This Day in American History December 4
The Library Of Congress
The Library Of Congress
Boss Tweed Escapes!
On December 4, 1875, William M. “Boss” Tweed, notorious leader of New York City’s Democratic political machine, escaped from the Ludlow Street jail where he was being held and went into hiding in New York, while a civil case against him for misuse of city funds went forward. After Tweed was found guilty in absentia, he fled to Spain, where he was quickly captured and returned to New York City to serve out his sentence.
Tweed, a former bookkeeper, businessman, and member of several fraternal organizations, including the Masons, was elected an alderman in New York City in 1851. He was subsequently elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for one term (1853-55). He then returned to local politics and worked his way up New York City’s Democratic hierarchy by holding various elected and unelected positions in the municipal government.
Tammany Hall, the executive committee of the New York City Democratic Party, was the center of the political machine that Tweed dominated, and which controlled much of New York City government. Through a system of patronage and charity, Tammany Hall commanded the allegiance of many voters, particularly recent immigrants and the poor. Poor citizens relied on the party for access to employment, and financial and legal assistance; in return, they were expected to vote in support of Tammany candidates and party initiatives.
The New York Times, Harper’s Weekly cartoonist Thomas Nast, and reforming Democrat Samuel J. Tilden all contributed to the effort to oust Tweed from office. On July 22, 1871, the New York Times began publishing an exposé of the Tweed Ring’s activities. Nast followed up with cartoons roasting Tweed. Despite bribes and threats, Nast continued to lambast Tweed regularly in the pages of Harper’s. Meanwhile, Tilden’s efforts to oust Tweed solidified his name as a reformer—a reputation that helped him become governor of New York in 1874 and nearly put him in the White House in 1877.
Goodbye to General Washington
On Thursday, December 4, 1783, General George Washington received the officers of the victorious Continental Army to say farewell in the Long Room of Fraunces Tavern, located on the corner of Pearl and Broad streets, in lower Manhattan. Fraunces Tavern opened in 1762 as the “Queen’s Head Tavern” and also was known as the “Sign of Queen Charlotte”—for its portrait of the queen. The tavern, under the proprietorship of Samuel Fraunces–a patriot of African and French extraction born in the French West Indies, was located across the Bowling Green from the Whitehall Ferry landing. There, a barge waited to carry Washington across the Hudson River to New Jersey and then to Annapolis to resign his commission.
Until British troops evacuated the city on November 22, 1783, Fraunces Tavern was called the “Queen’s Head Tavern.” Its sign incorporated a portrait of Queen Charlotte.
After British troops evacuated the city on November 25, 1783, Governor George Clinton threw a huge party at the tavern in honor of General Washington. On December 1, a display of “fire-works and illuminations” was viewed from the Battery.
All the festivities were reported in the newspaper published by James Rivington, formerly “Printer to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty.” With the departure of the British, The Royal Gazette became Rivington’s New-York Gazette, and Universal Advertiser. The December 6, 1783, issue of the newspaperdescribed Washington’s farewell to his officers:
Last Thursday noon (December 4), the principal officers of the army in town assembled at Fraunces Tavern, to take a final leave of their illustrious, gracious, and much loved Comrade, General Washington. The passions of human nature were never more tenderly agitated, than in this interesting and distressful scene…[His] words produced extreme sensibility on both sides…
Rivington’s New-York Gazette, and Universal Advertiser, December 6, 1783.
According to Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge’s account, General Henry Knox stood closest to General Washington. As the general concluded his address, the two turned to each other and “suffused in tears…embraced each other in silence.” Then, each of the officers followed suit, afterwards following Washington to the ferry landing where he departed, waving to them from his barge.
General Washington had already issued his Farewell Orders to the Continental Army. The outpouring of emotion and affection for Washington upon his retirement to Mt. Vernon for Christmas imposed a heavy burden of reciprocal correspondence. The general authored many letters of recommendation for former soldiers and patriots including a testimonial for Samuel Fraunces, who likely assisted the Continental Army by obtaining intelligence from British army officers frequenting his tavern while New York was under royal government. Fraunces later was employed by Washington as a steward in his presidential households in New York and Philadelphia.
