William M. Tweed
William M. Tweed | |
---|---|
George Briggs | |
Succeeded by | Thomas R. Whitney |
Personal details | |
Born | William Magear Tweed April 3, 1823 New York City, U.S. |
Died | April 12, 1878 New York City, U.S. | (aged 55)
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse |
Jane Skaden (m. 1844) |
Profession | Bookkeeper, businessman, political boss |
William Magear "Boss" Tweed[note 1] (April 3, 1823 – April 12, 1878) was an American politician most notable for being the political boss of Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party's political machine that played a major role in the politics of 19th-century New York City and State.
At the height of his influence, Tweed was the third-largest landowner in New York City, a director of the
Tweed was elected to the
Tweed was convicted for stealing an amount estimated by an aldermen's committee in 1877 at between $25 million and $45 million from New York City taxpayers from political corruption, but later estimates ranged as high as $200 million (equivalent to $5 billion in 2023).[4] Unable to make bail, he escaped from jail once but was returned to custody. He died in the Ludlow Street Jail.
Early life and education
Tweed was born April 3, 1823, at 1 Cherry Street,[5] on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The son of a third-generation Scottish chair-maker, Tweed grew up on Cherry Street. His grandfather arrived in the United States from a town near the River Tweed close to Edinburgh.[6] Tweed's religious affiliation was not widely known in his lifetime, but at the time of his funeral The New York Times, quoting a family friend, reported that his parents had been Quakers and "members of the old Rose Street Meeting house".[7] At the age of 11, he left school to learn his father's trade, and then became an apprentice to a saddler.[5] He also studied to be a bookkeeper and worked as a brushmaker for a company he had invested in, before eventually joining in the family business in 1852.[5] On September 29, 1844, he married Mary Jane C. Skaden and lived with her family on Madison Street for two years.[8]
Early career
Tweed became a member of the
Tweed was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1852, but his two-year term was undistinguished.[12] In an attempt by Republican reformers in Albany, the state capital, to control the Democratic-dominated New York City government, the power of the New York County Board of Supervisors was beefed up. The board had 12 members, six appointed by the mayor and six elected, and in 1858 Tweed was appointed to the board, which became his first vehicle for large-scale graft; Tweed and other supervisors forced vendors to pay a 15% overcharge to their "ring" in order to do business with the city.[12] By 1853, Tweed was running the seventh ward for Tammany.[5] The board also had six Democrats and six Republicans, but Tweed often just bought off one Republican to sway the board. One such Republican board member was Peter P. Voorhis, a coal dealer by profession who absented himself from a board meeting in exchange for $2,500 so that the board could appoint city inspectors. Henry Smith was another Republican that was a part of the Tweed ring.[6]
Although he was not trained as a lawyer, Tweed's friend, Judge George G. Barnard, certified him as an attorney, and Tweed opened a law office on Duane Street. He ran for sheriff in 1861 and was defeated, but became the chairman of the Democratic General Committee shortly after the election, and was then chosen to be the head of Tammany's general committee in January 1863. Several months later, in April, he became "Grand Sachem", and began to be referred to as "Boss", especially after he tightened his hold on power by creating a small executive committee to run the club.[5] Tweed then took steps to increase his income: he used his law firm to extort money, which was then disguised as legal services; he had himself appointed deputy street commissioner – a position with considerable access to city contractors and funding; he bought the New-York Printing Company, which became the city's official printer, and the city's stationery supplier, the Manufacturing Stationers' Company, and had both companies begin to overcharge the city government for their goods and services.[5][13]: 17–32 Among other legal services he provided, he accepted almost $100,000 from the Erie Railroad in return for favors. He also became one of the largest owners of real estate in the city.[6] He also started to form what became known as the "Tweed Ring", by having his friends elected to office: George G. Barnard was elected Recorder of New York City; Peter B. Sweeny was elected New York County District Attorney; and Richard B. Connolly was elected City Comptroller.[12] Other judicial members of the Tweed ring included Albert Cardozo, John McCunn, and John K. Hackett.[6]
