Plunkitt, George Washington

George Washington Plunkitt (1842–1924), ward boss of Manhattan's “Hell's Kitchen” and key cog in the Tammany Hall machine of the late 19th and early 20th century in New York City, was born in a shanty in what is now Central Park. He quit school at age 11, worked [Page 580]as a cart driver, apprentice brush maker, and apprentice butcher, and bought his own butcher shop in 1865. Three years later, he was elected to the New York State Assembly as a Tammany Hall candidate. During the 1870s he held four public positions simultaneously (drawing pay from three). From 1880 to 1905, he was a powerful member of the executive committee of Tammany Hall and served as state senator for most of that time. His public career ended in 1905 when he lost his district leadership.

When he died at age 72, Plunkitt was a multimillionaire and hailed as a political sage. His renown was based on a series of discourses delivered from Graziano's bootblack stand in the New York County Courthouse and recorded by William Riordon, a top New York City reporter, first as newspaper articles and then as a book, Plunkitt of Tammany Hall: A Series of Very Plain Talks on Very Practical Politics, in 1905 (ironically, the year Plunkitt's public life was ended). The Nation, in Plunkitt's obituary, suggested that the thin volume be republished and be required reading for practitioners and students of politics. Indeed, these 22 talks are a primer on how to get, hold, and exploit power, and they have been a staple of courses on American urban politics for generations.

Plunkitt was a new breed—the professional politician. He “played” politics every day and night of the year. Plunkitt was in the connections business. He connected his immigrant and working-class constituents, along with real estate, development, and corporate interests, to the city government and to each other. Patronage was the organizational cement and fuel of the machine.

Machine leaders took care of themselves with graft. Plunkitt made famous the distinction between “honest” and “dishonest” graft, and practiced the former, based on his inside information and collusion. He saw his opportunities and he took them.

Plunkitt was an admitted pragmatist and opportunist, not driven by ideology and political platforms or issues. He was a political entrepreneur; he traded tangible favors—a job, medical care in a public hospital, exemption from paying taxes, intervention with the police—as well as psychic benefits, like respect and acceptance, for votes, which were, for Plunkitt, currency. The equation for the machine leader was straightforward: favors = votes = election = public office/party post = honest and dishonest graft + honor and respect.