Boss Tweed Escapes!

There was Tweed;
Under his rule the ballot-box was freed!
Six times as big a vote he could record
As there were people living in the ward!

W.A. Croffut,
"Bourbon Ballads,"
America Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets

Our Boss, Tobacco label showing Boss Tweed, copyright 1869.
Prints & Photographs Division

On December 4, 1875, William Marcy "Boss" Tweed, notorious leader of New York City's Democratic political machine, escaped from prison and fled to Europe. Between 1865 and 1871, Boss Tweed and his cronies stole millions of dollars from the city treasury. Convicted of forgery and larceny in 1873, Tweed was released in 1875. Immediately rearrested on civil charges, he was allowed daily visits to his family in the company of his jailor. On one of these trips, Tweed made his escape.

Elected an alderman in 1851, the former bookkeeper and volunteer fireman worked his way up New York City's Democratic hierarchy by holding various elected and unelected positions in the municipal government. He served one congressional term, but operated most effectively at the state level. By 1868, the year he gained a seat in the New York senate, Tweed firmly controlled the state Democratic Party. Two years later, he maneuvered passage of a revised city charter. A newly instituted board of audit became the principle means by which the Boss and his friends siphoned the city treasury of between twenty million and two-hundred million dollars.

The movement to overthrow the "Tweed Ring" included the New York Times, Harper's Weekly cartoonist Thomas Nast, and reforming Democrat Samuel J. Tilden. On July 22, 1871, the newspaper began publishing an exposé of the Tweed Ring's activities. Nast followed up with cartoons roasting Tweed. "Let's stop them damned pictures," the Boss supposedly said, "I don't care so much what the papers write about—my constituents can't read—but damn it, they can see pictures." Despite bribes and threats, Nast continued to lambast Tweed weekly on the pages of Harper's. Meanwhile, Tilden's efforts to oust Tweed solidified his name as a reformer—a reputation that made him Governor of New York in 1874 and nearly put him in the White House in 1877.

With his 1873 conviction behind him, Tweed was sued by New York State for $6 million. Held in debtor's prison until he could post half that amount as bail, the former boss had few options. Still wealthy, his prison cell was fairly luxurious. Yet Tweed was determined to escape. Fleeing to Spain, he worked as a common seaman on a Spanish ship until recognized by his likeness to a Nast cartoon and captured. Extradited to New York, William Marcy Tweed died in debtor's prison on April 12, 1878.

Tweed-le-dee and Tilden-dum,
Thomas Nast, Artist,
Illustration in Harper's Weekly, July 1, 1876.
Boss Tweed, acting as a policeman, although wearing the uniform of a convict, holds two boys by the collar with one hand, and carries a billy club in the other. Reform Tweed: "If all the people want is to have somebody arrested, I'll have you plunderers convicted. You will be allowed to escape; nobody will be hurt; and then Tilden will go to the White House, and I to Albany as Governor."
Prints & Photographs Division

The political machine that created Boss Tweed and that Tweed strengthened remained a powerful force in New York City politics. Through a system of patronage and charity, Tammany Hall, the executive committee of the New York City Democratic Party, commanded the allegiance of many voters. Lacking a government safety net, poor citizens relied on the party for access to employment, or for help with funeral expenses. Public works projects like Central Park provided politicians with patronage opportunities ranging from lucrative contracts to day work digging ditches.

Use American Memory to learn more:

• Visit Immigration in the Learning Page to learn more about the forces that contributed to the growth of New York City.
• View film footage of Tammany sachem Dick Croker. According to the Edison films catalog Dick Croker Leaving Tammany Hall provides, "a very lifelike picture of the famous New York politician and Tammany Hall boss." Find this moving picture by searching the collection Inventing Entertainment: The Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings of the Edison Companies on Tammany.
• Search Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920 on Tilden or Tammany to find the songs Tilden and Reform (1876) and Tammany; A Pale Face Pow-Wow (1905).
• See 12,000 photographs of the Mid-Atlantic states New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut in Small Town America: 1850-1920. Search on the terms Tammany Hall or New York City to see a number of images from the Boss Tweed era.

A Day of Thanksgiving

Berkeley, William Henry Harrison Residence
Samuel H. Gottscho, photographer, November 14, 1961.
Architecture and Interior Design for 20th Century America, 1935-1955

On December 4, 1619, thirty-eight Englishmen left their ship, ventured into the Virginia wilderness, and observed a prayer of Thanksgiving for safe passage to the New World.

Soon, the party, including a sawyer, a cooper, a shoemaker, a gun maker, and a cook, set about constructing a storehouse and an assembly hall for the plantation known as the Berkeley Hundred. Thereafter, December 4 was a day of Thanksgiving at Berkeley, "yearly and perpetually kept holy" as the plantation charter directed.

Located on the James River thirty miles west of Jamestown, the 8,000-acre plantation drew ninety settlers before it was decimated by a massacre in 1622. Motivated by the settlers' aggressive forays into Indian territory, the assault left nearly 350 people dead and reduced Virginia's English population by nearly a third.

By 1700, a plantation economy dependent on slave labor was firmly entrenched in eastern Virginia. Berkeley Plantation, built at Berkeley Hundred by the Harrison family in 1726, was one of several impressive James River plantations constructed during the first part of the seventeenth century. Nearby Shirley Plantation, begun in 1723, was the birthplace of Ann Hill Carter, mother of Civil War general Robert E. Lee. Sherwood Forest, erected in 1730, was the home of President John Tyler.