When Grand Sachem Isaac Fowler, who had produced the $2,500 to buy off the Republican Voorhis on the Board of Supervisors, was found to have stolen $150,000 in post office receipts, the responsibility for Fowler's arrest was given to Isaiah Rynders, another Tammany operative who was serving as a United States marshal at the time. Rynders made enough ruckus upon entering the hotel where Fowler was staying that Fowler was able to escape to Mexico.[6]
With his new position and wealth came a change in style: Tweed began to favor wearing a large diamond in his shirtfront – a habit that Thomas Nast used to great effect in his attacks on Tweed in Harper's Weekly beginning in 1869 – and he bought a brownstone to live in at 41 West 36th Street, then a very fashionable area. He invested his now considerable illegal income in real estate, so that by the late 1860s he ranked among the biggest landowners in New York City.[5]
Tweed became involved in the operation of the New York Mutuals, an early professional baseball club, in the 1860s. He brought in thousands of dollars per home game by dramatically increasing the cost of admission and gambling on the team.[14] He has been credited with originating the practice of spring training in 1869 by sending the club south to New Orleans to prepare for the season.[15][16]
Tweed was a member of the
Corruption
After the election of 1869, Tweed took control of the New York City government. His protégé, John T. Hoffman, the former mayor of the city, won election as governor, and Tweed garnered the support of good-government reformers like Peter Cooper and the Union League Club, by proposing a new city charter which returned power to City Hall at the expense of the Republican-inspired state commissions. The new charter passed, thanks in part to $600,000 in bribes Tweed paid to Republicans, and was signed into law by Hoffman in 1870. Mandated new elections allowed Tammany to take over the city's Common Council when they won all fifteen aldermanic contests.[18][19]
The new charter put control of the city's finances in the hands of a Board of Audit, which consisted of Tweed, who was Commissioner of Public Works, Mayor
For example, the construction cost of the New York County Courthouse, begun in 1861, grew to nearly $13 million—about $350 million in 2023 dollars, and nearly twice the cost of the Alaska Purchase in 1867.[19][24] "A carpenter was paid $360,751 (roughly $9.6 million in 2023) for one month's labor in a building with very little woodwork ... a plasterer got $133,187 ($3.5 million) for two days' work".[24] Tweed bought a marble quarry in Sheffield, Massachusetts, to provide much of the marble for the courthouse at great profit to himself.[25]: 3 [26] After the Tweed Charter to reorganize the city's government was passed in 1870, four commissioners for the construction of the New York County Courthouse were appointed. The commission never held a meeting, though each commissioner received a 20% kickback from the bills for the supplies.[27]
Tweed and his friends also garnered huge profits from the development of the Upper East Side, especially Yorkville and Harlem. They would buy up undeveloped property, then use the resources of the city to improve the area – for instance by installing pipes to bring in water from the Croton Aqueduct – thus increasing the value of the land, after which they sold and took their profits. The focus on the east side also slowed down the development of the west side, the topography of which made it more expensive to improve. The ring also took their usual percentage of padded contracts, as well as raking off money from property taxes. Despite the corruption of Tweed and Tammany Hall, they did accomplish the development of upper Manhattan, though at the cost of tripling the city's bond debt to almost $90 million.[28]
During the Tweed era, the proposal to build a suspension bridge between New York and
Tweed bought a mansion on
Scandal
Tweed's downfall began in 1871. James Watson, who was a county auditor in Comptroller
Although Tammany's electoral power base was largely centered in the Irish immigrant population, it also needed both the city's general population and elite to acquiesce in its rule, and this was conditional on the machine's ability to control the actions of its people. The July riot showed that this capability was not nearly as strong as had been supposed.[31]
