Boss Tweed

IMMIGRANTS/VOTING

Tammany Hall was able to use Irish Immigrants to their advantage on election day. Thousands of Irish were swarming to Ellis Island daily. While the Whig party thought of these new Americans as pigs, the Democrats outstretched their hand of corruption. Tammany then used his new “friendship” on election day, when all the Irish voted Democrat. Tammany also used Irish gangs, like the Dead Rabbits, to “convince” the Irish to vote for whom Tammany wanted elected. Tammany Hall not only gained the Irish’s respect by intimidation, they also created a welfare system for the new immigrants. The Hall offered jobs to those who needed one and advice to those who seeked it. These perks were expected to return on election day, immigrants were asked to vote “early and often.” Tammany won these elections by making immigrants vote once, then get a haircut and put on new clothes, and then vote again! Tammany also used his power to create factory safety laws, including: unemployment compensation, a $2 a day minimum wage, and a day off every 8th day. Tammany also funded schools for immigrant children.

JUDGES/POLICE

Tammany Hall’s corrupted use of the police force starts with one man, police chief William Devery. Appointed by the Hall, Devry started out as a patrol officer. He had to pay a $200 “contribution” for the appointment. He paid his way to the top as he quickly became a sergeant. After becoming close with Richard Croker, Tammany’s boss, he became a precinct captain. He played corruption’s game, he took large bribes in exchange for police protection. The police would only protect paying customers. But he was soon indicted for these crimes. He was released form the police department, but soon found his way back into the force. Tammany’s newly elected NYC mayor, Robert Van Wyck, promoted Devery all the way up to chief of police. As chief, he took bribes from gambling places, brothels, after-hour joints, who paid well to prevent being shut down. Tammany and Devery made fortunes by keeping these illegal businesses up and running. After Van Wyck lost the next mayoral election, Croker left Tammany Hall, and Devry felt the wrath of New York’s new mayor. Boss Tweed also used his power to nominate judges and police chiefs. The judges elected were bribed to only rule in favor of Boss Tweed and police were bribed to stay away from illegal activities like Rackets. The police were bribed to keep these illegal places open every night. Criminal businesses paid police to prevent them from interfering with the business.

BRIBES

Boss Tweed, leader of Tammany Hall, was a master of corruption and bribery. His riches came at the cost of the city, from which he kept $200 million. Although some of this money went to public jobs, which kept up the local economy, and more of it went to constructing public buildings, which were built at extremely high costs. lining the pockets of building contractors and suppliers of materials. But some of that money was returned to Tweed in the long run, these new buildings and jobs gave kickbacks to prevent the peril of businesses. Boss Tweed, accumulated riches from these kickbacks. When the New York Times began publishing political cartoons aimed at revealing Tammany’s corruption, the Hall told Thomas Nast they would give him $100,000 to stop his insulting drawings. Of course, Nast refused. When Tweed was sentenced to jail he escaped by bribing his guards $60,000. Boss Tweed tried to retreat to Spain after he was convicted of bribery and other instances of corruption, but the New York Times’ political cartoons led to the Spanish authorities recognizing him returning Tweed to the US. Because of his uses of bribery, Tweed was convicted and sent to jail, where he died. Tweed and his politicians created, ‘naturalization committees.” These committees “filled out paperwork, provided witnesses, and lend immigrants money for the fees required to become citizens.” Tweed bribed judges to allow these committees to stay in effect. Tweed’s police were bribed to keep these illegal places open every night. Criminal businesses paid police to prevent them from interfering with the business.

RACKETS

Rackets are criminal acts where the crime earns illegal money. For this to be considered a racket, it must be a continuous operation. Boss Tweed was involved in many rackets, including his use of bribery to keep places where you could gamble and prostitute yourself, and after-hour joints in business. This landed Tweed with big bucks. You could also classify Tweed’s countless bribes and scams as rackets, as they earned Boss Tweed millions and occured on a near regular basis. A great quote I found: “Except for his stealing, Tweed would have been a great man; but then had he been honest, he wouldn’t have been Tweed and would not have left nearly so great a mark.”

SCAMS

Boss Tweed was able to scam the city of New York millions of dollars. These scams include: “unnecessary repairs (to his buildings), overpriced goods and services, fake leases, and false vouchers.” Historians say that Tweed scammed the city anywhere from $30-200 million. Boss Tweed’s courthouse on Chambers Street cost anywhere from 32 to 56 times more than its proposed cost. The building should’ve cost $250,000 all together. But just the furniture cost $129,469.48 and just the cabinets cost $125,830.56. If a property is built, Tweed would get some of his money back via kickbacks, which is when you pay someone who appointed someone or built something illegal. The courthouse used kickbacks to get an $8 million building, costing $14 million to the city, including the kickbacks. Tweed was able to take advantage of NYC because of the exponentially increasing immigrant population. Every street was crowded with people. This led New York City to have to build more streets, schools, homes, sewers and public transit. Tweed was able to take control of the city using “financial philanthropy and political influence.” In Boss Tweeds reign he “bought and sold political appointments, rigged elections, controlled judges, paid off the press and looted the city treasury.” Boss Tweed stole millions of dollars from public projects and the sale of New York City bonds. Contractors paid off by Tweed enjoyed money from overpriced bills put forward to the city. These bills cost the city for “work that was never done or for materials never purchased.”