Who is boss tweed and why is he important

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New York was a teeming place after the Civil War. Black smoke clogged the air, wafted from the burning coal and wood that heated homes and powered factories. Diseases like cholera and tuberculosis thrived in the unhealthy environment. More than one million people were crowded into the city; many in dilapidated tenements. Poverty, illiteracy, crime, and vice were rampant problems for the poor, and for the Irish and German immigrants who made up almost half the population.

The city government offered a very few basic services to alleviate the suffering, and churches and private charities were often overwhelmed by the need. One politician discovered how to provide these services and get something in return. From an early age, Tweed discovered he had a knack for politics, with his imposing figure and charisma. He soon began serving in local New York City political offices and was elected alderman for the Seventh Ward, joining the so-called 40 thieves who represented the city wards.

He served a frustrating term in Congress during the sectional tensions of the s and then happily returned to local politics, where he believed the action was.

He quickly became one of the leading politicians in New York City, and one of the most corrupt. By the late s, Tweed had ascended through a variety of local offices, including volunteer firefighter, school commissioner, member of the county board of supervisors, and street commissioner. He learned to make political allies and friends and became a rising star.

Tweed engineered a deal in which some family men rather than just the rich received exemptions and even a loan from Tammany Hall to pay a substitute. He had won a great deal of local autonomy and control, which the federal government had to accept. In , the state legislature granted New York City a new charter that gave local officials, rather than those in the state capital in Albany, power over local political offices and appointments.

Tweed doled out thousands of jobs and lucrative contracts as patronage, and he expected favors, bribes, and kickbacks in return. Some of that money was distributed to judges for favorable rulings. Massive building projects such as new hospitals, elaborate museums, marble courthouses, paved roads, and the Brooklyn Bridge had millions of dollars of padded costs added that went straight to Boss Tweed and his cronies.

The Tweed ring pocketed most of the money. The ring also gobbled up massive amounts of real estate, owned the printing company that contracted for official city business such as ballots, and received large payoffs from railroads.

Soon, Tweed owned an extravagant Fifth Avenue mansion and an estate in Connecticut, was giving lavish parties and weddings, and owned diamond jewelry worth tens of thousands of dollars. Most people in local government received their jobs because of patronage rather than merit and talent. The Tweed Ring reached its peak of fraudulence in with the remodeling of the City Court House, a blatant embezzlement of city funds that was exposed by The New York Times.

All the Tweed Ring were subsequently tried and sentenced to prison. Boss Tweed served time for forgery and larceny and other charges but in escaped from prison and traveled to Cuba and Spain. In , he was arrested by Spanish police, who reportedly recognized him from a famous Nash cartoon depiction. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Perkin Warbeck, who invaded England in claiming to be the lost son of King Edward IV, is hanged for allegedly trying to escape from the Tower of London.

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