THE GILDED AGE<br > After the Civil War came the giddiest period of all in New York s history. A<br >great prosperity was afoot in the country. And in New York a perfect saturnalia of<br >greed and corruption burst upon an unsuspecting populace. Tile man whose name<br >became most closely identified with the times was one William Marcy ("Boss")<br >Tweed. Tweed was originally an alderman on the New York City Board of Supervi-<br >sops. Through skillful political machinations he subsequently became school com-<br >missioner， deputy street commissioner， deputy commissioner of public works， even<br >a state senator. All sounds oll the up and up， doesn t it? However， during his tenure<br >in these various posts Tweed managed to construct a system of patronage that ena-<br >bled him to assert total personal control over the entire city government.<br > Between tile years 1869 and 1871 the so-called Tweed Ring managed to steal<br >the amazing sum of $45 nail on from the City of New York How did they do it?<br >Well， first they had a good front man. He was the mayor， A. Oakley Hall. Hall and<br >Tweed had another stalwart in the person of City Chamberlain Peter B. Sweeney.<br >And in their collective pocket (so to speak) was the last heavyweight of the "Ring，"<br >City Comptroller Richard B. ("Slippery Dick") Connolly.<br > These boys were common thieves， even if they did do it in a big way They kept<br >themselves in office through blatant vote fraud. Corrupt judges routinely "natural-<br >ized" thou sands of illegal im migrants whenever votes were needed. It was the era of<br >the "Black Horse Cavalry，" those Albany legislators who sold their votes to the high-<br >est bidder. "Plunderbunds" was a term of the time， and it was applied equally to<br >both major parties. Victory at the polls meant one thing: a chance to rob and steal.<br > A tale that truly captures the flavor of post-Civil War New York is that of Com-<br >modore Vanderbilt s battle with the railroad barons， Jay Gould， Jim Fisk， and Dan<br >Drew. Vanderbilt had started buying up Erie Railroad stock in 1867， in an attempt<br >to stamp out a rate war. Gould， Fisk， and Drew controlled Erie at the time. As soon<br >as Vanderbilt began buying， Erie s treasurer， Drew， began issuing new stock certifi-<br >cates. Vanderbilt purchased $7 million worth of Erie stock in 1867 but somehow<br >never managed to obtain a majority interest. "If this printing press don t break<br >down，" observed Drew， "I ll he damned ifl don t give the old hog all he wants of<br >Erie."<br >