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Before a Mr. William M. "Boss" Tweed became the infamous Boss of Tammany Hall, Mr Tweed was elected to Congress in 1852, Winning thanks to his home ward 13, and a margin paded by Williamsburg and Ward 7, He bested Whig Joseph Hoxie and Independent Joseph Morton.
Tweed's term of Congress was frustrating to him; forgoing reelection in 1854, Tweed jumped into local politics, where he believed the action was.
As a result, he rose through local positions in the 1850s, eventually coming to Head the infamous Tammany Hall by 1858.
Tammany Hall would gain complete controll of City Government by 1869, one year after NYC Mayor and Tammany Haller Joseph Hoffman, who won back City hall for Tammany after 6 years in the woods in 1865, was Elected Governor of New York.
In 1870 Hoffman and the New York Legislature passed the "Tweed Charter" which gave local politicians controll over appointments to local offices, rather than resting that control with Albany, further emboldening Tweed's and Tammany Hall's Corruption.
Tweed's downfall, however, would not begin until 1871 where thanks to a Harper's Weekly cartoonist named Thomas Nast, knowledge of his corruption came to light and he was arrested in October for his rampant Corruption before winning reelection to a final term in November while out on Bail.
Later, after a first trial ended in a hung jury, Tweed was convicted in a second trial which sentenced him to 12 years in prison, which after an escape and recapture, was his final lodging until his death, caused by severe pneumonia in 1878.
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