Tweed had for months been under attack from The New York Times and Thomas Nast, the cartoonist from Harper's Weekly – regarding Nast's cartoons, Tweed reportedly said, "Stop them damned pictures. I don't care so much what the papers say about me. My constituents don't know how to read, but they can't help seeing them damned pictures!"[32] – but their campaign had only limited success in gaining traction. They were able to force an examination of the city's books, but the blue-ribbon commission of six businessmen appointed by Mayor A. Oakey Hall, a Tammany man, which included John Jacob Astor III, banker Moses Taylor and others who benefited from Tammany's actions, found that the books had been "faithfully kept", letting the air out of the effort to dethrone Tweed.[33]
The response to the Orange riot changed everything, and only days afterwards the Times/Nast campaign began to garner popular support.[33] More important, the Times started to receive inside information from County Sheriff James O'Brien, whose support for Tweed had fluctuated during Tammany's reign. O'Brien had tried to blackmail Tammany by threatening to expose the ring's embezzlement to the press, and when this failed he provided the evidence he had collected to the Times.[34] Shortly afterward, county auditor Matthew J. O'Rourke supplied additional details to the Times,[34] which was reportedly offered $5 million to not publish the evidence.[35] The Times also obtained the accounts of the recently deceased James Watson, who was the Tweed Ring's bookkeeper, and these were published daily, culminating in a special four-page supplement on July 29 headlined "Gigantic Frauds of the Ring Exposed".[33] In August, Tweed began to transfer ownership in his real-estate empire and other investments to his family members.[5]
The exposé provoked an international crisis of confidence in New York City's finances, and, in particular, in its ability to repay its debts. European investors were heavily positioned in the city's bonds and were already nervous about its management – only the reputations of the underwriters were preventing a run on the city's securities. New York's financial and business community knew that if the city's credit were to collapse, it could potentially bring down every bank in the city with it.[33]
Thus, the city's elite met at Cooper Union in September to discuss political reform: but for the first time, the conversation included not only the usual reformers, but also Democratic bigwigs such as Samuel J. Tilden, who had been thrust aside by Tammany. The consensus was that the "wisest and best citizens" should take over the governance of the city and attempt to restore investor confidence. The result was the formation of the Executive Committee of Citizens and Taxpayers for Financial Reform of the city (also known as "the Committee of Seventy"), which attacked Tammany by cutting off the city's funding. Property owners refused to pay their municipal taxes, and a judge—Tweed's old friend George Barnard—enjoined the city Comptroller from issuing bonds or spending money. Unpaid workers turned against Tweed, marching to City Hall demanding to be paid. Tweed doled out some funds from his own purse—$50,000—but it was not sufficient to end the crisis, and Tammany began to lose its essential base.[33]
Shortly thereafter, the Comptroller resigned, appointing Andrew Haswell Green, an associate of Tilden, as his replacement. Green loosened the purse strings again, allowing city departments not under Tammany control to borrow money to operate. Green and Tilden had the city's records closely examined, and discovered money that went directly from city contractors into Tweed's pocket. The following day, they had Tweed arrested.[33]
Imprisonment, escape, and death
Tweed was released on $1 million bail, and Tammany set to work to recover its position through the ballot box. Tweed was re-elected to the state senate in November 1871, due to his personal popularity and largesse in his district, but in general Tammany did not do well, and the members of the Tweed Ring began to flee the jurisdiction, many going overseas. Tweed was re-arrested, forced to resign his city positions, and was replaced as Tammany's leader. Once again, he was released on bail—$8 million this time—but Tweed's supporters, such as Jay Gould, felt the repercussions of his fall from power.[33]
Tweed's first trial before
Desperate and broken, Tweed now agreed to testify about the inner workings of the Tweed Ring to a special committee set up by the Board of Aldermen[5] in return for his release, but after he did so, Tilden, now governor of New York, refused to abide by the agreement, and Tweed remained incarcerated.
