Speaking of history, you'll get a chuckle out of this: Some Things Don't Change!
I was doing some web research for a paper I'm writing (still in a long arm cast, and will be for another 6 weeks or so, so typing with one left finger....please excuse the booboos.... ;)
History of NYC
synapticvoid.com
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The city's major advantages reinforced each other, and by the early part of the 19th century New York was the pre-eminent port of entry for immigrants to the United States. Europeans arrived in such numbers during the 1840s and 1850s that by 1860 nearly half of the city's residents were foreign-born. The Irish were the most numerous, followed by the Germans.
These immigrants helped support a growing political organization known as the Tammany Society (better known as Tammany Hall, after the name of the building in which its members met). Originally founded in 1789 as a social and charitable club, Tammany Hall soon acquired a new, political character. It gained control of the city's Democratic Party as the champion of the working class and later of the immigrant. The society had a number of vote-getting techniques. It illegally granted citizenship to immigrants, gave city jobs to its followers, and provided services to the newcomers and the poor. Tammany was also accused of election fraud, bribery, and extortion.
These methods of getting votes were used most intensively in the 1860s when "Boss" William M. Tweed was the Tammany leader. In 1871 it became known that Tweed and his associates had misappropriated massive amounts of public funds. Tammany's influence was reduced, but only temporarily. Tammany revived during the 1880s, and it controlled the city into the early 20th century, although, on occasion, reform candidates, working with Republican voters, gained control of the city government.
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