History 112, P. Pennock
Sample Short Essay (I.D.) Response
The Political Machine
The political machine emerged in the mid-19th
century and was dominant in U.S.
industrialized cities (mainly in the Northeast and Midwest)
until the early 20th century. A political machine was characterized
by immigrants running city governments themselves to meet immigrant needs and
rise to power. Each city’s machine was run by a “boss,” who was often an Irish
immigrant man, was organized by neighborhood, or ward, and traded services for
votes. This system of government arose because the upheavals of intense
urbanization, industrialization, and immigration tended to leave a vacuum of
power in the city and breed chaos. The
established systems of power, run by native-born WASPs, did not address growing
problems with poverty and living conditions among urban immigrants. Immigrants stepped in to fill the vacuum and
try to find order. On the one hand, the
political machine was beneficial because it addressed personal needs of these
newcomers, gave them somewhere to turn, and was able to prevent the cities from
collapse. On the other hand, the machine
was detrimental because it tended to be very corrupt. The boss used his power
for personal gain, for example with graft or bribery, “bought” votes from poor
immigrants, and bred corruption and vice in the city by condoning prostitution,
gambling, and saloons. By the early 20th
century, ridding the cities of the immigrant political machine was a main cause
on the agenda of WASP Progressives who, in a way, were trying to “take back”
the cities from whom they viewed as unworthy immigrants, and reestablish order
and virtue. The political machine is historically significant because it was a
response to the disorder in industrial-urban American in the late 19th
century, it demonstrated the agency of immigrants, and it became a major point
of conflict in the ensuing Progressive Movement.