Lights and Shadows of New York Life

J >> James D. McCabe >> Lights and Shadows of New York Life

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II. PERSONNEL OF THE RING.

Generally speaking, the Ring may be said to include every office-holder
in the city, and it is very certain that of late every official has come
in for a share of the suspicion with which the people regard the
transactions of the Ring. It would be impossible to give an accurate and
complete list of the members of that body, for many of them are not yet
known to the public; but the recent investigations have shown that it is
not composed exclusively of Democrats. A number of Republicans, while
openly acting with their party, have been found to be allied with and in
the pay of the Ring.

The men who are supposed to have played the most conspicuous parts in the
doings of the Ring, and who are believed by the public to be chiefly
responsible for its acts, are Mayor A. O. Hall, Richard B. Connolly,
William M. Tweed, Peter B. Sweeny, J. H. Ingersoll, Andrew J. Garvey, and
E. A. Woodward.

A. OAKEY HALL, Mayor of the city, was born in New York, is of American
parentage, and is about forty-six years old. He received a good
education, and at an early age began the study of the law. He removed to
New Orleans soon after, and was for a while in the office of the Hon.
John Slidell. He subsequently returned to New York, where he became
associated with the late Mr. Nathaniel Blunt, as Assistant
District-Attorney. Upon the death of Mr. Blunt, he was elected
District-Attorney by the Whig party, and held that position for about
twelve years. At the end of that time, he was elected Mayor of New York,
to succeed John T. Hoffman, now Governor of the State. For some years he
has been a member of the law firm of Brown, Hall & Vanderpoel, which firm
enjoys a large and lucrative practice. He is said to be a lawyer of
considerable ability, and has undoubtedly had great experience in
criminal practice. As a politician, his experience has also been
extensive and varied. He began life as a Whig, but became a prominent
Know-Nothing in the palmy days of that party. Finding Know-Nothingism a
failure, however, he became a Republican, from which party, about nine or
ten years ago, he passed over to the Democrats.

A writer in _Every Saturday_ thus speaks of him:

"His Honor has some facility as a writer, and for twenty years has
maintained a quasi or direct connection with the press. He is not
lacking in the culture of desultory reading, and when he chooses to do so
can bear himself like a gentleman. Of such a thing as dignity of
character, he appears to have but a faint conception. Pedantry is more
to him than profundity, and to tickle the ear of the town with a cheap
witticism, he deems a greater thing than to command it with a forcible
presentation of grave issues. The essential type of the man was
presented to public gaze about two years ago, when he stood on the City
Hall steps dressed from head to foot in a suit of green to review a St.
Patrick's procession. He is a harlequin with the literary ambition of a
Richelieu. He affects an intimacy with the stage, and has done something
in the way of producing plays. He can write clearly and concisely when
he will, but prefers to provoke with odd quips and far-fetched conceits.
He patronizes journalists and magazine writers with a sort of grotesque
familiarity, and readily makes himself at home among the Bohemians of
Literature."

Since his union with the Democracy, Mr. Hall has been the constant and
intimate associate of the men who have brought disgrace and loss upon the
city, and of late years he has been regarded as one of the leading
members of the Ring. It is said openly in New York that he owes his
election to the Mayoralty entirely to William M. Tweed. As Mayor of the
city, he has been officially connected with many of the transactions by
which the city has been defrauded of large sums of money. Some of the
most prominent newspapers of the city have denounced him as a thief and a
sharer of the stolen money. His friends, on the other hand, have
declared their belief that his worst fault was his official approval of
the fraudulent warrants. They state that he has never in his manner of
living, or in any other way, given evidence of possessing large sums of
money, and his legal partner made oath before the Grand Jury that Mr.
Hall was not worth over $60,000 or $70,000. It is certain that when the
proprietor of the _New York Times_, which journal had been loud in
denouncing Hall as a thief, was called on by the Grand Jury to furnish
them with the evidence upon which this charge was based, he was unable to
do so, and the Grand Jury was unable to obtain any evidence criminating
Mr. Hall personally. His friends declare that his signing the fraudulent
warrants was a purely ministerial act, and that having many thousands of
them to sign in a year, he was compelled to rely upon the endorsements of
the Comptroller and auditing officers.

