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almost uninterruptedly under their domination. He died worth half a million dollars.

Before Fernando Wood's rise to prominence just before the Civil War Tammany Hall, although in one way and another its chiefs and principal men had done pretty well for themselves for fifty years, had known no outstanding leader capable of weld­ing the inherent strength of the organization into an irresistible instrument for personal power and profit. The one possible exception had been Aaron Burr's short and only partial control at the begin­ning of the century. Fernando Wood, prepos­sessing, unprincipled, hypocritical, covetous and smart, found the possibilities of Tammany made to order for him. Outsider as he was, he established the dynasty that was to run for nearly seventy-five years through Boss Tweed and "Honest John" Kelly and Dick Croker and Charlie Murphy.

Wood's father, a cigarmaker, came to New York from Philadelphia soon after Fernando was born, an event which, occurring on June 14, 1812, the future Mayor always liked to refer to as synchro­nous with the decision of President Madison and his cabinet to declare war on England. The boy was sent to the grammar school at Columbia College, but remained there only until he was thirteen years old, when he ran away from home and struck out for himself as clerk in a broker's office. Some

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