Marvin Miller, Compiler
Therapy Productions, Inc.�1975
LCCCN 7481547
--[4]--
WHAT ABOUT THE DEMOCRATS?
After many bitter experiences with government corruption, Americans have come
to believe that all politicians have their price. Knowing this, apologists
for Nixon have tried to minimize the Watergate scandals by pointing out the
crimes committed during Democratic administrations. Playing on the fear that
the country is falling apart and has an uncertain future, the Nixonites urge
that the inconsequential Watergate burglary be left to the courts so the good
President can go back to running the country.
However., the argument that the Democrats have been as bad as the
Republicans, or worse, doesn't take into account that politicians today deal
with a public containing power structures and interests quite different from
those of yesteryear. Times have changed, and it is one of the contentions of
this book that the relationship between politicians and criminals, in
particular, has recently changed so much that most Americans experience the
resultant change in government corruption, without understanding the
underlying changes.
The fact is that, until the formation of the national crime syndicate, the
general rule was that street hoodlums would be hired by the politicians for
the ultimate profit of the businessmen behind the politicians. Since the
hoodlum element at first came mostly from the foreign-born poor, it was
natural that the Democrats, with their big-city political "machines" based on
the votes of naturalized citizens, were more successful than the Republicans
in their exploitation of the street gangs. It is not that the Republicans
didn't try. There were times that the political opponents of the Democratic
Party also hired hoodlums in attempts to distort the vote in their favor. But
the Democrats had more natural contacts with street gangs and, therefore,
more electoral victories based on "muscle." Whatever corruption then took
place in the government after the politicians got elected had little to do
with the street gangs, who went back to their usual business of prostitution,
gambling and street crimes between elections.
It is, of course, still true that politicians sometimes hire local
criminals-to accomplish a particular "nasty". However, now that the national
crime syndicate is one of the biggest enterprises in the country, and has
more available cash for investment than anyone except the largest
corporations or largest banks, it is more characteristic of modern times that
the criminal element hires and manipulates the politicians. This, however, is
getting ahead of the story. First it is necessary to see how the street gangs
used by Tammany Hall, the most typical of all big city Democratic Party
political machines, eventually fused with the Mafia and formed a thread of
people and policies that leads directly to Nixon. An examination of Tammany
Hall will also show how some of the greatest American fortunes were
developed, another thread of importance in understanding Nixon and his
ability to get huge campaign contributions from the wealthy.
TAMMANY HALL: FROM INDIANS TO IRISH
The Italian Mafia has always been a major component of organized crime in the
United States. However, every wave of poor ethnic immigrants to this country
has created its share of criminals.
The first mass movement of poor immigrants to this country came from Ireland
following the Great Famine of 1846. Most of the Irish settled in the cities,
thousands of them becoming construction workers or entering domestic service
despite their peasant background. In 1840 the total population of the United
States was 17 million. By 1860, because of the poor immigrants from Northern
Europe, the population had almost doubled to 31.5 million. Half of the
immigrants from 1840 to 1860 were Irish, with Germans a close second. By 1855
Irish immigrants made up 34% of all the voters in New York City, and 300 of
the City's 1000 policeman were Irish.
The Society of St. Tammany, then also known as the Columbian Order, was
organized by William Mooney only three weeks after the U.S. Constitution went
into effect in 1788. Mooney was a paper-hanger, upholsterer and furniture
dealer who lived and worked in New York City during the Revolutionary War. In
the great Constitutional Parade held in New York on July 23, 1788 to
celebrate the ratification by the States of the constitution, William Mooney
represented
Upholstery, and he rode a float showing the preparation of the chair for the
first President of the United States. At this time New York City was the
capital of the new nation.
The Society of St. Tammany was formed as a counter-force to Alexander
Hamilton's aristocratic organization, The Society of the Cincinnati, which
had been formed by officers of the Continental Army before it disbanded. In
contrast, the Tammany Society was recruited from the class of enlisted men in
the Revolutionary War. The modern Democratic and Republican Parties
eventually developed from this division.