He died in the Ludlow Street Jail on April 12, 1878, from severe
Evaluations
According to Tweed biographer Kenneth D. Ackerman:
It's hard not to admire the skill behind Tweed's system ... The Tweed ring at its height was an engineering marvel, strong and solid, strategically deployed to control key power points: the courts, the legislature, the treasury and the ballot box. Its frauds had a grandeur of scale and an elegance of structure: money-laundering, profit sharing and organization.[43]
A minority view that Tweed was mostly innocent is presented in a scholarly biography by history professor Leo Hershkowitz. He states:
Except for Tweed's own very questionable "confession," there really was no evidence of a "Tweed Ring," no direct evidence of Tweed's thievery, no evidence, excepting the testimony of the informer contractors, of "wholesale" plunder by Tweed....[Instead there was] a conspiracy of self-justification of the corruption of the law by the upholders of that law, of a venal irresponsible press and a citizenry delighting in the exorcism of witchery.[44][45]
In depictions of Tweed and the Tammany Hall organization, most historians have emphasized the thievery and conspiratorial nature of Boss Tweed, along with lining his own pockets and those of his friends and allies. The theme is that the sins of corruption so violated American standards of political rectitude that they far overshadow Tweed's positive contributions to New York City.[46]
Although he held numerous important public offices and was one of a handful of senior leaders of Tammany Hall, as well as the state legislature and the state Democratic Party,
Tweed recognized that the support of his constituency was necessary for him to remain in power, and as a consequence he used the machinery of the city's government to provide numerous social services, including building more orphanages, almshouses and public baths.
During Tweed's regime, the main business thoroughfare Broadway was widened between 34th Street and 59th Street, land was secured for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Upper East Side and Upper West Side were developed and provided the necessary infrastructure – all to the benefit of the purses of the Tweed Ring.
Hershkowitz blames the implications of Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly and the editors of The New York Times, which both had ties to the Republican party. In part, the campaign against Tweed diverted public attention from Republican scandals such as the Whiskey Ring.[50]
Tweed himself wanted no particular recognition of his achievements, such as they were. When it was proposed, in March 1871, when he was at the height of his power, that a statue be erected in his honor, he declared: "Statues are not erected to living men ... I claim to be a live man, and hope (Divine Providence permitting) to survive in all my vigor, politically and physically, some years to come."[5] One of Tweed's unwanted legacies is that he has become "the archetype of the bloated, rapacious, corrupt city boss".[5]
Middle name
Tweed never signed his middle name with anything other than a plain "M.", and his middle name is often mistakenly listed as "Marcy". His actual middle name was Magear, his mother's maiden name.[51]
Confusion derived from a Nast cartoon with a picture of Tweed supplemented with a quote from William L. Marcy, the former governor of New York.[52]
In popular culture
- Arthur Trainfeatured Tweed in his 1940 novel of life in Gilded Age New York, Tassels On Her Boots. Tweed is portrayed as having contempt for the people he rules, at one point saying that once he would have been a Baron, with a castle, levying tribute on the people. But now, "'Boss', they call me – and they are glad to have me."
- In 1945, Tweed was portrayed by musical comedy with music by Sigmund Romberg.[53] The role was played by Malcolm Lee Beggs for a revival in 1947.[54] In the 1948 film version, Tweed is played by Vincent Price.[55]
- On the 1963–1964 The Great Adventure, which presented one-hour dramatizations of the lives of historical figures, Edward Andrews portrayed Tweed in the episode "The Man Who Stole New York City", about the campaign by The New York Times to bring down Tweed. The episode aired on December 13, 1963.[56][57][58][59]
- In John Varley's 1977 science-fiction novel, The Ophiuchi Hotline, a crooked politician in a 27th-century human settlement on the Moon assumes the name "Boss Tweed" in emulation of the 19th-century politician, and names his lunar headquarters "Tammany Hall".[60][61][62]
- Tweed was played by Philip Bosco in the 1986 TV movie Liberty.[63] According to a review of the film in The New York Times, it was Tweed who made the suggestion to call the Statue of Liberty by that name, instead of its formal name Liberty Enlightening the World, in order to read better in newspaper headlines.[64]
- Andrew O'Hehir of The New York Times notes that Forever, a 2003 novel by Pete Hamill, and Gangs of New York, a 2002 film, both "offer a significant supporting role to the legendary Manhattan political godfather Boss Tweed", among other thematic similarities.[65] In a review of the latter work, Chuck Rudolph praised Jim Broadbent's portrayal of Tweed as "giving the role a masterfully heartless composure".[66]
- Tweed appears as an antagonist in the 2016 novel, Assassin's Creed Last Descendants where he is the Grand Master of the American Templars during the American Civil War.[67]
See also
References
Notes
- ^ Often erroneously referred to as William "Marcy" Tweed (see § Middle name)[1]
Citations
- ^ "William Magear Tweed (American politician) – Britannica Online Encyclopedia". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved November 17, 2009.
