12. Tammany Hall was the model for machines in other cities
By the end of the Civil War, with the nation’s attention focused on Reconstruction, major cities in the north came under the domination of political machines which ignored voter rights. Throughout the Gilded Age, political machines grew in the north and in the rebuilding cities and counties in the south. They all worked for the most part on the Tammany model, enriching politicians and machine members through graft at the expense of the taxpayers. The machines even influenced the federal government through a civil service system based on political patronage.
The machines controlled not only the voters within their districts but the voting process, working hand-in-hand with the political party with which they were allied to establish polling places, print ballots, count ballots, and establish who could and could not vote. Their activities included presidential elections. The results of elections were often preordained by machine politics. In some cases, ward heelers – so-called because they brought the voters to heel – were told in advance how many votes would be needed, and they ensured that the required number was met.