SAINT TAMMANY
Consciously seeking non-European traditions, the Society named itself after a
legendary Indian chief, Tammany, who was Sachem of the tribe of Delaware
Indians known as the Lenni-Lenape. Tammany was a truly inspiring model for an
organization of fun-loving activists. He is alleged to have discovered corn,
beans and the use of tobacco-to drive away mosquitoes. He is also said to
have discovered the crab apple, invented the canoe and fought the Evil Spirit
in hand-to-hand combat for fifty days. (Tammany finally tried to roll the
Evil Spirit into the Ohio and drown him,. but at this he failed). When he
returned home, Tammany found that his people had become lazy and diseased. He
then cured his people of syphilis by the use of lobelia and dogwood.
Tammany is also said to have welcomed William Penn to this country on October
27, 1682. Tammany, however, wasn't as much of a wheeler-dealer as some of the
Democrats who later acted in his name. In exchange for giving William Penn
and his heirs 300 square miles of valuable real estate, Tammany and his
relatives received such valuables as five pairs of stockings, ten tobacco
boxes, six coats, two guns, eight shirts, two kettles, six axes, sixteen
kinves[sic], ten pairs of scissors, two blankets, fifteen combs, twenty
fishhooks, five caps, one hundred needles and some cloth, powder and bells.
By 1771 Tammany had achieved Sainthood in the City of Philadelphia. He had by
this time acquired a regular name day, the first day of May�which was later
changed to the 12th of that month. In less than two years, he was generally
accepted as the patron saint of the entire province of Pennsylvania. During
the Revolutionary War, St. Tammany was the patron of the Pennsylvania troops
under Washington's command, and his day was celebrated with elaborate Indian
rituals. The rest of the army quickly took up Tammany, and at one time it was
thought that May 12th would become a more important holiday than the Fourth
of July. It was this hundred-percent American who became the patron saint for
the rank and file patriots of the new country.
The purpose of the new society was to see that only patriotic Americans would
hold political or public offices, not letting those who had taken the side of
Great Britain during the Revolution occupy such positions, as proposed by
Alexander Hamilton. Keeping themselves constantly before the public, the
members of the Tammany Society would parade through the streets of New York
in Indian-file on all holidays. The May 12th and Fourth of July celebrations
usually ended with a midnight party in City Hall Park, where there was a
burning in effigy of Benedict Arnold, accompanied by a war-dance.
VOTING THE PARTY LINE
But though Tammany ultimately dropped its Indian ceremonies (because the real
Indians got a bad reputation when they aided the British during the War of
1812) Tammany itself was not to disappear. By the election of 1800, the
Tammany Society used the power of its membership to elect Thomas Jefferson as
president and Aaron Burr vice-president. In a manner characteristic of the
Tammany organization in later years, and of the Republican Party of Nixon as
well, men who intended to vote the opposition ticket were brought into the
Tammany wigwam to be entertained and persuaded. On election day, voters were
escorted to the polls by Tammany Society committees who had the assignment of
making sure that the voters remained true to their promises to vote the party
line.
In its early years, Tammany Hall was bitter in its opposition to the Irish.
The Constitution of the Society adopted in 1789 provided that: "No person
shall be eligible for the office of Sachem, unless a native of this country."
Tammany absolutely refused to permit an Irish Catholic to run for office on
its ticket until 1809. But when the wave of Irish immigration finally forced
Tammany to accept Irishmen as members because of the potential number of
their votes, it was not long before Tammany was dominated by them. One writer
commenting about the original Indian legend and the subsequent Irish
takeover, said: "Ask an Irishman and he will probably tell you that St.
Tammany was a younger brother of St. Patrick, who emigrated to America for
the purpose of taking a city contract to drive all Republican reptiles out of
New York."
pps.258-260
=====
TAMMANY'S CORRUPTION OF CHARITY
Tammany Hall was incorporated in 1805 by the State of New York as an
organization "to carry into effect the benevolent purposes of affording
relief to the indigent and distressed." According to its original charter, it
was not a political organization, but in practice its relief to the poor had
to be paid for in votes. And the votes gave Tammany the license to use
governmental authority for private profit. In later years, Tammany Hall
dominated the Board of Aldermen of New York City, more popularly known as
"The Forty Thieves," and sold the city's ferry leases and streetrailway
franchises to the highest bidders. In one example of favoritism, "The Forty
Thieves" paid an associate $100,000 in city funds for land to be used as a
paupers' burial ground, although the land had an estimated value of $30,000.
