USA > New York > New York City > The Memorial History of the City of New York: From Its First Settlement to the Year 1892, Volume III > Part 59
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had conquered imany and forti- itself in power, was ready for an ult on the State New-York. The to gain control seemed to be to ; Hoffman gover- for the ring as- ed, from its ex- ance of him while or, that, while onally honest, he Id not interfere its financial mes. To gain : purpose, Tweed his associates mitted hitherto gard-of elective ds in New-York In this year
BROADWAY, NORTH FROM POST-OFFICE.
12 aliens were naturalized-more than four times the previous ial average. It need hardly be said that this enormous increase largely fraudulent. The ante-election tactics of the ring, how- , were outdone by what occurred on election day. Thousands of phs who, thanks to Tweed, were drawing pay from the city in one city or another, were drilled as squads of repeaters, and carried d and falsification to a science. Judges Barnard and McCunn, ng till late at night to consider applications for citizenship, out- the record. Barnard packed his court-room with professional and witnesses, and turned out reporters and spectators. To cap climax, the sheriff appointed two thousand special deputies to st any one who might attempt to hinder voting. By these means vote of New-York city was made to exceed the number of the VOL. III .- 35.
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voting population by about eight per cent., and the Democratic can- didate was elected.
Immediately on Hoffman's resignation of the mayoralty to assume the duties of his higher office, opposition to the ring broke out into open rebellion. The citizens had for years known, or at least strongly suspected, the corrup- tion of the city govern- ment. Only the year before, Judge Barnard had been exposed most savagely in a pamphlet by Thomas G. Shear- man, which subsequent évents showed to have told no more than the truth. Millions had al- ready been spent on the unfinished court-house. But the ring was strong in its position, and, as NEW-YORK COUNTY COURT-HOUSE. has been said, had al- ready succeeded in getting control of the metropolitan press, by wheedling, bullying, bribing, deceit, or blackmail, as opportunity offered. It was even astute enough to encourage the appearance of opposition, that it might seem the stronger. All the revolts from its control, whether led by dissatisfied politicians or by highly respect- able citizens anxious for reform, seemed to outsiders mere struggles between the "ins" and the "outs," and served to confuse good and substantial citizens of both parties.
Thus it was in the present instance. The opposition to the ring nominated John Kelly for mayor, and Abraham R. Lawrence for cor- poration counsel-both clean men; but they were hopelessly defeated by A. Oakey Hall, the ring candidate, then district attorney. Hall was a strange man to find in such company. A native New-Yorker of good family, and a man of remarkable versatility, he essayed dur- ing his remarkable career the parts of lawyer, litterateur, journalist, politician, dramatist, lecturer, and actor-all with a certain degree of success. He had been successively a Republican and a Know-no- thing, and then passed through various wings of the Democratic party, ending in Tammany Hall. His connection with the Tweed Ring has never been definitely made out. He was acquitted in court of the charges brought against him on the final overthrow of the ring, and while there have not been wanting those who class him as a coad- jutor with Tweed, Sweeny, and Connolly, as a member of the very
:
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RECOVERY FROM WAR - TWEED RING
innermost circle, even his enemies have acknowledged that he was influenced by ambition, not by greed.
. On January 1, 1869, the ring found itself in complete control of the city, a position which, in spite of the power it had gained, it could not before be certain that it held. Hoffman, who at least was not its enemy, was governor of the State. Hall was mayor of New-York; Sweeny, city chamberlain; Tweed, street commissioner; and Con- nolly, comptroller. Its three judges were secure on the bench. It might be supposed that it would now rest on its laurels, yet one more thing remained to be accomplished; the city was still governed largely
THE MALL, CENTRAL PARK.
from Albany, and the ring was certain only of its own city. Munici- pal autonomy therefore became the rallying cry. In order that he might direct his own forces on the field of battle, Tweed was sent to Albany as State senator. Here he found himself in contact with those who were quite as well versed in the arts of corruption as him- self. The speculators who had plundered the Erie Railway, as well as the engineers of countless other jobs, had found bribery necessary for their end, and their efforts had raised the price of votes so that, al- though they gladly received Tweed as an associate, and willingly joined forces with him, nothing could be done without vast sums of money. It thus became necessary to devise new schemes of plunder in New-York city, and these were soon put into operation.
