TWEED WINS AND FALLS
1870
The campaign that followed the control of Tweed and Conkling combined
the spectacular and the dramatic. The platform of each party was
catchy. Both congratulated Germany for its victories and France for
its republic. Cuba also was remembered. But here the likeness ceased.
Democrats praised Hoffman, arraigned Grant, sympathised with Ireland,
demanded the release of Fenian raiders and the abolition of vexatious
taxes, declared the system of protection a robbery, and resolved that
a license law was more favourable to temperance than prohibition. On
the other hand, Republicans praised the President, arraigned the
Governor, applauded payments on the national debt and the reduction of
taxation, denounced election frauds and subventions to sectarian
schools, and resolved that so long as towns and cities have the right
to license the sale of liquor, they should also have the right to
prohibit its sale. The live issue, however, was Tammany and the Tweed
frauds. Congress had authorised Circuit Courts of the United States to
appoint in every election district one person from each party to watch
the registration and the casting and the count of votes. It had also
empowered United States marshals to appoint deputies to keep order at
the polls and to arrest for offences committed in their presence.
Against these acts the Democrats vigorously protested, declaring them
unconstitutional, revolutionary, and another step toward
centralisation, while Republicans pointed out their necessity in the
interest of a fair vote and an honest count.
To Conkling the result of the campaign was of the utmost importance.
He had suddenly come into power, and success would materially aid him
in carrying out his policy of reorganising the party in the
metropolis. For many years, under an arrangement with Tammany,
Republicans had held important municipal positions. This custom had
grown out of the appointment of mixed commissions, created by
Republican legislatures, which divided the patronage between the two
parties. But since 1865, under Fenton's skilful manipulation, these
Tammany-Republicans, as they were called, had become the ardent
promoters of the Fenton machine, holding places on the general and
district committees, carrying primaries with the aid of Democratic
votes, and resorting to methods which fair-minded men did not approve.
Among other things it was charged that Fenton himself had a secret
understanding with Democratic leaders.[1266] These rumours had aroused
the suspicions of many Republicans, who thought it time to dissolve
the Tammany partnership, and having obtained control of the State
Committee in the late convention, Conkling proposed to reorganise the
New York general committee. Fenton was not unmindful of Conkling's
purpose. It had been disclosed in the convention, and to defeat it the
Chautauquan was indifferent to ways and means. During much of the
campaign he absented himself from the State, while threats of avenging
the appointment of Murphy and the removal of Grinnell created the
apprehension that his faction would secretly oppose the ticket.[1267]
[Footnote 1266: A.R. Conkling, _Life of Roscoe Conkling_, p. 329.]
[Footnote 1267: "Governor Fenton and his friends were lukewarm
throughout the campaign, the Governor absenting himself from the State
much of the time. Late in October he returned from the Western States,
and on the 31st, five days before election, he made a speech." From
Conkling's speech of July 22, 1872. New York _Times_, July 24.]
Throughout the canvass Conkling was energetic. He spoke frequently.
That his temper was hot no one who looked at him could doubt, but he
had it in tight control. Although he encountered unfriendly
demonstrations, especially in New York, the pettiness of ruffled
vanity did not appear. Nothing could be more easy and graceful than
his manner on these occasions. His expository statements, lucid,
smooth, and equally free from monotony and abruptness, were models of
their kind. In dealing with election frauds in New York his
utterances, without growing more vehement or higher keyed, found
expression in the fire of his eye and the resistless strength of his
words. The proud, bold nature of the man seemed to flash out,
startling and thrilling the hearer by the power of his towering
personality.
Revelations of fraud had been strengthened by the publication of the
Eighth Census. In many election districts it appeared that the count
was three, four, five, and even six times as large as an honest vote
could be. Proofs existed, including in some instances a confession,
that in 1868 the same men registered more than one hundred times under
different names--one man one hundred and twenty-seven times. Instances
were known and admitted in which the same man on the same day voted
more than twenty times for John T. Hoffman. "To perpetuate this
infamy," declared Conkling, "Mayor Hall has invented since the
publication of the census new escapes for repeaters by changing the
numbers and the boundaries of most of the election districts, in some
cases bisecting blocks and buildings, so that rooms on the same
premises are in different districts, thus enabling colonised repeaters
to register and vote often, and to find doors of escape left open by
officials who have sworn to keep them closed." The registration for
1870, although twenty thousand less than in 1868, he declared,
contained seventeen thousand known fraudulent entries.[1268] The
newspapers strengthened his arguments. In one of Nast's cartoons Tweed
as "Falstaff" reviews his army of repeaters, with Hoffman as
sword-bearer, and Comptroller Sweeny, Mayor Hall, James Fisk, Jr., and
Jay Gould as spectators.[1269] Another pre-election cartoon, entitled
"The Power behind the Throne," presented Governor Hoffman crowned and
robed as king, with Tweed grasping the sword of power and Sweeny the
axe of an headsman.[1270]
[Footnote 1268: New York _Times_, November 7, 1870.]
