in Tweed's time when the Common Council was composed largely of the
most corrupt ward heelers, and when Tweed's puppet, Hall, was Mayor.
Public opposition to this grab was so great as to frighten the
politicians; at any rate, whatever his reasons, Mayor Hall vetoed the
ordinance.

Thereupon, in 1872, Vanderbilt went to the Legislature--that
Legislature whose members he had so often bought like so many cattle.
This particular Legislature, however, was elected in 1871, following
the revelations of the Tweed "ring" frauds. It was regarded as a
"model reform body." As has already been remarked in this work, the
pseudo "reform" officials or bodies elected by the American people in
the vain hope of overthrowing corruption, will often go to greater
lengths in the disposition of the people's rights and interests than
the most hardened politicians, because they are not suspected of
being corrupt, and their measures have the appearance of being
enacted for the public good. The Tweed clique had been broken up, but
the capitalists who had assiduously bribed its members and profited
so hugely from its political acts, were untouched and in greater
power than ever before. The source of all this corruption had not
been struck at in the slightest. Tweed, the politician, was
sacrificed and went to prison and died there; the capitalists who had
corrupted representative bodies everywhere in the United States,
before and during his time, were safe and respected, and in a
position to continue their work of corruption. Tweed made the
classic, unforgivable blunder of going into politics as a business,
instead of into commercialism. The very capitalists who had profited
so greatly by his corruption, were the first to express horror at his
acts.