“WE HAVE THE BEST GOVERNMENT THAT MONEY CAN BUY.”

MARK TWAIN

Political Scandals of the Gilded AgeDee Ann Owens

1869 – 1876 Era of the Great Barbecue Credit Mobilier (1867 – 1872) Black Friday (1869) Boss Tweed & Tammany Hall (1858 –

1872) Sanborn Contract (1874) Whiskey Ring (1875) William Belknap (1876)

Era of the Great BBQ

Patronage Secretary of

the Interior, Columbus Delano

Salary Grab Act (1873)

Credit Mobilier Rep. Oakes Ames Thomas Durant Union Pacific

Railroad Construction

Company VP Schuyler

Colfax House Speaker

James A. Garfield

Black Friday 1869

September 24, 1869

Jim Fisk Jay Gould Abel Corbin The New York

Gold Conspiracy

Black Friday 1869

Jay Gould

James Fisk

Abel Corbin

Daniel ButterfieldHenry Adams

Tammany Hall Tammany

Society founded in NY in 1789

Political Machine Serving as Public Welfare System

Naturalization Committees

Political MachineLegal “Mafia”

A Pyramid System to secure votes Trade votes for “favors” Political Boss – controlled government

money Graft – payout for favors-police on take Cities improved infrastructure Infamous – William “Boss” Tweed -

headed NYC Democrats called Tammany Hall

Boss Tweed

Elected to New York County Board of Supervisors 1858

Became "Grand Sachem” 1869

Tweed Ring Orange Riot of

1871

Boss Tweed & Thomas Nast

"Stop them damned pictures. I don't care so much what the papers say about me. My constituents don't know how to read, but they can't help seeing them damned pictures!”

Thomas Nast Cartoons

Fall of Boss Tweed

"Gigantic Frauds of the Ring Exposed”

Tweed Arrested

Re-Elected to NY Senate in 1871

1873 convicted on 204 of 220 counts of embezzlement