[Footnote 1269: _Harper's Weekly_, November 5, 1870.]
[Footnote 1270: _Harper's Weekly_, October 29, 1870.]
Democrats resented these attacks. People, still indifferent to or
ignorant of Tweed's misdeeds, rested undisturbed. The Citizens'
Association of New York had memorialised the Legislature to pass the
Tweed charter, men of wealth and character petitioned for its
adoption, and the press in the main approved it.[1271] Even the
_World_, after its bitter attacks in the preceding winter upon the
Ring officials, championed their cause.[1272] "There is not another
municipal government in the world," said Manton Marble, "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."[1273] The final Democratic rally of the campaign also
contributed to Tammany's glory. Horatio Seymour was the guest of honor
and August Belmont chairman. Conspicuous in the list of
vice-presidents were Samuel J. Tilden, George Tichnor Curtis, Augustus
Schell, and Charles O'Conor, while Tweed, with Hoffman and McClellan,
reviewed thirty thousand marchers in the presence of one hundred
thousand people who thronged Union Square, attracted by an
entertainment as lavish as the fêtes of Napoleon III. To many this
prodigal expenditure of money suggested as complete and sudden a
collapse to Tweed as had befallen the French Emperor, then about to
become the prisoner of Germany. In the midst of the noise Seymour,
refraining from committing himself to Tammany's methods, read a
carefully written essay on the canals.[1274] It was noted, too, that
Tilden did not speak.
[Footnote 1271: Appleton's _Cyclopædia_, 1870, pp. 543, 544; Frank J.
Goodnow in Bryce's _American Commonwealth_, Vol. 1, p. 342.]
[Footnote 1272: New York _World_, March 29, 1870.]
[Footnote 1273: _Ibid._, June 13, 1871.]
[Footnote 1274: _Ibid._, Oct. 28, 1870.]
The election resulted in the choice of all the Democratic candidates,
with sixteen of the thirty-one congressmen and a majority in each
branch of the Legislature. Hall was also re-elected mayor.[1275]
Republicans extracted a bit of comfort out of the reduced majority in
New York City, but to all appearances Tammany had tightened its grip.
Indeed, on New Year's Day, 1871, when Hoffman and Hall, with almost
unlimited patronage to divide, were installed for a second time, the
Boss had reason to feel that he could do as he liked. From a modest
house on Henry Street he moved to Fifth Avenue. At his summer home in
Greenwich he erected a stable with stalls of finest mahogany. His
daughter's wedding became a prodigal exhibition of great wealth, and
admittance to the Americus Club, his favourite retreat, required an
initiation fee of one thousand dollars. To the poor he gave lavishly.
In the winter of 1870-71 he donated one thousand dollars to each
alderman to buy coal and food for the needy. His own ward received
fifty thousand. Finally, in return for his gifts scattered broadcast
to the press and to an army of protégés, it was proposed to erect a
statue "in commemoration of his services to the Commonwealth of New
York." His followers thought him invulnerable, and those who despised
him feared his power. In New York he had come to occupy something of
the position formerly accorded to Napoleon III by the public opinion
of Europe.
[Footnote 1275: Hoffman over Woodford, 33,096. James S. Graham, Labor
Reform candidate, received 1,907 votes, and Myron H. Clark, Temperance
candidate, 1,459 votes. Assembly, 65 Democrats to 63 Republicans;
Senate, 17 Democrats to 14 Republicans. Hall's majority, 23,811.