The plea by which the conspirators sought to justify themselves may be learned from the subsequent testimony of their subordinate,
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HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
Elbert A. Woodward. "As I understood it," said he, "Mr. Tweed had to pay the money [to bribe the legislature], and I thought it right and proper for him to reimburse himself." In Tweed's own words: " I found it was impossible to do anything there [in the State senate] without paying for it, and money had to be raised for the passage of bills up there. That was the way the ring first became organized-to pay for bills to protect ourselves in the city."
From this time the system of "reimbursement" was carried on like clockwork, an exact account being kept of all transactions, under the title "County Liabilities," and the profits divided daily. Much of the mythical work on the county court-house was contracted for by a friend of Tweed's named James H. Ingersoll, who sent in bills for la- bor done by himself or sublet to others. He obtained for carpeting alone the sum of $4,829,426.26,-enough to have carpeted Union Square several times over,-and in the name of George S. Miller he drew additional warrants for $1,404,307.99. Garvey, the contractor already mentioned, sent in bills for acres of plastering, for which he was paid $3,495,626.26, and to a plumber named John H. Keyser was given $1,508,410.89.
The ring was now assailed on all sides, not only by opponents who were clamorous merely for their share of the spoils, but also by leading citizens anxious for reform. Among other acts of the ring, its espousal of the cause of the Roman Catholics in the school question, then for the first time coming to the front, had made it unpopular with Protestants, and had involved it in a struggle with the Board of Education. By the aid of the legislature, and especially through the efforts of Sweeny, the board was abolished, an act which increased opposition to the schemers. When, after the election of 1869, the Democrats obtained majorities in both branches of the legislature, the reform branch of the party, which called itself the Young Democ- racy, set about the task of legislating Tweed and his associates out of office; and when they failed in this they tried to depose Tweed from the general committee of the party; but here they were equally un- successful, owing to the fact that the ring controlled the use of Tam- many Hall, and hence forced their opponents to appear as " strikers" and "irregulars." In the successful efforts of the ring to retain their hold on the regular meeting-place of the party, they were seconded by eight hundred of the metropolitan police.
On the very night of this barring out, Tweed introduced for the second time the celebrated Tweed-Frear city charter, which had al- ready been unanimously disapproved. The efforts of the Young De- mocracy to pass a charter of their own had been defeated by Tweed in his committee on cities, and now he brought up his discredited measure, this time backed by a huge corruption fund, which he used
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RECOVERY FROM WAR -TWEED RING
"WHO IS INGERSOLL'S CO? N.Y. TRIBUNE, MR. INGERSOLL. "ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE YOU TO AT CO.
TWO GREAT QUESTIONS. Th. Nay.
CARPEN'S
CO
'TWAS HIM.
WHO STOLE THE PEOPLE'S MONEY? - DO TELL . N.Y.TIMES . The above and three following cartoons are reproduced from "Harper's Weekly " of 1871, by permission of the publishers. EDITOR.
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HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
so well that the charter passed the senate with only two dissenting votes, one from each party. This charter abolished all control of the city from Albany, and placed its government in the hands of commis- sioners appointed by the mayor, and holding office beyond his term. He was also given the appointment of the comptroller and corpora- tion counsel. Finally, the salaries of all the officers were made de- pendent on his will, and therefore, in the end, on that of the Tweed Ring. As the "Times" expressed it, the change was "substantially one from the intervention of Albany to the tender mercies of Tam- many." Yet, strange to say, this charter, intended by its advocates only as a means of concentrating power in their own hands, was really, in many of its elements, a reform measure. After being changed and amended for ten years, it finally, in 1884, was restored on substantially the old basis,-namely, the placing of responsibility for the government of the city in the hands of only one set of officials, instead of so distributing it that it could easily be shifted, by bestow- ing great executive power on the mayor, and by making the heads of departments responsible to him alone. Thus, Tweed and his fellows builded better than they knew, but to them it seemed only that they had at last made themselves perfectly secure in power.