In the present state of affairs, there is no evidence showing that Mr.
Hall derived any personal pecuniary benefit from the frauds upon the
treasury. Public sentiment is divided respecting him; many persons
believing that he is a sharer in the plunder of the Ring, and others
holding the opposite opinion. The most serious charges that have been
made against him, have been brought by Mr. John Foley, and Mr. Samuel J.
Tilden. The former is the President of the Nineteenth Ward Citizens'
Association, and the latter the leader of the Reform Democracy. Mr.
Tilden, in his speech at the Cooper Institute, November 2d, 1871, thus
spoke of Mayor Hall:

"These three Auditors met but once. They then passed a resolution which
now stands on the records of the city in the handwriting of Mayor Hall.
It was passed on his motion, and what was its effect? Did it audit
anything? Did it perform the functions? Did it fulfil the trust
committed to the Board? Not a bit of it. It provided that all claims
certified by Mr. Tweed and Mr. Young, Secretary of the old Board of
Supervisors, should be received, and, on sufficient evidence, paid.
Mayor Hall is the responsible man for all this. He knew it was a
fraudulent violation of duty on the part of every member of that Board of
Audit to pass claims in the way they did.

* * * * *

"Fellow-citizens, let me call your attention for a moment to the
after-piece of these transactions. Our friend, Mayor Hall, is a very
distinguished dramatist, and he would consider it a very serious offence
to the drama to have the after-piece left out. Now, what was that
after-piece? When the statements were published in regard to these
frauds, Mayor Hall published a card, wherein he said that these accounts
were audited by the old Board of Supervisors, and that neither he nor Mr.
Connolly was at all responsible for them. A little later--about August
16th--Mayor Hall said it was true they were audited by the Board of
Audit, and, in doing so, they performed a ministerial function, and would
have been compelled by mandamus to do it, if they hadn't done it
willingly. I do not deem it necessary in the presence of an intelligent
audience and the lawyers sitting around me on this stage, to present any
observations upon the idea that 'to audit and to pay the amount found
due' was a ministerial function. . . . . . .

"So we pass to Mr. Hall's fourth defence. On the burning of the vouchers
he made a raid on Mr. Connolly. He wrote him a public letter, demanding
his resignation in the name of the public because he had lost the public
confidence; and at the same time he was writing to Mr. Tweed touching and
tender epistles of sympathy and regret. You might at that time, if you
were a member of the Club, have heard Mr. Hall in his jaunty and somewhat
defiant manner; you might have seen Mr. Tweed, riding in the midnight
hour, with countenance vacant and locks awry, and have heard dropping
from his lips, 'The public demands a victim.' And so he proposed to
charge upon Connolly, who had legal custody of the vouchers, the stealing
and burning of them. He proposed to put some one else in the office of
the Comptroller when Connolly should be crushed out of it, and so
reconstruct the Ring and impose it a few years longer upon the people of
this city. . . . . . .

"The sequel showed that the vouchers were taken by Haggerty, whom Mr.
Connolly sought out and found, and prosecuted. Then, again, a little
later, when it happened that Mr. Keyser swore that indorsements for
$900,000 on warrants made in his name were forgeries, there was another
raid made on the Comptroller's office. It was then filled by Mr. Green.
The object was not to get rid of Mr. Connolly but of Mr. Green, and the
men who caused the raid were Mayor Hall and Peter B. Sweeny. Now, what
was the result of that? And I will say to this meeting that the sense of
alarm that I had that morning lest the movement should mislead the
public, was the motive that induced me to lay aside my business, go to
the Broadway Bank and make a personal examination.

"What was the result of that? Why, that every one of these forged
warrants were deposited, except one, to Woodward's account, and only one
to Ingersoll, and that the proceeds were divided with Tweed.

