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U.S. History 1877-Present 3: Tammany Hall 8785 Views
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Description:
According to George Washington, political parties may just be why we can't have nice things. Let's learn about an early (and very corrupt) political organization, Tammany Hall, that may have inspired that sentiment.
Transcript
- 00:04
Remember how George Washington told us not to create [George Washington appears outside White House]
- 00:07
political parties because it would gently angry shouting and corruption and
- 00:11
remember how America didn't listen well G.W might have been thinking about a
- 00:16
specific organization when he gave that warning Tammany Hall well Tammany Hall
- 00:21
was a political organization founded in 1789 in New York City Tammany was a
Full Transcript
- 00:27
mangling of cavanon the name of the NGO Lenape leader who made the peace treaty
- 00:33
with the Quaker settlers who created Pennsylvania the name was chosen to show [Quaker Settlers appear]
- 00:41
that the new org was all about love and friendship and getting along like [sisters hugging]
- 00:45
Hammond and had been in reality Tammany Hall would be about money honey alcohol
- 00:51
money and getting ahead in any way possible oh and month so the name of
- 00:56
peace loving tamminen was twisted into something notorious like the natives
- 01:00
needed one more smack in the face the men who created th were anti-federalist [Man writes dummy on native statue]
- 01:07
they hated the Federalist program to create a strong central government they
- 01:11
identified with the democratic-republican party yeah that
- 01:15
was a thing back then the DRS went through some changes and kind of morphed
- 01:19
into what's today the Democratic Party in the mid 1800s they believed in strong
- 01:24
local power ie states rights and ruled new york city politics with an iron fist [US map appears]
- 01:28
for two centuries the hollers made Irish immigrants their allies by hooking them
- 01:34
up with jobs housing and medical care the politician buttered up the Irish to
- 01:39
create a power base in voting all they asked for in return for their kindness [People celebrating and man on stage]
- 01:43
was at the immigrants vote for whomever Tammany Hall dubbed worthy the Irish
- 01:48
thought this was a pretty sweet trade off especially since Tammany gave out [Tammany holding whiskey bottle with iron fist]
- 01:51
whiskey on Election Day seriously we're not even joking about that the most
- 01:55
famous boss of Tammany Hall was William tweed who is predictably named boss
- 02:00
tweed well tweed served one term as a member of the US House of
- 02:04
Representatives for New York and then switched the city politics joining the
- 02:07
New York County Board of Supervisors in 1858 here
- 02:11
scam that forced companies that wanted to do business in New York City to pay
- 02:14
fifteen percent of their profits to tweed clearly this was a man destined [Dollar signs rain down]
- 02:19
for Tammany Hall and he took it over in 1858 his tweed ring of oil politicians
- 02:24
included the governor of New York State and the mayor of New York City everybody
- 02:28
had to answer to the boss and he made mad stacks of cash they can then do so
- 02:33
any contractor building a skyscraper paid tweed for the privilege any bank [Contractor appears at skyscraper]
- 02:38
opening a new york branch paid tweed for the Riblet back any circus come into
- 02:43
town for two weeks paid tweed for the privilege he used part of the money to [Clown at a circus]
- 02:48
take care of the immigrants who are still crucial to his getting men elected
- 02:52
but he was the larger part of the money buying himself diamonds and fancy
- 02:55
brownstone apartment was finally brought down in 1872 after years of notorious
- 03:00
living and vicious political cartoons satirizing his corruption but the haul
- 03:05
out rogue demands if new leaders tried to clean it up a little but Tammany Hall [Washing bucket appears]
- 03:09
still made his bread and butter by fixing elections stopping reform
- 03:12
legislation and charging fees well in the 20th century the republican party in
- 03:17
political reformers joined forces to get a republican elected mayor of New York
- 03:20
City fiorello laguardia who took office in 1933 well he was a reformer an anti [Fiorello appears]
- 03:28
committeeman and mad popular he got reelected in 1937 by New Yorkers sick of
- 03:33
the corruption in their city and other 1940s Tammany was a shadow of its former [Finger pointed at Tammany]
- 03:37
self somewhere boss tweed rolled in his grave but well then felt better after [Skeleton appears in a grave]
- 03:42
charging worms for the right to eat him
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