USA > New York > A short history of New York State > Part 38
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Tweed's interests were not confined to Erie, for he soon became the most powerful political leader in the state. A chair maker by trade, he entered politics after he had built up a following among the members of his volunteer fire company in New York City. Serving first as Tammany leader of his district and then of his ward, he was elected in 1859 to the county Board of Supervisors. Four years later he became deputy street commissioner. As supervisor he demanded and received bribes in return for authorizing the payment of bills owed by the county, and as street commissioner he obtained a kickback of 10 per cent or more from all con- tractors employed by his department. By the end of the Civil War he was a grand sachem of Tammany and chairman of its general committee. Both his followers and opponents knew him as "Boss" Tweed.
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After 1869 the Tweed Ring's control of New York City's government was virtually absolute. Mayor A. Oakey Hall served as the Ring's front man; Comptroller Richard B. ("Slippery Dick") Connolly and Chamberlain Peter B. Sweeny were Tweed's first lieutenants and archmanipulators; and such corrupt judges as George G. Barnard and Albert Cardozo protected the machine in the courts. On election day Tweed's candidates were as- sured of majorities by ballots stolen from the opposition, Tammany re- peaters, and the votes of recently arrived immigrants who were illegally naturalized by Ring judges at the rate of a thousand a day. The profits of Ring rule for Tweed and his cohorts were provided by contracts to their
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favored associates, bribes from anyone who wished to obtain something from the city government, and outright thefts from the city treasury. Tweed and his henchmen were able to steal more than $8,000,000 from the City of New York in a single year, and the total amount pilfered by the Tweed Ring has been put at anywhere between $45,000,000 and $75,000,000.
Tweed made his first bid to extend his control beyond the city in 1866 when John T. Hoffman, the Tammany mayor of New York City, was named the Democratic candidate for governor. Although Hoffman received the unlimited support of Tammany's naturalization mills, he was defeated by Fenton. In 1867 Tweed "elected" himself a state senator and renewed his assault on the government at Albany. The next year, in what was probably the most corrupt election in the history of New York, Hoffman was elected governor. Hordes of immigrants, fraudulently naturalized by Tammany judges, built up a huge down-state majority for Hoffman. In several of the city's election districts Hoffman's vote was considerably larger than the total registration. Andrew D. White, an upstate Republican and president of Cornell, charged that "the gigantic frauds perpetrated in the sinks and dens of the great city" determined the outcome of the election, and Roscoe Conkling attributed Hoffman's victory to "many thousand forged naturali- zation papers .. . , repeating, ballot-box stuffing, ruffianism, and false counting." Despite such allegations, Hoffman's victory was not success- fully challenged, and Tweed had his choice in the governor's chair.
In 1869 Tweed's domination of the state government was undisputed. The Democrats captured both the Senate and the Assembly, and in the following year Hoffman was re-elected governor. Although the Republi- cans regained control of the legislature in 1870, Tweed quickly overcame this obstacle by buying off some of the more pliant members of the op- position. The results of Tweed's rule were soon apparent. In 1869 Governor Hoffman appointed Barnard and Cardozo to the general term of the Supreme Court, and the legislature provided the means for increasing Tweed's already swollen income by raising New York City's taxes and by adopting a bill that assured Gould of continued control over the Erie. In 1870 Tweed sponsored a new charter for New York City that was adopted with only two opposition votes in the Senate and five in the Assembly. Under the terms of the Tweed charter, the state commissions in the city were abolished, the appointive power was concentrated in the hands of the mayor, and the Street and Aqueduct Departments were replaced by a Department of Public Works which Tweed soon dominated. To secure the Republican votes necessary for the adoption of the charter cost Tweed large amounts of money, and it was charged that five Republican senators obtained $40,000 each for their votes, that six Republican senators re- ceived $10,000 each, and that Tweed's representative handling bribes in
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the Assembly had some $600,000 at his disposal. But Tweed got his money's worth, for the new charter enabled him and his henchmen to carry out the most spectacular bit of looting ever perpetrated on an Amer- ican city.
