Plunkitt of Tammany Hall: George Washington Plunkitt's Personality

The following sample essay on “Tammany Hall”: describing George Washington Plunkitt personality in book.

Plunkitt of Tammany Hall is essentially a viewpoint of how a man became rich from politics. George Washington Plunkitt is introduced into this book and it is said that he filled in four public offices in one year and drew salaries from three of them at the same time. This book mentions Plunkitt’s distinction between “Honest grafts” and “dishonest grafts.” “Honest graft” meant being in the right place at the right time with the right inside information.

Let’s take an example: what if the city planned to announce a site for a new park? Well, obviously, at that time, Plunkitt would buy up that land; however he would sell it to the city at a higher price that he bought, therefore he makes profit from the land that the city wanted to buy for a new park. The funny thing about Plunkitt is his idea of “dishonest graft.

” Now, “dishonest graft” meant like stealing from the city treasury.

This, of course, was a crime. Plunkitt did not perform a dishonest graft because it was “stealing;” however he did conduct an “honest graft,” which, in my belief, was still stealing from the city because he bought (taken from the example) land from the city and then sold it back to them at a higher price. Isn’t that stealing the extra money the city had for other things? The city had money, specifically, for the building of the park.

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With the purchase of Plunkitt’s, who is the owner, park the city is purchasing something that is held at an unreasonable price. This whole idea about “dishonest” and “honest” graft made George Washington Plunkitt very popular. This politician knew what he was doing- he simply took advantage of the people (without them noticing it) and used politics in order to “pull out” cash. I’m guessing that the only reason why the people had no idea of Plunkitt’s wrong-doings is the fact that they seemed to be apathetic. At this time, it…