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Ashbel P. Fitch
Champion of Old New York
David F. Remington
With a Foreword by Joanne Reitano
Cloth $45.00
| 978-0-8156-0988-9
| 2011
" ‘Not colorful like James G. Blaine or corrupt like William M. Tweed,’ the historian Joanne Reitano writes in the foreword to Ashbel P. Fitch: Champion of Old New York, ‘Fitch was notable for being independent and principled.’ That backhanded compliment might be justification enough to reconsider Fitch, the late-19th-century New York politician, as David F. Remington, Fitch’s great-grandson, does in this biography. For those who forgot, Fitch was a four-term congressman, a one-term city comptroller and a fierce defender of immigrant rights—that rare breed, an honest public servant in the Tammany Hall era."—The New York Times
"Re-creates a world of Tammany Hall fixers, immigrants
of every stripe, reformers, socialists, and grasping entrepreneurs,
peppered with familiar faces from Theodore
Roosevelt to Jacob Ruppert to House Speaker Thomas
Brackett Reed. This fine book is an essential tile in the
mosaic of New York City history, and an enjoyable read
to boot."
—Kenneth D. Ackerman, author of Boss Tweed: Rise and Fall
of the Corrupt Pol Who Conceived the Soul of Modern New York
"Gives insight into some of the
political ramifications of Gilded
Age politics from national tariff and
gold/silver currency to New York
City issues of the Harlem ship canal,
public transit, and consolidation of
New York."
—Harvey Strum, Sage Colleges, Albany, New York
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David F. Remington is a retired investment banker, Adirondacker, and
amateur historian. He is the great grandson of Ashbel P. Fitch. He lives
with his wife on the coast of Maine.
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The concept of an "honest Tammany man" sounds like an oxymoron, but
it became a reality in the curious career of Ashbel P. Fitch, who served
New York City as a four-term congressman and a one-term city comptroller
during the late nineteenth century. Although little known today, Fitch
was well respected in his own day and played a pivotal role on both
national and local stages.
In the U.S. Congress, Fitch was a passionate advocate of New York
City. His support of tariff reform and his efforts to have New York City
chosen as the site for an 1892 World Exposition reflected his deep interest
in issues of industrialization and urbanization. An ardent defender of
immigrant rights, Fitch opposed the xenophobia of the times and championed
cosmopolitan diversity. As New York’s comptroller, he oversaw
the city’s finances during a time of terrible economic distress, withstanding
threats from Tammany Hall on one side and from Mayor William L.
Strong’s misguided reform administration on the other. In Ashbel P. Fitch,
Remington succeeds in illuminating the independence and integrity of this
unsung hero against the backdrop of the Gilded Age’s corrupt politics
and fierce party loyalty.
7 x 10, 328 pages, 32 black-and-white illustrations, notes, appendixes, bibliography, index
Copublished with the Adirondack Museum
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