Hoffman's majority in New York City, 52,037, being 16,000 less than in
1868. Appleton's _Cyclopædia_, 1870, p. 547.]
Tweed's legislative achievements, increasing in boldness, climaxed in
the session of 1871 by the passage of the Acts to widen Broadway and
construct the Viaduct Railroad. The latter company had power to grade
streets, to sell five millions of its stock to the municipality, and
to have its property exempted from taxation,[1276] while the Broadway
swindle, estimated to cost the city between fifty and sixty
millions,[1277] enabled members of the Ring to enrich themselves in the
purchase of real estate. To pass these measures Tweed required the
entire Democratic vote, so that when one member resigned to avoid
expulsion for having assaulted a colleague,[1278] he found it necessary
to purchase a Republican to break the deadlock. The character of
Republican assemblymen had materially changed for the better, and the
belief obtained that "none would be brazen enough to take the risk of
selling out;"[1279] but an offer of seventy-five thousand dollars
secured the needed vote.[1280] Thus did the power of evil seem more
strongly intrenched than ever.
[Footnote 1276: Myers, _History of Tammany_, p. 276.]
[Footnote 1277: Myers, _History of Tammany_, p. 276.]
[Footnote 1278: Without provocation James Irving of New York assaulted
Smith M. Weed of Clinton.]
[Footnote 1279: New York _Tribune_, April 14, 1871.]
[Footnote 1280: "Winans was unfortunate in his bargain, for after
rendering the service agreed upon Tweed gave him only one-tenth of the
sum promised." Myers' _History of Tammany Hall_, p. 277. It might be
added that Winans' wife left him, and that the contempt of his
neighbours drove him from home. A rumour that he subsequently
committed suicide remains unverified.]
Meanwhile the constant and unsparing denunciation of the New York
_Times_, coupled with Nast's cartoons in _Harper's Weekly_, excited
increasing attention to the Ring. As early as 1869 Nast began
satirising the partnership of Tweed, Sweeny, Connolly, and Hall, and
in 1870 the _Times_ opened its battery with an energy and sureness of
aim that greatly disturbed the conspirators. To silence its suggestive
and relentless attacks Tweed sought to bribe its editor, making an
offer of one million dollars.[1281] A little later he sent word to Nast
that he could have half a million.[1282] Failing in these attempts the
Ring, in November, 1870, secured an indorsement from Marshall O.
Roberts, Moses Taylor, John Jacob Astor, and three others of like
position, that the financial affairs of the city, as shown by the
comptroller's books, were administered correctly. It subsequently
transpired that some of these men were associated with Tweed in the
notorious Viaduct job,[1283] but for the time their certificate
re-established the Ring's credit more firmly than ever. "There is
absolutely nothing in the city," said the _Times_, "which is beyond
the reach of the insatiable gang who have obtained possession of
it."[1284]
[Footnote 1281: Paine, _Life of Nast_, p. 153.]
[Footnote 1282: _Ibid._, p. 182.]
[Footnote 1283: Paine, _Life of Nast_, p. 145.]
[Footnote 1284: February 24, 1871.]
While Roberts and his associates were certifying to the correctness of
Connolly's books, William Copeland, a clerk in the office, was making
a transcript of the Ring's fraudulent disbursements. Copeland was a
protégé of ex-sheriff James O'Brien, who had quarrelled with Connolly
because the latter refused to allow his exorbitant bills, and with the
Copeland transcript he tried to extort the money from Tweed. Failing
in this he offered the evidence to the _Times_. A little later the
same journal obtained a transcript of fraudulent armoury accounts
through Matthew J. O'Rourke, a county bookkeeper. When knowledge of
the _Times'_ possessions reached the Ring, Connolly offered George
Jones, the proprietor, five million dollars to keep silent. "I cannot
consider your proposition," said Jones.[1285]
[Footnote 1285: _Harper's Weekly_, February 22, 1890; Paine, _Life of
Nast_, p. 170.]
The _Times'_ publication of the armoury expenses furnished by O'Rourke
created a sensation, but the excitement over the Copeland evidence
grew into a fierce tempest. These figures, carefully tabulated and
printed in large type, showed that the new courthouse, incomplete and
miserably furnished, involved a steal of $8,000,000. One plasterer
received $38,187 for two days' work. Another, during a part of two
months, drew nearly $1,000,000. A carpenter received $350,000 for a
month's labour. A single item of stationery aggregated $186,495, while
forty chairs and three tables cost $179,729. In supplying aldermen
with carriages, mostly for funerals, two liverymen earned $50,000 in a
few days. Advertising in city newspapers amounted to $2,703,308.
