George Washington Plunkitt Essay Example for Free

George Washington Plunkitt EssayIn the late 19th century, battle lines of distaste and bitter were drawn between the bare-ass immigrant class and the current American citizens. In New York City, the Nativists and the Irish Catholic fellowship clashed on opposing sides of the line. The majority of Irish Catholic immigrants were uneducated, unskilled, and alien to the industrial city life of the new world. Their mass numbers filled up the citys slums, poor houses, and prisons. With strong execration from New York Nativists, the Irish immigrant community was initially obstructed from attaining political scienceal support. This void in representation of such a massive percentage of New Yorks population allowed for the emergence and great success of Tammany 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 resent ed New York Irish were Plunkitts community. Although Plunkitt used his political status for his declare benefit, his coiffure as a political leader was useful for his community.Plunkitts nepotistic beliefs, while controversial, proved to benefit his community. He had a strong belief in the spoils dust and stood for rewarding the men that won the victory (12). He could not foresee the existence of a party system that did not place its own workers in offices (13). He candidly discussed the impossibilities of keeping an organization together without patronage (36). In response to an accusation of Tammany Halls patronage, Plunkitt expressed his belief that there is no i more in need, better fit, or more anxious to serve the city than Tammany workers (51).Although this outlook gave Plunkitt a controversial quid pro quo attitude towards organisation affairs, his community benefitted from this arrangement. This arrangement allowed Plunkitt to provide jobs to his supporters who might switch otherwise suffered unemployment. A majority of Plunkitts supporters were uneducated and unskilled migrants who were generally feared and disapproved of. Plunkitt meanwhile knew every unsound employer in his district and in the whole city and made 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 deserve man is any man with a ballot for Tammany Hall. Not only did Plunkitt provide jobs to his constituents but he also provided rudimentary support and a puddle 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 entitle 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 lean of politics. For example, after describing the support he offered to families burdened b y 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 save 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 the poor. Plunkitt was in no way a altruist but in becomi ng a nepotistic and selfish government official 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 people of his district (45). He kept is constituents close and would do them a good fleck 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.