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Mark Twain and the Tammany Ring

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Arthur L. Vogelback
Arthur L. Vogelback*
Affiliation:
Ripon College, Ripon, Wisconsin
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Extract

On 27 September 1871 there appeared in an inconspicuous corner of the New York Tribune a piece by Mark Twain entitled “The Revised Catechism.” Obviously drawing on his Sunday School memories of the Westminster Catechism for the form of the contribution, Clemens makes use also of the Bible (a work thoroughly learned in his boyhood and never forgotten) for striking satirical effect. “The Revised Catechism” is a scathing denunciation of Boss Tweed and his associates—as accomplished a group of rascals as ever pillaged a public treasury—and at the same time an indictment of the age that permitted such men to thrive. The story of the Tammany Ring is too well known to need retelling here; but to make clear the reasons that led Mark Twain to the writing of his satire and to demonstrate the ironical character of his references, so apposite to the day and hour, it is necessary to consider briefly the part played in the exposure of the Ring by its two principal antagonists—one, the cartoonist, Thomas Nast, and the other, the New York Times.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 70 , Issue 1 , March 1955 , pp. 69 - 77
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1955

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References

1 Since its appearance in the Tribune, “The Revised Catechism” has never, to my knowledge, been reprinted, nor have I seen it elsewhere referred to.

2 Clemens was brought up as a Presbyterian in Hannibal. Prof. DeLancey Ferguson, to whom I am indebted for calling my attention to the fact that “The Revised Catechism” parodies the Westminster Catechism, believes this is the only time Mark Twain used the Westminster Catechism in his published writings.

3 Clemens once wrote that he had read the Bible through “before I was 15 years old” (Albert Bigelow Paine, Mark Twain, A Biography, New York, Harper & Bros., 1912, iii, 1281). His lifelong familiarity with the Bible as evidenced in his writings has often been commented on. See, e.g., Minnie M. Brashear, Mark Twain, Son of Missouri (Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1934), pp. 207–209 et passim, and the biblical references cited in Gladys Carmen Bellamy, Mark Twain as a Literary Artist (Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1950). Edward Wagenknecht spoke of the Bible as the most important influence on Mark Twain, and noted that Henry Pochmann had discovered in Clemens' writings more allusions to the Bible than to any other work (Mark Twain, The Man and His Work, New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1935, pp. 43–44).

4 xiii (11 Sept. 1869), 592.

5 Albert Bigelow Paine, Th. Nast, His Period and His Pictures (New York: Harper & Bros., 1904), p. 145.

6 xii (10 Oct. 1868), 656. The cartoon shows Mayor Hoffman used as a screen to hide the pilfering of city money. On the wall above the thieves is printed a Ring Commandment: “Thou Shalt Steal as Much as Thou Canst.”

7 Tweed used huge advertising payments as a thinly disguised bribe to the newspapers (Denis Tilden Lynch, “Boss” Tweed, New York, 1927, p. 301). See the Times editorial of 8 July 1871 for its bitter complaint concerning the lack of support and the venality of the New York press.

8 For an account of the remarkable coincidence in which two apostate Tammany henchmen independently provided the Times with evidence, see Lynch, pp. 361–363, and Meyer Berger, The Story of the New York Times (New York, 1951), pp. 41–42.

9 The thefts of the Tweed Ring are estimated to have reached $100 million (John D. Hicks, The American Nation, New York, 1945, p. 89).

10 See, e.g., the remarks of Joseph Hazlen, noted lawyer of the day, as quoted by Lynch, pp. 372–373.

11 It seems likely that Barnard in thus double-crossing the Ring thought he might win the Governorship (Lynch, pp. 374–375).

12 Clemens and Nast were friends of long standing. They had once (in 1867) planned a lecture tour together, Clemens to talk and Nast to illustrate the words with caricatures (Paine, Mark Twain, A Biography, i, 321). Mark Twain had profound admiration for the great cartoonist (ibid., p. 1258).

