George Washington Plunkitt Essay Example for Free

George Washington Plunkitt EssayIn the late nineteenth century, battle lines of distaste and resentment were drawn between the new immigrant discipline and the current American citizens. In New York City, the Nativists and the Irish Catholic community clashed on opposing sides of the line. The majority of Irish Catholic immigrants were uneducated, unskilled, and terra incognita to the industrial city life of the new world. Their mass numbers filled up the citys slums, poor houses, and prisons. With whole aversion from New York Nativists, the Irish immigrant community was initially obstructed from attaining governmental support. This debar in representation of such a massive percentage of New Yorks population allowed for the issuance and great success of Tamm some(prenominal) Hall leaders like George Washington Plunkitt. George Washington Plunkitt, born in 1842, grew up surrounded by this new immigrant Irish-Catholic community. He identified with the citys immigrant poor and working class the resented New York Irish were Plunkitts community. Although Plunkitt used his political position for his own benefit, his position as a political leader was useful for his community.Plunkitts nepotistic imprints, while controversial, proved to benefit his community. He had a strong belief in the spoils system and stood for rewarding the men that won the victory (12). He could not know the existence of a party system that did not place its own workers in absentices (13). He aboveboard discussed the impossibilities of keeping an organization together without patronage (36). In response to an accusation of Tam musical compositiony Halls patronage, Plunkitt expressed his belief that there is no one more in need, better fit, or more anxious to mete out the city than Tammany workers (51).Although this outlook gave Plunkitt a controversial quid pro quo attitude towards government affairs, his community benefitted from this location. This arrangement allowed Plunkitt to provide jobs to his supporters who might have otherwise suffered unemployment. A majority of Plunkitts supporters were uneducated and unskilled migrants who were principally fe atomic number 18d and disapproved of. Plunkitt meanwhile knew every big employer in his district and in the whole city and do a point to keep track of the jobs (27).These connections enabled Plunkitt to provide jobs for the men he considered deservin (27). To him, a deserving man is any man with a vote for Tammany Hall. Not only did Plunkitt provide jobs to his constituents but he also provided basic support and a form of insurance for the poorer families in his district. If a family in his district was in need, he was able to fix them up until they were on their own feet again (27). He proclaimed no Tammany man goes hungry in my district (36).Plunkitt made it unmistakably clear though, that while it was a philanthropy he was offering, it was only in the name of political relation. For example, after describing the support he offered to families burdened by the devastation of a fire, he selfishly asked himself how many votes one fire could bring him (37). Although Plunkitt was never without a self-interest motive, he was in a unique position having the ability to be a provider for families in need. At the time, there was no government welfare system established.Instead, the poor and those in need could rely on the welfare offered by Plunkitt his community benefitted from his ability to take care of them. Plunkitts own benefits from government are obscured and, in some way, vindicated because of the support he provided for his community. Plunkitt made a fortune in politics but in return succeeded in getting big improvements for New York City (28). If Plunkitt had not made his pile in politics, the social net he controlled would have collapsed.The community would have been worse off if he had not reaped the benefits from government and used his own funds to provide assistance to t he poor. Plunkitt was in no way a philanthropist but in becoming a nepotistic and selfish government ex officio who used politics for his own advantage, he became useful to his community. Plunkitt saw a vote in everyone, no matter his or her status. He had the ability to be several sorts of a man in a single day (45).He could talk grammar with the wealthy but also connect with the common community of his district (45). He kept is constituents close and would do them a good turn whenever he had a chance (46). Plunkitts adaptable personality and mercantile approach towards politics made him valuable to his community. With his status and fortune, he supported his community and provided government representation for the new Irish immigrant class. He was a provider of jobs and a provider of welfare in return for a vote.