"Now, gentlemen, these revelations throw a light upon what? Upon three
false pretences in regard to these transactions, made by Mayor Hall under
his own signature before the public, and two attempts to mislead the
public judgment as to the real authors of the crime. I do not wish to do
injustice to Mayor Hall. He is a man experienced in criminal law.
(Laughter.) He is a man who is educated both in the drama and in the
stirring scenes that are recorded in the actual crimes of mankind in this
country and in England, for I understand this has composed the greatest
part of his business. Now I say that there is nothing in the
melo-dramatic history of crime more remarkable than these two successive
attempts of his to lay the crime to innocent men, if the object was not
to screen men whom he knew to be guilty. And while I would not do any
wrong or the slightest injustice to Mayor Hall, I say to him, as I do to
you, that the history of these transactions puts him on his explanation,
and draws upon him a strong suspicion that he knew whereof he was acting.
Did he mistake when he got the City Charter? Did he mistake when he
acted in the Board of Audit? Did he mistake when he accused Connolly of
burning the vouchers? Has he been subject to a misfortune of mistakes at
all times? Why does he stand to-day endeavoring to preserve that power?
I will only say that if he was mistaken on these occasions he is a very
unfortunate man, and has not acquired by the six years of practice in the
District-Attorney's office that amount of sagacity in the pursuit of
crime which we would naturally ascribe to him."

RICHARD B. CONNOLLY was born in the county of Cork, in Ireland. His
father was a village schoolmaster, and gave him a good common school
education. He was brought over to this country by an elder brother who
had been here for several years. He embarked in politics at an early
day, and was elected County Clerk before he could legally cast his vote.
He soon made himself noted for his facility in making and breaking
political promises, in consequence of which he was popularly called
"Slippery Dick." He gave considerable dissatisfaction to his party as
County Clerk, and soon dropped out of politics. A few years later,
taking advantage of the divisions of the Democratic party, he put himself
forward as a candidate for the post of State Senator, and was elected, as
is charged by the newspaper press, by the liberal use of bribery and
ballot-box stuffing. He was charged with using his position to make
money, and during his term at Albany was fiercely denounced for his
course in this and other respects.

[Picture: RICHARD B. CONNOLLY.]

About three years ago, he was appointed Comptroller of the Finance
Department of the City of New York. At that time the real heads of the
Finance Department were Peter B. Sweeny, City Chamberlain, and the late
County Auditor Watson, the latter of whom has been shown by the recent
investigations to have been a wholesale plunderer of the public funds.
The Comptroller was then a mere ornamental figure-head to the department.
In a short while, however, Watson was accidentally killed; and Sweeny
resigned, leaving Connolly master of the situation. He was suspected by
Tweed, and in his turn distrusted the "Boss." It is said that he
resolved, however, to imitate his colleagues, and enrich himself at the
cost of the public. He did well. In the short period of three years,
this man, who had entered upon his office poor, became a millionaire. He
made his son Auditor in the City Bureau, and gave the positions of
Surrogate and Deputy Receiver of Taxes to his two sons-in-law. All these
three were men of the lowest intellectual capacity, and all three share
in the suspicion which attaches to Connolly's administration of the
office. The _New York Tribune_, of October 25th, 1871, stated that a
short time before he became Comptroller, Connolly was sued for debt by
Henry Felter, now a liquor merchant on Broadway, and _swore in court that
he owned no property at all_. Under this statement the _Tribune_
publishes a list of _a part_ of Connolly's transactions in property since
he became Comptroller, covering the sum of $2,300,691.

PETER B. SWEENY is the "modest man" of the Ring, and is popularly
believed to carry the brains of that body in his head. He is regarded by
the public as the real leader of the Ring, and the originator of, and
prime, though secret mover in all its acts.

[Picture: PETER B. SWEENY.]

Mr. Sweeny is of Irish parentage, though born in New York. His father
kept a drinking saloon in Park Row, near the old Park Theatre, and it was
in this choice retreat that the youth of Sweeny was passed. He began his
career as an errand boy in a law office. He subsequently studied law,
and, in due time, was admitted to the bar.

A writer in _Every Saturday_ thus sums up his career: "He never obtained,
and perhaps never sought, much business in his profession; but very soon
after reaching manhood turned his attention to politics. The first
office he held was that of Counsel to the Corporation, to which position
he was elected by a handsome majority. This station did not so much
require in its occupant legal skill and legal ability, as an apt faculty
for political manipulation; and in the work he had to do, Mr. Sweeny was
eminently successful. From the Corporation office he went into the
District Attorneyship, obtained leave of absence for some time, treated
himself to a term of European travel, came home, and resigned the post to
which he had been chosen, and soon became City Chamberlain by the Mayor's
appointment.

