How Did The Tweed Ring's Existence

Guns, gangs, women, alcohol, gambling, are just some things that come to mind when I hear prohibition. According to the online source American History, The Prohibition is the act of prohibiting the manufacturing, storage, transportation, and sale of alcohol, including any alcoholic beverage. This led to the biggest crime rates of all time. At the head of all the crime was one man. His name, Alphonse Capone aka (Scarface) . “You can get much farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone.” This was Al Capone’s favorite saying. Which summarizes his can do attitude and how he expects things to get done. Al Capone was born January 25, 1899 and died January 25,1947. Although Capone’s life was short, he impacted America more

Imagine a world filled with big men with strong accents, walking around in suits with big cigars in their mouths. These men were loyal to their families but were dangerous if ever crossed. Does one thing wrong and you might as well dig your grave. These men thrived on the terrible economic trouble America was going through. These men are a big part of history and still have an effect on us today. These terrible intimidating men were a part of the mafia. The mafia, caused by dark times in America and corrupt police force, was a very influential group to America and lead to many deaths and a hurt America.

Thesis : After the Civil War, America was in a post-war boom. During the 1870-1890, big business moguls, such as Rockefeller and Carnegie, create huge corporations which not only affected the economy, but also affected the political realm of America. While many may assume that during the rise of these big business helped to change the economy and politics,  the real focus was on the responses formed by society, such as labor unions, increase public outcry, and political opposition groups that helped to change society.

During the late 1800’s, many settlers were expanding to the West and the Transcontinental Railroad helped them move from the East to the West. Some wanted to gain 160 free acres of land known as the Homestead Act. The Transcontinental Railroad connected the East and the West. The Union Pacific Railroad and Central Pacific Railroad were the companies that built the Transcontinental Railroad; however, the companies were run by greedy men and felt no guilt as they asked the government to pass special bills for them. The railroad cut through many lands and affected the Native Americans in a perilously way. Furthermore, many resources, such as buffalo were slaughtered and were almost made extinct, and Native Americans lost their land to American settlers, as well as these resources.Therefore, the Transcontinental

The late 19th century was full of growth, production, and business. People were craving power and seemed to achieve this through any means necessary. Consequently, a new business elite formed consisting of the richest men alive. The way in which these individuals acquired all their profits is something very contradictory even over one-hundred years later. Some historians characterize these businessmen as “robber barons” who used extreme methods to control and concentrate wealth and power, and being supported by multiple sources, this statement is justified but only to some extent.

The period from 1865 to 1900 was characterized by an astronomical boom in industry and manufacturing, economic growth for the rich, financial turmoil for the poor, and political corruption. As a result, the era has been named “The Gilded Age.” Just as something gilded is gold on the outside but worthless metal on the inside, these years seemed prosperous from an outside perspective, when in reality, the wealth gap was increasing at an alarming rate and big business had power over government officials. As a result of this, a lot of federal legislation was influenced by monopolies and often catered to the desires of businessmen. Since regulation of certain business practices would cause these trusts to lose money, Congress shied away from regulating

Tammany Hall was one of the most corrupt organizations in New York’s history. It was made up of New York’s elite democrats. Tweed started at the bottom but the longer he stayed with them, the more power he would have. Tammany Hall worked by getting its members seats in office. Many of the men in Tammany Hall would carry multiple jobs at a time, Tweed once held 13 positions in the New York Government. Once in office the men would take a percentage of the city funds, that were meant to go to things like public sanitation and restoring the roads, and split it with the rest of the members of Tammany. The small amount of lost money was unnoticeable, but it all adds up overtime. Like I have said, Tammany Hall stole an estimated $13 million from the New York Government which is an estimated $389 million dollars in today's money. That is 3,890 times the amount an average American makes in one year.

Before the Gilded Age, transportation of any sort was slow, unreliable, and unavailable. However, with the invention of the assembly line and some invention, mass produced automobiles, subterranean trains, elevated trains and basic airplanes were spread out. Therefore, during the late 19th century, transportation was allowing for extreme expanse of trade and economic capability.

The actual document begins with Plunkitt discussing the difference between honest graft and dishonest graft. He asserts that during this period of time many questions arose involving Tammany men becoming wealthy, while in office. This questioning defeated Tammany in 1901 due to the fact that the New York individuals thought some of the Tammany men were stealing from the city treasury. He argues that, “There’s an honest graft, and I’m an example of how it works. I might sum the whole thing by sayin’: ‘I seen my opportunities and I took ‘em” (49). Throughout the entire book, Plunkitt claims he did not own a dishonest dollar. He did, however, receive tips about property, and took advantage of the situation by buying land and selling the land at

William "Boss" Tweed began his rise to influence in the late 1840s as a volunteer fireman in New York City. From this inauspicious beginning, Tweed managed to build a power base in his ward. He served as an alderman in 1852-53 and then was elected to a term in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1853-55. State and local affairs were his prime concern and he remained active in Tammany Hall, the organizational force of the Democratic Party in New York. Tweed emerged as the focal point of patronage decisions, giving him immense power.Boss Tweed gathered a small group of men who controlled New York City 's finances. They dispensed jobs and contracts

The Transcontinental Railroad played a significant role in the settlement of the American West. As of May 10th, 1869, this railroad became the area’s newest and fastest mode of transportation. Its first obligation was to bring settlers in at very low

While in "Gilded Age", all levels of government had corruption, graft public money for their own. One of the most notorious New York City Boss Tweed William M. Tweed, his wealth has more than $25 million in 1871, all was dirty money. During the period he served as mayor of New York, the city requires all public officials to report false, false ratio as high as 85%. He presided over the construction of the New York county government office buildings, 40 chairs and 3 tables then discount about $179000, but a thermometer was quoted $7500. According to statistics, in 1860 ~ 1900, American municipal debt by $200 million soared to $1.4 billion, most of them are the City boss and partisans pocketed.

During the gilded era, corrupt politicians added to the problems and injustices. Document 4 shows this using a comic. In the comic it shows that the “bosses of the senate” were the politicians which were backed up by big business and corporations. This relationship between politicians and businessmen consisted of businessmen supporting the politicians financially and in return the politicians

During the Gilded Age, workers were forced to work in dangerous conditions surrounded by heavy machinery. The rapid growth of the manufacturing industry created a great need for unskilled laborers who required little training and completed routine tasks with minimum pay. One of the most significant employers, the steel mills, often demanded a seven-day work week. Furthermore, seamstresses and factory workers worked over 12 hours a day for six days a week. Employees were denied vacation days, sick leave, unemployment benefits, or assistance for injuries suffered on the job. In old, disgusting, poorly ventilated factories, workers performed many, challenging tasks, usually with dangerous or broken equipment. In fact, in 1882 an average of 675

In 1868, William Marcy Tweed became the grand sachem (leader) of Tammany Hall. He was also elected to New York State Senate. In 1870, the Tweed Ring took control of the city’s treasury. They did this by passing a city charted which named them the board of audit. Now that the Tweed Ring had placed them over the finances of New York City, they began to financially drain the city. They drained the city’s finances through faked leases, false vouchers, extra expenses tacked onto bills, and various other scheme thought of by the Tweed Ring. The Tweed Ring’s downfall finally came in 1873. By then the Tweed Ring had taken anywhere between $30,000,000 to $200,000,000 present-day dollars. The public finally began to support efforts to stop them. The ongoing efforts of The New York Times and Thomas Nast were finally able to have Tweed and his cohorts convicted on charges of forgery and larceny. A century later, Tweed’s practices are still frowned upon and measure have been put in place to ensure