How Did Political Machines Help Immigrants?
Bosses who ran political machines rewarded political supporters with government jobs and services in exchange for their loyalty. They also mastered a system of kickbacks, where contractors or businesses paid politicians to obtain government contracts.
In the Gilded Age, political machines often used immigrants to help them win elections. Immigrants were the newest part of the growing population, which meant that bosses could appeal to them with a promise of jobs and services in return for their votes.
Tammany Hall in New York City
In the early 1800s, Tammany Hall was a powerful political machine in New York City. It helped immigrants gain access to jobs, government assistance, and political office. It also helped people become naturalized citizens.
Tammany Hall was founded in 1786, and it became the main local political machine of the Democratic Party in New York City and the State of New York. It dominated politics in both places from the 1790s to the 1960s.
Throughout the 19th century, the Tammany Hall machine was notorious for its corruption. It was especially corrupt under William M. “Boss” Tweed, who was a leader of the machine and a member of the New York State Senate.
Tweed was responsible for creating “naturalization committees,” which were made up of Tammany politicians and employees. The committees filled out paperwork and provided witnesses for immigrants to become citizens. They also lent them money for the fees required to become naturalized citizens.
The political machine’s ability to help immigrants was a major reason that it grew so powerful. Many of the immigrants that were helped by Tammany Hall came from poor backgrounds and needed help to get ahead in American society.
They relied on the patronage of Tammany Hall to provide them with food, coal, and rent money in times of emergency. The political machine also helped immigrants to learn the language and culture of American society.
By 1871, the number of immigrants in New York City had risen to over 100,000. The Tammany Hall machine was so successful that it even managed to influence the elections of New York’s governor and mayor.
Despite its corruption, the Tammany Hall machine was able to provide a great deal of help to immigrants. They were given government assistance, jobs, and the chance to become citizens of the United States.
In the 1900s, anti-Tammany forces won the election of a reformer, Seth Low, to become mayor of New York. This helped to remove some of the power from Tammany Hall.
Another setback for the Tammany Hall machine occurred in 1932 when reform-minded Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt became president and stripped Tammany of its federal patronage. He also helped Republican Fiorello LaGuardia to win the mayorship on a Fusion ticket (where two or more parties support a common candidate).
The decline and demise of Tammany Hall helped benefit American democracy because it helped make people aware that political machines can be abused. However, they can still be beneficial to the country if they are conducted properly.
Irish Political Machines in Boston
During the late 19th century, Boston was home to one of the largest Irish populations in all of America. They constituted about a quarter of the city’s population. Despite the growing numbers, Bostonians were not very welcoming of Irish immigrants and often treated them badly.
Most immigrants came to Boston and New York City seeking work as dock workers, laborers, and servants. They took whatever jobs they could find and stayed in crowded slum tenements near the port, often living in rooms that had no water, sanitation, or daylight.
These conditions became breeding grounds for disease, particularly cholera and tuberculosis. The influx of newcomers straining the cities’ resources also led to increased crime and a dramatic increase in infant mortality.
Many of these new arrivals were illiterate and did not speak English. They were poor peasants from rural counties who migrated to urban centers in search of a better life.
But they found it difficult to assimilate into the American way of life. They kept to themselves and avoided talking to people they did not know. They remained loyal to their Catholic leaders, not to their American counterparts.
In cities like Boston and New York, political machines gave the Irish their votes in exchange for employment. This helped them escape the poverty and discrimination they faced back in Ireland and provided them with a way to earn an income that was higher than their native country’s average wage.
The urban political machine was dominated by ward bosses, who ran their own organizations. These were akin to the district or neighborhood councils of today’s American cities.
These bosses often offered Irish voters jobs as policemen, firemen, or sanitation workers in exchange for their vote. These wards were usually run by men who had risen through the ranks of the political machine. These ward bosses were more trustworthy than the mayor of a city, who had a tendency to be anti-Irish and anti-Catholic.
Some ward bosses also helped their constituents get out of trouble by giving them loans. They often provided them with a place to live in exchange for their help.
Political Machines in the Gilded Age
In the Gilded Age, rapid urbanization and immigration caused many problems for city governments. These problems included overcrowding, crime, and government services that were insufficient for the large numbers of immigrants and poor urban dwellers.
In order to provide these essential services, political machines developed in cities across the United States. These machines used partisan loyalty to reward political supporters with government jobs and contracts, which gave them power over public policies and influenced elections.
However, some people criticized political machines for corruption and nepotism. They believed that these political bosses rewarded incompetent loyalists and protected the wrong people at the expense of the rest of society.
Others argued that these political bosses provided essential services to immigrants that other government agencies could not. These services were important to immigrants, who lived in tenements with no electricity and few government services.
Political machines also facilitated the movement of immigrants to the cities by providing transportation and job opportunities. These machines helped immigrants find work, deal with naturalization issues, and even receive food or fuel in emergencies.
The politics of the Gilded Age ended with the Progressive Era, which focused on social reforms and aimed to make government fairer for everyone. This period also led to the creation of the People’s Party, a political party that advocated for farmers and farm workers.
A popular political machine figure in the late 1800s was Boss Tweed, who ran New York’s Tammany Hall. Although Tweed was convicted of several crimes, his ruthless tactics continued to corrupt politics in America’s largest cities.
Tweed’s corruption destroyed the rule of law and made it more difficult for citizens to hold politicians accountable. Tweed’s cronies took advantage of this situation by using bribes and kickbacks to influence government decisions.
Another factor that contributed to the decline of political machines in the Gilded Age was civil service reform in the federal government, which banned patronage and eliminated many of the spoils system’s perks. Critics of patronage feared that it would create angry citizens who felt entitled to government jobs and contracts in exchange for their political loyalty.
Political Machines in the 20th Century
After the Civil War, rapid industrialization led to a large influx of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe. These new arrivals were able to find work in factories, which allowed them to quickly settle into their new homes and start earning a living.
While this influx of immigrants brought much needed jobs, it also caused overcrowding in urban areas. The result was poor conditions, including crime and inadequate government services.
To help these immigrants, many cities began to use political machines to reward them with jobs, welfare benefits, and business contracts. These patronage systems relied on partisan loyalty to win political office and then rewarded winners with special benefits that they could pass on to others in their networks.
These benefits often included money, food, and housing. The most important machine, Tammany Hall in New York City, was a powerful force in the city for over 100 years.
The Tammany machine helped to provide employment opportunities for many immigrants, while also allowing them to contribute their labor to the construction of buildings and roads in their communities. It was also a powerful force in the government of the United States.
This machine was able to maintain power by controlling vote-tallying through patronage, which meant that voters were unable to break party loyalties. This system made it easier for elected officials to keep control of the country despite public dissatisfaction with their policies.
By the mid-1930s, political machines began to weaken as citizens gained greater access to government services like social security and unemployment benefits. This was due in part to the New Deal legislation passed by the US government under Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Other changes to the American political landscape also contributed to the decline of political machine influence. For instance, there was an increasing emphasis on direct primaries in local elections. Moreover, laws were passed that restricted the number of patronage jobs. In addition, there were more judicial reviews of public utilities. Finally, a steady exodus of urban residents to the suburbs, combined with an increasingly mobile population and fewer ties to specific neighborhoods, diminished the social base that once made political machines synonymous with city government.