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Politics in Urban America
Urban Politics
 Cities grow fast & have lots of immigrants
 Not equip to deal with new issues
 The Political Machine – (“shadow
government”) controlled the elected
officials/city governments by getting their
candidates elected

Power was maintained by getting new immigrants to
vote for machine candidate


By 1910 immigrants made up more than ½ population
18 major cities!
the political machine provided new immigrants with
support such as jobs, housing, help with legal issues,
et cetera…
The Political Machine
 The Boss - either the mayor
or controlled the mayor

Controlled jobs, licenses, courts,
building projects
 Ward Bosses – in charge of
a specific “ward”/section of
NYC
 Captains – 1st/2nd
generation immigrants who
lived in the ethnic
communities and immigrants
went to when needed help
If the machine did not get enough
immigrant votes they would just…
 Rig elections
 “Vote Early and Often”!
 Fake names & addresses,
deceased people, dogs,
children


In Philadelphia one ward
politician boasted that,
“One hundred years ago
our forefathers voted for
liberty in this city, and
they vote here still!”
More votes than people!!
Why did the police not stop this???
 The Boss controlled
hiring and firing of
police officers and
other city jobs!
Why did the political machine want to get
candidates elected to badly
 Controlled city
“coffers”/$$$
 You wanted anything
in the city, had to go
through the boss first!
The Corruption
 Grafting –use of political influence/power for
personal gain
 Who are politicians supposed to help?????
 Instead, who did they help???
 Kick backs - Machine would chose a worker that
contracted for a government job, the worker would
charge more than necessary and kick back a fee to the
political machine
 Taking bribes to allow illegal activity
 Saloons open on Sundays
 Gambling
 Controlled hiring and firing of police officers…
Boss Tweed
• Boss Tweed
•
head NYC’s Political Machine Tammany Hall (location democratic
party)
• 1869-1871 Tweed Ring
defrauded city more than
$200 million
• The Court House construction
•
Charged $13 million for a
$250,000 project
• Exposed by T. Nast
• Arrested & died in jail
Sound okay???
• A carpenter was paid $360,751 (roughly $4.9 million
today) for one month's labor in a building with very
little woodwork.
• A furniture contractor received $179,729 ($2.5
million) for three tables and 40 chairs.
• the plasterer, got $133,187 ($1.82 million) for two
days' work; his business acumen earned him the
sobriquet "The Prince of Plasterers."
• When a committee investigated why it took so long to
build the courthouse, it spent $7,718 ($105,000) to
print its report. The printing company was owned by
Tweed.
Tweed’s Power
Tweed-le-dee and Tilden-dum
A Harper's Weekly cartoon depicts
Tweed as a police officer saying to
two boys, "If all the people want is to
have somebody arrested, I'll have you
plunderers convicted. You will be
allowed to escape, nobody will be
hurt, and then Tilden will go to the
White House and I to Albany as
Governor."
 What is the irony in all of this???
 The political machine helped immigrants in the short
term, but hurt them in the long term


Money “stolen” could have gone to programs to pull
immigrants out of poverty
Increased negative attitudes towards immigrants/immigrants
blamed for electing these people
 Who is to blame?
 Do you think it stops there???