1870 New York City mayoral election

During the campaign of 1869, a legal question arose as to whether Mayor Hall had been elected for two years or merely for the unexpired year of Hoffman's term. Hall claimed a two-years' term, and the best lawyers supported the claim. But to make sure of the matter, Tammany Hall, in the late days of the campaign, instructed its members and followers to cast ballots for him, and the Police Commissioners distributed special ballot boxes for the Mayoralty vote. As no proclamation of the election had been issued, the Republicans and other opponents of Tammany Hall had no opportunity to make nominations. Mayor Hall consequently received nearly the entire number of votes cast—65,568 (98.4%), out of a total of 66,619.^[1]

In early 1870, urged by various motives, a number of leaders in Tammany Hall united against Boss Tweed. They were led by Henry W. Genet, John Fox, John Morrissey, and James O'Brien, among others, and called themselves the "Young Democracy."^[2] Together they planned to induce the state legislature to pass a measure known as the Huckleberry charter, the object of which was to abolish the State commissions governing the city and to obtain a relegation of their powers to the Board of Aldermen. Some members of the Democracy boasted that they would "put the charter through" if it took $200,000 to do it. However, when this money didn't arrive, the members of the legislature voted down the charter. Greatly encouraged by his enemies' defeat, Tweed, then a State Senator, went to Albany with a vast sum of money and the draft of a new charter.

The charter, which immediately became known as the "Tweed charter," was passed on April 5. One consequence of this was the abolition of the December city election, and the merging into one day's polling of national, State and city elections, making it the first mayoral election held in November since 1856.^[3]