The charter became a law on April 5, 1870, and then Tweed took up the bills abolishing the board of supervisors, which had been drawn up by his enemies and pigeonholed by him in his committee, and allowed them to pass. Finally, on April 26, the last county tax levy was passed, the county and city having been consolidated by the Tweed charter. By the charter, all liabilities against the county in- curred previous to its passage were referred for audit to a committee composed of Mayor Hall, Connolly, and Tweed. It may readily be imagined that the opportunity thus obtained was not lost sight of, and, in fact, the city was soon $6,000,000 the poorer in consequence. Much, if not all, of this money went to meet the enormous expendi- tures that had been found necessary to secure by wholesale bribery the passage of the charter.
The ring now seemed to have triumphed over all its enemies. No one had access to Comptroller Connolly's books, and legislature, mayor, and governor were all either favorably disposed toward the ring, or inclined to shut their eyes to its peculations. The most re- markable feature of the affair is the success with which the conspira- tors hoodwinked even those citizens who were really opposed to them. Doubtless this was due largely to the fact that every one recognized the real elements of reform in the new charter, and felt how great an improvement it was on the method of rule by irrespon- sible commissions. Be this as it may, a remarkable influence seems to have blinded the eyes of the reputable element in the city. Samuel J.
-
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RECOVERY FROM WAR -TWEED RING
Tilden, then chairman of the State Democratic Committee and the ring's bitter enemy, thought that its overthrow could be accomplished only through the success of the opposing or so-called "Apollo Hall " faction of the party; but the citizens, distrusting this as well as the ring, were content to bear the ills that then afflicted them, rather than fly to those that were new and unknown. Be- sides this, it was well known that the Tweed charter had been passed through the legislature by the votes of both par- ties; it was hence re- garded as a non-parti- zan measure, and so as worthy of public confi- dence and support.
The Young Democracy endeavored to obtain re- cognition at the Roches- ter Convention of 1870 as the regular party organi- zation; but a gang of roughs, furnished with free passes by Tweed's allies, the officials of the Erie road, intimidated the convention and en- BROADWAY, NORTH FROM LEONARD STREET. abled Tammany to control it. An article in the "New-York Herald" (written probably by either Hall or Sweeny, or at their suggestion) said of this convention that it "was the greatest success ever achieved by the 'ins' at the expense of the 'outs.""
The interest in New-York city now centered in the mayoralty con- test, in which Hall was again the Tammany candidate, and Thomas A. Ledwith that of the Young Democracy. As the election approached, opposition to the ring, newly aroused by the charges of its opponents, increased, especially when demands for Connolly's overdue report were disregarded. Although under former laws the comptroller ought to have published his report in January, Connolly had waited till Octo- ber, 1870, before issuing that for 1869, and then falsified his accounts for the preceding twenty-one months, besides gathering together nine out of the twenty-one millions accounted for under the conve- nient heading "for general purposes." People began to doubt the solvency of the city, as the annual assessment for taxes-less than
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HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
ten millions in 1860-had risen to over twenty-three millions in 1870, while the valuation for taxation had barely doubled in those ten years. The city debt had before the war amounted to but nineteen millions; at the close of 1870 it exceeded seventy-three millions, of which twenty-five millions had been added in that year. It was im- portant to conceal this fact, for not only were the assessment laws heaviest on the landowners, but the per-capita valuation of 1.800 in 1870 meant a heavier burden on the taxpayers than that of .700 in 1860, on account of the increased proletariat which voted for the Tweed Ring, and were fed by it, but did not payany taxes. In 1840 the annual tax levy averaged less than one half of one per cent. on the valuation, while in 1846 it had reached one per cent. This rate was doubled in 1861, and in 1872 the rate equaled 2.25 per cent. In 1840 the annual tax levy averaged only $4.33 to an inhabitant; in 1850 it was but $6.27; in 1860 it was $11.99, while in 1870 it was $25.11. Yet in spite of this enormous in- crease, the proportion of debt to the inhabi- tant had during these THE LOVERS' WALK, CENTRAL PARK. last ten years grown from $23.21 to $77.87. It may be briefly said that during the years 1867-70 inclusive, the average taxation of New-York city had amounted to twenty-five dol- lars annually to each inhabitant, while the city debt had at the same time annually increased at the rate of twelve cents to each inhabitant. In other words, the city revenue covered only about two thirds of the city's expenses. There was a growing suspicion that something was wrong with the city's finances, and this had been so well utilized by the Young Democracy that Sweeny felt the need of counteracting in- fluences on the coming election. He resorted to a master-stroke of strategy by having Connolly invite a committee of most substantial,
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RECOVERY FROM WAR-TWEED RING
respected, and shrewd business men and landowners to examine his books. These gentlemen spent a few hours in Connolly's office, and on November 5, just before election, when it was impossible to con- tradict their reports, issued the following card over their names: " We have come to the conclusion and certify that the financial affairs of the city under the charge of the Comptroller are administered in a correct and faithful manner." In addition it was stated that the city's debt amounted to only $48,644,487, and that by Connolly's arrange- ment it would be extinguished in less than twelve years.
