Fernando Wood served as the 74th and 76th mayor of New York City from January 1, 1855 to December 31, 1857 and January 1, 1860 to December 31, 1861.
Background 1850 election At the 1849 New York Democratic Convention in Syracuse, the state Democratic Party reached a tenuous truce between its Hunker and Barnburner factions, promulgating a platform which advocated preservation of slavery where it already existed but recognizing the theoretical right of Congress to prevent the extension of slavery to new territories. The truce quickly collapsed into new divisions, with "Soft Shell Democrats" endorsing the Syracuse platform and "Hard Shells" firmly rejecting Congressional authority to regulate slavery in the territories. A small remaining contingent of Free Soil Democrats, led by John Van Buren, rejected the compromise and any attempt to expand slavery to the territories.
Despite his pro-slavery convictions, Wood stood for election as a Nineteenth Ward Democratic Committeeman on a Soft platform. Softs held the majority in Tammany Hall and Wood interpreted the Syracuse platform as a defense of slavery.
Throughout the 1849 and 1850 debates that led to the Compromise of 1850, Hards and Softs contested for control of Tammany Hall, sometimes physically. Wood chaired the Soft General Committee, urging for party unity. With two Committees claiming exclusive party control and voter fraud obscuring the Society's April 1850 council elections, the Tammany governing board dissolved both committees and called for a citywide convention to select an entirely new official General Committee. At this convention, Wood embraced the compromise position that Congress lacked control over slavery but that popular sovereignty could decide the issue for each new territory.
The convention deadlocked and new Tammany elections were held, producing a fusion Committee with a slight Hard majority, but Wood's position was embraced as the state party platform in 1850. Wood himself became the Democratic candidate for Mayor, despite some Hard resistance. In the general election, he was defeated by Whig oil dealer Ambrose C. Kingsland. The 1850 election was a landslide for the Whigs, who carried 15 wards, 13 out of 16 assembly races, and the governorship. Wood was dogged by a personal affair alleging he had defrauded his own relatives and received the lowest percentage for any Tammany candidate since direct elections for mayor began in 1834.
1854 election
After his loss, Wood withdrew from politics again, focusing on his real estate portfolio and his growing family. The Whig Party collapsed and Tammany remained torn among its various factions. Wood began to test the waters for a political return in November 1853, privately organizing against John Van Buren's Free Soil faction and supporting the Young America Movement. He was elected a committeeman by the Nineteenth Ward Democrats once more.
In early 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act further scrambled city politics, alienating the Free Soil Democrats and bringing the Hards and Softs in closer alliance. In response, Wood planned a rally to celebrate Stephen Douglas and Franklin Pierce and denounce John Van Buren and his Free Soil Democrats, presenting the image of a party unified in its condemnation of the Free Soilers.
Wood cultivated his political image by siding with Governor Horatio Seymour in his veto of an alcohol prohibition bill, though he grounded his support in opposition to the regulation of private behavior, drawing a comparison between alcohol consumption and slavery. Perhaps most conniving of all, he secretly accepted a place on the Know-Nothing executive committee, despite his long standing political support among the New York immigrant community and his support for immigrant causes.
Wood won both the Soft and Hard nominations for Mayor easily, though a faction of extreme Hards formed yet another ticket and nominated Wilson H. Hunt. Running with the support of both major factions against a divided field, Wood had a strong advantage. However, his campaign was nearly upended when several Know-Nothings filed affidavits disclosing his membership in their committee. Wood denied the accusation and threatened to sue for libel.
On November 8, Wood was elected mayor of New York City with only 33.6% of the vote. The Know-Nothing nominee James W. Barker received 31% and Hunt received 25.8%. Despite the revelation of his Know-Nothingism, Wood's strongest support came from immigrant and low-income wards.
First term (1855–56) In his first two-year term, Wood prioritized municipal reform to strengthen the office of mayor and establish "one-man rule." With long-term goals of continued economic growth alongside reduced inequality and vice, Wood sought to reform the city government to empower reform by reducing the political restraint on his office. In the words of biographer Jerome Mushkat, Mayor Wood was "a unique figure, New York's first modern mayor, a city builder, and the prototype for later municipal leaders, a man who anticipated much of what would become the urban Progressive Movement."
However, any attempts at reform were quickly overshadowed by Wood's failure to answer accusations of corruption in his handling of the police force. His political base was eroded entirely in the 1855 elections, leaving Wood on the defensive for the remainder of his term. Nonetheless, his vision for the mayoralty as a powerful central executive and his campaign for greater home rule for the City came to define New York politics for generations.
