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WILLIAM M. TWEED (1823-1878) and Tammany Hall This research pape

of a gang of boys who engaged in petty thefts and pranks on local merchants. After serving as an apprentice in his father's shop, Tweed moved from job to job. He was a salesman for a saddle and harness firm, a bookkeeper for a tobacco merchant and then back to selling for a local brush firm, where he was made a junior partner after marrying the boss's daughter, Mary. After returning to his father's employ, Tweed spent much of his time in his early 20s as a volunteer fireman for Americus Fire Engine Company No. 6, where he was first exposed to municipal politics.

In 1850, he ran unsuccessfully for the post of assistant alderman, in which, as a Protestant, Tweed earned the approval of Irish Catholics by opposing the Know-Nothings. He was elected an alderman in 1851 and joined the city council, whose members were nicknamed the Forty Thieves. Tweed talked his colleagues into buying for the city a piece of land on Wards Island worth only $30,000 for $103,440, and he split the difference with his cronies (Ellis 329). In 1953-1854, he served a term in the House of Representatives, where he made a poor impression because of his inarticulate speech and inattention to his duties.

Returning to New York, Tweed was defeated again in his run for alderman, but succeeded in getting himself elected to the Board of Education, which raised revenues for its members by selling textbooks to the city at inflated prices and auctioning off teaching jobs (Werner 108). He was elected in 1857 to the county Board of Supervisors. He wrested control of the Board, which was evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, by paying a Republican member $2,500 to miss meetings. After that, Ellis said Tweed "was really off and running. Firmly in charge of the financial arm of government, Tweed used this power to extend his authority over other branches of the city administration" (Ellis 330). Tweed spent the next seven years consolidating his political power in...

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WILLIAM M. TWEED (1823-1878) and Tammany Hall This research pape. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 05:51, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1708273.html