Corruption In Tammany Hall

During the history of New York, there is the history of Tammany Hall founded in 1789 in opposition to the Federalist Party, and the main goal of this organization was to fight against the Federalist Party as Antifederalists. The Federalist Party’s main goal was to ratify the constitution and divide the power between the national government and the state government, so, the Tammany Hall was created to fight against the goal of the Federalist Party. Also, from 1890s to 1934, Tammany Hall became famous due charges of corruption against the leader William M. Boss Tweed, better known as “Boss”. Although this organization was guilty of some corruption cases, it succeeded because it helped poor people and because it never lost touch with its people;

The purpose of the Tammany Hall was to fight against the Federalist Party. Tammany Hall was not only a local issue; it was a national issue according to Thompson. Tammany Hall was well-known due its corruption in New York City, where they earned millions of dollars. According to Thompson, “The truth about the first article on the trans-Hudson creed is this: All big cities are run politically by machines, none of which is angelic, some are pretty fair, some bad and some occasionally or often very rotten. The one in New York has had an uneven record." (Thompson) In other words, Thompson was mentioned that the first article in the trans-Hudson creed was talking about that all big cities were ran politically by machines. He was describing the aspect of these machines, but stated that the one in New York was surpassed. So, the one that was surpassing in New York was the Tammany Hall. However, the author was not clear regarding this comment, it is very clear that he was talking about Tammany Hall due its record of corruption and notoriety. In addition, Tammany Hall was never run by a boss until Tweed joined it. Tweed was the first boss of Tammany

Tweed was the political boss of the city, New York City.” (Digital History) In other words, the nickname of “Boss” came due his political presence in New York City. Being the boss of an area means that you are the best in this area. Therefore, William M. Tweed was considered the best politician of New York City. He came to New York after the Civil War. His main office was located on the East 14th Street under the name of Tammany Hall. Tammany Hall was highly criticized due its corruption. Also, “Digital History” stated that “his primary source of funds came from the bribes and kickbacks that he demanded in exchange for city contracts.” (Digital History) In other words, the primary source of funds of Tweed came from bribes. However, there were positive actions behind Tammany Hall.
Following the reading of Heffner, he stated that the political cartoonist Thomas Nast brought down the house of Tweed, "Crushing the infamous Ring." (Heffner) Tweed admitted that Nast was truly intelligent, but not enough because Nast didn’t know that the followers of Tweed didn’t know how to read and therefore these articles were useless. In an early fight, the newspaper New York Times was trying to fight against the Tweed ring without fear. It took too long and was short of documentation to fight against Tweed, Heffner reported.