Politics and the Park [ 151 ] On January 1,1855, to the chagrin of many New Yorkers, Fernando Wood, the Democratic candidate, succeeded Westervelt as mayor. He entered office with a history of criminal activity that had just recently come under the scrutiny of a grand jury investigation. His notoriety had been earned. In 1840, at age twenty-eight, he had been elected to Congress, where he quickly gained a reputation as a sharp political operator. It was common knowledge that in 1850, when he unsuccessfully ran for the office of mayor, he had won the nomination by bribing a number of delegates. In the same year, he was also convicted of cheating his business partner and was forced to pay $15,000 in damages.50 Thus, he hardly appeared in the 1854 election campaign as an exemplary candidate for the office of mayor. One recent historian has spoken of his role in New York City politics in these terms: . . . Fernando Wood and his organization were the precursors of the Tweed Ring, [and] Wood was, in a very real sense, Tweed's mentor ... Indeed, it has been said that "it was in Wood's school that most of the Tammany leaders of the next generation learned their politics!' Wood demonstrated how power could be centralized. As the model of craftiness in government, he was a masterful exponent of applying corrupt practices. His methods were observed by Tweed and he used them later with even more success. Sometimes Tweed learned his lessons the hard way. "I never yet went to get a corner lot" he said, "that I didn't find Wood had got in ahead of me!'81 In spite of the promise of this sort of activity, Wood managed to carry the election narrowly, aided by the strong Tammany organization, an election split between four parties, and a very strong statewide showing by the Democrats.52 A man with Wood's reputation deserved to be closely watched, and as his term began, observers caught an eyeful. Displaying an astounding amount of duplicity, even for a talented Tammany politician, Wood began moving against civic wrongs and corruption as if he were a pious reformer. In his inaugural address, he proclaimed that it was his intention to end inefficient government, clean the streets, suppress 50Alexander B. Callow, Jr., The Tweed Ring (New York, 1965), 18-21; Leonard Chalmers, "Fernando Wood and Tammany Hall: the First Phase" The New-York Historical Society Quarterly, LII (October, 1968), 382. 6i Callow, The Tweed Ring, 18. 52 [E. Hutchinson], A Model Mayor (New York, 1855), 15-16.