Fellowship of the ring; Boss Tweed's monument just can't stay out of trouble.

On December 12, 1870, the New York Sun, a newspaper that had been hostile to Boss Tweed, suddenly proposed that a monument be raised in his honor. Whether the suggestion represented a change of heart or was just a joke -- the paper recommended that Tweed be cast in a nautical pose, repairing the lines on his steam yacht in the midst of a hurricane -- is difficult to say. In any case, Tammany Hall embraced the Sun's idea. The Tweed Testimonial Association was formed, and a circular was printed -- at public expense -- to solicit donations for the erection of a statue of Tweed "in consideration of his services to the Commonwealth of New York."

Tweed was at that ...