Tweed Ring
TWEED RING
TWEED RING. In the late 1860s and early 1870s, William Marcy Tweed, New York State senator and Democratic Party boss, along with his political associates, robbed the New York City treasury of at least $30 million, and perhaps far more. Matthew J. O'Rourke, a journalist who—while county bookkeeper—exposed the frauds, reckoned $200 million as the total stealings of the ring and its subrings. The Tweed Ring infiltrated nearly every segment of public life in New York City. The ring included the governor, the mayor, the city comptroller, and countless other prominent citizens in both the public and private sectors. It operated by granting municipal contracts to its political cronies and by embezzling funds intended for hospitals and charitable institutions. The ring's recklessness and the magnitude of its thefts quickly
pushed the city to the verge of bankruptcy. This, coupled with a struggle between Tweed and reformer Samuel J. Tilden for Democratic Party control, led to the ring's undoing. The corruption racket involved so many notable figures in New York City that a complete list of the ring's beneficiaries was never released. Although Tweed himself made a partial confession and spent the remainder of his life in jail, the vast majority of the ring's participants were never brought to justice. Long after Tweed's death, his name remained synonymous with shameless political graft.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Mandelbaum, Seymour J. Boss Tweed's New York. New York: Wiley, 1965.
Summers, Mark Wahlgren. The Era of Good Stealings. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
AnthonyGaughan
Denis TildenLynch
See alsoCorruption, Political ; Political Scandals ; Rings, Political .