William Marcy Tweed Pros And Cons

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Political corruption ran rampant throughout all levels of American government in the 1800s. William Marcy Tweed was probably one of the most corrupt American Politician the state of New York has ever seen.
Tweed was born April 3, 1823 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Tweed ran an urban political machine. Urban political machine is a party organization that recruits its members by use of money, political jobs and that is characterized by high degree of leadership control over member activity. These machines were created as a way for Tweed get power and stay in power. There was some pros and cons to this machine. The pros were that the machine gave jobs and housing to immigrants and in return they demanded that they vote for Tweed. …show more content…

After the election of 1869, Tweed took control of the New York City government. 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. This new charter put the Board of audit, which consisted of tweed who was commissioner of public works, in control of the city’s finances. Another one of his scandals came when the NYC taxes were being raised to build a new court house. He raised $11 million to building the courthouse when in actually only need $3 million. Tweed pocketed the rest of the money and he was caught, put on trial and was convicted and was put in jail for 2 weeks when he later escaped to Canada and was recaptured and was put back in …show more content…

Rockefeller, J.P Morgan were described as both Captains of Industries and Robber Barons. Andrew Carnegie who was a Scottish American industrialist who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century. I believe Carnegie was called a Captain of Industry because he started out as an immigrant and worked his way to the top w/ his abilities and I think he was called a Robber baron because he paid low wages which helped him become wealthy which I think is a bit unfair because he never held a gun to anyone’s head and made them work for him. John D. Rockefeller was a co-founder of the Standard Oil Company, which dominated the oil industry and was the first great U.S. business trust. I guess he was called a Captain of Industry because he was an oil baron, being the owner of Standard Oil. He became so rich in fact that Congress made him split up his company into two parts. He had a stranglehold on the oil industry which made him a captain of industry but because of his wealth, he essentially had a monopoly on the oil business so he could charge what he wanted. J. P. Morgan was an American financier, banker, and art collector who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation during his time. I believe what made him a Captain of Industry was the fact that he helped save to government from financial collapse and he made money in the process and he is a Robber Baron because he owned the biggest monopolistic

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