ABSTRACT
The second administration of Fernando Wood was the most shamelessly corrupt in the history of American municipalities up to that time. Those who knew the inside of things in his first two years in office did not believe that a viler two years could be possible. The riots at the polls on the Election Day past were not fomented by Wood, although his acts of omission were in no small measure responsible for many of them. It was revealed, however, before he was seven months in office in his second term, that he was capable of instigating a riot if it served his purpose to do so.