This was not the sole example of the complacence with which many of the substantial citizens of New-York looked upon, or rather over- looked, the doings of the ring. Tweed had become one of the largest landowners in the city, and his gains, ill-gotten as they were, had begun to bring him recognition. After the fashion of the outlaws of old, who restored to the poor a fraction of what they had taken from the rich, Tweed gave freely to charity and good works, so that it was actually proposed to erect his statue in the Plaza as a public bene- factor. At the wedding of his daughter, which occurred about this time, the bride received many costly presents from citizens of wealth and position, and gentlemen not without standing in the best society invited him to their tables.
At the election the ring, as usual, triumphed. Hall and Hoffman were both reelected, and the thieves seemed firmer than ever in their position; yet the forces that were shortly to overthrow them were steadily at work. Public distrust had by no means been allayed. The opposition press, notably the " Times " and " Harper's Weekly,"- the latter chiefly by means of Thomas Nast's telling cartoons,-never ceased to attack the ring, and hold up its members to public scorn. The power of such caricatures as Nast's at this time can scarcely be overrated. "I don't care what people write," Tweed is reported to have said in regard to them, "for my people can't read. But they have eyes, and they can see as well as other folks."
It was not long before the public had something tangible to justify their suspicions. W. S. Copeland, a henchman of Sheriff James O'Brien, had been given, at his friend's request, a position in the office of the county auditor. His suspicions were aroused by the enor- mous amounts of the vouchers it was his duty to pass. He took the opportunity to investigate, and speedily learned the truth, which he at once communicated to O'Brien. This information O'Brien kept to himself for some time, intending to use it to blackmail the ring into paying a claim of his own. In January, 1871, he threatened to make the accounts public if his demands were not complied with. Tweed and Sweeny, feeling that nothing could now dislodge them, and that any concession made to O'Brien would lead to further trouble with
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HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
him, refused point-blank, and the sheriff left, "looking," as a bystander remarked, "like a man who meant mischief." That afternoon, how- ever, appalled by the possible consequences of their act, the ring decided to submit, and James Watson, one of the inner circle, made an appointment to meet O'Brien at a hotel in the suburbs.
Before this meeting could take place, Watson was thrown from his sleigh and seriously injured. The wounded man was helped by O'Brien to his house in Forty-second street, where one of the most remarkable scenes in the drama of the ring was to be enacted. Watson, who was one of the few men that the leaders felt they could trust implicitly, had been burdened with stolen property, transferred to him for safe keeping from all sides. The ring, fearful lest he should not be able to transfer this back into the hands of the original plunderers, and afraid also of damaging confessions, literally took possession of the wounded man's house, not allowing any of his family to approach him, and denying him even the ministrations of a priest. Watson never re- gained consciousness, but the chagrin of his companions at not being able to get back their plunder was more than offset by their relief to have him out of the way, for Watson had acted as the ring's general go-between and confidential agent, and probably no one man was so thoroughly familiar with all their doings. No one was more relieved than Connolly, who, the day after the imprisoned Watson's death, burned the dead man's account-books and papers, thus putting out of the way much damaging evidence.