As early as 1806, Tammany leader Benjamin Romaine was removed from the office
of City Comptroller, because he had acquired land from New York City without
paying for it. And in 1807, the city's inspector of bread, who was also a
Tammany Sachem, resigned because his attempt to take one-third of his
subordinate's fees had been made public. William Mooney, the founder of
Tammany Hall himself, was removed as superintendent of the city's almshouse
in 1809 for having taken an extra $4000 in salary, doubled the consumption of
rum in the almshouse and quadrupled the use of brandy.
One investigation of Tammany Hall by the U.S. Congress in 1838 revealed that
city employees were being forced to kick back from one to six per cent of
their salaries to the organization in order to hold their jobs. In the
election of April 1834, when the people of New York were electing a mayor for
the first time by direct popular ballot, Tammany Hall sent strongmen to the
polling places to prevent any but its friends from voting. In an area where
the opposition political party was strong, mobs of Tammany supporters
destroyed ballots, tore down banners and wrecked furniture. It was a
three-day election, and on the second day the opposition organized their own
gangs to fight Tammany. Eventually infantry and two squadrons of calvary were
called to keep the mob of 15,000 in order. C.W. Lawrence, the Tammany
candidate, was elected mayor by a small majority.
Four years later, both parties imported voters from Philadelphia. Since there
was no registration law at the time, it was very easy to pad the voters roll.
The High Constable of Philadelphia furnished the hired voters at $30 a head.
He was able to do this because his official position brought him into
intimate contact with the leading criminals of Pennsylvania, who were
available as repeating voters. Subsequent court testimony indicated that
during this election the inmates of the New York City prison were released
for the day on condition that they would vote the anti-Tammany ticket.
The corruption was bearable because Tammany Hall really appeared to be doing
something for the people, a lesson that the Republicans still have to learn
in 1974. As George Washington Plunkitt, a Tammany district leader explained:
"What holds your grip on your district is to go right down among the poor
families and help them in the different ways they need help. I've got a
regular system for this. If there's a fire on Ninth, Tenth or Eleventh
Avenue, for example, any hour of the day or night, I'm usually there with
some of my election district captains as soon as the fire engines. If a
family is burned out, I don't ask if they are Republican or Democrats ... I
just get quarters for them, buy clothes for them if their clothes were burned
up, and fix them up until they get things running again. It's philanthropy,
but it's politics, too-mighty good politics. Who can tell how many votes one
of these fires brings me? The poor are the most grateful people in the world."
Tammany Hall was efficient because the organization consisted of groups of
men who were working at the business of politics every day in the year. The
Boss was always available for consultation with the district leaders except
for vacations. The district leaders, however, never took vacations. Everybody
in the district knew the leader, for it was his business to know everybody.
His duties consisted of getting jobs for the people in his neighborhood,
paying their rent when they could not afford to pay it themselves, getting
them out of trouble when they were arrested, and keeping them amused with
outings in summer and dances in winter. He would attend funerals, go to
church fairs, buy ice cream for the young girls and the children, purchase
tickets for baseball games, attend wedding receptions, and obtain the
releases of drunks from jail. There was only one return expected of the
beneficiaries of the district leaders' benevolence, and that was that they
should vote for the Tammany candidates on Election Day. It was a simple and
modest request because most of the working people involved did not care for
whom they voted. And, preferably, they would vote more than once.
WHY REFORM MOVEMENTS FAILED
Just as Tammany Hall succeeded because its leaders worked 24 hours a
day, and a by-product of the corruption was some relief assistance for the
people, those who sought to get rid of the influence of Tammany Hall failed
because they easily became discouraged of prevailing against the obstacles.
And even when reformers would win an election after a particularly obnoxious
Tammany scandal, their first official act would often be to clamp down on
gambling, liquor and sex-and when the workingman's small joys of life began
to disappear, back he would go to Tammany despite the corruption. One east
side gangster observed: "These reform movement are like green hornets. They
sting you once and then they die."
pps. 261-262
=====
FALSIFYING VOTERS' REGISTRATIONS
The success of Tammany Hall after the Civil War between the States depended
largely upon its absolute control of the foreign vote, which consisted of
about one-half the entire vote of New York City. Although the naturalization
process for becoming a citizen was supposed to take five years according to
federal law, Tammany Hall established offices where foreigners could
instantly obtain both naturalization papers and witnesses who would swear
that the aliens had been in the country long enough to become citizens. As
the New York Tribune remarked, citizens were made "at the rate of a thousand
per day with no more solemnity than and quite as much celerity as is
displayed in converting swine into pork in a Cincinnati packing-house."
