Elections in New York's Gilded Age
Thursday, Oct. 10th 6:00-7:00pm
Live on Zoom Free for LW Members!
Election day was a raucous affair during the 19th century in New York City. There were conventions, parades, public speakers, and colorful banners. The scene could appear chaotic, with dozens of party tickets competing in the field. Political violence sometimes erupted at the polls, organized by party toughs or even the police, who were, after all, patronage appointees. Electioneering practices like “treating” (paying for shots of whiskey or distributing small sums of money) also helped persuade voters where to cast their ballot. And political machines like Tammany Hall were at the peak of their influence.
Ah, politics.
From Boss Tweed on down through the various levels of party "bosses," those politicians who could best manipulate the party system rose to the top. Take Thomas Platt, a lieutenant in NYC’s early political machine. He was very clear about his motivation for serving the public: He would take office, he wrote, "only if I should be satisfied that there was money in it."
Jeff Broxmeyer, an expert on 19th-century politics, takes us back to an infamous era that embraced a "creative intertwining" of capitalism and party politics. Ds and Rs actually cooperated when cushy patronage appointments were at stake. Control over political property and political offices was everything.
As we enter the final innings of our modern election season, let’s go back and uncover how the Gilded Age’s infamous early political machine worked and how politicians expected to (gasp!) profit from their political work.
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Jeffrey D. Broxmeyer is associate professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at The University of Toledo. His first book, Electoral Capitalism: The Party System In New York’s Gilded Age, was published in 2020 by University of Pennsylvania Press. He is currently at work on a second book project that reexamines the spoils system across the nineteenth century in American politics.
Top photo: Tammany Hall interior for the 1868 national convention courtesy of the New York Public Library Digital Collections.
