CHAPTER LIII POLITICAL PRACTICES, 1870-1884 With such fundamental changes going on in American life, it is not surprising that political methods and theories should have been profoundly affected. In principle the American government, local, state, and national, remained what it had been before, but the manner of running it, and the opportunities for "graft" in it, showed some amazing innovations. Just as the railroads, industrial concerns, and labor, were being reorganized, so the politicians were working out more effective arrangements. All the big transportation and industrial combinations wanted favors from the government, and to get these they turned to the leaders of the party machine. Perhaps the most distinctive feature of the new system was the opportunity for intimate coöperation between business and politics. During this period old cities were growing, and new ones were coming into existence. All, old and new, were putting in new sewerage systems, new paving, new water and lighting systems, new street car transportation systems. The city governments had charge of letting contracts, buying supplies and real estate, and handling city funds generally. Corporations and contractors were always eager to secure city business, and they were not slow to learn that the proper line of approach was through the city "boss." Once an agreement was struck, the contractors got the work, and the politicians their share of certain collateral commissions. The local politicians were always careful to keep national party issues prominent in city elections, so that in their enthusiasm for things Republican or Democratic the voters would forget the last crooked deal between the "boss" and the new street car corporation. The voters generally were either indifferent or ignorant. In the business world the opportunities for making money were so enthralling that countless people neglected their responsibilities in the government, leaving those matters to men who were interested. The recently-arrived immigrants would normally have had little concern in American politics, but these newcomers were rounded up by the politicians, sometimes naturalized at the rate of one a minute just before election day, and trained to vote with the machine. In the days before the Australian ballot, the ballots were furnished by the political parties, so the managers could tell whether or not a voter did his duty. TAMMANY HALL The most famous city machine in American politics is Tammany Hall, in New York City, an organization especially renowned for its political indecencies during the late sixties and early seventies, and again during the eighties. It dates back to 1789, or earlier, and one of its illustrious chiefs in early days was Aaron Burr. But probably even Burr would have blushed at some of the proceedings of one of his successors, William M. Tweed. This ulcer first appeared on the body politic in 1851; a new city council was chosen that year, popularly known as the "Forty Thieves"; Tweed was a member. In 1863, he became chairman of the general committee of Tammany Hall, or in the word which he contributed to American political terminology, the "boss" of the organization. Not long afterward he made his way into the state Senate. The election of 1868 in New York, both state and national, was generally supposed to be corrupt. The naturalization frauds were more flagrant than usual, and according to some reports the New York City vote was eight per cent in excess of the total voting population. Tammany was successful in electing one of its leaders, Hoffman, as governor. In 1869, the Democrats, under Tammany leadership, got control of the legislature. Tweed thereupon secured the passage of a measure giving New York City a new charter, the chief feature of which was an arrangement whereby Tweed himself was given absolute control of the city's finances. Then the "Tweed Ring" was organized. This consisted of Hall, a lawyer, then serving as mayor, Tweed himself, the street commissioner, "Slippery Dick" Connolly, the city comptroller, "Pete" Sweeny, treasurer of both New York City and County, and Cardozo, a Portuguese Jew, one of the judges. In full command of the city, with ample representation in the state courts, and the state legislature, and with one of their tools in the executive chair, the Ring entered upon one of the most amazing courses of plunder ever recorded in American politics. The crowning example of their work was the new county court house, designed in 1868, with an estimated cost of two hundred fifty thousand dollars. Under the government of the Ring it was made to cost nearly fifteen million dollars. One bill, paid before the building was finished, for repairing fixtures, amounted to $1,149,874.50. Forty chairs and three tables cost $179,729, thermometers $7500. One carpenter got $360,747. A plasterer received $2,870,464 for nine months' work. Carpets cost $300,000, and most of those purchased went to furnish the new Metropolitan Hotel, just opened by Tweed's son. Tweed himself got a liberal share of the money; on a number of contracts he regularly took over twenty per cent of the total amount. Some of the proceeds he used to buy up votes in the legislature; it cost him $600,000 to put through the new city charter, and according to his statement, he paid $40,000 apiece for five senators. The Carpet-baggers in the South were amateurs in comparison with Tweed. Between 1869 and 1871 the bonded debt of New York City rose from $36,293,000 to $97,287,000, and the floating debt went up by $20,000,000 at the same time. By 1870 the Ring was securely established, and the members were becoming ambitious. Cardozo began to hope for an appointment to the Federal Supreme Court, while