BOSS TWEED: The Corrupt Pol who Conceived the Soul of Modern New York by Kenneth D. Ackerman
Authors: Kenneth D. Ackerman
Tags: History
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racing to the scenes of giant fires, spectacles that terrified and fascinated him. Nast as a boy loved the excitement, the competition between rival fire teams, and clearly remembered his favorite, the “Big Six” volunteers. He’d particularly liked their emblem: the tiger painted in bright colors on the side of their shiny silver engine. He’d even made a point to study the original drawing of the tiger, a reproduction from a French lithograph hanging in a store on James and Madison Streets.
At the time, Nast didn’t know the big strapping fellow in the red shirt, the chief of the fire company he so admired. But, years later, his drawings of corrupt politicians cheating voters like those frontline Civil War soldiers would lead to his downfall. By then, everyone would know the big man’s name—Bill Tweed.
CHAPTER 3
BALLOTS
“ The fact is New York politics were always dishonest—long before my time. There never was a time you couldn’t buy the Board of Aldermen…. A politician coming forward takes things as they are. The population is too hopelessly split up into races and factions to govern it under universal suffrage, except by the bribery of patronage or purchase.”
— TWEED , in an interview from jail, October 25, 1877, about six months before his death. 1
In the election of 1868, voting fraud reigned at the polls in New York City. Civil War hero General Ulysses Grant won the White House, defeating Democrat Horatio Seymour, the former New York governor, Civil War Copperhead and sympathizer with draft rioters. But Tammany Hall took all the important city and state prizes.
On Election Day, marshals arrested dozens of rabble-rousers after rival police forces threatened riots at the polls. Final vote counts clashed wildly with local registration lists and newspapers exploded with charges and countercharges. Republicans claimed at least ten thousand fake or illegal ballots had been cast; led by Tribune editor Horace Greeley and the Union League Club, they demanded a thorough probe.
The voting irregularities were so blatant that the United States Congress in Washington, D.C. assigned a special Select Committee to investigate.
-------------------------
S AMUEL Jones Tilden kept his distance from Bill Tweed. They might be two top leaders in the New York Democratic Party, but they traveled in different circles. Tilden, nine years older, headed the state committee; he socialized with Swallowtails—wealthy Democrats named for the formal dinner jackets they wore at the posh Manhattan Club—and had amassed a fortune as a railroad lawyer. Tweed, by contrast, he considered merely a local chief and a post-war “shabby rich.” Tilden’s Manhattan Club would not offer Tweed a membership for years. 2
Today, Tilden arrived at the snow-crusted sidewalk in front of the United States courthouse at 41 Chambers Street near City Hall just minutes before Tweed. He came in a separate horse-drawn carriage. The U.S. Congress’ recently appointed Select Committee on Alleged Election Frauds had called him and Tweed both to testify on that same morning, December 30, 1868, one after the other.
Samuel J. Tilden.
The seven Committee members F OOTNOTE had arrived from Washington, D.C. in mid-December and taken rooms at New York’s Astor House on Broadway at Barclay Street, the elegant six-story hotel built by John Jacob Astor in the 1830s that featured central indoor heat and one of the city’s best eateries. Some congressmen brought along their wives to enjoy the Christmas shopping on Broadway’s “Ladies Mile” below Madison Square with its famous stores like A.T. Stewart’s, Lord & Taylor, R.H. Macy’s, and Tiffany’s jewelry shop. City scions like William E. Dodge, founder of Phelps, Dodge & Company, feted the congressmen with private receptions. 3 America had prospered since the Civil War, and New York had gobbled up more than its share. Its population had surged past 900,000 and construction clogged streets as
At the time, Nast didn’t know the big strapping fellow in the red shirt, the chief of the fire company he so admired. But, years later, his drawings of corrupt politicians cheating voters like those frontline Civil War soldiers would lead to his downfall. By then, everyone would know the big man’s name—Bill Tweed.
CHAPTER 3
BALLOTS
“ The fact is New York politics were always dishonest—long before my time. There never was a time you couldn’t buy the Board of Aldermen…. A politician coming forward takes things as they are. The population is too hopelessly split up into races and factions to govern it under universal suffrage, except by the bribery of patronage or purchase.”
— TWEED , in an interview from jail, October 25, 1877, about six months before his death. 1
In the election of 1868, voting fraud reigned at the polls in New York City. Civil War hero General Ulysses Grant won the White House, defeating Democrat Horatio Seymour, the former New York governor, Civil War Copperhead and sympathizer with draft rioters. But Tammany Hall took all the important city and state prizes.
On Election Day, marshals arrested dozens of rabble-rousers after rival police forces threatened riots at the polls. Final vote counts clashed wildly with local registration lists and newspapers exploded with charges and countercharges. Republicans claimed at least ten thousand fake or illegal ballots had been cast; led by Tribune editor Horace Greeley and the Union League Club, they demanded a thorough probe.
The voting irregularities were so blatant that the United States Congress in Washington, D.C. assigned a special Select Committee to investigate.
-------------------------
S AMUEL Jones Tilden kept his distance from Bill Tweed. They might be two top leaders in the New York Democratic Party, but they traveled in different circles. Tilden, nine years older, headed the state committee; he socialized with Swallowtails—wealthy Democrats named for the formal dinner jackets they wore at the posh Manhattan Club—and had amassed a fortune as a railroad lawyer. Tweed, by contrast, he considered merely a local chief and a post-war “shabby rich.” Tilden’s Manhattan Club would not offer Tweed a membership for years. 2
Today, Tilden arrived at the snow-crusted sidewalk in front of the United States courthouse at 41 Chambers Street near City Hall just minutes before Tweed. He came in a separate horse-drawn carriage. The U.S. Congress’ recently appointed Select Committee on Alleged Election Frauds had called him and Tweed both to testify on that same morning, December 30, 1868, one after the other.
Samuel J. Tilden.
The seven Committee members F OOTNOTE had arrived from Washington, D.C. in mid-December and taken rooms at New York’s Astor House on Broadway at Barclay Street, the elegant six-story hotel built by John Jacob Astor in the 1830s that featured central indoor heat and one of the city’s best eateries. Some congressmen brought along their wives to enjoy the Christmas shopping on Broadway’s “Ladies Mile” below Madison Square with its famous stores like A.T. Stewart’s, Lord & Taylor, R.H. Macy’s, and Tiffany’s jewelry shop. City scions like William E. Dodge, founder of Phelps, Dodge & Company, feted the congressmen with private receptions. 3 America had prospered since the Civil War, and New York had gobbled up more than its share. Its population had surged past 900,000 and construction clogged streets as
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