Read BOSS TWEED: The Corrupt Pol who Conceived the Soul of Modern New York Online
Authors: Kenneth D. Ackerman
Tags: #History
“a hifalutin and long-winded …”:
New York Herald
, February 24, 1869.
“A Stock of Stale Slanders”:
New York World
, February 24, 1869.
Judge Barnard … grand jury:
New York Tribune
, November 16 and December 1 and 2, 1868.
“manifestly unfounded … comparatively trivial.”: Grand July minutes, in
New York World
, February 24, 1869.
Chapter 4. Spoils
(pages 60–87)
“Tweed was not an honest politician
…”: Lynch, p.417; Callow, p. 12.
“I’ve been called the king …”: Callow,
The Tweed Ring
, page 34.
“Whilst Council fires …”: Tammany scrapbooks. NYHS.
“Somehow or other the press …”: Werner, p. 119.
“Few persons have as many
tried
friends …”: Bowen, p. 51.
“the strongest man …”: Sweeny (“On the Ring Frauds”), p. 56.
John Kelly… withdrew late in the race : Tilden’s circle never found another candidate. On Kelly’s role generally, see
New York Herald
, November 20, 1868; McLaughlin, p. 258-60. Republicans that year nominated merchant Frederick Conkling, brother of U.S. Senator Roscoe Conkling, “honest, frank, earnest, … not plausible, not voluble, nor all things to all men, and is of course doomed to be beaten.”
New York Tribune
, November 28, 1868.
“It will be refreshing ….”:
New York Herald
, in Bowen, p. 55.
“He calls a spade a spade …”: Bowen, p. 106.
“Hall’s all right …”:
New York Sun
, April 13, 1878; Bowen, 61.
“a Metropolis without … boulevards …”: Hall letter to the
New-York Times
, April 29, 1869.
“not to give approval to schemes …”: Undated newspaper clip, Hall Scrapbooks. NYPL.
“Mayor Hall does not intend…”:
New York Telegram
, in Bowen, p. 69.
“glittering regalia and bearing a silver war hatchet…”:
New York Herald
, July 6, 1870.
Americus Club … dress code : Fairfield, p. 204.
“the American eagle sits supinely…”:
New York Herald
, August 3, 1869.
“I never saw so many persons…”:
New-York Times
, September 1, 1869.
“a palatial mansion, with a brownstone front
…”: New York Sun
, March 15, 1870, in Werner, p. 188.
“That’s Tweed. Drinks wine at 1 o’clock …”: Hudson, p. 37.
Senator Tweed … sponsored bills: Hershkowitz, 130, 132.
widening Broadway … Critics charged graft: Hershkowitz, p. 138-9. Hershkowitz points to a January 1871 submission by New York’s Commissioners of Estimate and Assessment listing property owners to be compensated for related damages, which fails to include Tweed or any of his close associates.
cut-glass decanters, steel-engraved wall hangings, rose-decorated porcelain cuspidors: Description of Tweed’s suite at the Delavan House is from Lynch, p. 288.
subsidies for Catholic parochial schools: Tweed’s plan, adopted as part of the 1869 annual Tax Levy, authorized the city to spend 20 percent of its excise
tax proceeds from 1868 to support free schools other than public or charity schools. Before 1825, a handful of Catholic and Protestant schools had received city funding through special grants, and religious-sponsored charities continued to receive aid through the annual charities appropriations. See Pratt, p.404.
“no Catholic parent will be permitted…”:
New-York Times
, March 26, 1869; Pratt p. 404-406.
Annual charity appropriation bill: See generally Pratt.
“Do not forget to put through …”: Letter from Roosevelt to Tweed, April 12 and May 10, 1870, in Hirsch, p. 275.
“He appears to take to…”:
New-York Times
, March 20, 1868.
“we expected to get the employment …”: Tweed testimony, Aldermen, p. 130.
Barnard and Cardozo… injunctions: . See Ackerman, p. 28-31,237-243; Hershkowitz, p. 143-144.
“playboy side of Fisk …”: Lynch, 299. . See also, for instance, Fisk to Tweed, May 27, 1870. NYHS.
“He was a powerful man…” “ We could not get along …”: Tweed interview,
New York Herald
, October 26, 1877.
“why, because you won’t make money …”:
New York Tribune
, June 9, 1880.
“The bills of the
Democrat
…”: Tweed to Connolly, July 16, 1870.
“Dear Dick: For God’s sake pay …”:
New York Sun
, April 13, 1878; Werner, p. 194.
One list of vouchers … $3.3 million …: Taintor testimony, Alderman, 393-398, 435 et seq.
“Mr. Hall knew nothing …”:
New York World
, December 8, 1869.
“mysterious glamour …”: Wingate, P. 368.
“I am not, and never claimed to be…”: Sweeny interview,
New York Herald
, November 26, 1869. Instead, he said: “If there is anyone entitled to that designation among the Democracy of our city, it is Senator Tweed…. He has remarkable executive ability, and is a recognized leader.”
“As a taxpayer… I am not …”: Sweeny, (“On the ‘Ring Frauds’”), p. 12.
There’s a story that when Sweeny…: Lynch, p. 151-152.
Sweeny … paid $60,000 : Tweed testimony, Aldermen, p. 105.
“an almost perfect document …”: Hudson, p. 31.
“All this was agreed to,” …”:
New York Sun
, March 30, 1870.