13 As indicated in the text, the leaders of the Ring were the big four: William Marcy Tweed, Peter B. Sweeny, Richard B. Connolly, and A. Oakey Hall. In “The Revised Catechism” Clemens stigmatizes three of the above—Tweed, Connolly, and Hall—along with a number of associates and lesser lights, but surprisingly does not mention Sweeny. The latter, treasurer of the city, was reputed to be the guiding intelligence of the Ring (Nast so caricatured him: Peter “Brains” Sweeny) and stood next to Tweed in importance (M. R. Werner, Tammany Hall, New York, 1928, p. 114).

14 xiii (25 Dec. 1869), 825. Another Nast cartoon in Harper's Weekly—that for 10 Oct. 1868—may have caught Mark Twain's eye. It, too, refers to a Ring “Commandment” (see n. 6).

15 A fact noted by Wagenknecht (p. 44) who calls attention to the extraordinary freedom with which Clemens used the Bible, not only quoting it and referring to it on all manner of occasion, but even burlesquing it.

16 It was the Westminster Shorter Catechism (rather than the Larger) that Mark Twain probably memorized as a child and which he is parodying here. The initial question of “The Revised Catechism” is identical with the first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Mark Twain's third question “Who is God, the one only and true?” combines (more or less) question 4 in the Shorter Catechism and the answer to question 5. Thereafter, Clemens invents his own questions and answers.

17 William Marcy Tweed was the Grand Sachem of Tammany Hall and the undisputed boss of the Ring. He held a variety of posts—President of the Board of Supervisors, Deputy Street Commissioner, State Senator—as suited his fancy.

18 Mark Twain is here satirizing A. Oakey Hall, Mayor of New York and henchman of Tweed. The biblical reference is to Matt. 21:2–7—Jesus sends for an ass and a colt so that he may ride into Jerusalem. Nast, in his cartoons of Hall, frequently depicted the mayor as having the body of a horse (see, e.g., the cartoon in Harper's Weekly, xv [5 Aug. 1871], 716), and used the word “mare” as a pun on the title “mayor” (he does so in his caricature “The New Horse Plague,” Harper's Weekly, xv [29 July 1871], 704). Possibly because Hall had a reputation as a man about town, Nast chose this symbol of ridicule as especially effective. The cartoonist had a penchant for animal symbols. It was he who created the Tammany tiger and the GOP elephant.

19 The “prophet,” as already indicated, is Tweed, and “Jerusalem” is New York City. Hall is the ass on which Tweed rides into the city, or, in other words, the means by which Tweed robs the municipality. See Matt. 21:9 ff. for the Biblical analogy.

20 Richard B. Connolly, known as “Slippery Dick,” was the City Controller, and one of the four principals of the Ring. On 18 Sept., Connolly deserted Tweed and with the hope of saving his own skin appointed a deputy to carry on his office (Lynch, pp. 379–380). The adjective “beloved” as applied to Connolly's discipleship (Clemens is possibly making a satirical parallel to John the Apostle, “the disciple whom Jesus loved”—John 21:20) is thus especially ironical.

21 Dr. Carnochan was the quarantine health officer of New York City and apparently the collector of customs duties. Both the Times and the Tribune attacked him for having made a fortune by illegal charges on the commerce of the port (see particularly the editorials in the Times, 14 Aug. 1871, and the Tribune, 9 Aug. 1871). The designation of him as St. Matthew is appropriate enough for Mark Twain's purposes. In Matt. 9:9, Matthew sits “at the receipt of custom.”

22 James Fisk, Jr., in exchange for legislative favors, made it possible for Tweed to share in the stupendous Erie Railroad thefts (see Lynch, pp. 297–301). Fisk was the flamboyant type—vigorous, self-confident, audacious, and energetic. Probably this is why Mark Twain called him “St. Peter” Fisk, having in mind the fact that St. Peter was reputed to have “a natural impetuosity and tendency to presumption” (S. Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints [Edinburgh, 1914], June, 421).

