Instances of the power of local and political organization built up on a manhood suffrage basis to force a notoriously unfit candidate through a contested election are extremely numerous. Practically the entire list of candidates at any election may serve to illustrate the practice; unfitness for their offices being the rule among our officials. Two examples will have to suffice here. John Morrissey of New York was for thirty years a notorious gambler and prize-fighter. After attaining manhood these were his occupations; he had no other except politics. The people of the City of New York with full knowledge of his record, elected him four times to office by large majorities. He was in the State Senate at his death, having previously served two terms in Congress. Here is his official record, taken from the Encyclopedia of Congress Biography.
“John Morrissey, born in Ireland in 1831, limited school education in this country. Worked in iron foundry as molder. Active in 1848 in New York as ‘Anti-Tammany shoulder hitter.’ Prize fighter from 1851-1858. Retired from prize ring and became proprietor of gambling houses in New York and Saratoga, and purchased controlling interest in Saratoga Race Course in 1863. Elected representative from New York to 40th Congress as a Democrat; re-elected to 41st Congress. Engaged in New York politics as an opponent of Tammany Hall. Elected in 1875 to State Senate and re-elected in 1877. Died 1878. (40th Cong. 1867—41st Cong. 1869).”
Here is the record of his vote for Congress:
| 1867 | McCartin (Ind. Dem.) | 4,494 |
| Train (Rep.) | 2,583 | |
| Morrissey (Dem.) | 16,064 | |
| 1869 | Taylor (Ind. Dem.) | 6,503 |
| Elliott (Rep.) | 2,293 | |
| Morrissey (Dem.) | 9,162 |
Comment on these figures is superfluous.
William M. Tweed of New York City had been for many years prior to 1871, the most notorious political boss and corruptionist in the United States; probably in the world. He and his confederates systematically plundered the City of New York for a long time by means of false vouchers, etc. The amount of his individual peculations was about $5,000,000. The total amount taken from the city by the Tweed ring has been estimated at $80,000,000. In July, 1871, these misdemeanors were discovered and exposed in the newspapers. During that summer the whole city was aroused, arrests, indictments and prosecutions of Tweed and his associates followed thick and fast. Many of the city and county officials were implicated, including several judges of the highest courts; two were driven from the bench of the Supreme Court. On September 4, 1871, an immense mass meeting was held at which the famous Committee of Seventy was created to prosecute the criminals and reorganize the city government. It appeared that the county court house, which was expected to cost $2,500,000, had cost no one knew how much, but from $8,000,000 to $13,000,000 without being finished. On October 28, 1871, Tweed was arrested and held to bail on charges of misappropriating public money. Notwithstanding these exposures and all the denunciations of Tweed and his confederates by the press, he was re-elected in November, 1871, to represent a senatorial district of New York City by an increased vote of three to his competitor’s one. The following are the figures for this and the previous election. Note the increase in Tweed’s vote following his exposure; and then reflect on the beauties of universal suffrage and on the value of publicity as the sure cure reform agent that we hear so much of nowadays.
| 1867 | Leggatt (Rep.) | 2,175 |
| Kerrigan (Ind. Dem.) | 5,966 | |
| Tweed (Dem.) | 16,144 | |
| 1871 | Rossa (Anti Ring Dem.) | 6,927 |
| Tweed (Dem.) | 18,706 |
The organized power which manhood suffrage has in the past placed behind Morrissey and Tweed and tens of thousands of others continues in operation to this day. Writing in 1881, Reemelin says:
“There is but one political status in history, which at all equals the conditions of things that now curse the United States. It was that of the latter part of the Middle Ages when the Condottieri were masters of society. But these soldiers of fortune had at least military capacity; their personal bearing was brave, if venal. Our politicians are many of them ruffians; true indeed, while it pays, to a cause; but they sneak in and out in ways that are disgusting to themselves and to those that employ them. They are the only well-defined class in this country; they infect all party movements, rule every legislature as lobbyists, control presidents, are familiar with judges, cabinet ministers, governors, and can and do proscribe the political culture and integrity of the land. They defeat every reform, ravish ballot boxes, count in and out whom they please. Publicly divided into two parties, they fraternize in secret. The voters are their puppets, the abuse of taxation and of public credit their means of support.” (American Politics, p. 149.)
The New York Evening Post of November 14th of the year 1919 refers to a feature of the city election just held in San Francisco. One Schmitz of that city “after twice being elected mayor, underwent a sensational trial in 1907 on charges of corruption, and escaped the penitentiary when the State Supreme Court set aside the verdict against him on a technicality.” Nevertheless in 1915 he ran again for mayor and polled nearly one-third of the total vote; in 1917 he polled 33,000 votes for supervisor; in 1919 he again polled 34,128 votes for mayor out of a total of about 100,000. In other words, one-third of the San Francisco manhood suffrage electorate can be marshalled in support of a candidate with a notoriously smirched record.