How Did Boss Tweed Rise To Power

William M. Tweed is the most infamous American politician of the 1800’s. His excessive frauds and eventual downfall propelled him into infamousy. Despite having the charm to acquire many associates, Tweed chose to use his skills to gain wealth and power for himself and others. Through his rise to power to his fall and enemies, Boss Tweed remained one of the most important figures in New York City history.

Born in New York City, at a time of civil unrest, Tweed had a passion for acquiring knowledge. He studied many different trades quickly, but soon found a liking to volunteer firefighting (Manning, 2007). At age twenty-seven, Tweed became the overseer of the company he helped begin, Americus No. 611, which was easily recognized by the Bengal

tiger painted on its fire engine, according to Manning (2007). The many people Tweed had encountered only boosted his charisma and allowed him to network with many (Anbinder, 2010).
In 1852, Tweed ran for a second time for the position of city alderman and won. Here, he learned he preferred local politics, even after serving in the House of Representatives for two years (Manning, 2007). Tammany Hall, the Democratic headquarters in New York City, became a home for Tweed, and he was soon elected to be the city’s board of supervisors “to check election fraud” (Manning, 2007). A now major figure in New York politics, “Tweed became the commissioner of schools, a New York state senator, and chairman of the New York state finance committee” (Manning, 2007), as well as the grand sachem of Tammany Hall (Anbinder, 2010). In 1868, Tammany’s leading men; A. Oakey Hall, Peter B. Sweeny, Richard B. Connolly and George G. Barnard had all held high positions in New York’s government.
Now that the Democratic party had ruled the city, much in part thanks to Tweed, they were able to control the politics surrounding New York.

With this power came leniency for the men and Tweed began to use this power to gain personal wealth. Tweed accomplished this when he made business for the city. For example, “Tweed allowed the contractors to overcharge the city for their work as long as the suppliers ‘kicked back’ a portion of their illicit profits to him” (Anbinder, 2010), as well as Hall, Sweeny, and Connolly. Tweed and these men were nicknamed the Tweed ring, known for their illicit acts against the city (Hirsch, 1945, p.

269).
Now known for his wealthful activities, Tweed expanded his network. He “became a partner of the notorious financier/robber barons Jay Gould and James Fisk and became a director of several important utility companies and financial institutions” (Manning, 2007). Serving as state senator, Gould and Fisk bribed him to get the Erie Classification Bill passed by offering a position on the board and “hundreds of thousands of dollars” (Anbinder, 2010). By the beginning of the 1870’s, Tweed was on the boards of gas and rail companies, along with the Brooklyn Bridge company (Manning, 2007).
The people of New York City rarely went against Boss Tweed and his illegal actions. By taking care of the people’s needs, Tweed was able to rule without opposition (Anbinder, 2010). “For immigrants and the poor, the Tweed Ring created a de facto welfare system, providing jobs, food, and fuel for New Yorkers at a time when government assistance to the unemployed and needy was virtually unknown” (Anbinder, 2010”). Tweed also gave sizable donations to charities and helped merchants to make deals. However, Thomas Nast refused to stay quiet and soon launched an attack against Tweed and his entire ring.
An influential political cartoonist, Nast began his work in 1855 with Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly (Vinson, 195, p. 338). In 1862, he joined Harper’s Weekly and drew cartoons that reprimanded the South during the Civil War. Former President, Ulysses S. Grant, named Nast the most influential civilian during the Civil War. “He did as much as any one to preserve the Union and bring the war to an end,” Grant said when asked to name one civilian who had the greatest impact on the Civil War (Leepson, 2009, p. 54). Nast’s satirism of recognizable people allowed for him to quickly become prominent in New York City.
A unique and conspicuous trait of his cartoons was the ability to “exaggerate features without losing identification” (Vinson, 1957, p.

341). In 1868, Nast began to attack the Tweed Ring in his cartoons. One famous cartoon depicts Tweed and his men as “fat vultures feeding off the city” (Manning, 2007). The next few years, Nast drew Tweed as an “obese, scowling, heavy-bearded thug, sometimes with a moneybag in place of his head, sometimes wearing a striped prisoner’s uniform” (Leepson, 2009, p. 54). Tweed’s infamous comment on the pictures was “Let’s stop them damned pictures. I don’t care what the papers write about me - my constituents can’t read; but damn it, they can see pictures!” (Lamb, 2007, p. 717). Nast proved to be the most effective person to lead Tweed to his demise; however, many other media outlets soon joined the