"It was in this office that he did what gave him a national standing, and
led many people into the notion that some good had come from the Tammany
Nazareth. The Chamberlain was custodian, under the old charter, of all
city moneys. Such portions of these funds as were not required for
immediate use, this official deposited in some of the banks, and the
banks allowed interest, as is customary, on the weekly or monthly balance
to his credit. Previous to Sweeny's time the Chamberlain had put this
interest money into his own pocket--and a very handsome thing Mr. Devlin
and his predecessors made out of the transaction. But Sweeny startled
the political world, and caused a great sensation, by announcing that he
should turn these interest receipts into the City Treasury. Tammany made
a notable parade of his honesty and public spirit, and the capital he
gained in this way has been his chief stock-in-trade for the last two or
three years.

"But in the light of recent developments, Mr. Sweeny's course does not
seem so purely disinterested as it once did. He was in full control of
the city funds on the memorable Black Friday of two years ago last
summer, and sworn testimony taken by a committee of Congress shows that
he had a share in the doings of that eventful day. To what extent the
money in his official charge was put at the service of the Wall street
Ring, the country probably never will know; but the common belief of New
York is that Mr. Sweeny made a good deal of money out of his speculations
on that occasion. That he has been more or less concerned with Fisk and
Gould in various Erie Railway stock operations, is matter of general
notoriety; as it is also that most of the lately-exposed fraudulent
transactions in connection with the so-called new Court-House and other
public buildings occurred during his incumbency of the Chamberlain's
office. The greater part of those transactions yet brought into daylight
refer to county affairs, it is true; but city and county are one except
in name, and we have only just begun to get at what are designated the
city accounts.

"As has been already stated, he values himself on his brains, and the
Ring adherents take him at that valuation. They believe him capable of
finding a way out of the closest corner, and we suppose it is not to be
doubted that he is a man of considerable ability. He has not many of the
qualities of a popular politician; years ago he cut loose from his early
engine-company associations; he is reserved and reticent at all times,
and rarely seeks contact with the Democratic masses; he covets seclusion
and respectability; apparently he has sought to be Warwick rather than
King, and his followers credit him with a masterly performance of the
part. One of his earliest acts as President of the Park Commission was
to oust Fred. Law Olmstead, and shelve Andrew H. Green, the actual
creators of Central Park; but the whirligig of time has now put him into
such a position that he cannot get a dollar of public money without the
signature of Andrew H. Green."

Since the disastrous defeat of Tammany and the Ring in the November
elections, Mr. Sweeny has resigned his Presidency of the Department of
Public Parks, and has retired to private life. He is a man of
considerable wealth, and, though there is no evidence to convict him of
complicity with Tweed and Connolly in their frauds, the public suspect
and distrust him, so that altogether, his retirement was a very wise and
politic act.

The "head devil" of the Ring is WILLIAM M. TWEED, or, as he is commonly
called, "Boss Tweed." He is of Irish descent, and was born in the City
of New York. He was apprenticed to a chair-maker, to learn the trade,
but never engaged legitimately in it after he became his own master. He
finally became a member of Fire Company No. 6--known as "Big Six," and
"Old Tiger"--the roughest and worst company in the city. He soon became
its foreman. His attention was now turned to politics, and as he
possessed considerable influence over the "roughs," he became a valuable
man to the city politicians. As a compensation for his services, they
allowed him to receive a small office, from which he pushed his way into
the old Board of Supervisors, and eventually into the State Senate. Upon
the inauguration of the New Charter, he became President of the Board of
Public Works, and the most prominent leader of the Ring. He is a man of
considerable executive ability, and has known how to use his gifts for
his own gain. In March, 1870, the _New York World_ spoke of him as
follows:

