Spurred by ambition, William M. Tweed entered politics before he was 30 and quickly ascended through the New York City establishment. He became the most powerful figure in the Society of Tammany (popularly known as Tammany Hall), an influential Democratic party organization, and practically controlled Democratic city politics in the 1860s. “Boss” Tweed soon became notorious for political corruption.

Tweed used his power to gain control of the city treasury for himself and his associates (the “Tweed Ring”) and then raided the public funds. Among his schemes, Tweed arranged for the city to overpay for goods and services bought from his cronies, and obtained kickbacks from such city contracts. Tweed’s largest fraud involved the construction of the New York County courthouse (the “Tweed Courthouse”), which exceeded its budget more than twenty-five times over. Estimates suggest that the Tweed Ring swindles cost New York City as much as $200,000,000.

The New York Times and Thomas Nast, a political cartoonist for Harper’s Weekly, exposed Tweed’s practices to an outraged nation. Samuel Tilden, chairman of the New York State Democratic Committee, then led a reform movement that resulted in Tweed’s arrest and, in 1873, his conviction. After about a year in prison, Tweed was released, but he was rearrested when the state brought civil charges. Tweed escaped and fled to Spain; because of a Nast cartoon, however, he was recognized there and extradited to New York.

PostScript: Tweed died in 1878, a resident of Ludlow Street Jail. Tammany Hall overcame the scandal and largely dominated city politics until the 1930s.