battle.
The New York Times began their assault on July 8, 1871, when its editor, Louis John Jennings, received incriminating evidence from a “mendacious Democratic hack with swollen personal ambitions” (Hirsch, 1945, p. 272). The evidence presented included fake warrants certified by the board of audit, canceled checks and more (Hirsch, 1951, p. 794). The Tweed Ring had tried to bribe the paper to avoid the printing of this evidence, but were not successful (Manning 2007). The paper published the documents on July 22, 1871” (Anbinder, 2010). “Nothing like it had ever appeared before in an American newspaper” (Ackerman, 2005, p. 167).
Half of the New York Times front page exhibited the list of transactions made to repair and furnish the courthouse, Tweed’s building. The following Monday and Wednesday, the Times repeated their showcasing Tweed’s acts and threw exorbitant sums (Ackerman, 2005, p. 169). The paper told the citizens of New York to “[S]crutinize them, analyze them, test them thoroughly” (Ackerman, 2005, p. 170). The people of New York were finally angry enough to join the paper, Nast and Democratic state chairman Samuel Tilden in their crusade against Boss Tweed.
Upset at the high debt and deceitful acts done to them, a group of citizens “met at the Cooper Union to form a committee to take back their city” (Manning, 2007). The New York Times published a series of articles bashing Tweed and his immoral conduct (“‘Boss’ Tweed,” 1871).
One such article (“New Way To Pay Old Debts,” n.d.) reads:
Notwithstanding this drawback, and the further fact that the direct income of the places which he has filled is barely sufficient for a comfortable maintenance, Mr. TWEED relied upon the generosity and right feeling of his fellow-citizens to make good to him the losses which he sustained by devoting himself to their service instead of his private emolument.
The public servant that was meant to help the city of New York was now rightfully despised. How he accomplished extorting so much money is what gave him his notoriety.
The citizens that did not feel cheated by Tweed were his loyal subordinates who helped in voter and juror frauds (Hirsch, 1945, p. 271). He used fake names band kept the police on his side, in order that his friends may win the ballot. Tweed’s Ring also made use of padded bills, raised accounts, false vouchers and more to get away with the amounts of money they stole (Hirsch. 1945, p. 268). Although he was arrested for these crimes, Tweed was careful in his organization of the Ring (Hirsch, 1945, p. 276). In the Political Science Quarterly, Hirsch wrote that “instead of seeking to control the graft exclusively and to his sole gain, [Tweed] spread it wide” (1945, p. 276) to gain many associates. Having had enough of these immoral crimes being done in the face of the public, Samuel Tilden filed an affidavit, the “basis of a civil suit for recovery of the city’s money” in 1871 (Manning, 2007).
However, despite the impending trial for the recovery of losses worth more than six million dollars, Tweed was reelected to the state senate (Anbinder, 2010). By December of the same year, Tweed was arrested on charges of fraud and failure to audit bills given to the city, while most of his cohorts had already fled the country (Manning, 2007). He was forced to resign from his positions for the city. Fined and sentenced to twelve years in prison, Tweed got both reduced and was a free man.
Nevertheless, Tweed was arrested the following day, in 1875, to stand trial against the state of New York to recover the money stolen (Manning, 2007). He was sent to Ludlow Street jail and escaped that same year but was recognized by Spanish authorities in Cuba and brought back under the jurisdiction of New York State (Anbinder, 2010). Spanish officials were aware of Tweed because of the unmistakable drawings Nast had made of him (Ackerman, 2005, p. 309). Nast continued to satirize Boss Tweed in Harper’s Weekly.
After spending such a long time seasick, Tweed returned to jail with many health ailments. Desperate, he offered a full confession to the attorney general Charles Fairchild, hoping to be pardoned for his crimes (Anbinder, 2010). At first, Fairchild read the confession meant to release him. However, he denied Tweed’s request because of the risk of releasing the names of respected politicians and businessmen that Tweed had mentioned in his statement (Anbinder, 2010). Nonetheless, the paper was leaked and had little to no impact on those mentioned. Therefore, Tweed further confessed before a committee of the Board of Aldermen of New York City who were investigating the frauds of Tweed and his men (Anbinder, 2010).
Tweed never received the pardon he pursued and died at the Ludlow Street Jail in 1878. His funeral was an isolated event that was not even significant to his own family. His two youngest sons had not even been told that their father died (Ackerman, 2005, p. 346). It is noted, though, that had the funeral taken place in 1870, “Broadway would have been festooned with black and every military and civic organization in the city would have followed him,” as remarked by the coroner (Ackerman, 2005, p. 347).
After all of his work, Tweed left nothing behind. He died in debt and had to sell much of his property (Ackerman, 2005, p. 348). It is still unknown exactly how much was stolen from the city. Estimates vary from seventy-five million to two hundred million dollars (Hirsch, 1945, p. 268). Tweed’s old accomplices were never tried for any crimes, but they forever lived with the shame associated with a scam of this magnitude, thanks to Nast’s following (Ackerman, 2005, p. 348).
William “Boss” Tweed will forever live in infamy as one of the most corrupt politicians in American history (Manning, 2007). However, if Tweed had better intentions, he might have risen well in American politics. His determination to be a leader and great personal charm may have helped him (Manning, 2007). Manning stated that despite his crookedness, Tweed helped new immigrants assimilate, as well as parochial schools and private charities (2007). Although, it has been noted that he may have helped in these areas to solely gain more political power.
Definitively, Tweed will forever be vilified by American history and identified as the money-hungry man he was. His greed and power overtook him, while many were attempting to expose his activities. Even after he helped so many and stole so much, Boss Tweed still died a poor man.