ity offices.[1222] But one more place did not embarrass
him, and in entering upon his new career he promptly invoked the
tactics that strengthened him in the metropolis. Through the influence
of a Republican colleague on the Board of Supervisors he secured
appointments upon the important committees of Finance and Internal
Affairs, the first passing upon all appropriations, and the second
controlling most of the subordinate legislation in the State including
Excise measures. This opportunity for reviewing general legislation
gave him the advantage of a hawk circling in the sky of missing no
chance for plunder. By means of generous hospitality and a natural
affability he quickly won the esteem of his fellow senators, many of
whom responded to his gentle suggestion of city clerkships for
constituents. In his pretended zeal to serve Republicans he had
offered, during the recent contest for United States senator, to
marshal the Democrats to the support of Charles J. Folger, the leader
of the Senate, provided two Republican senators and twelve assemblymen
would vote for him.[1223] Persons familiar with Tweed's true character
understood that a senator of Folger's integrity and ability would be
less in the way at Washington than in Albany, but his apparent desire
to help the Genevan did him no harm.

[Footnote 1222: New York _Nation_, September 30, 1869.]

[Footnote 1223: New York _World_, January 12, 1869.]

Thus intrenched in the good will of his colleagues Tweed, early in
the session, began debauching the tax levies for the city and county
of New York. His party controlled the Assembly, and his henchman,
William Hitchman, whom he had made speaker, controlled its committees.
What the Senate did, therefore, would be approved in the House. The
tax levies contained items of expense based upon estimates by the
different departments of the municipal and county governments. They
were prepared by the comptroller, examined by the city council and
county supervisors respectively, and submitted to the Legislature for
its approval. In the process they might be swelled by the comptroller
and the two boards, but the Legislature, acting as an outside and
disinterested party, usually trimmed them. Tweed, however, proposed to
swell them again. Accordingly projects for public improvements,
asylums, hospitals, and dispensaries that never existed except on
paper, appeared as beneficiaries of county and city. The comptroller
concealed these t