New York City Payroll approved and signed by William "Boss" Tweed during Civil War - 1863

New York City Payroll Listing of Employees from the Inspectors of the Street Department dated April 1863 during the middle of the Civil War. This historic document is hand signed by the Superintendent of Repairs and Supplies, Henry Wallace and by the Deputy Street Commissioner, William "Boss" Tweed. This historic document and is over 141 years old.








William "Boss" Tweed Signature on Document



This New York City payroll document has also been signed by 3 employees, who were making a salary of $2.00 per day. This item is in very fine condition, and has been folded in forths. This wonderful piece of history will look terrific framed.

William Marcy Tweed, 1823-78, was an American politician and Tammany leader. Boss Tweed controlled nominations and patronage in New York City Democratic politics after 1857 through his control of the TAMMANY organization. Tweed started out as a bookkeeper and volunteer fireman in New York City. He was elected alderman (a member of a city's legislative body) in 1851, and later he was also elected to a term in Congress. By 1870, he was so powerful and had so many of his friends (known as his "Tweed Ring" cronies) in political positions that he was able to pass a new city charter allowing him and his friends to control the city treasury. Between 1865 and 1871, Tweed and his associates stole between $30 million and $200 million from the city. He and the notorious Tweed Ring, which consisted of Tweed, the mayor, the city comptroller, and the city chamberlain, sold political favors and defrauded the city largely through padded construction contracts. Jay Gould and James FISK were business cronies.

After the Civil War, the warring factions of the local Democratic Party became united behind the leadership of a pro-union Tammany Hall leader named William M. ("Boss") Tweed. Boss Tweed had the legislature authorize a City charter which gave the City government more autonomy and home rule. Understanding the value of public works, he actively sought rapid expansion of the City's physical infrastructure, extending streets and sewers to most of Manhattan on the East and West sides of Central Park and the sleepy, farming village of Harlem to the North.

While political corruption had been a problem in the Democratic party since its founding, the activities of Tweed and his associates went far beyond the petty graft of his predecessors, and soon could not be ignored. The New York Times, then a Republican paper, began raising such impertinent questions as how Tweed could afford a town house on Fifth Avenue, an estate in Greenwich, all on his $2500 a year Street Commissioner's salary. Times cartoonist Thomas Nast mercilessly attacked Tweed in political cartoons. The Tweed scandals were a great blow to Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party, and more generally to the NYC. The City's home rule charter was quickly revoked and its ability to govern itself was hampered for the next sixty years. And Democratic reformers for the first time beat the machine. However the reform movement could never hold on to govern mainly because it came from two dramatically opposite factions, the wealthy businesses seeking to reduce taxes and the social and labor reformers seeking to increase social services and business regulations.