One Tammany Hall judge naturalized 10,093 men in 14 days. In order to process
these applications, Tammany Hall had the New York Printing Company print
105,000 blank citizenship applications and 60,000 certificates of
naturalization. This printing company was owned by William Tweed, the boss of
Tammany Hall. The Republican Party in New York was also in the naturalization
business, but as the party appealed less to foreigners, the Republican
involvement was not as successful as Tammany Hall's.
During his control of the city administration from 1868 to 1871 alone, the
Tweed 'Ring' stole directly from the city of New York a sum estimated from
$45,000,000 to $200,000,000.
In a pattern we shall see repeated as crime really becomes organized in the
20th century, Boss Tweed and his associates in Tammany Hall were getting so
rich that they organized their own bank, the Tenth National Bank. Then this
bank, of course, became a depository for city funds, and was used to make
loans for Tammany projects.
SENSITIVE AS NIXON ABOUT CARTOONS
In view of the Nixon Administration's criticism of the press coverage of
Watergate, and of the vitriolic pen of some newspaper cartoonists, it is
interesting to note that Boss Tweed of Tammany Hall wasn't sensitive to any
criticism of him by newspapers, except for the art of the political satirist,
Thomas Nast. A friend tried to comfort Tweed with the assurance that the
pictures were such broad caricatures that people would never believe them.
But Tweed answered sadly that if the people got used to seeing him in
stripes, they would soon put him in them.
At one point a well-known banker was sent to see Thomas Nast. The banker
remarked that he and his friends were great admirers of Nast's art, and were
so much interested in Nast that they were willing to put up $100,000 for
Nast's expenses while he was developing his genius in Europe.
Knowing what was being proposed, Nast innocently asked: "Do you think I could
get $200,000?" When the bankers said that might be possible, Nast then asked:
"Don't you think I could get $500,000 to make that trip?"
"You can," the banker answered enthusiastically. "You can get $500,000 to
drop this Boss Tweed 'Ring' business and get out of the country!"
'.Well, I don't think I'll do it," Nast answered. "I made up my mind not long
ago to put some of these fellows behind bars."
"Only be careful, Mr. Nast," remarked the banker, "that you don't put
yourself in a coffin first." And with that he left the room.
REPEAT VOTERS
The leaders of Tammany Hall may have been corrupt, but in their own way they
were political geniuses. Very early they began to realize the value of a
liaison with the gangster elements in the cities. They learned that in
exchange for meeting-places and hiding-places, the gangsters would also do
favors for them, and would be available on election day to bring out the vote
in an organized way. The Tammany Hall ward and district leaders in many cases
developed direct contact with the street gangs, as they often were
saloonkeepers and dance-hall operators, or involved with gambling houses and
places of prostitution.
"Big Tim" Sullivan, a Tammany leader at the turn of the century, is said to
have instructed his followers to use guys with whiskers as repeater voters.
"When you voted 'em with their whiskers on you take them to a barber and
scrape off the chin-fringe. Then you vote 'em again with side lilacs and
mustache. Then to a barber again, off comes the sides and you vote 'em a
third with the mustache. If that ain't enough and the box can stand a few
more ballots clean off the mustache and vote 'em plain face. That makes every
one of 'em good for four votes."
However, the leading repeaters whom "Big Tim" Sullivan and his associates
used at the polling places in New York were not men with whiskers but men
with guns, whose activities the rest of the year as gangsters were not
interfered with by the police or the courts if they devoted themselves
earnestly to the Tammany business of voting or intimidating hostile voters
during elections. "Monk" Eastman, the first general leader of East Side New
York gangs, could be counted upon for between four and five hundred
repeaters. His successor, Abe ("Kid Twist") Reles was said to be worth double
that number. Paul Kelly, a mafiosi whose real name was Antonio Zaccarelli,
was said to be good for 1,000 repeaters from the ranks of his followers.
pps. 262-263
=====
POLICE BRIBERY: 1872 TO 1972
During the 1890's in New York City police bribery was so open and generally
accepted that the particular motion of the hand behind the back and the palm
turned up in the shape of a cup was used on the vaudeville stage then and
later as a symbol denoting a policeman. The Lexow Committee of the State
Legislature came to the conclusion in their report that there was in
existence throughout the city "a system so well regulated and understood,
that upon the assignment of a new captain no conversation was necessary to
instruct the precinct detectives or wardmen as to their line of conduct."
