POLITICAL MACHINES

Politicians no longer ran in small cities because of urbanization they were running in large cities. They started building political organizations called machines in the early 1900’s to guarantee their success in municipal elections. Machines provided dreadful neighborhoods with new roads and systems and helped immigrants find jobs. They took over much of the politics and were led by a boss that controlled government jobs and services through loyalty and corruption.

BOSS TWEED

William Magear Tweed was a star in New York City politics  during  the 1850s and a member of Tammany Hall. He went from being in the behind-the-scenes group that dealt with  local Democratic Party to being elected Chair of Tammany Hall and having absolute power over who could be nominated as a Democratic candidate. He was elected to the State Senate in 1867, and within months he got control over the state's capitol.  But he was exposed of having stolen between $75 million and $200 million from the city over the years. The exposure of such large scale corruption helped propel the movement for reform in American politics.Thomas Nast, cartoonist for Harper's Weekly, was one of the few prominent voices to speak against him, and  series of articles and On 19 November 1872 he was convicted on 204 of the 220 charges against him, and sentenced to thirteen years in debtors' prison.After nineteen months in jail, he was released on appeal, then he  was re-arrested to face additional charges and civil suits. Freed from prison in 1875 , he ran away to Spain, where he was arrested when his ship docked. Then he returned to prison in New York were He confessed to all his crimes in hopes of a pardon but he wasn't pardoned and he died in the federal prison in New York City.

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This picture shows political machines like boss tweed and how they controlled the ballots in order to stay in power, this picture is by Thomas Nast, he was trying to expose tweed for his corruptions.