Charles Francis Murphy
Charles Francis Murphy | |
---|---|
Grand Sachem of Tammany Hall | |
In office 1902–1924 | |
Preceded by | Richard Croker |
Succeeded by | George Washington Olvany |
Personal details | |
Born | Charles Francis Murphy June 20, 1858 New York City, New York, U.S.[1] |
Died | April 25, 1924 New York City, New York, U.S. | (aged 65)
Nationality | American[2] |
Political party | Democratic |
Occupation | Saloonkeeper, Politician[2] |
Nickname(s) | "Silent Charlie", "Boss Murphy" |
Charles Francis "Silent Charlie" Murphy (June 20, 1858 – April 25, 1924), also known as Boss Murphy, was an American
Early life
Murphy was the son of Irish immigrants Dennis Murphy and Mary Pendergrass,[2] born in the Gashouse District, which got its name from its proximity to Consolidated Gas Company storage tanks.[3] He was educated in the public and parochial schools[1] but quit school at 14 and found a job at Roaches Shipyard and eventually as a streetcar driver[1] for the Crosstown Blue Lines Horsecar Co. After saving $500 from the jobs that he had worked, Murphy purchased a saloon in 1878, which he named Charlie's Place.[2] Charlie's Place became a local gathering place for local dock and Consolidated Gas Company workers but did not serve women[2] because Murphy believed that most women who frequented bars were prostitutes.[3] The second floor of the Saloon served as the Sylvan Social Club, composed of males aged 15 to 20.[4] With the social club, Murphy formed a baseball team, and with all three groups, Murphy arose as a local political figure.
Political career
Murphy's friend and benefactor, Edward Hagan, failed to achieve the Tammany Hall nomination for district assemblyman in 1883, which led Hagan to attempt an independent campaign.
In contrast to Croker, the taciturn and
New York Contracting and Trucking
Croker made money through "honest graft." New York Contracting and Trucking was awarded a $6 million contract in 1904 to build rail lines in the Bronx for the
Louis N. Hartog business
While the United States was at war in 1918, Murphy was receiving income from a firm owned by the businessman Louis N. Hartog in exchange for Murphy's arranging the Corn Products Refining Company to sell Hartog's firm glucose. Hartog would then use the glucose to manufacture malt dextrin, an ingredient in beer. After investing $175,000 in Hartog's firm, Murphy was gaining $5,000 a day from the arrangement. In light of the ongoing war, the unfavorable light it would direct towards Tammany, and the amount of money Murphy received, which he considered too much, Murphy attempted to withdraw from the business. Hartog sued Murphy in response, but Murphy countersued and the case was settled.[3]
Political influence
Murphy guided George B. McClellan Jr. to the New York City mayoralty in 1903 over incumbent Seth Low. McClellan was reluctant to reward Murphy with patronage jobs, but Murphy went along with McClellan's decisions. In the 1905 mayoral election, Murphy again guided McClellan to victory, this time over William Randolph Hearst. It was notable since Hearst was then known for ties to the progressive movement and his organization, the Municipal Ownership League, whose goal was the promotion of the public ownership of utilities and transit lines to bring about lower rates and fares. Hearst's newspapers also attacked McClellan's defense of privately owned subways and Murphy's ties to the New York Contracting and Trucking company. After Hearst lost the mayoral election contest, Murphy would try to appease Hearst by appearing to back him for the governorship in 1906, a race Hearst lost. In his second term, McClellan did not react kindly to Murphy's friendliness with Hearst, and during the city's $100 million drinking water infrastructure expansion into the Catskill Mountains, McClellan did not allow Tammany access to the newly created jobs.[3]
For the 1909 city mayoral election, Murphy backed New York State Supreme Court Justice
Murphy successfully guided
Murphy would make his boldest move yet in 1912 in striking a secret deal to swing the Democratic Party convention in Baltimore to New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson. "Five long days of deadlock, and forty-two ballots, had failed to give either of the two leading candidates, Wilson and Champ Clark, the two-thirds majority each needed to win the nomination. Then, on the forty-third ballot, Illinois moved, casting all fifty-eight of her votes for Wilson. The third-place candidate, Oscar Underwood, released his delegates, as did Champ Clark. The roll call for the forty-sixth ballot got underway as mid-afternoon approached. Charles F. Murphy stood to announce that his state, the largest in the Union, had changed sides: 'New York casts 90 votes for Woodrow Wilson,' he said and got the biggest cheer of the roll call. On Champ Clark's suggestion, the convention acclaimed Woodrow Wilson unanimously."[7]