Each police captain had a wardman, who had practically no other duties except
to collect money from the proprietors of houses of prostitution, and from
saloon-keepers, criminals, businessman, and other miscellaneous citizens in
regular monthly amounts which had been agreed upon. Every month, soon after
rent-day, the wardman appeared at the house of prostitution and the saloon
and got what he had arranged for. The proprietors of these establishments
were accustomed to regard the protection money as a part of the overhead of
their business. The wardman then would deduct 20 per cent of what he
collected for his services, and turn the rest over to the captain. The
captain then visited the inspector of his division and paid over his
percentage to him. The inspector, in turn, contributed to the fortunes of the
police commissioners and district leaders of Tammany Hall.
John J. Ryan, a Tammany district leader, once said in a little speech to his
captains: "You have the police with you and if you have not got enough, let
us know, and we will give you more. We will have a whole platoon sent down,
if necessary. Those that are with us will receive their protection. Those who
are against us will receive nothing. And should a Republican vote be
challenged why they have no protection." In another, election announcement he
said,
"Now I want you district captains to hand the secretary the names of those
police officers whom you think are friendly toward our organization, and let
him have them and I will see that you have them at the polling place."
The special New York State Senate Committee headed by Senator Clarence Lexow
to investigate the New York City Police Department reported: "It has been
shown that in a very large number of election districts in the city of New
York, almost every conceivable crime against the elective franchise was
either committed or permitted by the police, invariably in the interest of
the dominant Democratic organization of the city ... it seemed, in fact, as
though every interest, every occupation, almost every citizen, was dominated
by an all-controlling and overshadowing dread of the police department."
In 1909, a former Police Commissioner of New York, Gen. Theodore A. Bingham,
wrote an article in which he admitted: "It would have been an easy matter for
me to have made $600,000 in bribery money, and $1,000,000 would not have been
an excessive figure at all... . One day, shortly after my arrival at police
headquarters, an acquaintance dropped into my office. 'Commissioner,' he
said, 'there is a house at Western and Third Street, run very quietly. It
will be worth $10,000 a month to you.. .' but the sentence was never finished
to my knowledge. As a matter of fact, the place had never been opened, and
the man had been used as an agent to feel out the department. A few months
later, I was offered $5000 in cash and $500 a month merely to be seen shaking
hands with the proprietor of an upper Broadway Cafe."
The regular price required by Tammany Hall at the end of the 19th century
from a man who desired a job as an ordinary police patrolman was $300. The
price for promotion went up until it reached as high as $15,000 for the
position of police captain in a profitable district, that is in a district
where the graft from prostitutes, saloon-keepers, gamblers and merchants was
high.
THE POLICE IN 1872 AND 1972
By this time the reader may be so involved in these interesting stories of
what happened in the United States one hundred years ago, that it may be
forgotten that these stories are being told to illustrate a development in
organized crime in the 1970's. So let us take an interlude from the history
and make a leap into New York City of 1972, whereupon we will find much the
same situation in a more developed form than we found in 1872.
In 1972, the New York Times claimed that pay-offs to corrupt New York police
inspectors were at least $25,000,000 a year. The Times reported that: "Hardly
a sky scraper is built, scarcely a change is made in the world's most
celebrated skyline, hardly a brownstone is renovated or a restaurant expanded
without the illegal pay-offs, ranging from $5 to $10,000 each."
According to the Knapp Commission which investigated the New York Police
Department recently, New York police have been receiving millions of dollars
a year in graft. The commission discovered that there was one single payoff
by a narcotics dealer of $80,000. Large numbers of policemen in virtually
every unit assigned to arrest gamblers received bribes ranging from $300 to
$15,000 a month on a regular basis. Not long after the Knapp Commission
concluded its work, it was discovered that 169 pounds of heroin and 131
pounds of cocaine confiscated from the city's junkies and dealers had been
stolen from the office of the department's property clerk. It was obviously
an inside job. Evidently not much change has taken place within the Police
Department of New York City.
pps 263-264
=====
HOW THE RICH GOT THAT WAY
The relations between Tammany Hall and the criminal element, which existed
prior to the 20th century, consisted of the political club's hiring the
criminals to insure the election of the club's candidates. The hoodlums would
use violence against political opponents, intimidate voters and perpetrate
vote frauds. Then Tammany would use its influence to protect the criminals
and to reward the club members with political jobs, as well as to line the
pockets of Tammany leaders.
