Plunkitt, George Washington (1842–1924)

GEORGE WASHINGTON PLUNKITT was a New York City politician, immortalized by William L. Rior-dan as “Plunkitt of Tammany Hall,” who admitted to practicing “honest graft” as an operative in the Democratic political machine that dominated New York City politics in the last half of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century. Plunkitt, who was of Irish ancestry, left school at the age of 11 and went to work in a butcher shop. As a young man, he decided he would make politics his profession.

A Democrat, Plunkitt served one term in the New York State Assembly (1869–70). In 1870, he served simultaneously as a state assemblyman, a New York City alderman, a police magistrate, and a county supervisor. He returned to elective office as a state senator, 1884–87; returned to the state senate a second time 1892–93, and was re-elected, serving 1899–1904. However, his real notoriety comes from his years as part of Tammany Hall. Known as the “sage of Tammany Hall” for more than 60 years, Plunkitt was a Tammany operative. He served as a “sachem” of the hall, a trustee of the Society of Tammany, and a Democratic District Leader for more than 40 years. In 1905, Plunkitt agreed to a series of interviews with Riordan, a newspaper reporter who published the interviews as “Very Plain Talks on Very Practical Politics.” Most of the interviews were conducted at Plunkitt's “office,” which was the shoeshine stand in the basement of the New York County courthouse.

Plunkitt enriched himself by engaging in what he called “honest graft.” This often involved using inside information to purchase land that he knew would be needed for government projects. He would purchase the land from the owners and then resell the property to the government at an inflated price. He distinguished this from “dishonest graft,” which, from his perspective, would have meant buying the land and then using one's influence to have a government project built on the land. Plunkitt was critical of dishonest graft, stating, “The politician who steals is worse than a thief. He is a fool. With grand opportunities all around for a man with political pull, there's no excuse for stealin' a cent.”

Plunkitt was an advocate of the machine politics of his day: the appointment of loyal party men to positions in government and the award of government contracts to party supporters. He believed that the machine politics of the organization had improved New York City. As he told Riordan,