Tweed's prestige increased with his power. He lived and entertained sumptuously in a Fifth Avenue mansion; he was widely acclaimed as a generous benefactor of the city's poor; and plans were under way to erect a statue of him in New York harbor. A group of leading citizens that in- cluded John Jacob Astor and Moses Taylor stated publicly that there were no irregularities in the administration of the city's finances, and the New York World wrote, "There is not another municipal government in the world which combines so much character, capacity, experience, and energy as are to be found in the city government of New York under the new charter." There were, however, many New Yorkers who refused to accept this view. Samuel J. Tilden, who was state chairman of the Demo- cratic party, condemned Tweed's methods but refused to break with the Ring until he had obtained incontrovertible evidence of its corrupt meth- ods. In the city, a rival organization known as the Young Democracy ran candidates against Tweed's nominees. The New York Times main- tained an unremitting editorial offensive against the Ring and its boss, and Thomas Nast exposed and highlighted the machinations of Tweed and his cohorts in a series of devastating cartoons in Harper's Weekly. Tweed feared Nast's cartoons far more than he did the Times's editorials, and on one occasion he said: "I don't care what people write, for my people can't read. But they have eyes and can see as well as other folks."
Despite attacks from within and without his party, Tweed's position remained unassailable until the spring of 1871, when a disgruntled mem- ber of Tammany named James O'Brien turned over to George Jones, editor of the Times, transcripts that revealed corruption in the state comp- troller's office. When Jones began publishing the transcripts in July 1871, the public response was immediate. Indignation meetings were held; a Committee of Seventy was organized to drive the Ring from power; and steps were taken to institute legal proceedings against Tweed and his cohorts. Tilden, whose relation to Tweed up until this time had at best been equivocal, made no overt move against the boss during the sum- mer of 1871. But by September he had become convinced that there was enough evidence to smash the Ring, and within a short time he had placed himself at the head of the anti-Tweed forces. In the ensuing months Tilden uncovered masses of evidence against Tweed, drove the members of the Ring from the Democratic party, successfully ran as an anti-Ring candi- date in 1872 for the Assembly, served as the key witness at the trials of the leading culprits, and provided the prosecution with funds, moral
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support, and legal advice. More than any other individual, Tilden was responsible for the overthrow of Tweedism.
Although Tilden and his fellow reformers were able to destroy the Ring, they were not so successful in punishing its members. Sweeny and Connolly escaped to Europe, Mayor Hall was saved by a hung jury, and the Ring judges either resigned or were removed by impeachment pro- ceedings. Tweed was sentenced to jail for twelve years, but he was re- leased at the end of a year when the Court of Appeals threw out the lower court's decision on a technicality. Rearrested, he escaped from jail in 1875 and fled the country. Arrested for the final time in 1876 in Spain, he was returned to the United States and confined in the Ludlow Street jail until his death in 1878.
Despite the excesses of the Tweed Ring, Tammany Hall did not have a monopoly on corruption during the postwar years. It is worth remem- bering that upstate Republicans accepted bribes from Tweed and that the ethical standards of New York's businessmen in this period were little, if any, better than those of its politicians. Corruption was, moreover, a national development rather than a New York phenomenon. Grant's ad- ministration was more corrupt than any other in the nation's history; dis- honest politicians and businessmen combined to plunder all the southern states during the Reconstruction period; and officials of such northern states as Pennsylvania stole as much and as often as those of New York. None of these facts excuses the behavior of Tweed and his henchmen, but they do indicate that New York's experience was anything but unique and that the Tweed Ring should be viewed as one more manifestation of the breakdown in the nation's moral standards in the decade after Appomattox.
The revelations concerning the Tweed Ring discredited the Democrats and enabled the Republicans to regain control of the state government. John A. Dix, the Republican candidate, defeated Francis Kernan, who was the choice of the Democrats and Liberal Republicans, for the gov- ernorship, while Grant ran far ahead of the Democratic-Liberal ticket in New York. In addition, the Republicans obtained large majorities in the Assembly and Senate. The two most notable achievements of the Dix administration were a new charter for New York City that removed some of the more obnoxious features of the Tweed charter and a series of con- stitutional amendments that were proposed by a commission appointed in 1872 and approved by the voters in 1874. The changes in the constitu- tion included amendments that abolished property qualifications for Ne- gro voters, instituted electoral reforms, forbade extra payments to state contractors, allowed the governor to veto individual items in appropria- tion bills, required a two-thirds vote of the full membership of each house
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to override the governor's veto, permitted the sale of the state's lateral canals, and increased the term of the governor from two to three years (twenty years later the two-year term was re-established). Many of these amendments had been proposed by the constitutional convention of 1867, but they had been rejected by the state's voters.
