The 1870 New York City mayoral election took place on November 8, 1870, to elect the Mayor of New York City.
A. Oakey Hall, the incumbent mayor backed by Tammany Hall, defeated anti-Tammany candidate Thomas A. Ledwith at the general election.
Background During the campaign of 1869, a legal question arose as to whether Mayor Hall had been elected for two years or merely for the unexpired year of Hoffman's term. Hall claimed a two-years' term, and the best lawyers supported the claim. But to make sure of the matter, Tammany Hall, in the late days of the campaign, instructed its members and followers to cast ballots for him, and the Police Commissioners distributed special ballot boxes for the Mayoralty vote. As no proclamation of the election had been issued, the Republicans and other opponents of Tammany Hall had no opportunity to make nominations. Mayor Hall consequently received nearly the entire number of votes cast—65,568 (98.4%), out of a total of 66,619.
In early 1870, urged by various motives, a number of leaders in Tammany Hall united against Boss Tweed. They were led by Henry W. Genet, John Fox, John Morrissey, and James O'Brien, among others, and called themselves the "Young Democracy." Together they planned to induce the state legislature to pass a measure known as the Huckleberry charter, the object of which was to abolish the State commissions governing the city and to obtain a relegation of their powers to the Board of Aldermen. Some members of the Democracy boasted that they would "put the charter through" if it took $200,000 to do it. However, when this money didn't arrive, the members of the legislature voted down the charter. Greatly encouraged by his enemies' defeat, Tweed, then a State Senator, went to Albany with a vast sum of money and the draft of a new charter.
The charter, which immediately became known as the "Tweed charter," was passed on April 5. One consequence of this was the abolition of the December city election, and the merging into one day's polling of national, State and city elections, making it the first mayoral election held in November since 1856.
General election
Results
Results by ward Results by ward Ward HallDemocratic LedwithYoung Dem. Total Votes % Votes % Votes 1 1,388 64.77% 755 35.23% 2,143 2 152 51.53% 143 48.47% 295 3 465 69.92% 200 30.08% 665 4 2,630 78.91% 703 21.09% 3,333 5 1,454 55.35% 1,173 44.65% 2,627 6 3,179 81.83% 706 18.17% 3,885 7 4,667 78.11% 1,308 21.89% 5,975 8 3,910 76.00% 1,235 24.00% 5,145 9 3,148 48.99% 3,278 51.01% 6,426 10 2,651 66.61% 1,329 33.39% 3,980 11 5,073 73.28% 1,850 26.72% 6,923 12 4,413 69.29% 1,956 30.71% 6,369 13 3,005 69.32% 1,330 30.68% 4,335 14 2,246 56.66% 1,718 43.34% 3,964 15 1,850 50.27% 1,830 49.73% 3,680 16 2,655 42.68% 3,566 57.32% 6,221 17 6,372 63.16% 3,717 36.84% 10,089 18 4,484 58.41% 3,193 41.59% 7,677 19 4,889 52.91% 4,351 47.09% 9,240 20 4,617 51.75% 4,305 48.25% 8,922 21 3,486 49.74% 3,523 50.26% 7,009 22 4,303 50.47% 4,223 49.53% 8,526 Totals 71,037 60.49% 46,392 39.51% 117,429
References
Bibliography