William
M(agear) "Boss" Tweed
(b New
York City, 3 April 1823;d New York City, 12 April 1878).
Political leader. His middle name was almost certainly Magear (his
mother's maiden name) but is often given incorrectly as Marcy. Born
in his family's home at 1 Cherry Street (now the site of the approaches
to the Brooklyn Bridge in Manhattan), he left school at eleven to
learn chairmaking from his father and was later apprenticed to a
saddler; he also studied bookkeeping for a time, was a clerk at
a mercantile office in the city, and worked as a bookkeeper and
later a partner in brush shops at 206 and 357 Pearl Street. He married
Mary Jane C. Skaden on 18 September 1844, and they lived for two
years with her family at 193 Madison Street. Standing about six
feet (1.82 meters) tall and weighing nearly three hundred pounds
136 kilograms), he had what James Bryce described as "an abounding
vitality, free and easy manners, plenty of humor, though of a coarse
kind, and a jovial swaggering way which won popularity for him among
the lower and rougher sort of people." After joining a volunteer
fire company, Engine Company no. 12, he was invited by the state
assemblyman John J. Reilly to help form a new fire company, no.
6, in 1848; they named it the Americus Engine Company and adopted
as its symbol the image of a fierce Bengal tiger (an animal later
associated with Tammany Hall under Tweed's leadership and afterward).
He became the foreman in 1849 and through the company, which was
known as the Big Six, was introduced to municipal politics. After
unsuccessfully seeking election as a Democratic assistant alderman
in 1850 he won a seat in the following year as an alderman representing
the seventh ward.counseling, and other services rather than place
children in foster care. It moved to Riverside Drive and 168th Street,
changing its name to the Westside Center for Family Services. In
March 1988 the Westside Center merged with Harlem-Dowling Children's
Services.
In 1852 Tweed
joined his brother Richard in the family's chairmaking business
and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. After serving
a single term he was appointed to the Board of Education and in
1856 to the Board of Supervisors of New York County By 1858 he was
a member of the general committee of Tammany Hall and the undisputed
leader of the seventh ward. He and his well-trained ward heelers,
district leaders, and block captains built a large power base by
courting the support of Catholics and helping to feed, clothe, and
shelter immigrants and the poor. Although he had little knowledge
of the law he was certified as a lawyer by his friend George Barnard
in 1860 and opened a practice at 95 Duane Street. Despite his defeat
in the election for sheriff in 1861 he was widely recognized as
an astute politician. Shortly after the election he was named chairman
of the Democratic General Committee of New York County, and on 1
January 1863 he was chosen to lead the general committee of Tammany
Hall. He earned the nickname "Boss" after becoming grand sachem
of the society in April. He then formed a smaller executive committee,
which eventually wielded much more power than the general committee,
and had himself appointed deputy street commissioner. In the following
year he bought a controlling interest in the New York Printing Company,
which became the city's official printer and was paid lavishly for
the work it performed. He also bought the Manufacturing Stationers'
Company, which sold supplies to the city at wildly inflated prices,
and used his law practice to extort large sums that were disguised
as legal fees for services rendered.
Tweed began
wearing a large diamond in his shirtfront and turned to real estate
to invest the enormous sums that he received in the form of kickbacks.
Among his properties was a fashionable brownstone at 41 West 36th
Street that he bought in 1866, and by the late 186os he was one
of the city's largest landowners. About this time he helped Jay
Gould and Jim Fisk in their battle with Cornelius Vanderbilt for
control of the Erie Railroad. Elected to the state senate in 1867,
he pushed the Erie Classification Bill through the state legislature
to legalize stock issued fraudulently by Gould and Fisk; they rewarded
him with a large block of stock and a seat on the board of directors.
Recognizing that he needed the support of his constituents to remain
in power, he prevailed on the municipal government to provide more
orphanages, almshouses, and public baths, helped to set up the Manhattan
Eye and Ear Hospital, introduced a bill in the state legislature
to fund parochial schools, sought to increase state appropriations
to private charities, and fought for greater home rule for New York
City. He also made himself the commissioner of public works. As
the chairman of the senate committee on cities he oversaw the passage
of a new charter for the city in 1870 that replaced the Board of
Supervisors with a new Board of Audit. This body, consisting essentially
of a group of associates known as the Tweed Ring, siphoned off staggering
amounts of money from the many bond issues that were passed, and
from 1869 to the end of 1871 the city's debt tripled and municipal
taxes climbed accordingly.
Tweed moved
into a mansion at 5th Avenue and 43rd Street and owned a stable
on 40th Street where he kept his carriages and sleighs. By 1871
he was on the board of directors of the Harlem Gas Light Company,
the Brooklyn Bridge Company, and the Third Avenue Railway Company,
and was president of the Guardian Savings Bank. To keep control
of their own fortunes and funds belonging to the city he and his
confederates organized the Tenth National Bank. He also widened
Broadway and fought to preserve a site for the Metropolitan Museum
of Art in Central Park. Seeking to prevent a statue from being erected
in his honor, he declared in March 1871: "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."
His fortunes
soon changed, owing partly to the efforts of Thomas Nast, who exposed
the corruption of Tweed and his associates in a series of cartoons.
Evidence of the ring's corruption was passed to the New York Times,
which published a series of damning articles from 8 July 1871, and
in August Tweed began transferring his real-estate holdings and
other investments to family members. After his reelection as chairman
of the general committee of Tammany Hall he was served with an arrest
warrant on 26 October; he nonetheless won reelection as a state
senator in November and planned to return to Albany until his criminal
indictment and arrest in December. At the end of the month he was
deposed as grand sachem and expelled from the Tammany Society. His
trial began on 7 January 1873 and ended in a hung jury. At a second
trial, begun on 19 November, he was convicted on 204 of 220 counts,
ordered to pay a fine of $12,750, and sentenced to twelve years
in prison (when asked his occupation by prison officials, he replied
"statesman"). He was released after a year when a judge ruled the
sentence excessive, but was immediately rearrested on a civil charge
and imprisoned on Ludlow Street. On 4 December 1875 he escaped to
New Jersey during a visit to his family at 647 Madison Avenue. A
civil trial in February 1876 ended in a judgment of $6 million against
him. Using the alias John Secor, he fled to Florida and Cuba before
reaching Spain, where the authorities sent him back to the city.
He was returned to prison on 23 November. Toward the end of 1877
he disclosed many details of the ring's activities to a special
committee of the Board of Alderman. On his death from pneumonia
in prison Mayor Smith Ely refused to fly the flag at City Hall at
half staff.
Tweed is the
archetype of the bloated, rapacious, corrupt city boss. It is estimated
that he and his associates illegally gained from $30 million to
$200 million in their dealings with the city.
Alexander B.
Callow Jr.: The Tweed Ring (New York: Oxford University Press,
1966)
Leo Hershkowitz:
Tweed's New York: Another Look(Garden City, N.Y: Anchor /
Doubleday, 1977)
Oliver E. Allen:
The Tiger: The Rise and Fall of Tammany Hall (Reading, Mass.:
Addison-Wesley, 1993)
-Allen
J. Share
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