Bribery: Tammany Hall Essay

Political machines of fraud and bribery Introduction Lincoln Steffens published the put down of the cities witch was a book based on the corruption in the 1900s. By 1900, many cities in the south of America were controlled by semipolitical machines. These organizations consisted of full-time politicians whose main goal was to get and keep politicians power and notes and as well influence that went into it. In the 1900s, machines were usually associated with a political company partys forced to join to limit competition. And although it provided aids it also stifled opportunities for many citizens.Political bosses controlled access to metropolis jobs for example natural law and fire departments or on contraction projects. To get a city work contract you had to donate to the machines reelection campaign. Many business paid politicians launch government not to interfere with their activities. Such payoffs became part of the cost of doing business. Muckrakers called them bribery N ational government also suffered from corruption. For example, the constitution gave state legislatures the power to film senators, but corporations often bribed state legislators to elect their favored candidates to the senate.The senates were really sloshed men with class ties to powerful industries. As cities and their problems grew rapidly the political surroundings changed. No longer did politicians run small manageable cities. These were spacious cities with big city problems and the government structures designed to cope with these problems grew. As the government grew it became the nourishment for many professional politicians. Some would argue that these politicians were corrupt, they would argue that they provided a call for service . he Society of St. Tammany, which was also called the Columbian Order, was founded in whitethorn 1789 (some sources say 1786).The organization took its name from Tamamend, a legendary Indian promontory in the American northeast who was said to have had friendly traffic with William Penn in the 1680s. The original purpose of the Tammany Society was for discussion of politics in the new nation. The club was organized with titles and rituals based, quite loosely, on Native American lore. For instance, the leader of Tammany was known as the Grand Sachem, and the clubs home plate was known as the wigwam. Befor long the Society of St. Tammany turned into a transparent political organization affiliated with Aaron burr, a powerful force in New York politics at the time.