Machine Made: Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics by Terry Golway
Authors: Terry Golway
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Tammany’s hold on labor’s loyalties at a time when the organization was in disarray and willing to cut deals with the city’s financial elites, leading to the nomination and election of a Wall Street Democrat, William Havemeyer, as mayor in 1853. (It was Havemeyer’s second election to the mayoralty—he unseated the nativist James Harper in 1845.) A reform-minded Common Council cut municipal taxes by 20 percent, but, not surprisingly, the measure did nothing to alleviate the distress of the city’s unemployed and its ever-growing population of unskilled Famine Irish.
The Irish quickly became an important presence in the labor movement’s demonstrations during the mid-1850s, when protest rallies attracted tens of thousands of workers and jobless to the city’s public spaces. At one such rally in Tompkins Square Park in the fall of 1857, an Irish speaker was on hand to translate speeches into the language of the Irish poor. The New York Evening Post took note of the Irish presence at the demonstration, mocking a speaker named Maguire by mimicking his accent in print form: “We niver will sase while there’s a man in the land that nades employment,” the paper quoted Maguire, poking fun not simply at his accent but also at his earnest declaration of assistance for the jobless. 34
The city’s leading newspapers and reform organizations shared with Charles Trevelyan a loathing for any suggestion that government ought to play a role in shaping, or softening, market forces. The Evening Post insisted that the government was under no obligation “to find people employment or food.” Despots followed such a “monstrous” course, the paper argued, but “our republican system of government professes to leave every channel of industry open.” The New York Times contended that society’s “less fortunate brethren” could not demand government relief “as a right.” Instead, the paper’s editors argued, relief should be administered as the “moral obligation” of the wealthy. 35
These restrictive views on the power of government put the city’s top editors in conflict with a favorite of New York’s Irish immigrant community, Fernando Wood, a colorful, ethically challenged Tammany Hall demagogue who was elected mayor three times in the 1850s. A tall man with elegant taste and an aristocratic bearing, Wood did not have a great deal in common with his loyal Irish constituents. Although born into humble circumstances, he was a wealthy man—he estimated his worth to be $250,000 in 1858—and he lived in comfort uptown, a world away from the slums that were home to his most ardent admirers. 36
Although Wood was a Tammany man through and through, he unexpectedly set reformers’ hearts aflame during his first few months as mayor in 1855 when he improved public transportation and fought plans to shrink the size of Central Park, then under construction. But he also took inordinate interest in staffing the Municipal Police Department, leading critics to charge that he favored immigrant hires over the native-born, and Democrats over Whigs and Republicans. Wood’s insistence on total control over law enforcement led the state to disband the municipal police force in the early summer of 1857, replacing it with the state-controlled Metropolitan Police Department. Wood and his officers, however, refused to acknowledge the new police force, a situation that was bound to end badly. And so it did.
On July 16, 1857, Daniel Conover, an appointee of Governor John King, showed up at City Hall for his first day of work as city street commissioner, only to learn that Mayor Wood had appointed another man, Charles Devlin, to the post. Wood was not about to allow King to impose a commissioner as well as a police force on the city. Wood’s Municipals eagerly carried out the mayor’s orders to remove Conover from the building. The would-be commissioner promptly swore out a warrant for the mayor’s arrest, but when a captain of the
The Irish quickly became an important presence in the labor movement’s demonstrations during the mid-1850s, when protest rallies attracted tens of thousands of workers and jobless to the city’s public spaces. At one such rally in Tompkins Square Park in the fall of 1857, an Irish speaker was on hand to translate speeches into the language of the Irish poor. The New York Evening Post took note of the Irish presence at the demonstration, mocking a speaker named Maguire by mimicking his accent in print form: “We niver will sase while there’s a man in the land that nades employment,” the paper quoted Maguire, poking fun not simply at his accent but also at his earnest declaration of assistance for the jobless. 34
The city’s leading newspapers and reform organizations shared with Charles Trevelyan a loathing for any suggestion that government ought to play a role in shaping, or softening, market forces. The Evening Post insisted that the government was under no obligation “to find people employment or food.” Despots followed such a “monstrous” course, the paper argued, but “our republican system of government professes to leave every channel of industry open.” The New York Times contended that society’s “less fortunate brethren” could not demand government relief “as a right.” Instead, the paper’s editors argued, relief should be administered as the “moral obligation” of the wealthy. 35
These restrictive views on the power of government put the city’s top editors in conflict with a favorite of New York’s Irish immigrant community, Fernando Wood, a colorful, ethically challenged Tammany Hall demagogue who was elected mayor three times in the 1850s. A tall man with elegant taste and an aristocratic bearing, Wood did not have a great deal in common with his loyal Irish constituents. Although born into humble circumstances, he was a wealthy man—he estimated his worth to be $250,000 in 1858—and he lived in comfort uptown, a world away from the slums that were home to his most ardent admirers. 36
Although Wood was a Tammany man through and through, he unexpectedly set reformers’ hearts aflame during his first few months as mayor in 1855 when he improved public transportation and fought plans to shrink the size of Central Park, then under construction. But he also took inordinate interest in staffing the Municipal Police Department, leading critics to charge that he favored immigrant hires over the native-born, and Democrats over Whigs and Republicans. Wood’s insistence on total control over law enforcement led the state to disband the municipal police force in the early summer of 1857, replacing it with the state-controlled Metropolitan Police Department. Wood and his officers, however, refused to acknowledge the new police force, a situation that was bound to end badly. And so it did.
On July 16, 1857, Daniel Conover, an appointee of Governor John King, showed up at City Hall for his first day of work as city street commissioner, only to learn that Mayor Wood had appointed another man, Charles Devlin, to the post. Wood was not about to allow King to impose a commissioner as well as a police force on the city. Wood’s Municipals eagerly carried out the mayor’s orders to remove Conover from the building. The would-be commissioner promptly swore out a warrant for the mayor’s arrest, but when a captain of the
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