Reconstruction and the Gilded Age 175so prevalent during the Gilded Age. As a matter of fact, there were
scandals beyond the nation’s capital. In New York the Tweed Ring
had robbed the city of millions until Tilden broke it up. William
Marcy Tweed was the boss of Tammany Hall, the city’s Democratic
machine, and his henchmen raided the municipal treasury and took
anywhere between $ 100 million and $ 200 million through kickbacks,
fake vouchers, padded bills, and other fraudulent devices. Tweed was
arrested, convicted of these assorted crimes, and died in prison, al-
though several other hoodlums in the ring escaped to Europe with
their loot.
And there was considerable corruption in the South, where the re-
building of a shattered economy and society allowed scalawags, carpet-
baggers, and the criminally minded to arrange contracts and bids for
social services that resulted in higher taxes and increased state indebt-
edness. In some instances the debt was tripled in just a few years. There
were also many opportunities to cheat, defraud, steal, and commit
bribery. Even after the South was “Redeemed” these criminal activities
continued, and in some instances grew worse. But it should be pointed
out that during “Black Reconstruction” a good deal of the money was
spent on hospitals, public education, and various asylums that benefi ted
the poor and disabled.
An important source of corruption in the nation’s capital emanated
from the abuse of the patronage system. Civil service reform was des-
perately needed. Senator Roscoe Conkling of New York sneeringly re-
ferred to it as “snivel service.” “During the last twenty-fi ve years,”
commented Representative James Garfield, “it has been understood by
the Congress and the people, that offi ces are to be obtained by the aid
of senators and representatives, who thus become the dispensers, some-
times the brokers of patronage.” Frankly, he continued, the Tenure of
Office Act “has virtually resulted in the usurpation, by the senate, of a
large share of the appointing power.” This measure “has resulted in
seriously crippling the just powers of the executive, and has placed in
the hands of senators and representatives a power most corrupting and
dangerous.”
President Hayes tried to regain control of appointments by chal-
lenging one of the most powerful figures in Congress, Senator Conk-
ling, the leader of the “Stalwart” or Radical faction of the Republican