ABSTRACT
The Common Council to which Tweed was elected has gone down into history as The Forty Thieves. It was a little more brazen in its plunderings than its predecessors. Hence the fitting appellation. The Common Council at this time consisted of the Boards of Aldermen and Assistant Aldermen, of twenty members each. It was not until two years later that the latter Board was abolished and supplanted by a Board of Councilmen.
