Fernando Wood (June 14, 1812–February 14, 1881) is famous for being one of the most colorful mayors in the history of New York City. File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... June 14 is the 165th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (166th in leap years), with 200 days remaining. ... 1812 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... February 14 is the 45th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1881 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... For a list of the Dutch Director-Generals who governed New Amsterdam (as New York City was called when it was a Dutch-run settlement) between 1624 and 1664, see: Director-General of New Netherland. ... Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005 New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the most populous city in the state of New York and the entire United States. ...

Wood was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and moved to New York City, where he became a successful shipping merchant. He was chairman of the chief young men's political organization in 1839 and was a member of the Tammany Society, which he used as a vehicle for his political rise. As a member of the Democratic party, he was elected to Congress in 1841 and served until 1843. Independence Hall, as it appears today. ... 1839 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Tammany Hall was the name given to the Democratic Party political machine that dominated New York City politics from the mayoral victory of Fernando Wood in 1854 through the election of Fiorello LaGuardia in 1934. ... take you to calendar). ... 1843 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...

In 1854 Wood was elected mayor of New York City. The state legislature created the New York City Municipal Police in 1853, but during Wood's first term as Mayor (1855-1857). He was re-elected in 1857, when the New York gang the Dead Rabbits combed the city's cemeteries for names to add to the voter rolls. 1854 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... The Mayor of New York City is the chief executive of the New York City government, as stipulated by the Charter of the City of New York. ... The Dead Rabbits were a gang in New York City in the 1850s, originally part of the Roache or Roach Guards, organized to honor the name of a Five Points liquor seller. ...

In the 1856-57 session, the Republicans at Albany shortened Wood's second term of office from two years to one, and created a Metropolitan Police Force, with Frederick Talmadge as superintendent, to replace Wood's corrupt Municipal Police. Talmadge demanded that Wood disband the Municipal Police, but Wood refused, even in the face of a May 1857 decision by the Supreme Court. Superintendent George W. Matsell, 15 captains and 800 patrolmen of the Municipal Police backed Mayor Wood.

Captain George W. Walling pledged his loyalty to the new Metropolitan Police and was ordered to arrest Mayor Wood. Wood refused to submit and when Captain Walling attempted force, New York City Hall was occupied by 300 Municipal policemen, who promptly tossed Captain Walling into the street. Fifty Metropolitans in frock coats and plug hats then marched on City Hall with night sticks in hand. The Municipals swarmed out and routed the Metropolitans. Fifty-two policemen were injured in the police riot. ... Police riot is a term that became increasingly more common through the late Twentieth century, describing a situation where police, more recently clad in riot gear such as armor, helmets, padded knee and elbow protectors, and face shields, encounter a group, e. ...

The Metropolitan Police Board called out the National Guard, and the Seventh Regiment surrounded City Hall. A platoon of infantry with fixed bayonets marched into City Hall and surrounded Mayor Wood who then submitted to arrest. Mayor Wood was charged with inciting to riot, released on nominal bail and returned to his office.

The feud continued on through the summer of 1857, with constant confrontations between the rival police forces. When a Metropolitan arrested a criminal a Municipal would come along and release him. When a Municipal arrested a criminal, a Metropolitan would come along and release him. At the police station, an arresting officer would find an alderman and a magistrate from the opposing side waiting. A hearing would be held on the spot and the prisoner released on his own recognizance.

The gangs of New York had a field day. Pedestrians were mugged in broad daylight on Broadway while rival policemen clubbed each other to determine who had the right to interfere. Soon the gangs were looting and plundering without interference, but turned on one another in turf wars, which culminated in the Fourth of July gang battle. The Dead Rabbits, the Plug Uglies and several other Five Points gangs marched into the Bowery to do battle with the Bowery Boys and to loot stores. They attacked a Bowery Boys headquarters with pistols, knives, clubs, iron bars and huge paving blocks, routing the defenders. The Bowery Boys and their allies the Atlantic Guards poured into Bayard Street to engage in the most desperate and largest free-for-all in the city's history. The Metropolitans attempted to stop the fighting but were severely beaten and retreated. The Municipals said the battle looked like a Metropolitan problem and was none of their business.

Fernando Wood served a second mayoral term in 1860 -62. Wood was one of many New York Democrats sympathetic to the Confederacy, called 'Copperheads' by the staunch Unionists. During his second mayoral term in January 1861, Wood suggested to the City Council that New York City secede and declare itself a free city, to continue its profitable cotton trade with the Confederacy. Wood's Democratic machine was concerned to maintain the revenues (which depended on Southern cotton) that maintained the patronage. The Copperheads were a group of Northern Democrats who opposed the American Civil War, wanting an immediate peace settlement with the Confederates. ...

Wood's brother Benjamin Wood purchased the New York Daily News in 1860, supporting Stephen A. Douglas, and was elected to Congress, where he made a name as an opponent of pursuing the American Civil War. Benjamin Wood (1820-1900) was a nineteenth-century American politician from the state of New York. ... New York Daily News Building, Raymond Hood, architect, rendering by Hugh Ferriss The New York Daily News is one of the largest newspapers in the United States with a circulation well over 700,000. ... Stephen Arnold Douglas (April 23, 1813–June 3, 1861), American politician from Illinois, was one of the Democratic Party nominees for President in 1860 (the other being John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky). ... Congress in Joint Session. ... The American Civil War (1861–1865) was fought in North America within the United States of America, between twenty-four mostly northern states of the Union and the Confederate States of America, a coalition of eleven southern states that declared their independence and claimed the right of secession from the...

See also

• Free City of Tri-Insula

The Free City of Tri-Insula was a proposed independent republic that would be formed out of the islands of Manhattan, Staten Island, and Long Island immediately prior to the United States Civil War. ...

External links

• Mr. Lincoln and New York: Fernando Wood
• Appleton's Cyclopedia, 1887, whitewashes Wood's career.
• http://reference.allrefer.com/encyclopedia/E/E-Wood-Fer.html
• http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USACWwood.htm
• Gregory Christiano surveys Fernando Wood, the rival police forces, gang wars and the Panic of 1857: 'Introduction to a turbulent period in New York City history."
• Fernando Wood's recommendation to the city council, January 6, 1861.

Reference

• Herbert Asbury, The Gangs of New York, 1927