"Mr. Tweed was worth less than nothing when he took to the trade of
politics. Now he has great possessions, estimated all the way from
$5,000,000 to twice as much. We are sorry not to be able to give his own
estimate, but, unluckily, he returns no income. But at least he is rich
enough to own a gorgeous house in town and a sumptuous seat in the
country, a stud of horses, and a set of palatial stables. His native
modesty shrinks from blazoning abroad the exact extent of his present
wealth, or the exact means by which it was acquired. His sensitive soul
revolts even at the partial publicity of the income list. We are tossed
upon the boundless ocean of conjecture. But we do know from his own
reluctant lips that this public servant, who entered the public service a
bankrupt, has become, by an entire abandonment of himself to the public
good, 'one of the largest tax-payers in New York.' His influence is
co-extensive with his cash. The docile Legislature sits at his feet, as
Saul at the feet of Gamaliel, and waits, in reverent inactivity, for his
signal before proceeding to action. He thrives on percentages of
pilfering, grows rich on the distributed dividends of rascality. His
extortions are as boundless in their sum as in their ingenuity. Streets
unopened profit him--streets opened put money in his purse. Paving an
avenue with poultice enriches him--taking off the poultice increases his
wealth. His rapacity, like the trunk of an elephant, with equal skill
twists a fortune out of the Broadway widening, and picks up dishonest
pennies in the Bowery."

In 1861, Mr. Tweed appeared in the courts of the city as a bankrupt. In
1871, his wealth is estimated at from $15,000,000, to $20,000,000. The
manner in which he is popularly believed to have amassed this immense sum
is thus described in a pamphlet recently issued in New York:

"While holding the position of State Senator he also held the position of
Supervisor--was the leading spirit and President of the old Board of
Supervisors, that has been denounced as the most scandalously corrupt
body that ever disgraced a civilized community--and also the position of
Deputy Street Commissioner. The first two be used to put money in his
pocket, but the last was used mainly to enable him to keep a set of
ruffians about him, who were paid out of the city treasury, and to afford
lucrative positions to men who might be of service in promoting his
political and pecuniary interests. By employing the same agencies that
he had used to secure his own election, he gradually worked his
particular friends into positions where he could use them, and then
commenced a scheme for surrounding every department in the government of
the city and county with a perfect network, which would enable himself
and his confederates to appropriate to their own use the greater part of
the city and county revenues. The new Court-House has been a mine of
wealth to these thieves from its very inception. The quarry from which
the marble was supplied was bought by the gang for a mere nominal price,
and has since netted them millions of dollars. The old fire
engine-houses were turned over to 'Andy' Garvey and other cronies of
Tweed's at rents ranging from $50 to $150 a year, and some of them have
been let by these fellows as high as $5000 a year. The public schools,
the different departments of the government, and the public institutions
under the control of the city authorities, all needed furniture, and
Tweed started a furniture manufactory in connection with James H.
Ingersoll, who has since achieved a notoriety as the most shameless thief
among the fraternity of scoundrels whom we are now describing. Tweed's
next step was to get control of a worthless little newspaper called _The
Transcript_, and then to introduce a bill into the Legislature making
this miserable little sheet the official organ of the City Government.
This sheet receives over a $1,000,000 a year for printing the proceedings
of the Common Council, but the proceedings of the corrupt Board of
Supervisors are studiously concealed from the public.

"Tweed's next step was to establish 'The New York Printing Company.'
This gives Tweed a pretext for rendering enormous bills for printing for
the different departments of the City Government; and although the amount
of work actually performed is only trifling, and consists mainly in
printing blank forms and vouchers, still the amount annually paid out of
the treasury to this company is something enormous--amounting during the
year 1870 to over $2,800,000. Nor is this all. When this company was
first started, a portion of a building on Centre street was found
sufficient for its accommodation. Since then it has absorbed three of
the largest printing establishments in the city, and also three or four
smaller ones, and a lithographing establishment. Why have these
extensive establishments been secured? Simply this: Insurance Companies,
Steamboat Companies, Ferry Companies, and other corporations require an
enormous amount of printing. Each of these associations may be subjected
to serious loss and inconvenience, by the passage of legislative
enactments abridging the privileges they now enjoy, or requiring them to
submit to some vexatious and expensive regulation. Hence, when they
receive notice that 'The New York Printing Company' is ready to do their
printing, they know that they must consent, and pay the most exorbitant
rate for the work done, or submit to Tweed's exactions during the next
session of the Legislature.