Although the constitutional amendments adopted in 1874 eliminated a number of obvious abuses, they did not basically alter the state's frame- work of government. New York's government was still decentralized; the victors still got all the spoils; officeholders were still able to escape re- sponsibility; and the citizens of the most powerful industrial and financial state in the Union still lived under a constitution that had been framed to meet the needs of an overwhelmingly agrarian population. Advocates of honest government had overthrown the Tweed Ring, but they had done little to prevent the emergence of similar organizations in the fu- ture. As in the past, New Yorkers would continue to be subjected to ma- chine rule, with brief interludes of honest and efficient administration.
Chapter 28
Democratic Ascendency
The principle of selecting the subordinate employes of the State on the ground of capacity and fitness, ascertained ac- cording to fixed and impartial rules, without regard to politi- cal predilections and with reasonable assurance of retention and promotion in case of meritorious service, is now the established policy of the State.
-GROVER CLEVELAND, January 1, 1884
THE downfall of the Tweed Ring marked the end of an era of flamboyant corruption, and in the ensuing years New York's government was admin- istered by a succession of able Democratic governors who compiled a record of solid, if not spectacular, achievements. From 1875 to 1895 Sam- uel J. Tilden, Grover Cleveland, and David B. Hill won national reputa- tions as state executives and helped to make New York the most power- ful single force in the Democratic party. During the same period the Republicans controlled the governorship for only one term and failed to produce any official whose stature was comparable to that of the Democratic leaders. Roscoe Conkling bossed the Republican party for several years, but his major triumphs occurred in Washington rather than in Albany, and after his downfall in the early 1880's it took Thomas C. Platt some ten years to rebuild the state Republican machine.
Tilden's contribution to the overthrow of the Tweed Ring marked the first of a series of developments that were to lead him to the threshold of the White House. In 1870 he had been a fairly prominent, though pedestrian, politician. Two years later he was known throughout the na- tion as a crusader for good government, and by 1874 he was his party's obvious choice for the governorship. Dix, who was renominated by the Republicans, campaigned on his record, while Tilden put himself forward as a reform candidate who would rid the state of corruption. With the support of Hugh Mclaughlin and "Honest" John Kelly, who had suc- ceeded Tweed as head of Tammany, Tilden piled up hugh majorities
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in Kings County and New York City. Further assistance was provided by the nation-wide swing to the Democrats in the off-year congressional elections. Tilden carried the state with a plurality of fifty thousand. In addition, the Democrats obtained a substantial majority in the Assembly, won eighteen of New York's thirty-three congressional seats, and elected their candidate mayor of New York City.
Before assuming the governorship Tilden had devoted himself to a lucrative law practice. One of the richest corporation lawyers in the na- tion, he had a list of clients whose names read like a who's who of Ameri- can business. But he also had ample time to devote to politics. He had written campaign pamphlets for the Democratic party before he was old enough to vote, and in subsequent years he served as corporation counsel for New York City, a member of the Assembly, and a delegate to the con- stitutional convention of 1846. After the Civil War he became state chair- man of the Democratic party, and in 1868 he managed Horatio Seymour's unsuccessful campaign for the presidency.
Despite Tilden's success in both law and politics he possessed few of the characteristics generally ascribed to party leaders. He was cautious to the point of timidity, and at the major crisis of his political career his indecision probably cost him the presidency. But he was also a cold and calculating man who had to rely on his brains and knowledge rather than his personality to achieve his objectives in public life. He perhaps knew more about New York politics than did any of his contemporaries, but he was uninterested in political theory and the broader aspects of the prob- lems confronting the state and nation in the postwar years. Although his contemporaries considered him a reformer, he never broke with his party on any major issue, and no important progressive measures were iden- tified with his name. Rather, he built his political reputation on his op- position to corruption. This made him more than a politician and some- thing less than a statesman.