Meanwhile, negotiations between O'Brien and the ring were re- sumed, but came to nothing, owing chiefly to Sweeny, between whom and the sheriff there was bitter enmity. By this time, however, the opposition to the ring had at last borne tangible fruit in the forma- tion of the Association of the Bar of New-York, which was intended as a banding together of the leading lawyers of the city to oppose ju- dicial corruption. Though it was not successful in some of its first efforts, it did its part toward the formation of a healthy public opin- ion, so that soon the ring was no longer apologized for by respectable citizens, but only tolerated, and the time was not far distant when even toleration was to be no longer accorded to it. This progress continued to be aided by the editorials in the "Times," and by Nast's pitiless cartoons. The attacked party tried its usual tactics in vain. They endeavored to buy the stock of the papers that held them up to public scorn; then the ring corporation counsel, at his master's bid- ding, tried to dispossess the "Times" on a flagrantly insufficient ground, and finally Connolly offered $5,000,000 to George Jones, the proprietor of the "Times," and free trips to Europe to its editor, Louis J. Jennings, and to Mr. Nast, while the latter was promised a fine dwelling-house and all his expenses paid if he would cease his attacks.
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RECOVERY FROM WAR -TWEED RING
Not dismayed by defeat, and encouraged by signs of popular approval which began to appear, the Young Democracy returned to the fight with vigor after election, and, hearing of Copeland's transcripts of the ring accounts, redoubled their efforts. Isolated attempts in the same direction now began to be made on this hand and on that. Many of these were failures, yet they showed, among other things, that the fa- vorable report of the committee of business men on the city's finances was not justified by facts, and that the enormous muni- cipal debt was still increasing. Soon af- terward, a clerk in the comptroller's of- fice, turning traitor, published an count of the armory frauds, - a small chapter in the his- tory of the ring rob- beries,-but it ap- peared the day before the Orange riots, and its effect was there- fore lost.
Only a few days before this, Tweed had delivered a Fourth of July ora- tion, which would be amusing reading were its political platitudes less exas- NEW-YORK POST-OFFICE. perating. "We propose," he announced, "if possible, to wrest the government from the hands of those who, in our opinion, are be- traying it, from those who are trying to crush out all principles of equality, liberty, and toleration. We propose to recognize the right of the governed to choose who shall be their governor." Among the other principles laid down by this champion of the good, the true, and the beautiful, was the recognition of "the right of those who elect persons to high official stations, to call them to personal account for the manner in which they have conducted themselves and performed their duties." This right the people of New-York were speedily to exercise, though it would seem that they had forgotten its existence.
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The Orange riot, which has already been described, did its part toward exasperating the public against the ring, showing, as it did, how completely the city had fallen into the hands of its baser ele- ments. On July 18, Sheriff O'Brien, while the excitement about the riot was still at fever-heat, determined to strike his blow, and, after a vain attempt to find Charles A. Dana of the "Sun," carried the ring accounts to Mr. Jones of the "Times," and with the words, "There are all the figures - you can do with them what you please," left the office without sitting down. Beginning with July 20, a batch of the accounts was published by the "Times" every morning, and on the 29th it was made clear to all that the ring had actually stolen more than six million dollars.
These facts, in effect at least, were already known to everybody, but their formal and authoritative publication was the signal for a united effort against the ring. The "Staats-Zeitung," by aiding the " Times," served to indicate the non-partizan character of the movement, and the fact that the ringsters were for the first time driven to the defen- sive shows that they realized their position. Mayor Hall talked freely, protesting that though he had signed all the vouchers, he had done so only "ministerially," and had not been obliged even to read them over. Tweed kept silence, trusting in his mob of voters and his stolen millions to carry him through. Connolly inspired disgust by his cowardice, and his companions, who thought every one as mercenary as themselves, and saw nothing in the reform movement but a black- mailing scheme, were afraid that he would go over to the enemy's camp. Sweeny was brazenly impudent, posed as a reformer, and in a published interview said of his associates that "they had a corpse to bury with which he had no concern." Considering that hosts of contractors were at that moment regularly paying him his share of the plunder, and that his telltale books were then in Connolly's pos- session, his effrontery almost evokes admiration.
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