“Why the greediness of the Young Democrat…”:
New York Sun
, March 30, 1870.
“They were young, …”: Wingate p. 127.
Tweed admitted … entered the bribery contest..: Tweed testimony, Aldermen, p. 29.
“to walk up and down the hill …”: Tweed testimony, Aldermen, p. 74.
Tweed … $40,000 apiece among five Republicans: Tweed testimony, Aldermen, p. 73.
Checks for $67,250 … “My greatest wish …”: Checks and Norton’s note to Tweed dated January 16, 1869, in Hirsch, p. 270.
newspaperman barged into Tweed’s …demanded a $40,000 cut… : Hudson, p. 24.
Tweed … resigning his post …: See telegram from John Morrissey to Marble, March 22, 1870. Marble papers. LC.
“ He sat in his [Duane Street] …”:
Evening Post
, March 29, 1870.
“They’ve killed me dead, they think …”: Hershkowitz, p. 152.
“It has become a personal fight …”: Tweed testimony, Aldermen, p. 86.
“calmly reposing …” “It astonished me “:
New York Sun
, March 29, 1870.
election reform bill: The Election bill tightened rules for registering and challenging voters that, “if carried out, give us as near an approach to honest elections as we can hope for,” said the
New York Tribune
, April 9, 1870.
petition supporting Tweed’s charter : See Petition to the Honorable Senate of the State of New York, April 2, 1870, in Townsend, p. 33.
“They were convinced…”: Tilden, writings, I, 566.
“The Committee is met to hear the advocates …”: Partial transcripts of the hearing appeared the next morning in the
New York Tribune
,
Herald
, and
Times
, April 5, 1870.
“We shall be happy to hear …”:
New-York Times
, April 5, 1970.
“not as fidgety…” “the general tone …”:
New York Herald
, April 5, 1870.
“I don’t care if any archangel …”:
New York Sun
, April 5, 1870.
The
Evening Post
, … would blast Greeley …:
New York Herald
, April 6, 1870;
New York Tribune
, April 6, 1870.]
“forcibly but briefly”:
New York Herald
, April 5, 1870.
“highly laudatory”:
New-York Times
, April 5, 1970.
last witness … Samuel J. Tilden: Coming up to Albany from New York City that morning Tilden had shared a railroad car with Greeley. By one account, he spent the first four hours bending Greeley’s ear on city policy resulting in “Mr. Greeley’s profound sleep,” complete with loud snoring.
New York Sun
, April 5, 1870.
He’d … deny backing O’Brien: See Tilden’s non-denial denial in Bigelow (Tilden writings),p. 567. (“I entered into no alliance with the ‘Young Democracy’ for future political power, and for weeks was ignorant even of their meetings.”); on Marble’s role, see McJimsey, p. 140-142.
“inconceivable that Tilden …”: Lynch, p. 323.
“more than ungentlemanly …”: Letters from Belmont to Manton Marble, March 30, 1869, March 1, 1870, in Katz, p. 187. That same month, Tweed may have attempted to depose Tilden from the state party chairmanship, but, if so, he failed in the state committee. Lynch, p. 315; McJimsey, p. 138.
“restore both the judiciary and
the bar
…”: Bigelow (Tilden writings) p. 565.
Tilden wrote Cardozo… Russell Sage : Flick, p. 202.
“I paid you a retainer for Erie …”: Letter from Gould to Tilden, February 11, 1870. Tilden papers, NYPL.. See also Bigelow,( Tilden letters, p. 258. Erie railroad records indicate Tilden received a total of $20,000 from the company between 1869 and 1871. See also Gould letters to Tilden, February 24, March 9, August 2, and October 20, 1869. Tilden papers. NYPL.
“without any agency of mine…”: Letter from Tilden to Gould, February 14, 1870. Tilden papers. NYPL. Bigelow (Tilden letters), p. 258.
“He don’t stand in the way…”:
New York Herald
, November 26, 1869.
“I am sick of…”:
New-York Times
, April 5, 1870. The
New York Sun
had a slight variation: “I am
out
of the discussion of his question.”
New York Sun
, April 5, 1870.
Tweed … face … every sign of contempt : Flick, p. 207.
76. Tilden … failed to make an impression: See e.g.
New York Herald
, April 5, 1870.
“ashy white”… “repressed rage”: Flick, p. 207.
“typical of the timorous, …”: Lynch, 327.
“I felt more scorn…”: Bigelow (Tilden writings), p. 568-9.
“would close his career in jail…”: Alexander, p. 265; Flick, p. 207.
“As to myself don’t mention my name …”: Letter from Tilden to Marble, April 5, 1870. Marble papers, LC.
“No one was more thoroughly cowed …”: McJimsey, p. 142.
The next morning : After the hearing the prior afternoon, Tweed had rushed to the Senate chamber and moved that the charter come up the next day as the first order of business. Senator Henry Genet, of the recently defeated Young Democrats, interrupted: “Is not the Police bill the special order for to-night? I think…” Tweed stopped him with a simple glare: “I thought you said you were not going to oppose the motion,” he said, speaking “
softo voce
” as one reporter put it. “I am not opposing it; but I don’t like this thing.” Genet said. The senators approved Tweed’s motion 23 to 1, Genet casting a solitary “no.”
“Tweed’s good natured face …”:
New York Herald
, April 6, 1870.
“surrenders the City …”:
New York Tribune
, April 6, 1870.
“it takes a general …”:
New York Herald
, April 6, 1870.