POLITICS IN THE GILDED AGE
Objective:
Analyze political machines methods
of maintaining power
POLITICAL MACHINES
• During late 1800’s, many cities run by a
Political machine.
• This was an organized group, headed by a city
boss, that controlled activities of a political
party in a city.
ROLE OF THE POLITICAL BOSS
• The “Boss” (typically the
mayor)
– controlled jobs
– business licenses
– influenced the court system
• Precinct captains and ward
bosses were often 1st or 2nd
generation immigrants
• helped immigrants with
–
–
–
–
naturalization
Jobs
housing
in exchange for votes
Boss Tweed ran NYC
Many Political Bosses were
Corrupt…
HOW corrupt were they?
GRAFT
• Many Bosses got rich through GRAFT-the
illegal use of political influence for personal
gain.
• To win elections, some filled the list of eligible
voters w/names of dogs, children, & the dead.
CIVIL SERVICE VS. PATRONAGE
• Patronage- Giving of government jobs to
people of the same party who had helped a
candidate get elected.
• Civil Service- Government jobs.
• Reformers called for a merit system. Civil
service jobs would go to the most qualified,
regardless of political views.
PENDLETON CIVIL SERVICE ACT OF 1883
• Created a civil service commission to give
government jobs based on merit, not
politics….Helped to reform civil service.
CIVIL SERVICE REPLACES PATRONAGE
• Nationally, some politicians pushed
for reform in the hiring system
• The system had been based on
Patronage; giving jobs and favors
to those who helped a candidate
get elected
• Reformers pushed for an adoption
of a merit system of hiring the
most qualified for jobs
• The Pendleton Civil Service Act of
1883 authorized a bipartisan
commission to make appointments
for federal jobs based on
performance
Applicants for federal jobs are
required to take a Civil Service
Exam
KICKBACKS
• Workers on city construction projects would
charge a higher price & then “kick back” part
of the fee to the bosses.
• Bosses also taking bribes from businesses in
return for allowing illegal or unsafe activities.
MUNICIPAL GRAFT AND SCANDAL
• Some political machines
used fake names and
voted multiple times to
ensure victory (“Vote
early and often”) –
called Election fraud
• The fact that police
forces were hired by the
boss prevented close
scrutiny
BOSS TWEED
& TAMMANY HALL
• William Marcy Tweed, a.k.a. “Boss Tweed”,
one of the most powerful political bosses.
• Became head of Tammany Hall, New York
City’s most powerful Democratic machine.
THE TWEED RING SCANDAL
• Between 1869-1871, Tweed led
the Tweed Ring, a group of
corrupt politicians, in defrauding
the city
• Tweed was indicted on 120
counts of fraud and extortion
• Tweed was sentenced to 12
years in jail – released after one,
arrested again, and escaped to
Spain
Boss Tweed
Fraud
• systematically
plundered New York
City
– estimated at between
$30 million and $200
million.
– (that would be worth
between $365 million
and $2.4 billion
today)
Fraud
• The record for brassiness
goes to Boss William Tweed,
– swindled New York out of a
fortune
– Tammany Hall in the 1860s
and 1870s.
• Tweed’s masterpiece of
graft was a chunky threestory courthouse in Lower
Manhattan originally
budgeted at $250,000.
– City had spent more than $13
million
– The building was still not
finished.
Fraud
• By 1870, the Tweed ring was able to milk the city through
such devices as faked leases, padded bills, false vouchers,
unnecessary repairs, and overpriced goods and services
bought from suppliers controlled by the ring.
• Examples of the flagrant abuse of the public’s money
were:
• 1) 40 old chairs and three tables: $179,792.60
• (about $2 million today)
• 2) Repairing fixtures: $1,149,874.50 (about $14 million
today)
• 3) A plasterer's wages during a nine month period:
$2,870,464.06 (about $34 million today)
• 4) 30 months of advertising paid to a Tweed-controlled
printing company: $7,168,212.23 (about $87 million today)