23 Jay Gould, as president of the ill-famed Erie Railroad, was, like his partner Fisk, closely allied with Tweed in shady financial transactions. In ironically dubbing Gould “St. Paul,” Clemens may well have had in mind the fact that the financier, though of sickly constitution, was a man of exceptional drive and energy, a description that might be applied to St. Paul. For the reference to the Gould “who suffereth many stripes and glorieth in them,” a statement probably referring to the ups and downs of Gould's career (Matthew Josephson in The Robber Barons, New York, 1934, pp. 141, 193, et passim, discusses these vicissitudes in Gould's public and financial life), see the similar reference to Paul in II Cor. 11:24–30.

24 Orange S. Winans was the Republican Assemblyman of Dunkirk, Chautauqua Co., who betrayed his party by selling out to Tweed for $100,000 and voting with the Democrats for the Tax Levy Bill (see Lynch, p. 358). Hence, “St. Iscariot” Winans.

25 Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt was the losing opponent of Fisk and Gould in the struggle for the Erie Railroad. The word “essteamed” is probably a pun on Vanderbilt's extensive railroad and shipping activities. It appears likely that Clemens christened Vanderbilt “St. Jacob” (the “St.” being obviously a gratuitous label) in recognition of the Commodore's known craft in financial combat. See Gen. 27:11–16 for characterization of Jacob.

26 Andrew J. Garvey was the contractor hired by the Ring to do all the plastering for the city. Because of the enormous sums of money he received for his work, he was dubbed by the Times “the prince of plasterers” (29 July 1871). Mark Twain's pun on the word “charitable” (“chair-itable”) seems to be at the expense of the wrong individual here. Garvey's field of exploitation was not that of supplying chairs to the city; it was the next-mentioned saint, Ingersoll, who made a fortune in the chair business. Clemens may have had in mind the Times's famous comment on Garvey's income. Pointing out that Garvey had received from the Ring $2,870,464.06 in two years, the newspaper mocked: “He could certainly afford to give away the odd six cents in charity” (29 July 1871). (My italics.)

27 James H. Ingersoll was a partner of Tweed's in the lucrative chair business. He also supplied the city with carpets. For carpeting the new Court House, Ingersoll charged a modest $565,731.34. (See the Times, 29 July 1871, for its sarcastic estimate of how much carpeting this sum would buy.)

28 Tweed held the controlling interest in the New York Printing Co. All the printing and stationery required by the city was of course placed with the New York Printing Co. at fantastic prices. Since the Ring owned and operated the New York Printing Co. and at the same time fed the company with the city's business, Mark Twain's biblical allusion (Matt. 6:3) sums up the situation appropriately.

29 John T. Hoffman, as Tweed's designee, became mayor of New York (1865–68) and then was twice elected governor, in 1868 and 1870. In the uproar over the Ring exposures, Hoffman tried desperately to disavow his connections with Tweed—a performance which explains Clemens' biblical reference. This reference is, of course, to St. Peter's repeated denial of Jesus in the courtyard of the high priest's palace (Mark 14:66–72).

30 In 1861 Tweed arranged that his hireling, George C. Barnard, be made a judge of the New York State Supreme Court. Through the following years, Barnard became a specialist in the issuing of injunctions, all of them designed to aid Tweed. “He fired injunctions,” says one historian, “like bolts of lightning” (Josephson, p. 125). Barnard's activities in this regard culminated in the famous injunctions of Sept. 1871 in which, as described in the text, he betrayed the Ring (see the comments of the Times, 8 and 16 Sept. 1871, on these two injunctions).

31 The outrageous charges for carpets for the new Court House have already been cited (see n. 27). See also the article in the Times for 30 Aug. 1871 titled “The Great Carpet Trick.”

