William Magear "Boss" Tweed
Although he may have died over a hundred and forty years ago the name Tweed is still synonymous today with power, greed, and corruption. Becoming the first real boss of Tammany he took on the title of “Boss Tweed” and it would stick for the rest of his life and beyond.
Tweed was an expert at misappropriating funds and driving up the cost of city projects to reap the benefits into his own pocket. Through boards and commissions, he was able to hide his money and did very well for himself as boss of Tammany Hall with historians estimating he stole between $20,000,000 and $200,000,000 from the city of New York.1 Although newspapers and Thomas Nast painted Tweed as this lecherous, corrupt, thief when he was much more than that. Tweed’s power came from his ability to ingratiate himself with men of respectability and with low politicians, his vindictiveness, and the imagination he had for politics.2 At this time he was just like plenty of other normal business men, maximize profit in the short term and then get out it just so happened to be that he was in public office as he did it. Tweed was able to go on with his criminal activities long enough because well he was good at hiding his money but also, he was paying off the news media. He even tried to pay off Thomas Nast with $500,000 to go overseas and stop drawing cartoons of Tweed but he refused.3 He had massive sums of money at his disposal and several reporters on each paper received stipends from city officials to ensure favorable coverage.4
If you are having a tough time understanding just how important and how much influence this one man had over an entire city was captivating and unlike anything we will ever see again. Imagine Tony Soprano from the hit show “The sopranos” but instead of being in a crime family Tweed was an “elected” official holding public office. Just like other politicians Tweed was not above using a little muscle to give himself an advantage at the polls. Whether it was using intimidation from gangs or having the same people vote repeatedly on election day, it was reported there were more votes coming out of the district than there were people registered.5 One thing that cannot be forgotten is Tweed’s ability to embezzle large sums of money from the city through building contracts, projects, etc. The most famous and notorious example would be the “Tweed Courthouse.” This courthouse took years to finish past its expected completion and cost the city taxpayers 52 times the amount they should have payed all going into Tweed’s pockets.6 Tweed, Grand sachem of Tammany Hall, set a precedent with machine politics and the way political organizations ran cities and most of all people.
More than a century after his death, the name “Boss Tweed” still holds weight and that is a testament to the level of corruption and power that he built up through his organization, Tammany Hall in New York city.
Footnotes
- Charles Thompson, New York Times, October 27, 1927. p. 37. 2
- Seymour J. Mandelbaum, Boss Tweed's New York (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee Publisher, 1990). P. 67 3
- New York Times, August 26, 1923, p. 139 4
- Seymour J. Mandelbaum, Boss Tweed's New York (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee Publisher, 1990). P. 70 5
- New York Times, August 26, 1923, p. 139 6
- New York Times, May 5, 1986, p. 21.