This relation between politicians and criminals took place at a time in the
country's history when the great fortunes of the time were being developed
from ownership of land in the cities. Even the Astors, with their monopoly of
furs in the West which netted an annual revenue of $2,000,000, plus profits
from their shipping and banking operations, made their greatest profit in New
York City where they concentrated the great bulk of their real estate
speculations. And it was Tammany Hall which gave away the valuable real
estate of New York City to the Astors and other wealthy businessmen for a
tiny fraction of the true value of the land-on the shortsighted grounds that
the city needed immediate revenue. In fact the city did need the revenuebut
only because of the enormous squandering by Tammany Hall. To add insult to
injury, the new land owners who had effectively stolen the land from the city
in the first place, then had the corrupt city administration pay for the cost
of filling in sunken lots, placing sewers and grading streets.
THE ASTOR FORTUNE
Farms which Astor bought for $23,000 in what is now the center of the city
are now worth upwards of $10 million. One foreclosure payment of $25,000 on a
farm allowed him to obtain a huge amount of land now covered with New York
hotels, office buildings, stores, theaters and tenements�a property worth at
the very least $30 million. Astor's accumulation of real estate was
intensified by his ownership of the Manhattan Bank, which then had the right
to issue certificates at a face v[a]lue of three times more than its assets.
Astor's wealth multiplied following the economic panic of 1837, during. which
Astor foreclosed on numerous mortgages, after he had originally purchased
them at deflated prices from impoverished citizens. And once having obtained
a bold upon the land, Astor never sold it. From the very first be adopted the
plan, since then religiously followed for the most part by his descendants of
leasing the land for a given number of years. When the ground-lease expired,
any buildings on the property were then owned by Astor. This is how Astor
became the richest man in America by 1847, with a fortune estimated at $20
million.
Because Tammany Hall corruption contributed so much to his wealth, it is easy
to understand why John Jacob Astor II and other wealthy businessmen were
willing to lend their name to a whitewash of the "honest" accounting methods
of the Tweed "Ring." While Tweed himself died in prison quite poor, and his
other Tammany Hall associates were vulgar political thieves who retained only
a small part of their loot, Gustavus Myers points out in his monumental
history of the Great American Fortunes that the "men who really profited
directly or indirectly by the gigantic thefts of money and the franchise,
tax-exemption, and other measures put through the Legislature or Common
Council were men of wealth and background, who thereby immensely increased
their riches and whose descendants now possess towering fortunes and bear
names of the highest 'respectability'."
The rentals from the city land were so great that more and more surplus
wealth heaped up. A small portion of this surplus wealth went to bribe
legislators for special laws giving them a variety of tax exemptions and
other privileges, while another part was used for buying stocks in various
enterprises.
>From being mere land holders whose possessions were confined to city land,
they then became part owners of railroads and telegraph companies reaching
throughout the country. While the prisons were filled with convicts who had
committed some minor crime against property, the men who robbed the community
of its land and its railroads (most of which were built on public land with
public money) and who defrauded the community in a thousand ways were
permitted to retain their plunder.
State legislators who at the time were earning $300 per session were being
bribed with one or two thousand dollars by the real estate, banking and
railroad interests to gain hundreds of millions of dollars worth of tax
exemptions, railroad franchises, the right to print over-valued stocks and
bonds certificates to trap unwary investors, and freedom to commit customs
frauds.
Financier Jay Gould openly admitted before a New York State Assembly
investigating committee in 1873 that he had paid large sums to Tweed and to
others which were facetiously charged on the Erie Railroad books to "India
Rubber Account."
Gould also recalled that he "had been in the habit of sending money into
various districts throughout the state either to control nominations or
elections for Senators or members of the Assmbly[sic]." He considered "that,
as a rule, such investments paid better than to wait until the men got to
Albany.. . . In a Republican district I was a Republican; in a Democratic
district, a Democrat; in a doubtful district I was doubtful; but I was always
for Erie."
pps 264-265
--[cont]--
Aloha, He'Ping,
Om, Shalom, Salaam.
Em Hotep, Peace Be,
Omnia Bona Bonis,
All My Relations.
Adieu, Adios, Aloha.
Amen.
Roads End
Kris
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