In his first message to the legislature, Tilden advocated economy and honesty in government and devoted enough attention to national affairs to convince many observers that he had at least one eye on the White House. His message proved an accurate forecast of the years he was to spend in Albany. As governor he continued to take an active part in the cases against Tweed and his associates, pushed the impeachment pro- ceedings against the Ring judges, reduced the state's taxes by approxi- mately 50 per cent, appointed a commission to draw up some general rules for the administration of the state's cities, and induced the legis- lature to enact four laws that were designed to eliminate corrupt prac- tices in the city and state governments. His most notable achievement, however, was the destruction of the notorious Canal Ring. It was this, more than anything else that he did in Albany, that won him a national
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reputation and was responsible for his receiving the Democratic nomina- tion for the presidency in 1876.
The Canal Ring was a bipartisan alliance whose members illegally pocketed a share of the money appropriated for repairs on the Erie Canal and its feeders. By assuring a few favored firms of canal work at prices far beyond cost and a reasonable profit, the Ring was able to obtain from the contractors a percentage of the funds paid by the state for canal repairs. Tilden alluded to the Canal Ring in his first message as gov- ernor, but as in his attack on the Tweed Ring, he refused to take the offensive until he had obtained enough evidence to ensure convictions in court. By March 1875, when he had completed his research, he de- livered to the legislature a detailed account of the machinations of the Canal Ring. Despite the opposition of the Ring's adherents in both the Senate and Assembly, the legislature authorized the governor to appoint a commission of investigation. Under the chairmanship of John Bigelow, the commission in its three-thousand-page report of February 1876 sub- stantiated all of Tilden's charges. Suits were immediately instituted against the Ring's leaders and their accomplices. Although some of the guilty managed to escape jail, Tilden succeeded in smashing the Canal Ring and saved the taxpayers millions of dollars. Perhaps even more significant in an age of extreme partisanship was the fact that all but two of the men indicted for canal frauds were Democrats.
Tilden was succeeded by Lieutenant Governor Lucius Robinson, a Democrat who became governor following his victory in the fall elec- tions of 1876. Although pledged to carry out Tilden's program, Robinson was hampered by a hostile legislature and the increasing enmity of Kelly's Tammany machine. When Kelly was unable to block Robinson's renom- ination in 1879, he ran on an independent ticket and drew enough votes from the Democrats to enable the Republicans to take the election.
While control of the Democratic party was passing from Tweed to Tilden, Roscoe Conkling was emerging as one of the most powerful men in the federal government and the undisputed leader of the New York Republican machine. A handsome man of undeniable ability, an artist in the use of invective, and a master of spread-eagle oratory, Conkling subjected his Republican followers in New York to a degree of discipline that would have won him rapid advancement in the army of Frederick the Great. He shunned theories and principles, despised reformers, and believed that the spoils system was the cornerstone of party government. He fought his opponents in his own party as viciously as he did the Demo- crats, and those who dared to question his leadership were summarily dispatched to a political Siberia in which there were no jobs for party workers. In what has been accurately termed "the age of the spoilsman" Conkling was the greatest spoilsman of them all.
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Before Conkling was twenty-one, he had been admitted to the bar, be- come a worker for the Whigs, and been appointed district attorney of Oneida County. Joining the Republican party soon after its organization, he was elected mayor of Utica in 1858, and in the following year he en- tered the House of Representatives. Re-elected to the House in 1860, he was defeated in 1862 and re-elected in 1864 and 1866. In Congress he won a reputation as a spectacular and persuasive speaker, and in the imme- diate postwar years he was a member of the Radical, anti-Johnson bloc in the House. In 1867, despite the opposition of Governor Fenton's faction, he was elected to the United States Senate over Ira Harris, the incumbent and choice of the organization. By 1870 the Fenton forces had been com- pletely routed, and Conkling was the boss of the New York Republicans.
