Moses would abandon even the sacred-bonds principle to preserve his role

Evidence

Moses appears to have had no doubt that the Governor would keep his promise. His statement announcing his support of the referendum had stated: “If the verdict is favorable, all the talent and goodwill available must be recruited to realize the exceedingly complex, long-term improvements.” He had no doubt that that talent would, in the fields of highways and bridges, continue to be his own. And with that assurance in hand, he proceeded during the seven months prior to the referendum to prove that he would violate any principle—even that most sacred one to which he had always sworn allegiance, the sacredness of the bondholders’ covenants—to keep power. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 4613

Categorization

• XREF: Directly reverses the decades-long persona, established across earlier chapters, of Moses as the incorruptible guardian of the bond covenants. — connects to: Moses used up and discarded the people who served his purposes. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 2545; Moses abandoned a lifelong centralization principle the moment self-interest aligned the other way — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 766