ernando Wood was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Rebecca Lehmann Wood
and Benjamin Wood, a merchant. His father engaged in several unsuccessful
business ventures, then moved the family to New York City in 1821 where his luck
was little better. Young Wood attended a private school, but left home at age
thirteen to support himself by working at a variety of menial jobs. He moved to
Philadelphia and in 1831 married Anna Taylor. The next year his father died, so
the couple moved to New York City, where the twenty-year-old Wood labored to
provide for his mother and younger siblings as well as his new bride. He and his
wife divorced in 1839.
Like his father, Wood was not a prosperous businessman, but he learned he
possessed a talent for politics. He joined the Tammany Hall club, sided with the
anti-National Bank faction of the Democratic party, and quickly rose to
prominence. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1840 at the
age of twenty-eight. Shortly after taking office he married Anna Richardson, the
daughter of a well-connected judge from upstate New York. The couple had seven
children; she died in 1859. In Congress, Wood opposed the Whig program of
national banking, tariffs, and internal improvements, except when they benefited
his district.
Wood lost his seat in 1842 due to redistricting, but in 1844 received a State
Department patronage position as dispatch agent at the port of New York. He used
his wife's money to invest in real estate, eventually becoming wealthy as a
result. He was, however, successfully sued in 1848 for cheating his partners out
of their due share of the profits from a gold mine investment.
During the 1850s Wood was the perennial Democratic nominee for mayor of New York
City: 1850, defeated; 1854, elected; 1856, elected; 1857, defeated; 1859,
elected; 1861, defeated. He tried to unify a factionalized party and a city
deeply divided by class, religion, ethnicity, and race. He supported moral and
social reforms, such as establishing Central Park and the City University of New
York and controlling vice. Although in deference to working-class
immigrants, he did not strictly enforce state liquor laws and he endorsed public
work projects during the financial panic of 1857. Democratic infighting led to
an eventual schism, with Wood forming an organization, Mozart Hall, to rival
Tammany Hall.
Limited mayoral authority and a Republican legislature further circumscribed
Wood's ability to accomplish his political goals. The state-city power struggle
over law enforcement produced rival police forces, rioting, and a court case,
which finally ended in triumph for the legislature. This antagonism provoked
Wood to suggest in 1861 that the city secede from the state of New York. Because
of his pre-war sympathies for the South, his political enemies claimed he
supported the Confederate cause. In fact, during his last days as mayor he had
urged a million-dollar tax to raise Union troops. At the end of his term he
married Alice Mills, the 16-year-old daughter of a rich merchant; they had nine
children.
Reflecting the unpopularity of the Civil War in New York City, Wood won election
to the U. S. House in 1862 as a Peace Democrat. He lost a reelection bid two
years later, but was returned to office in 1866 and served in Congress until his
death in 1881. He supported low tariffs and hard money and, after 1877, served
as chair of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. He worked hard, but his
influence was limited by his unwillingness to compromise.
Warning
1860
