Scene approximately 1:12:00
In this scene, Bill Cutting refuses to help William Tweed get Irish immigrants to vote. Cutting, a powerful nativist, acknowledges his ties with Tammany Hall but refuses this act because he believes it will “befoul” his father’s legacy and the American name. Tweed says that by refusing to include the Irish, Cutting is “turning his back on the future,” to which Cutting replies that they have different ideas of what their future could hold. Uplifting patriotic music can be heard throughout Cutting’s dialogue, which is juxtaposed by the backward-minded thinking of his words. Amsterdam is silent throughout this encounter, though his facial expressions suggest he is unsettled by this conversation and what it implies for his sense of being – an Irish American working for a racist and corrupt man who looks down on his entire race. Cutting’s brutally honest words also remind Amsterdam of his real motive to avenge his father’s murder, who died upholding the Irish name.
As Amsterdam and Cutting walk away from Tweed, they pass by a line of young men enlisting in the Union Army. The camera slowly pans away from the two main characters and onto the point of view of a passerby on the street, where this line of immigrant men wait to join the war. The man at the table specifies that one paper represents their citizenship and the other paper represents their enlistment in the Union Army, sending them off by declaring, “Now go fight for your country!” These immigrants, most of them Irish presumably, are dressed in dirty clothes and carry their belongings in tied-up sacks. They are what nativists like Cutting look down upon, though their very action of enlisting contradicts what Cutting claims. These Irishmen are preparing to fight in the war, providing a massive service to their country and its people.
During this scene, the patriotic music played earlier on transitions into a rendition of “Paddy’s Lamentation.” The camera shifts from the enlistment line to soldiers dressed in uniform over the lyrics “But when we got to Yankee land/ They shoved a gun into our hands/ Saying Paddy, you must go and fight for Lincoln.” These lyrics precisely describe what is unfolding in this scene, and its sad, wistful melody represents the struggles of Irish immigrants. The camera then changes to a bird’s eye point of view, where soldiers can be seen loading into one ship as coffins are being unloaded in the ship right next to them. This scene unfolds during a bright sunny day on a busy port in New York: what should be a happy setting is juxtaposed by the sad reality of war, poverty, and racism. As the scene fades out, the lyrics “I wish I were at home in dear old Dublin” plays, and viewers are left sympathizing with the Irish Immigrant struggle and rooting for Amsterdam’s cause.
