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Article: Tweed Ring
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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TWEED RING
TWEED RING.
In the late 1860s and early 1870s, William Marcy Tweed, New York State senator and Democratic Party boss, along with his political associates, robbed the New York City treasury of at least $30 million, and perhaps far more. Matthew J. O'Rourke, a journalist who
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while county bookkeeper
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exposed the frauds, reckoned $200 million as the total stealings of the ring and its subrings. The Tweed Ring infiltrated nearly every segment of public life in New York City. The ring included the governor, the mayor, the city comptroller, and countless other prominent citizens in both the public and private sectors. It operated by granting municipal contracts to its ...