32 According to the Times, Ingersoll was paid $170,729.60 for chairs supplied to armories. “If armory chairs cost $5 each,” the newspaper calculated, “… the money paid to Ingersoll would have bought 34,145 chairs” (29 July 1871).

33 Of the staggering sum of $7,168,212.23 appropriated by the Ring for printing and advertising during a period of about thirty months, most of it went to Tweed's New York Printing Co. (Lynch, p. 336), or, in other words, into the pockets of the Ring.

34 The “quarantine apostle” is another reference to Dr. Carnochan, quarantine health officer of the port of New York (see n. 21).

35 According to the Tribune, quarantine officials were in the habit of levying “four times the customary rates asked by private companies for lightering and stevedoring” (9 Aug. 1871). The Times likewise denounced the excessive charges on “lightering, stevedoring, cooperage, fumigating, towage” (2 Aug. 1871).

36 Vessels entering with immigrants afforded New York port officials a lucrative source of plunder. The Times, 11 Aug. 1871, cited some flagrant instances of profiteering on sick and dying immigrants. (See also the Tribune editorial, 9 Aug. 1871, for similar charges.)

37 A probable allusion to the activities of the Health Department. The Times, 19 Aug. 1871, ran a 3-column article attacking the city health department, complaining of the dirt and filth of the city, the increase in death rates, the inadequate prevention of disease, etc. I was unable to find, however, any reference to this specific charge of Clemens'. But it sounds like an authentic specimen of municipal activities under Tweed.

38 Presumably the activities of such a contractor as John H. Keyser (see following footnote), who cheated on iron work for the city by substituting inferior material (Werner, p. 167, furnishes some examples), were winked at by city inspectors.

39 The John H. Keyser Co. did the plumbing work for the Ring. For his plumbing and gas-fitting work in the Court House, Keyser received $1,119,874.50 (Lynch, p. 365). No wonder the Times spoke of New York City as “The El Dorado of Plumbers” (29 July 1871).

40 In connection with the expenditures for keeping up the city parks, the Times raised the question: “At what rate are we paying for these pretty patches of grass and flowers?” It answered its query by pointing out that $4,758 per acre had been spent for improvements on the Battery Park in one year; that for the City Hall Park $75,373 had been paid out during 1870. For the tiny Beach-Street Park, which contained only ⅓ of an acre, $3,385 had been spent (Times, 29 July 1871).

41 On the payroll of the city were thousands of persons (one source, according to Werner, p. 170, estimated 15,000) who performed no work at all and yet were paid as if they did. Loafers, hoodlums, and ex-criminals waited to do Tweed's bidding (such as repeater-voting) and in the meantime drew a regular salary from the city. Nast's cartoon, “Our Modern Falstaff Reviewing His Army” (Harper's Weekly, xiv [5 Nov. 1870], 713), indicates the character of these hirelings.

42 The Times (21 July 1871) gave an example of the system by which the Tammany Ring got its graft from contractors: “A man does some work for the City authorities and charges $5000 for it. When he presents his bill, one of Connolly's agents says to him, ‘We can't pay this, but make the amount $55,000 and you shall have your money at once.‘ A warrant is drawn for $55,000, and indorsed by the presenter of the bill over to J. H. Ingersoll. He then receives five $1,000 bills, and the Ring pockets the $50,000.”

43 The “Forty Thieves” was the name by which in the 1850's the notoriously corrupt Common Council of New York was known. Tweed became a member of this august body in 1851. Two decades later, he introduced the “Court-House edition” of the Forty Thieves. Under his leadership the Ring far outstripped its parent organization in municipal pillage. The new Court House, for example, cost the taxpayers more than $12,000,000, about $9,000,000 over what it was worth. The Ring pocketed this difference (Lynch, p. 338).

44 DeAlva Stanwood Alexander, A Political History of the State of New York (New York, 1909), iii, 247–248. Barnard was removed from office and permanently debarred from holding any office in the state again. A second grand jury failed to indict Hall.