1905—Tammany Hall

During the second half of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth, city and even state politics in New York were often dominated by an organization called Tammany Hall. Tammany Hall, the building, was the headquarters for New York City’s Democratic Party. However, the name Tammany Hall came to mean much more than just a building. Tammany organized voters and elected its candidates so efficiently, that its methods were called “machine politics.” From the 1860s, powerful political bosses led Tammany. Political machines, like the one at Tammany Hall, became notorious for robbing city treasuries through graft* and corruption. In 1905, William Riordon, transcribed conversations he held with George Washington Plunkitt, a political boss under the Tammany system. Plunkitt speaks:

Everybody is talkin’ these days about undertake a lot of public improvements. Well, Tammany men growin’ rich on graft, but I’m tipped off, say, that they’re going to layout nobody thinks of drawin’ the distinction a new park at a certain place. I see my between honest graft and dishonest graft. opportunity and I take it. I go to that place and There’s all the difference in the world between I buy up all the land I can in the neighborhood. the two. Yes, many of our men have grown rich Then the board of this or that makes its plan in politics. I have myself. I’ve made a big public, and there is a rush to get my land, which fortune out of the game, and I’m gettin’ richer nobody cared particular for before. Ain’t it every day, but I’ve not gone in for dishonest perfectly honest to charge a good price and graft—blackmailin’ gamblers, saloonkeepers, make a profit on my investment and foresight? disorderly people, etc.—and neither has any of Of course, it is. Well, that’s honest graft.… the men who have made big fortunes in politics. Now, in conclusion, I want to say that I There’s an honest graft, and I’m an don’t own a dishonest dollar. If my worst example of how it works. I might sum up the enemy was given the job of writin’ my epitaph+ whole thing by sayin’: “I seen my opportunities when I’m gone, he couldn’t do more than write: and I took ‘em.” “George W. Plunkitt. He Seen His Just let me explain by examples. My Opportunities, and He Took ‘Em.” party’s in power in the city, and it’s goin’ to

—Questions—

1. What was Tammany Hall?

2. How would you define the term political machine? How would you define a political boss?

3. What is the actual definition of “graft”? According to Plunkitt, what is the difference between “honest graft” and “dishonest graft”? Do you agree with him? Does “honest graft” exist?

4. What does this excerpt tell you about the Tammany Hall view of government and corruption?

5. What kind of reforms would be needed to reduce this kind of corruption?

6. Do you think this kind of corruption is still widely found in city and state governments?

GLOSSARY *graft—bribery, using one’s political +epitaph—inscription on a tombstone in position for dishonest gain memory of a person buried there