Charter reform In his inaugural address, Wood attacked the city charter as an "ill-shaped monster" which prevented home rule and called for a complete revision. So long as the New York Legislature failed to make such reforms, Wood pledged "to assume a general control over the whole City Government, so far as protecting its municipal interests." In Wood's view, the object of government was "to govern in the public interest, for aiding the many without threatening the few," and the existing municipal charter obstructed this purpose.
Efforts to reform the city charter, though popular within the city, faced an uphill battle in the state legislature, which was largely composed of Republicans, and the Common Council, which was personally opposed to Wood. In December 1856, after his-reelection to a two-year term, the Court of Appeals dismissed Wood's argument that the city could draw up its own charter or vote down one passed by the legislature. Republicans mobilized to do so and cuff Wood's power.
Early in his term, Wood instituted a "complaint book" where ordinary citizens could voice their complaints with city government.
Police corruption A particular focus of Wood's first term was his control of the state's police force. Wood's inaugural address was particularly critical of the state management of the Police Department, where he felt the mayor's office lacked "the essential elements of authority, that of controlling the retention or removal of his own subordinates." On the margins, Wood personally reformed the department's medical section, awarded silver medals to outstanding officers at personal expense, and lectured officers to take pride in their work.
However, Wood sought wholesale reform of the police structure, along paramilitary lines with himself as commander. He urged the Common Council to replace the police board, which included two political rivals, with his sole authority. Though the Council ignored his message, the state legislature responded by introducing legislation for popular elections of the police chief and four elected commissioners. After Wood threatened his resignation, the legislature relented. Wood was elevated to de jure head of the police board, pledging to weed out incompetents, hire honest replacements, and promote efficient officers.
The 1856 elections were a major defeat for Wood-aligned candidates and marked an end to any crusade for reform. His opponents maintained their majority on the Common Council and only one Soft Shell Democrat, a Wood rival Lorenzo B. Shepard, was elected to city office.
The New York Times accused Wood of abusing his role to hire only foreign-born Democrats, but a March 21 meeting of the city's bankers, reformers (including his former critic Horace Greeley), and merchants praised his efforts and denounced the legislature. Criticism of his hiring patterns, led by the Times, intensified throughout his term. Wood claimed most of his hires were Whigs, but the Times countered that their Whig membership was merely a nominal cover to avoid scrutiny in past Whig administration. By July 1855, the Common Council demanded full information on all of Wood's appointments, renewals, and removals; he refused on a technicality. His growing popularity quickly waned.
During the 1856 campaign, a major issue was made of Wood's appointment practices. On election day, abuse of police powers to support his re-election effort drew still more criticism.
Public health In summer 1855, Wood successfully lobbied for the city's first machine street sweepers, but the contracts were not renewed. After a cholera outbreak, Wood demanded an end to the city's licensed food distribution monopoly.
Wood faced a major crisis in 1855 when the merchant ship Joseph Walker sank in the city harbor, leading to complaints that its rotting cargo might spread disease. The bidder Wood selected to salvage the wreck delayed performance and the ship's grain hold began to rot, drawing accusations of corrupt hiring.
Urban planning and public works Wood proposed utilizing the city's public works programs to provide jobs for unemployed laborers. However, Wood remained a believer in unrestricted private enterprise, and suggested that private industry step in for the city government wherever his initiatives were blocked by the Common Council.
Wood was an avowed critic of the New York & Harlem Railroad, warning about excessive speeding, high fares, and proposing numerous safety recommendations. He also opposed fare increases for the Staten Island ferry and urged greater care in future ferry contracts. He promoted Central Park, a plan approved just before he entered office, as a visionary leisure space for the working classes.
In his second year in office, Wood presented and promoted ambitious plans to improve the city's wharfs with permanent stone and brick structures and expedite the construction of city streets on a grid plan according to the unfinished Commissioners' Plan of 1811. He promoted expansion of the public school system.
Vice Wood initially attempted to enforce Sunday closing laws and attempted a crackdown on prostitution and gambling in the city, though his efforts were obstructed by selective police enforcement, influential Democrats' investment in vice, and economic realities which left many women to choose between prostitution and starvation.
Wood walked a moderate, practical line on alcohol. When the Whig legislature passed a restrictive prohibition law in April 1855, Wood embraced the sweeping law as abrogated all older statutes and dropped his enforcement of the Sunday closing laws. He then instructed the police that the law was too vague to enforce; the law was ruled unconstitutional by the state judiciary.
1856 gubernatorial campaign and re-election
As mayor, Wood's power over Tammany Hall was nearly absolute, and he became a kingmaker in the 1856 presidential election, where he supported James Buchanan and befriended Buchanan's unofficial campaign manager, Daniel Sickles. When Buchanan visited New York, Wood hosted major Democratic fundraisers for his campaign. Buchanan ultimately emerged victorious at the 1856 Convention, elevating Wood on the state and national stage.