Shirley Plantation, James River, Virginia
William Henry Jackson, photographer, between 1900-1906.
Touring Turn-of-the-Century America, 1880-1920

Sherwood Forest, John Tyler Residence, Virginia
Samuel H. Gottscho, photographer, November 10, 1961.
Architecture and Interior Design for 20th Century America, 1935-1955

Benjamin Harrison V, born at Berkeley Plantation on December 13, 1730, signed the Declaration of Independence and served three terms as Governor of Virginia. Also born at Berkeley, his son William Henry Harrison earned fame as an Indian fighter in the West. "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" was the campaign slogan for his successful 1840 presidential bid. Just a month after his inauguration, however, Harrison died in office and was succeeded by Charles City County neighbor and vice president, John Tyler. In 1888, William Henry Harrison's grandson, Benjamin, entered the White House, despite losing the popular vote to incumbent Grover Cleveland.

During the Peninsular Campaign of the Civil War, General George B. McClellan made Berkeley Plantation his headquarters. While stationed at Berkeley, Major General Daniel Butterfield composed the bugle call "Taps."

General Benjamin Harrison—"Come on Boys!", Battle of Resaca-May 13th to 16th 1864, lithograph, Kurz and Allison, 1888.
Portraits of the Presidents and First Ladies, 1789-Present

• Search the collection Continental Congress and Constitutional Convention, 1774-1789 on Harrison to retrieve documents pertaining to Benjamin Harrison, revolutionary patriot and ancestor of two American presidents.
• View additional photographs of the facade and rooms of the Harrison and Tyler homes. Search on Berkeley or Sherwood Forest in Architecture and Interior Design for 20th Century America, 1935-1955.
• Early Virginia Religious Petitions presents images of 423 petitions submitted to the Virginia legislature between 1774 and 1802. Use the Geographic Locations directory to find a petition dated October 22, 1793 in which Quakers from Charles City ask relief from various religious levies. Interestingly, Thomas Jefferson's 1786 Act for Establishing Religious Freedom should have prevented these incursions on the religious liberty of the Society of Friends.
• Read more about U.S. Presidents including Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Harry Truman. Search the Today in History Archive on the name of your favorite chief executive.

Goodbye to General Washington

General Washington, Detail of painting by John Trumbull, 1756-1843
photograph, 1912.
Touring Turn-of-the-Century America, 1880-1920

With a heart full of love and gratitude, I now take leave of you. I most devoutly wish that your latter days may be as prosperous and happy as your former ones have been glorious and honorable…I…shall feel obliged if each of you will come and take me by the hand.

General George Washington's Farewell to his Officers, from Memoir of Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge

On Thursday, December 4, 1783, General George Washington received the officers of the victorious Continental Army in the Long Room of Fraunces Tavern, on the corner of Pearl and Broad Streets, in lower Manhattan. As many as forty-four officers bid farewell to their general, as he set out for Annapolis to resign his commission. The tavern, under the proprietorship of patriot Samuel Fraunces, was conveniently located across the Bowling Green from the Whitehall Ferry landing. There, a barge waited to carry Washington across the Hudson River.

Fraunces Tavern, New York, New York, between 1900-1915.
Touring Turn-of-the-Century America, 1880-1920

Until British troops evacuated the city on November 22, 1783, Fraunces Tavern was called the "Queen's Head Tavern." Its sign incorporated a portrait of Queen Charlotte.

On November 25, 1783, the American army took possession of New York City. After a formal procession, Governor Clinton gave an elegant public entertainment at the Fraunces Tavern in honor of General Washington. On December 1, a display of "fire-works and illuminations" was viewed from the Battery.

All the festivities were reported in the newspaper published by James Rivington, formerly "Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty." With the departure of the British, The Royal Gazette became Rivington's New-York Gazette, and Universal Advertiser. The December 6, 1783 issue of the New-York Gazette described the General's farewell to his officers:

Last Thursday noon, the principal Officers of the army in town, assembled at Fraunces Tavern, to take a final leave of their illustrious, gracious, and much loved Commander, General Washington. The passions of human nature were never more tenderly agitated, than in this interesting and distressful scene…[His] words produced extreme sensibility on both sides…

Rivington's New-York Gazette, and Universal Advertiser
December 6, 1783.

Major-General Henry Knox, portrait by Gilbert Stuart, photograph, between 1900 and 1912.
Touring Turn-of-the-Century America, 1880-1920

According to Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge's account, General Henry Knox was nearest to General Washington. As the general concluded his address, the two turned to each other and "suffused in tears…embraced each other in silence." Then, each of the officers followed suit, afterwards following Washington to the ferry landing where he departed, waving to them from his barge.

General Washington had already issued his Farewell Orders to the Continental Army. The outpouring of emotion and affection expressed to Washington upon his retirement to Mt. Vernon for Christmas imposed a heavy burden of reciprocal correspondence. The volume of this correspondence is reflected in the letter-books of the George Washington Papers, 1741-1799.

The general authored many letters of recommendation for former soldiers and patriots including a lengthy testimonial for Samuel Fraunces. Fraunces may have assisted the Continental Army by obtaining intelligence from British army officers who frequented his tavern while New York was under royal government.

When he became President of the United States, Washington employed Samuel Fraunces as Steward of the Executive Mansion. At that time, the president's home was in New York City, just around the corner from the Tavern.

• Read Washington correspondence. Search the collection George Washington Papers, 1741-1799 on Fraunces, Tallmadge, or Knox to find a wealth of material including documentation of Washington's expenditures at the tavern. Search the collection on Washington farewell to locate more words from Washington at the time of his retirement.
• View the Time Line and the Essays in the George Washington Papers, 1741-1799 for additional biographical information about Washington.
• Search Documents from the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, 1774-1789 on army for material related to the Continental Army including a document repealing "rations, subsistence, or allowances to officers over and above their pay."
• Search the Today in History Archive on George Washington to learn more about the first president. Features highlight the president's birthday, his resignation as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, and his death.