- ^ Ackerman, p. 2.
- ^ Allen, p. 116.
- ^ Robinson, Gail (July 4, 2005). "Looking Back at 100". Gotham Gazette.
- ^ ISBN 0300055366., pp. 1205–1206.
- ^ ISBN 0-201-62463-X.
- ^ "The Death of William M. Tweed.; Crowds Of People Around Mr. Douglass' House No One Admitted Except Relatives Tweed's Religious Faith Politicians Who Feel Relieved A Letter Written By John D. Townsend A Month Ago Asking For Tweed's Release". The New York Times. April 14, 1878.
- ISBN 0-8063-1184-3.
Tweed.
- ISBN 978-1-4128-1600-7.
- ^ Burrows & Wallace, pp. 654, 724, 823.
- ^ Burrows & Wallace, p. 823.
- ^ a b c Burrows & Wallace, p. 837.
- OCLC 7576014.
- ISBN 978-0-345-52047-0. Retrieved July 5, 2022.
- ISBN 978-0-19-983917-9. Retrieved July 5, 2022.
- ISBN 978-0-19-974370-4. Retrieved July 5, 2022.
- ^ Allen, p. 100.
- ^ a b Burrows & Wallace, pp. 927–928.
- ^ History Channelwebsite, n.d.g. Retrieved February 3, 2015.
- ^ Paine, p. 140.
- ^ Paine, p. 143.
- ^ Allen, pp. 111–112.
- ^ Paine, p. 144.
- ^ a b Mintz, Steven. "Digital History". Digitalhistory.uh.edu. Archived from the original on October 8, 2009. Retrieved July 19, 2009.
- ^ "New York County Courthouse" (PDF). New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. October 16, 1984. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 9, 2022. Retrieved July 28, 2019.
- ^ "The Marble in the New Court-House A Very Rich Quarry". The New York Times. December 25, 1866.
- ^ "The Fraudulent Tax Levy.; A Report from the Council of Reform – How the Swindles of the Ring are to be Covered Up. The Peace Jubilee – Post Festum". The New York Times. April 13, 1871.
- ^ Burrows & Wallace, pp. 929–931.
- ^ Burrows & Wallace, pp. 934–935.
- ^ Allen, pp. 118–125.
- ^ a b Burrows & Wallace, pp. 1003–1008.
- ^ Bruce Jackson (November 2, 2000). "lazio". Acsu.buffalo.edu. Archived from the original on March 14, 2008. Retrieved July 19, 2009.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Burrows & Wallace, pp. 1008–1011.
- ^ a b Ellis, pp. 347–348.
- ^ Paine, p. 170.
- ^ "On This Day: January 6, 1872". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 19, 2018.
- ^ "Noah Davis, Jr".
- ^ Allen pp. 138–139.
- ^ a b "Lower Manhattan : News | Landmark Tweed Courthouse Has a Checkered History". Archived from the original on February 5, 2012. Retrieved March 16, 2012.
- ^ "Boss Tweed Escaped From Prison". www.americaslibrary.gov. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
- ^ "Tweed, William Marcy, (1823–1878)". bioguide.congress.gov. Retrieved July 19, 2009.
- ^ Ackerman, p. 28.
- ^ Hamill, Pete (March 27, 2005). "'Boss Tweed': The Fellowship of the Ring". The New York Times.
