Editing William M. Tweed (section)

==Evaluations==
According to Tweed biographer Kenneth D. Ackerman:<blockquote>It's hard not to admire the skill behind Tweed's system&nbsp;... 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>{{cite news |last1=Hamill |first1=Pete |title='Boss Tweed': The Fellowship of the Ring |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/27/books/review/boss-tweed-the-fellowship-of-the-ring.html |work=The New York Times |date=27 March 2005 }}</ref></blockquote>

A minority view that Tweed was mostly innocent is presented in a scholarly biography by history professor Leo Hershkowitz. He states:<blockquote>Except for Tweed's own very questionable "confession," there really was no evidence of a "Tweed Ring," no direct evidence of Tweed's thievery, no evidence, excepting the testimony of the informer contractors, of "wholesale" plunder by Tweed....[Instead there was] a conspiracy of self-justification of the corruption of the law by the upholders of that law, of a venal irresponsible press and a citizenry delighting in the exorcism of witchery.<ref>Leo Hershkowitz, ''Tweed's New York: Another Look''. (New York: Anchor Press, 1977), p 347. [https://archive.org/details/tweedsnewyorkano00hers online]</ref><ref>{{cite journal |id={{ProQuest|1296084413}} |last1=Lankevich |first1=George J. |title=Hershkowitz, Leo, 'Tweed's New York, Another Look' (Book Review) |journal=American Jewish Historical Quarterly |volume=67 |issue=2 |date=1 December 1977 |page=190 }}</ref></blockquote>

In depictions of Tweed and the Tammany Hall organization, most historians have emphasized the thievery and conspiratorial nature of Boss Tweed, along with lining his own pockets and those of his friends and allies. The theme is that the sins of corruption so violated American standards of political rectitude that they far overshadow Tweed's positive contributions to New York City.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.myheritage.com/names/william_tweed |language=en |access-date=7 August 2023 |title=William Tweed |website=[[MyHeritage]]}}</ref>

Although he held numerous important public offices and was one of a handful of senior leaders of Tammany Hall, as well as the state legislature and the state Democratic Party,<ref name=History.com/> Tweed was never the sole "boss" of New York City. He shared control of the city with numerous less famous people, such as the villains depicted in Nast's famous circle of guilt cartoon shown above. [[Seymour J. Mandelbaum]] has argued that, apart from the corruption he engaged in, Tweed was a modernizer who prefigured certain elements of the [[Progressive Era]] in terms of more efficient city management.  Much of the money he siphoned off from the city treasury went to needy constituents who appreciated the free food at Christmas time and remembered it at the next election, and to precinct workers who provided the muscle of his machine. As a legislator he worked to expand and strengthen welfare programs, especially those by private charities, schools, and hospitals. With a base in the Irish Catholic community, he opposed efforts of Protestants to require the reading of the [[King James Bible]] in public schools, which was done deliberately to keep out Catholics. He facilitated the founding of the [[New York Public Library]], even though one of its founders, Samuel Tilden, was Tweed's sworn enemy in the Democratic Party.<ref>Mandelbaum, Seymour J. ''Boss Tweed's New York'' (1965).</ref><ref>Muccigrosso, Robert ed., ''Research Guide to American Historical Biography'' (1988) 1538–42.</ref>

Tweed recognized that the support of his constituency was necessary for him to remain in power, and as a consequence he used the machinery of the city's government to provide numerous social services, including building more orphanages, almshouses and public baths.<ref name=encnyc /><ref>[https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/NYHSR01/id/14006 NYHS v45 n04, Quarterly, October 1961 BOSS TWEED’S PUBLIC WELFARE PROGRAM by JOHN W. PRATT, P.396-411 Courtesy of New York Heritage Digital Collections, obtained from myheritage.org]</ref> Tweed also fought for the [[New York State Legislature]] to donate to private charities of all religious denominations, and subsidize [[Catholic schools]] and hospitals. From 1869 to 1871, under Tweed's influence, the state of New York spent more on charities than for the entire time period from 1852 to 1868 combined.<ref>Ackerman, p. 66.</ref>

During Tweed's regime, the main business thoroughfare Broadway was widened between [[34th Street (Manhattan)|34th Street]] and [[59th Street (Manhattan)|59th Street]], land was secured for the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], and the [[Upper East Side]] and [[Upper West Side]] were developed and provided the necessary infrastructure – all to the benefit of the purses of the Tweed Ring.

Hershkowitz blames the implications of Thomas Nast in ''Harper's Weekly'' and the editors of ''The New York Times'', which both had ties to the Republican party. In part, the campaign against Tweed diverted public attention from Republican scandals such as the [[Whiskey Ring]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Hershkowitz|first=Leo|title=Tweed's New York: Another Look|date=1977|publisher=Doubleday|location=Garden City, NY}}</ref>

Tweed himself wanted no particular recognition of his achievements, such as they were. When it was proposed, in March 1871, when he was at the height of his power, that a statue be erected in his honor, he declared: "Statues are not erected to living men ... I claim to be a live man, and hope (Divine Providence permitting) to survive in all my vigor, politically and physically, some years to come."<ref name=encnyc /> One of Tweed's unwanted legacies is that he has become "the archetype of the bloated, rapacious, corrupt city boss".<ref name=encnyc />
[[File:Boss tweed.jpg|thumb|An 1869 cigar box label featuring Tweed]]