Plunkitt was a more typical Tammany politician than Godkin’s thugs. He did not deny that he made money from politics, but he was sensitive to the Post’s and Parkhurst’s contention that Tammany was a collection of criminals who grew rich from protection money and bribes. That was what he called “dishonest graft.” He rose through “honest graft.” Honest graft worked the way corporations worked: it exploited insider information, used public policy for private gain, and relied on “friendship.” Plunkitt happily admitted what his critics contended; consciously echoing the Tammany Biographies, he
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