Reddit boss tweed biography

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With his health broken and few remaining supporters, Tweed died in jail in 1878.

Watch this BRI Homework Help video on Boss Tweed for a look at his rise and fall and how Tammany Hall affect Gilded Age New York City.

Tammany Hall and the Tweed Ring are infamous models of Gilded Age urban corruption.

Political leader. By the early twentieth century, Progressive reformers had begun to target the bosses and political machines to reform city government in the United States.

Review Questions

1. He was returned to prison on 23 November. One politician discovered how to provide these services and get something in return.

William Magear “Boss” Tweed was the son of a furniture maker.

As the chairman of the senate committee on cities he oversaw the passage of a new charter for the city in 1870 that replaced the Board of Supervisors with a new Board of Audit. He was released after a year when a judge ruled the sentence excessive, but was immediately rearrested on a civil charge and imprisoned on Ludlow Street.

It was at this time that Tweed began working actively for Tammany Hall, the leading Democratic political organization in the city. He increased his political power by greatly expanding the number of patronage positions in the streets department.

Tweed used his formal and informal authority to gain financial profit for himself, his cohorts, and the Democratic party.

Indeed, the county courthouse was originally budgeted for $250,000 but eventually cost more than $13 million and was not even completed. In February and again in October 1872 criminal charges were filed against him.

The first trial against Tweed resulted in a hung jury, but the second ended with a conviction on misdemeanor charges.

He then formed a smaller executive committee, which eventually wielded much more power than the general committee, and had himself appointed deputy street commissioner. When dilapidated tenement buildings burned down, ring members followed the firetrucks to ensure that families had a place to stay and food to eat. Since he had already served 19 months in the city jail on Blackwell's Island, he was released.

Diseases like cholera and tuberculosis thrived in the unhealthy environment. He also made himself the commissioner of public works. He offered bribes to the editor of the New York Times and to Nast to stop their public criticisms, but neither accepted.

Boss Tweed was arrested in October 1871 and indicted shortly thereafter.

During the 1840s he shifted his political allegiance from the anti-Catholic American-Republican party to the Whigs before settling down with the Democrats.

In 1850 the Democrats nominated Tweed for assistant alderman from the Seventh Ward; he lost, but the next year won election as alderman. Shortly after the election he was named chairman of the Democratic General Committee of New York County, and on 1 January 1863 he was chosen to lead the general committee of Tammany Hall.

It moved to Riverside Drive and 168th Street, changing its name to the Westside Center for Family Services. https://resources.billofrightsinstitute.org/heroes-and-villains/boss-tweed-avarice/

Suggested Resources

Ackerman, Kenneth D. Boss Tweed: The Rise and Fall of the Corrupt Pol Who Conceived the Soul of Modern New York.