Jeffrey D. Broxmeyer POLITICAL CAPITALISM IN THE GILDED AGE: THE TAMMANY BANK RUN OF 1871 The Tweed Ring spawned a vibrant financial sector that was integral to its brief success but has never been previously examined. William “Boss” Tweed and his allies employed banks controlled or comanaged by Tammany politicians to embezzle funds, build political alliances, and invest in a wide array of business ventures. The capital of these savings and commercial banks—city money, deposits from Catholic charities, and the savings of immigrant laborers—was accumulated through political channels. During their operation between 1867 and 1871, politician-bankers engaged in a mix of patronage deals and profit-driven financial speculation. In effect, Tammany banks were ground zero for the Ring’s conversion of political hegemony into a windfall of economic capital that fueled party activities and buoyed personal fortunes. Importantly, the anti-Ring mobilization by upper-class reformers was more than a revolt of wealthy taxpayers concerned with abstract goals of good government or rescuing city credit; it was also a reaction by old-line bankers in direct competition with Tammany upstarts. A dramatic bank run catalyzed by reformers in November 1871 drove them into bankruptcy, bringing this novel experiment in political capitalism to an end. “ RUMORS SPREAD LIKE WILDFIRE ” A mob of hostile depositors gathered in the rain outside of the Guardian Bank in the Five Points and the Bowling Green Bank near Wall Street. Crowds of Irish and German immi- grants were clamoring at the shuttered iron gates to withdraw their meager savings. When it became clear the banks would not open for daily business, according to the New York Herald, a commotion erupted in the streets. Wet and angry, the locked-out depositors cursed the names of prominent bank officials, including the Guardian’s president, William M. Tweed, who was concurrently the local state senator, New York City com- missioner of public works, chairman of the county Democratic Party, and Grand Sachem of Tammany Hall. Despite the hopeless situation, many people lingered outside the gates for news. Reporters described a weeping elderly man, peddlers anxious about paying debts, and parents worried about their children’s savings accounts. More ominous was a bulwark of police on standby to combat public disorder. After all, Henry “Hank” Smith, chairman of the police commission, was also vice president of the Guardian and president at the Bowling Green. It was Monday morning, November 20, 1871. The bank run was sparked by a slow-moving change in municipal government. Richard Connolly, the Tammany-backed comptroller and Tweed ally, had abruptly Jeffrey D. Broxmeyer, The University of Toledo; email: jeffrey.broxmeyer@utoledo.edu The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 16 (2017), 44–64 doi:10.1017/S1537781416000451 © Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era