- ^ Leo Hershkowitz, Tweed's New York: Another Look. (New York: Anchor Press, 1977), p 347. online
- ProQuest 1296084413.
- ^ "William Tweed". MyHeritage. Retrieved August 7, 2023.
- ^ Mandelbaum, Seymour J. Boss Tweed's New York (1965).
- ^ Muccigrosso, Robert ed., Research Guide to American Historical Biography (1988) 1538–42.
- ^ Ackerman, p. 66.
- ^ Hershkowitz, Leo (1977). Tweed's New York: Another Look. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
- ^ Anbinder, Tyler. "Tweed, William Magear (03 April 1823–12 April 1878), political 'boss' of New York City in the Civil War era." American National Biography. February 2000. Oxford University Press.
- ISBN 978-1-4165-8997-6.
- ^ Up In Central Park (1945) on Internet Broadway Database.
- ^ Up In Central Park (1947) on Internet Broadway Database.
- AFI Catalog.
- ^ "The Great Adventure: The Man Who Stole New York City" TV Guide.
- ^ "The Great Adventure: The Man Who Stole New York City" Archived November 18, 2018, at the Wayback Machine TV.com.
- ^ "The Great Adventure (1963–64)" Classic TV Archive.
- IMDb
- ISBN 0-312-13486-X. Quote: "...JV's first – and finest – novel, The Ophiuchi Hotline...".
- ^ Staff "The Ophiuchi Notline Analysis – John Varley" eNotes.
- ^ Nicholls, James (October 30, 2016) "No father, no mother, she's just like the other" James Nicholls Reviews.
- TCM.com.
- ^ O'Connor, John J. (June 23, 1986) "'Liberty,' A Glimpse of History" The New York Times.
- ^ O'Heheir, Andrew (January 19, 2003) "Not a Bridge-and-Tunnel Guy" The New York Times.
- ^ Rudolph, Chuck (January 20, 2002). Gangs of New York Slant Magazine.
- ^ Rad, Chloi (February 18, 2016) "Assassin's Creed: Last Descendants Novels Announced" IGN.
Bibliography
- Ackerman, K. D. (2005). Boss Tweed: The rise and fall of the corrupt pol who conceived the soul of modern New York. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers. ISBN 0-7867-1435-2.
- ISBN 0-195-11634-8.
- Callow, Alexander B. (1966). The Tweed Ring. New York: Oxford University Press
- Ellis, Edward R. (2004). The Epic of New York City: A Narrative History. Carroll & Graf Publishers. ISBN 0-7867-1436-0,
- Hershkowitz, Leo. Tweed's New York: Another Look. (New York: Anchor Press, 1977), online
- "William Marcy [sic] Tweed" Encyclopedia.com (Cengage), May 23, 2018
- Mandelbaum, Seymour J. (1965). Boss Tweed's New York. New York: John Wiley. ISBN 0-471-56652-7
- Paine, Albert B. (1974). Th. Nast, His Period and His Pictures. Princeton: Pyne Press. ISBN 0-87861-079-0 (The original edition, published in 1904, is now in the public domain.)
- ISBN 978-0374528997
- Staff (July 4, 2005). "Boss Tweed", Gotham Gazette
Further reading
- Lynch, Denis Tilden (2005) [1927]. Boss Tweed: The story of a grim generation. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Michigan Historical Reprint Series, Scholarly Publishing Office, University of Michigan. ISBN 9781425548940
External links
- United States Congress. "William M. Tweed (id: T000440)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
- William M. Tweed at Find a Grave
- Green-Wood Cemetery page for WM Tweed
- Map Showing the Portions of the City of New York and Westchester County under the Jurisdiction of the Department of Public Parks talks about Tweed's takeover of the New York City parks system, from the World Digital Library
- Texts on Wikisource:
- "The American Cyclopædia. 1879.
- "New International Encyclopedia. 1905.
- "Tweed, William Marcy". Collier's New Encyclopedia. 1921.
- "Tweed, William Marcy". The New Student's Reference Work. 1914.
- "