Editing Tammany Hall (section)

===Tweed regime===
[[File:Tweed-Boss-LOC.jpg|thumb|215px|[[William M. Tweed]], known as "Boss" Tweed, ran an efficient and corrupt [[political machine]] based on [[political patronage|patronage]] and [[graft (politics)|graft]].]]
{{main|William M. Tweed}}

Tammany's control over the politics of New York City tightened considerably under Tweed. In 1858, Tweed capitalized on the efforts of Republican reformers to rein in the Democratic city government to obtain a position on the County Board of Supervisors, which he then used as a springboard to other appointments, and to have his friends placed in various offices. From this position of strength, he was elected "Grand Sachem" of Tammany, which he then used to take functional control of the city government. With his protégés elected governor of the state and mayor of the city, Tweed was able to expand the corruption and kickbacks of his "Ring" into practically every aspect of city and state governance. Although Tweed was elected to the State Senate, his true sources of power were his appointed positions to various branches of the city government. These positions gave him access to city funds and contractors, thereby controlling public works programs. This benefitted his pocketbook and those of his friends, but also provided jobs for the immigrants, especially Irish laborers, who were the electoral base of Tammany's power.<ref name="gpassim">Burrows & Wallace, p. 837 and ''passim''</ref>

According to Tweed biographer Kenneth D. Ackerman:

<blockquote>It's hard not to admire the skill behind Tweed's system ... The Tweed ring at its height was an engineering marvel, strong and solid, strategically deployed to control key power points: the courts, the legislature, the treasury and the ballot box. Its frauds had a grandeur of scale and an elegance of structure: money-laundering, profit sharing and organization.<ref>{{harvnb|Ackerman|2005}}{{Page needed|date=June 2022}}, quoted in {{Cite news|last=Hamill|first=Pete|author-link= Pete Hamill|date=2005-03-27|title='Boss Tweed': The Fellowship of the Ring|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/27/books/review/boss-tweed-the-fellowship-of-the-ring.html|access-date=2023-01-21|issn=0362-4331|type=book review|url-access= subscription}}</ref></blockquote>

Under "Boss" Tweed's dominance, the city expanded into the [[Upper East Side|Upper East]] and [[Upper West Side]]s of Manhattan, the [[Brooklyn Bridge]] was begun, land was set aside for the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], orphanages and almshouses were constructed, and social services – both directly provided by the state and indirectly funded by state appropriations to private charities – expanded to unprecedented levels. All of this activity, of course, also brought great wealth to Tweed and his friends. It also brought them into contact and alliance with the rich elite of the city, who either fell in with the graft and corruption, or else tolerated it because of Tammany's ability to control the immigrant population, of whom the "[[uppertens]]" of the city were wary.

[[File:Tammany Ring, Nast crop.jpg|thumb|left|300px|''Tammany Ring'' by [[Thomas Nast]]; "Who stole the people's money?" / "'Twas him."]]

James Watson, who was a county auditor in Comptroller [[Richard B. Connolly|Dick Connolly]]'s office and who also held and recorded the ring's books, died a week after his head was smashed by a horse in a sleigh accident on January 21, 1871. Although Tweed guarded Watson's estate in the week prior to Watson's death, and although another ring member attempted to destroy Watson's records, a replacement auditor, Matthew O'Rourke, associated with former sheriff [[James O'Brien (U.S. Congressman)|James O'Brien]] provided city accounts to O'Brien.<ref name="Allen, pp. 118-125">Allen, pp. 118–25</ref> Further, Tammany demonstrated inability to control Irish laborers in the [[Orange riot]] of 1871 that also began Tweed's downfall. Campaigns to topple Tweed by ''The New York Times'' and [[Thomas Nast]] of ''[[Harper's Weekly]]'' began to gain traction in the aftermath of the riot, and disgruntled insiders began to leak the details of the extent and scope of the Tweed Ring's avarice to the newspapers. Specifically, O'Brien forwarded the city's financial accounts to ''[[The New York Times]]''. ''The New York Times'', at that time the only Republican associated paper in the city, was then able to reinforce stories they had previously published against the ring.<ref name="Allen, pp. 118-125"/> The [[Committee of Seventy (New York City)|Committee of Seventy]] was formed in September 1871 by prominent reformers to examine the misdeeds of the Tweed ring.

Tweed was arrested and tried in 1872. After he died in [[Ludlow Street Jail]] in 1878, political reformers took over the city and state governments.<ref name=gpassim /> Following Tweed's arrest, Tammany survived, but was no longer controlled by Protestants and was now dependent on leadership from bosses of Irish descent.<ref name=Tweedfall>{{cite book |last=Panayiotopoulos |first=Prodromos |title=Immigrant enterprise in Europe and the USA |page=52 |year=2006 |publisher=Routledge Studies in the Modern World Economy |isbn=978-0415353717}}</ref>

[[File:Tammany Tiger Hunted 1893.jpg|thumb|left|300px|''[[Puck (magazine)|Puck]]'' cartoon by [[Frederick Burr Opper]]: "Lots of hunters after a very sick tiger" (1893)]]