Hoffman talked confidently of becoming President of the United States. The outrages were tolerated, partly because, for a time, the extent of the robbery was not realized, partly because the press was pretty well subsidized, partly because the Democratic organization winked at the scandal-Tammany could almost always "deliver" New York-and partly because the great majority of the voters were ignorant, and paid no taxes. Finally the swindles became so notorious that some of the newspapers began to refer to them. The Sun suggested the erection of a statue to "the principal Robber Baron" to commemorate "his services to the commonwealth." Tweed declined the honor, and in March 1871, the Sun came out with the following headlines: "A GREAT MAN'S MODESTY" "The Hon. Wm. M. Tweed declines the Sun's Statue. The overthrow of the Ring resulted from a quarrel down in the ranks of the organization. One of the ward "heelers," O'Brien by name, felt that his services had not been duly rewarded with a proper job. He got one of his friends in the auditor's office to copy for him a long list of the Court House accounts. O'Brien then attempted to use this information as a means for forcing Sweeny, who distributed the spoils, to give him a better place. Getting no satisfaction, he turned his material over to the New York Times. In July, 1871, the Times denounced the members of the Ring as thieves and swindlers, and dared them to sue for libel. The response was an offer of five million dollars to Jones, the owner, to keep quiet and go to Europe for a time. Jones refused to be silenced, and in September a citizens' committee of seventy was elected to conduct a sweeping investigation. In the meantime the newspapers were publishing evidence of corruption, ably assisted in their work of arousing public feeling by the cartoons of Thomas Nast, in Harper's Weekly. "I don't care for your newspaper articles," said Tweed; "my constituents don't know how to read, but they can't help seeing them damn pictures." In 1872 Sweeny retired to Canada; Connolly was indicted for fraud, and jumped his bail; he died in exile; Tweed was arrested, and promptly released on bail, fixed at one million dollars. Jay Gould signed the bond.1 Tweed was tried twice, and finally died in jail, in 1876. For a brief period Tammany kept in the background, but by 1874 it was again in power. In 1886 Richard Croker, a former prize fighter and saloon-keeper, became "boss" of Tammany Hall. His alleged specialty was licensed vice and crime. Gambling houses, over six hundred of them, according to report, paid him fifteen hundred dollars a month for protection, pool-rooms three hundred per month, houses of ill-fame from twentyfive to fifty dollars per month per inmate. Appointments and promotions in the police force were sold. Patrolmen paid three hundred dollars for their appointments, one captain paid fifteen thousand dollars for his promotion. All candidates for city offices paid from ten to twenty-five thousand dollars for their nominations. "We try to have a pretty effective organization-that's what we are there for," he said. He was able to retire in 1900, and he prudently went to Ireland, although he frequently spent his winters at Palm Beach, 1 The mention of Jay Gould suggests an intimate relation between the Erie Railroad and the infamous Tweed Ring. Tweed and Sweeny were both directors of the Erie. They were "let in" on the Erie plunder, and they used their power to safeguard Gould and his associates from prosecution. Florida, up to the time of his death in 1922. He was never punished for anything, and he made a large fortune out of his work. The success of Tammany has been due to its highly efficient organization, and to its well-planned charitable work. It had, and still has, a General Committee, nine thousand in number, of representatives from each district. The General Committee appoints various subcommittees. The real directing force is the Executive Committee, consisting of the leaders of the assembly districts, plus the Chairman and the Treasurer of the General Committee. Every assembly district has a club-house and headquarters where the members can get together for everything, from politics to poker, and in former days for a drink. The district leaders look out for the men and the families in their precincts. If a family needs fuel, clothing, provisions, anything in fact, Tammany Hall sees that the need is supplied. Nothing is left undone to keep the voters in line. STATE "BOSSES" Above the cities, many of which were like New York in principle, if not in degree, came the states, with their bosses, machines, and corruption. After the Civil War the business interests, in New York for example, found it convenient to maintain paid agents at the state capitol, to get what they wanted in the way of legislation. Later they found it cheaper, easier, and far more effective, to make their arrangements directly with the state bosses. In New York, from 1873, when the Republicans won, "Tom" Platt, the famous "easy boss," named the Speaker and the committees in the assembly, dictated all appointments, and practically controlled all the activities of the legislature. When business men wanted legislation put through or defeated, they saw him. He made a specialty of collecting funds from all the big corporations, especially the insurance companies. For sixty years Pennsylvania was dominated by a Republican machine even more influential than Platt's in New York, run by the two Camerons, then by Matthew S. Quay, and later by Boies Penrose. In many other states the systems were less notorious perhaps, but equally corrupt. These local organizations supplied the base upon which the national machines were erected. |