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Political Party Machines and Immigration in 19th Century America
After a bitterly contested Revolution ended in the liberation of England's former colonies, the fledgling American nation embarked on the precarious path towards a style of democratic governance that had never been enacted on so large a scale. While the latter part of the 18th century was defined by political idealism, as exemplified by contributions made by our nation's Founding Fathers, the 19th century soon gave rise to an insidious process of power consolidation and voter exploitation. The egalitarian political parties envisioned during the heady days of American Independence devolved into institutional party machines, typified by widespread corruption, fraudulent activities, autocratic rule, and a blatant disregard for the foundational importance of democracy. The most effective political party machines during the 19th century were ran ruthlessly by so-called "bosses," or political titans who maintained control over their jurisdiction through a combination of allegiances within business community, loyalty from elected officials, and outright intimidation of opponents. Infamous party machines such as New York City's Tammany Hall and the Cook County Democratic Organization in Chicago emerged, promising to fill the power vacuum created by the accelerating pace of industrialization, and the seemingly continuous flow of European immigration needed to fuel America's roaring...
By examining potential links between the 19th century's unprecedented wave of immigration and the rise of political party machines which soon came to dominate the American political system, it is possible to determine how the ideals of democracy were so easily tarnished.
The influence of immigration trends on local politics within America's largest cities became increasingly prevalent during the 19th century, as a massive influx of European immigrants to the New World fundamentally altered the demographic and cultural landscape in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago and other rapidly growing urban areas. With immigrants of Irish, Italian, German, Polish, and Jewish ancestry arriving in America every day to pursue the newfound concept of personal liberty, politicians soon realized the enormous potential to be derived by exploiting this unending stream of uninformed voters. Forming now infamous "naturalization committees," the Tammany Hall regime of William M. Tweed organized systematic citizenship campaigns throughout New York City, arranging unwitting immigrants to file the necessary paperwork for citizenship in exchange for their loyal political patronage. By consolidating power through the brutal application of political authority, party machine leaders were able create political arrangements that did not align with demographic realities, and "in New York City the machine organization Tammany Hall…
References
Judd, D., & Swanstrom, T. (2008). City politics. (8th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson Education.
Party Machines and Immigrants For more than a century, party machines dominated the political process in many parts of the United States where William "Boss" Tweed and his Tammany Hall henchmen and their ilk controlled the outcomes of elections in many major American cities by manipulating the immigrant vote. Although these political figures were eventually displaced by other politicians, they left a legacy of corruption, back-scratching and double-dealings that persists to
Party Machines and Immigrants The objective of this study is to discuss party machines and immigration from the 19th Century and the methods used to manipulate immigrant votes as reported in the work of Swanstrom (2012) entitled "City Politics" in Chapter 3. Swanstrom writes that the imagery in the "smoke-filled rooms in the back of taverns" as fat politicians who smoked the cigars and passed out "buckets of coal to poor
Political Machines: Politics as a Tammany Vocation When Max Weber made a speech on politics as a vocation he defined the political machine as a creation of the modern, pluralistic democratic state. A political machine, unlike a purely charismatic individual leader, was a functional bureaucracy attempted, however imperfectly to serve the popular interest through the use of an institutional framework. A quick-voiced opponent of political corruption might protest the use of
So who is an American and what an America can or cannot do are questions which are critical to the issue of legalizing immigrants. Does being an American mean you cannot show allegiance to any other country? The images of people raising and waving Mexican flag had enraged many but it need not have. It should be accepted that people who come from different countries would forever hold in their
However, she later concedes that this also meant that government leaders were Anglo and affluent, and drawn from the wealthier and more socially respectable spheres of society (125). Nonpartisan cities often had significantly lower turnout than partisan cities, without party machines to mobilize the masses. Non-partisan groups like the League of Women Voters were hardly neutral in their composition. They too were largely White and middle-class in membership and
For that reason alone, it is imperative that illegal immigrants entering the United States who are apprehended and found to be infectious receive treatment before deportation. However, this question of the health risks posed by illegal immigration has only served to heighten the tensions in the border communities, and cause Americans to be more cognizant of the ethnicity of the illegal immigrants. In Review So far, in review, the key issues