years from 1800 on, Astor, in conjunction with other
landholders, was manipulating the city government not less than the
State and Federal Government. Now he gets from the Board of Aldermen
title to a portion of this or that old country road on Manhattan which
the city closes up; again and again he gets rights of land under water.
He constantly solicits the Board of Aldermen for this or that right or
privilege and nearly always succeeds. No property or sum is too small
for his grasp. In 1832, when Eighth avenue, from Thirteenth to
Twenty-third streets is graded down and the earth removed is sold by the
city to a contractor for $3,049.44, Astor, Stephen D. Beekman and Jacob
Taylor petition that each get a part of the money for earth removed from
in front of their lots. This is considered such a petty attempt at
defrauding, that the Aldermen call it an "unreasonable petition" and
refuse to accede.[110] In 1834 the Aldermen allow him a part of the old
Hurlgate road, and Rhinelander a part of the Southampton road. Not a
year passes but that he does not get some new right or privilege from
the city government. At his request some streets are graded and
improved; the improvement of such other streets as is not to his
interest to have improved is delayed. Here sewers are placed; then they
are refused. Every function of city administration was incessantly used
by him. The cumulative effect of this class use of government was to
give him and others a constant succession of grants and privileges that
now have a prodigious value.

But it should be noted that those who thus benefited, singularly enjoyed
the advantages of laws and practices. For city land that they bought
they were allowed to pay on easy terms; not infrequently the city had to
bring action for final payment. But the tenants of these landlords had
to pay rent on the day that it fell due, or within a few days of the
time; they could not be in arrears more than three days without having
to face dispossess proceedings. Nor was this all the difference. On
land which they corruptly obtained from the city and which, to a large
extent, they fraudulently caused to be filled in, regulated, graded or
otherwise improved at the expense of the whole community, the landlords
refused to pay taxes promptly, just as they refused to pay them on land
that they had bought privately. What was the result? "Some of our
wealthiest citizens," reported the Controller in 1831, "are in the habi