[7] Proceedings of the Board of Aldermen, Vol. CLXXVI, pp. 777-84.
[8] Testimony, Senate Committee on Cities, 1890, Vol. I, pp. 706-7.
[9] Ibid., Vol. I, p. 752.
[10] Ibid., p. 744.
[11] Testimony, Senate Committee on Cities, 1890, Vol. III, pp. 2667-68.
[12] Testimony of Hugh J. Grant, Ibid., Vol. I, p. 739.
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE DICTATORSHIP OF RICHARD CROKER
1886-1897
Upon the death of Kelly, the twenty-four leaders of the Assembly Districts, comprising the executive committee of Tammany Hall, announced individually that there would be no further “boss,” and that the organization would be ruled thenceforth by a committee of twenty-four. However, cliques immediately arose, and soon four leaders—Richard Croker, who had been a sort of deputy “boss” under Kelly; Hugh J. Grant, Thomas F. Gilroy and W. Bourke Cockran—arranged a junta for administering the organization’s affairs. By securing the support of 17 of the 24 leaders, Mr. Croker began concentrating power in his own hands, and for about fourteen years remained the absolute ‘boss’ of both society and organization.