Weed and Tweed

This is not a post about cannabis and classic fabrics.

This is about Thurlow Weed and Boss Tweed.

This idea came to me while watching Matthew Algeo’s presentation about New York’s Secret Subway (watch it here). I learned a lot about Boss Tweed in Algeo’s book. There’s a Weed as well, but not of the Thurlow variety. Smith Mead Weed (try saying that ten times fast).

As I like to do, I decided to compare and contrast this pairing. I momentarily thought I’d call this Weedledee and Tweedledum, but changed my mind. Just discovered that political cartoonist Thomas Nast had a Tweedledee and Sweedledum cartoon so now I’m second-guessing my second-guessing.

Weed and Tweed were:

• New Yorkers, though Weed lived more upstate

• Politicians

• Politically influential

• Both arrested?! (WHAT?!)

  • Weed (along with four others) for allegedly harassing women after church, but three of the accusers said they didn’t see him and the fourth married him (um, this is now the second arrest / marriage combo of the week; I should probably insert some sort of “ball and chain” joke here, but I haven’t the energy). Apparently, he put this in his autobiography because his enemies were going to use it against him anyhow, so might as well get ahead of it (I assume). He was acquitted and the charges against the others were dismissed.
    

  • Tweed for being super-duper corrupt.

• contemporaries (Weed lived from 1797–1882; Tweed 1823-1878)

And also they both died:

• In the same month they were born, days after their birthdays

  • Weed was born on November 15 and died on November 22 (7 days post-birthday)

  • Tweed was born on April 3 and died on April 12 (9 days post-birthday)

• In NYC

Weirdly, but not at all important:

• Weed’s Wikipedia entry mentions a William Williams; Tweed’s references a Morgan Morgans. Weed’s also mentions a William Morgan.

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Thurlow Weed

• War of 1812 veteran

• A real party animal: started off as a Democratic-Republican, helped create New York’s Whig Party, and became a Republican (with a couple of others in between)

• Journalist

• Backed William H. Seward, John Quincy Adams, Abraham Lincoln, William Henry Harrison, Henry Clay, Zachary Taylor, Winfield Scott, and John Charles Fremont (not in that order, obviously)

• When Lincoln came through Albany, he meet with Weed… who introduced him to Whig VP Candidate Millard Fillmore

• Supported De Witt Clinton’s big ditch project

• Photographed by George G. Rockwood

Lincoln, by David Herbert Donald

• He was not into mixed relationships but thought the sin of printing personal attacks about a political candidate was worse

  • When Martin Van Buren was running for president, Richard M. Johnson was his running mate. He’d had a common law Black wife. People were chattering… even though she wasn’t even alive.

  • As editor of the Albany Evening Journal, Weed believed “the people will grow weary of seeing the newspapers filled with details about Col. Johnson’s Black wife and yellow daughters.” Alrighty then…

• Buried in Albany Rural Cemetery — just like President Chester Arthur!

The Vice President’s Black Wife: The Untold Life of Julia Chinn, by Amrita Chakrabarti Myers

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Boss Tweed

• Real name: William Magear Tweed

• Imposing and corrupt; amiable and terrifying

• Part of the Forty Thieves

• Firefighter, known for going after rivals with an ax

• Famously lampooned by Thomas Nast
  (I was soooo hoping Nast also drew Weed and Rockwood also photographed Tweed, but I wasn’t able to find anything.)

• The cartoons were a BFD. Many people couldn’t read, but they sure could understand the illustrations.

• Died in jail

For a few more doodles inspired by New York's Secret Subway: The Underground Genius of Alfred Beach and the Origins of Mass Transit by Matthew Algeo, check out this post. (Or just go read the book. You won’t be disappointed.)