of New
York's leading and richest citizens, composed of John Jacob Astor, Jr.,
Moses Taylor, Marshall O. Roberts, E. D. Brown, George K. Sistare and
Edward Schell, were induced to make an examination of the controller's
books and hand in a most eulogistic report, commending Connolly for his
honesty and his faithfulness to duty. Why did they do this? Because
obviously they were in underhand alliance with those political bandits,
and received from them special privileges and exemptions amounting in
value to hundreds of millions of dollars. We have seen how Connolly made
gifts of the city's property to this class of leading citizens.
Moreover, a corrupt administration was precisely what the rich wanted,
for they could very conveniently make arrangements with it to evade
personal property taxation, have the assessments on their real estate
reduced to an inconsiderable sum, and secure public franchises and
rights of all kinds.

There cannot be the slightest doubt that the rich, as a class, were
eager to have the Tweed regime continue. They might pose as fine
moralists and profess to instruct the poor in religion and politics, but
this attitude was a fraud; they deliberately instigated, supported, and
benefited by, all of the great strokes of thievery that Tweed and
Connolly put through. Thus to mention one of many instances, the
foremost financial and business men of the day were associated as
directors with Tweed in the Viaduct Railroad. This was a project to
build a railroad on or above the ground _on any New York City street_.
One provision of the bill granting this unprecedentedly comprehensive
franchise compelled the city to take $5,000,000 of stock; another
exempted the company property from taxes or assessments. Other
subsidiary bills allowed for the benefit of the railroad the widening
and grading of streets which meant a "job" costing from $50,000,000 to
$60,000,000.[152] This bill was passed by the Legislature and signed by
Tweed's puppet Governor Hoffman; and only the exposure of the Tweed
regime a few months later prevented the complete consummation of this
almost unparalleled steal.

Considering the fact that the richest and most influential and
respectable men were direct allies of the Tweed clique, it was not
surprising that men such as John Jacob Astor, Jr., Moses Taylor, Edward
Schell and company were willing enough to sign a testimonial certifying
to Controller Connolly's honesty. The Tweed "ring" suppos