Conkling's control over the state Republican organization was made possible in large part by his friendship with President Grant. He never missed an opportunity to extol Grant, and the President reciprocated by giving him sole authority over the distribution of the federal patronage in New York. Conkling's position as one of the largest-if not the largest -employer in New York enabled him to dictate to Republican state con- ventions, name his party's candidates, and secure his own re-election to the Senate in 1873 and 1879. As long as he was able to control the more than seven thousand federal jobs in New York, he was in a position to destroy the political career of anyone who sought to challenge his lead- ership. Some indication of the esteem in which he was held by Grant and of his own estimate of the power that he wielded is revealed by the Presi- dent's offer to make him a Supreme Court justice and Conkling's decision to remain in the Senate.
By the mid-1870's Conkling was at the height of his power. He had built up his own national machine of Republican workers who came to be known as Stalwarts. Opposed to the Stalwarts were James G. Blaine's Half-Breeds. Both factions professed undying loyalty to Republicanism, but they were unable to agree on the division of the party's spoils. The leaders of the rival wings of the party were both candidates for the Re- publican presidential nomination in 1876; but although Blaine led on the early ballots and Conkling managed to obtain as many as ninety-nine votes, the convention eventually nominated Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio. The Republican candidate had the reputation of being a reformer, and when he defeated Tilden in the disputed election of 1876, Conkling for the first time in his career was faced with the prospect of dealing with a president who was opposed to many features of the spoils system.
On April 22, 1877, Hayes wrote in his diary, "Now for Civil Service Reform," and on June 22 he issued an executive order stating that no civil servants "should be required or permitted to take part in the man- agement of political organizations, caucuses, conventions, or electoral
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campaigns" and that "no assessments for political purposes" on office- holders should be permitted. A report of a commission headed by John Jay had already made clear that the workers in the New York Customs House were bribed to undervalue imports, paid regular political assess- ments, and took an active part in every form of political activity. The po- litical implications of both the President's order and the Jay report were apparent to every member of the New York Republican machine, for the Customs House was managed by Collector Chester A. Arthur and Naval Officer Alonzo Cornell; and both men were Conkling's lieutenants.
Conkling's determination to oppose the President's program was clearly revealed by the proceedings of the Republican state convention of 1877. In a speech approved in advance by Conkling, Thomas C. Platt attacked Hayes, praised the "working and fighting soldiers of our political army," and castigated the "political Pecksniffs" who urged reforms. George Wil- liam Curtis, the editor of Harper's and the outstanding Republican advo- cate of reform in the state, replied to Platt with a defense of the President's civil service program. Conkling's speech answering Curtis was probably his most famous oratorical effort, and it certainly ranks as one of the most vitriolic and sarcastic addresses ever delivered by a leading American political figure. In it, after disposing of civil service reform and the administration in Washington, he turned his attention to reformers in general and Curtis in particular. His opponents, he insisted between sneers, were "man milliners, the dilettanti and carpet knights of politics." They were, he continued, "wolves in sheep's clothing. Their real object is office and plunder. When Dr. Johnson defined patriotism as the last refuge of a scoundrel, he was unconscious of the then undeveloped capa- bilities and uses of the word 'Reform'!" Then, turning toward Curtis, Conkling succinctly and vividly stated his political philosophy with the assertion that reformers "forget that parties are not built up by deport- ment, or by ladies' magazines, or gush!" When Conkling concluded his speech, the next move was the President's.
Hayes did not hesitate to meet Conkling's challenge, and in October 1877 he nominated Theodore Roosevelt, Sr., customs collector and L. B. Prince as his associate naval officer in New York. By appealing to his colleagues in the Senate to exercise "senatorial courtesy" (by which no appointee was approved if opposed by the senator from the state in question) Conkling was able to prevent the confirmation of both nom- inees. After Congress adjourned in July 1878, Hayes suspended Arthur and Cornell and selected Edwin A. Merritt and Silas W. Burt to succeed them. Meanwhile senatorial courtesy had begun to wear thin as the dangers of factionalism became more apparent, and in February 1879 Merritt and Burt were confirmed by the Senate. Despite this defeat, Conkling soon resumed the offensive. His state organization elected
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