Carpets purchased at five dollars per yard would cover City Hall Park
three times over. As these disclosures appeared in successive issues
the people realised that a gang of very common thieves had been at
work. It was a favourite method to refuse payment for want of money
until a claimant, weary of waiting, accepted the suggestion of
Connolly's agent to increase the amount of his bill. This turned an
honest man into a conspirator and gave the Ring the benefit of the
raise.[1286]
[Footnote 1286: New York _Times_, July 21, 1871.]
On September 4, 1871, a mass meeting of indignant citizens, held in
Cooper Union, created the Committee of Seventy, and charged it with
the conduct of investigations and prosecutions. Before it could act
vouchers and cancelled warrants, covering the courthouse work for 1869
and 1870, had been stolen from the comptroller's office.[1287] This
increased the excitement. At last Connolly, to escape becoming a
scape-goat, appointed Andrew H. Green deputy comptroller, and the
Governor designated Charles O'Conor to act in behalf of the
Attorney-General. Thus the Committee of Seventy passed into complete
control of the situation, and under the pressure of suits and arrests
the Ring rapidly lost its power and finally its existence. On October
26, 1871, Tweed was arrested and held to bail in the sum of
$1,000,000, Jay Gould becoming his chief bondsman. Soon after Sweeny
retired from the Board of Park Commissioners, Connolly resigned as
comptroller, and Tweed gave up the offices of grand sachem of Tammany,
director of the Erie Railway, and commissioner of public works. Of all
his associates Mayor Hall alone continued in office, serving until the
end of 1872, the close of his term.[1288]
[Footnote 1287: Subsequently the charred remains of these accounts were
discovered in an ash-heap in the City Hall attic. Myers, _History of
Tammany Hall_, p. 387.]
[Footnote 1288: Hall was indicted and tried, but the jury disagreed.
The second grand jury did not indict.]
Having anticipated a little it may not be improper to anticipate a
little more, and say what became of other members of this historic
Ring. When the public prosecutor began his work Sweeny and Connolly
fled to Europe.[1289] After one mistrial, Tweed, found guilty on
fifty-one counts, was sent to prison for twelve years on Blackwell's
Island, but at the end of a year the Court of Appeals reversed the
sentence, holding it cumulative. Being immediately rearrested Tweed,
in default of bail fixed at $3,000,000, remained in jail until his
escape in December, 1875. Disguised by cutting his beard and wearing a
wig and gold spectacles, he concealed his whereabouts for nearly a
year, going to Florida in a schooner, thence to Cuba in a fishing
smack, and finally to Spain, where he was recognised and returned to
New York on a United States man-of-war. He re-entered confinement on
November 23, 1876, and died friendless and moneyless in Ludlow Street
jail on April 12, 1878.
[Footnote 1289: Sweeny afterwards compromised for $400,000 and returned
to New York. Connolly, who was reported to have taken away $6,000,000,
died abroad.]
Meantime the Legislature of 1871 had ordered the impeachment of
Barnard and Cardozo of the Supreme Court, and McCunn of the Superior
Court. Their offences extended beyond the sphere of Tweed's
operations, indicating the greed of a Sweeny and the disregard of all
honorable obligations. Cardozo, the most infamous of the trio, called
the Machiavelli of the Bench, weakened under investigation and
resigned to avoid dismissal. Barnard and McCunn, being summarily
removed, were forever disqualified from holding any office of trust in
the State. McCunn died three days after sentence, while Barnard,
although living for seven years, went to his grave at the early age of
fifty.
The aggregate of the Ring's gigantic swindles is known only
approximately. Henry F. Taintor, the auditor employed by Andrew H.
Green, estimated it between forty-five and fifty millions; an
Aldermanic committee placed it at sixty millions; and Matthew J.
O'Rourke, after thorough study, fixed it at seventy-five millions,
adding that if his report had included the vast issues of fraudulent
bonds, the swindling by franchises and favours granted, and
peculation by blackmail and extortion, the grand total would aggregate
two hundred millions. Of the entire sum stolen only $876,000 were
recovered.[1290]
[Footnote 1290: Myers, _History of Tammany Hall_, pp. 297-298; New York
_Herald_, January 13, 1901.]