Following the
Murphy did not want to entertain the idea of Hearst as the Democratic mayor in 1917, but to avoid appearing as being against Hearst's nomination, Murphy approached the Brooklyn Democratic machine's
Murphy guided Smith to victory in the 1918 governor's election.[3]
Murphy was a delegate at the 1920 Democratic National Convention, and it was in part by his influence that James M. Cox secured the nomination.[1]
During his reign, Murphy brought Tammany Hall's political influence to the national level. In 1924, he and the Democratic Party were expected to nominate Smith for president (before his death, Murphy served as the manager of
Edward J. Flynn, a protege of Murphy who became the boss in the Bronx, said Murphy always advised that politicians should have nothing to do with gambling or prostitution and steer clear of involvement with the police department or the school system.[9]
Death
Murphy died suddenly of what the New York Times termed "acute indigestion," which affected his heart, on April 25, 1924, at his home in New York City. A
In popular culture
In the 1941 film Citizen Kane, screenwriters Herman J. Mankiewicz and Orson Welles based the character of political boss Jim Gettys on Charles F. Murphy.[11] William Randolph Hearst and Murphy were political allies in 1902 when Hearst was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, but the two fell out in 1905 when Hearst ran for mayor of New York City. Hearst was denied the election by a slim margin due to electoral fraud perpetrated by Murphy's organization, and his newspapers retaliated. A historic cartoon of Murphy in convict stripes appeared November 10, 1905, three days after the vote.[12] The caption read, "Look out, Murphy! It's a Short Lockstep from Delmonico's to Sing Sing ... Every honest voter in New York wants to see you in this costume."[13]
In Citizen Kane, Boss Jim Gettys admonishes Kane for printing a cartoon showing him in prison stripes:
If I owned a newspaper and if I didn't like the way somebody else was doing things—some politician, say—I'd fight them with everything I had. Only I wouldn't show him in a convict suit with stripes—so his children could see the picture in the paper. Or his mother.
As he pursues Gettys down the stairs, Kane threatens to send him to Sing Sing.[14]
References
- ^ a b c d Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1922). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 31 (12th ed.). London & New York: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company. p. 1043. .
- ^ .
- ^ ISBN 0-201-62463-X.
- ^ a b Allbray
- .
- ^ Lifflander, Matthew L. "The Tragedy That Changed New York" New York Archives (Summer 2011)
- ^ Retrieved on 2020-04-22.
- ^ a b Lifflander, Matthew L. The Impeachment of Governor Sulzer: A Story of American Politics. Albany: State University of New York, 2012. Print.
- ^ Terry Golway, Machine Made: Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics (2014) p 186
- ^ "Chief is Stricken Suddenly; Arises in Pain, Sends for Doctor and Expires a Few Minutes Later"; The New York Times, April 26, 1924.
- ^ Kael, Pauline, "Raising Kane", book-length essay in The New Yorker (February 20 and 27, 1971); reprinted in The Citizen Kane Book. Kael, Pauline, Herman J. Mankiewicz and Orson Welles, The Citizen Kane Book. New York: Bantam Books, 1971, page 61
- ISBN 0-8232-1944-5pp. 150–152
- ^ Current Literature, Vol. 41, No. 5, October 1906, page 477
- ^ Mankiewicz, Herman J. and Orson Welles, shooting script for Citizen Kane reprinted in The Citizen Kane Book. Kael, Pauline, Herman J. Mankiewicz and Orson Welles, The Citizen Kane Book. New York: Bantam Books, 1971, pp. 219–225
Further reading
- Allbray, Nedda C. "Murphy, Charles Francis" American National Biography https://doi.org/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.0600462
- Connable, Alfred, and Edward Silberfarb. Tigers of Tammany: Nine Men who Ran New York (1967)
- Golway, Terry. Machine Made: Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics (2014) online
- Lifflander, Matthew L. The Impeachment of Governor Sulzer: A Story of American Politics. Albany: State University of New York, 2012.
- Huthmacher, J. Joseph. "Charles Evans Hughes and Charles Francis Murphy: The Metamorphosis of Progressivism." New York History 46.1 (1965): 25–40. online
- Weiss, Nancy Joan. Charles Francis Murphy, 1858-1924: Respectability and Responsibility in Tammany Politics. (Smith College, 1968), 139pp online
- Werner, M. R. Tammany Hall (1938) online
- Zink, Harold B. City Bosses in the United States: A Study of Twenty Municipal Bosses (1930) pp 147–63 online
External links
Media related to Charles F. Murphy at Wikimedia Commons
- "Charles F. Murphy" on The Political Graveyard