At Greenwich he built a
country estate where the stables were framed of choice mahogany.
Sweeny hobnobbed with Jim Fiske of the Erie, the Tweed of Wall
Street, who went about town dressed in loud checks and lived with
his harem in his Opera House on Eighth Avenue.
Thoughtful citizens saw these things going on and believed the
city was being robbed, but they could not prove it. There were
two attacking parties, however, who did not wait for proofs--
Thomas Nast, the brilliant cartoonist of Harper's Weekly, and the
New York Times. The incisive cartoons of Nast appealed to the
imaginations of all classes; even Tweed complained that his
illiterate following could "look at the damn pictures." The
trenchant editorials of Louis L. Jennings in the Times reached a
thoughtful circle of readers. In one of these editorials,
February 24, 1871, before the exposure, he said: "There is
absolutely nothing--nothing in the city--which is beyond the
reach of the insatiable gang who have obtained possession of it.
They can get a grand jury dismissed at any time, and, as we have
seen, the legislature is completely at their disposal."
Finally proof did come and, as is usual in such cases, it came
from the inside. James O'Brien, an ex-sheriff and the leader in a
Democratic "reform movement" calling itself "Young Democracy,"
secured the appointment of one of his friends as clerk in the
controller's office. Transcripts of the accounts were made, and
these O'Brien brought to the Times, which began their
publication, July 8, 1871.
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