Plunkitt,_George_Washington

Plunkitt, George Washington The Spoils System played a major role in urban machine politics with George Washington Plunkitt especially. Plunkitt and his constituents believed in political patronage and personalized democracy. The men of Tammany Hall did things for New York City that republicans would not do. Plunkitt described these acts as honest graft. “Ain’t it perfectly honest to charge a good price and make a profit on my investment and foresight' Of course, it is. Well, that’s honest graft.” (Riordon, 49) Others, did not see the honesty in this corruption and thievery. However, it can be easily shown how this way of politics was beneficial to many people of New York City. There are many examples of how urban machine politics met unmet needs, and saved the city from chaos. Urban machine politics speaks to specialization and centralization. The central organization of course is Tammany Hall. “To the victor goes the spoils.” This relates to the Spoil System which was everywhere after the civil war. Which ever political party that won national elections, held the power. The republicans held onto this balance of power through the end of the 19th century. Irish democrat John Kelly entered the political arena and Tammany was established in plunkitt, tammany, riordon, politics, people, hall, men, district, civil, very, service, reformers, political, constituents, way, ward, votes, urban, tests, study, social, progressive, organization, one, nyc, man, machine, know, jobs, groups, educated, didn’t, bosses, act, years