Free Paper Sample: The Plunkitt of Tammany Hall

The Plunkitt of Tammany Hall gave an insight into New York's Street politics. The book provides a courageous explanation of the distinctions between what George Washington Plunkitt referred to as honest graft and dishonest graft. The book centers on Georges W. Plunkitt's advocacy for political control as well as the political machine that aided him in getting wealthy and attaining a political seat in Tammany Hall. Plunkitt, in this book, defends this political machine by explaining the differences between honest graft and dishonest graft. The political officials of Tammany Hall had been accused of getting wealth from the graft. Plunkitt describes dishonest graft as "blackmailin' gamblers saloonkeepers, and disorderly people" (Connolly 03). That is the corruption of attaining political power or business power through bribery. He then describes honest graft as something that has to do with the example of buying and selling land for business purposes. For instance, if the city is talking about a given piece of land that should be used for a community park, he (Plunkitt) would purchase that piece of land, increase the price and then sell it to the project developer. To Plunkitt, this is an "honest way" of profiting.

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Plunkitt could win over the heart of voters and attain political support. Hence he knew how to keep a seat in Tammany Hall comfortably. In his 'honest' strategies, he depicts how to target given types of voters. According to him, to become a politician in Tammany Hall, one had to know how to bluff. To Plunkitt, everything revolved around winning a vote. Since he was both a politician and a businessman, he knew too well the political game.

In the Gilded Age, politics were characterized by lots of corruption and scandals, yet voter turnout reached too high. The Republicans were in support of business and industry demanding money regulations and protective tariffs. The Democrats, on the other hand, opposed the tariff and ultimately embraced the free silver platform. In 1890, the People's or the Populist Party came up to promote the farmer's interests. The party advocated for the coining of silver to enhance the debtor's financial positions (Bartels 67). The Gilded Age was one of the most corrupt periods in US History majorly because of the increase in companies and the development of modern communication methods that enhanced the way corruption could work. The government of the people, by the people, and for the people was not there anymore, and it became the government by the corporations, of the corporations, and for the corporations. The political leaders significantly took lots of bribes from the companies (White 284). During this period, the railroads were at the limelight of political corruption. Also, the public officers were vulnerable to corruption since many of them did not depend on their salaries for income but relied on some part of the taxes they had collected as well as sales commissions.

The political machines in the urban centers, like the Tammany Hall in New York, attained significant power and bribes in dealing with the very lucrative public offices like political plums. They committed massive voter frauds, took lots of pf bribes when giving contracts, and even fixed elections (Connolly 118). The 'honest' graft was a subtler way of corruption during this period. Unlike stealing from public coffers or blackmailing the individuals who owned businesses, politicians like Plunkitt made use of their inside knowledge of where public works would be developed to employ a much more beneficial land gamble.

The primary aspect of Mr. Plunkitt's approaches to politics that I disapprove of was the use of 'honest' graft in politics. Mr. Plunkitt became both politically and financially wealthy by practicing the 'honest' graft. He was a contemptuously truthful practitioner of what is currently referred to as machine politics, based on patronage and honesty in its exercise of power for individual attainment (Funderburk 13). He explains that for dishonest graft, one works solely for their interests, and in honest graft, one pursues their interests, as well as the interest of both the state and the party. I am personally still convinced that this was the best approach. I believe Plunkitt could have used other better and more honest strategies. Plunkett made most of his wealth via the buying of land that he was aware would be required for public projects.

There are many parallels between this document and present-day politics. One of the major correlations between the nature of these politics is corruption, just like political leaders were corrupt in the 1900s, in the same way the political leaders of modern society are corrupt (Baker 912). The opinions on the various political topics that Plunkitt expresses do not just educate about the political-historical moment in the US in the late 19th Century but also accurately depict some current political machinery and issues.

Conclusion

Conclusively, the book is a primary historical artifact and a significant source of remarkable value for anybody trying to reconstruct the nature of US politics in the 19th Century, particularly in New York.

Works Cited

Baker, Paula, et al. "Interchange: Corruption Has a History." Journal of American History 105.4 (2019): 912-938.

Bartels, Larry M. Unequal democracy: The political economy of the new gilded age. Princeton University Press, 2018.

Connolly, James. "Machine Made: Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics." (2017): 116-117.

Funderburk, Charles. "Corruption in the United States: The Access Market." Political Corruption in Comparative Perspective. Routledge, 2016. 33-54.

White, Richard. The republic for which it stands: The United States during reconstruction and the gilded age, 1865-1896. Oxford University Press, 2017.