USA > New York > History of the state of New York, political and governmental, Vol. V > Part 24
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30
363
TAMMANY
for State prison. The announcements were so indis- criminate, so wholesale, that there was no escaping the purpose to make the inference plain that all Tammany was affiliated with vice and crime and owed subsistence to relations with the sinister forces of the underworld. The inquisition was successful in that it created the impression on the public mind that a veritable crusade was on and that the valor of the knights of Fusion and Reform furnished the only chance for salvation, moral, temporal, and political, that the sorely beset city could hope for. Under that belief a Mayor and a District Attorney were elected in one year and in the next a Governor was put in office. All were sworn enemies of Tammany. All were committed to the press-agented scare over the alleged criminality of Tammany's organ- ization and personnel. Here were the combined forces of the State, the county, and the city arrayed, with all the police power, prosecuting strength, and detective facilities of three great potential agencies and a record of frightful accusations and direful threats to be justi- fied. No prosecutions were even attempted. This failure to make good on the expectations that had been raised is urged by Tammanyites to be a confession of judgment against the prosecution and a certificate of good character for the organization. In presenting these facts, which are matters of public record, the de- sire is simply and wholly to leave with the reader the question asked at the beginning, whether considerations of public policy should not be sufficient to curb and control political detraction.
To understand the Tammany of all its one hundred
364
POLITICAL AND GOVERNMENTAL HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
and thirty years we must follow and understand the spirit of the times in all its varying phases in the pass- ing years. When we find in the time of Tweed that Tammany sank to almost incredible depths of disgrace and reproach, we find that morality in political life and even in business life was at a distressingly low level. Inflation, speculation, extravagance, and attend- ing evils growing out of the Civil War are the gen- erally assigned causes. The results were examplified by many more instances than those furnished by Tweed, Ingersoll, Connolly, and company. Washington had its Boss Shepherd; Philadelphia was disgraced by election conditions and political bossism as bad as New York's, but by the opposite party. The Credit Mobi- lier and the Star Route national scandals evoked caustic newspaper criticism, and the gold and Erie stock-gam- bling operations of Fisk and his like were a menace to normal and legitimate commercial and financial undertakings.
Quite the most exhaustive research, as well as the ablest handling of the whole subject of Tammany, has been at the hands of Edwin Patrick Kilroe, and his analysis and appreciation of the institution is here- with quoted for its intrinsic value :
"The Tammany Societies in the United States exercised a powerful influence in shaping the destinies and in crystallizing the principles of our government, and have contributed much to the development of our present extra-constitutional system of party government. The im- portance of this influence has been inadequately recognized by students of American history. The societies bore the standards of equal rights and popular rule like the powerful Jacobin clubs of the French Revo-
365
TAMMANY
lution, and were the rallying-points of Republican activity until the complete annihilation of the Federalist party. Under the favoring leadership of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison the movement flourished, and in its organized activities foreshadowed the establish- ment of national political machines. With the passing of the Federal- ists the issues which had stimulated the movement disappeared, and one by one the societies succumbed to the lethargy resulting from the cessation of violent partisan controversy. The New York Tammany Society alone remained, presenting the most curious phenomenon in the history of American politics in its development from a patriotic and fraternal institution to an organized force or machine in party politics ; in which position, for three-quarters of a century, it dominated the public life of the American metropolis.
"The Order has participated in numberless movements of social, political, and civic import. Every epoch, every year has seen its affirmative acts; and its position has been writ large in infinite bitter controversy. That the record of its achievements and of its activities, both useful and pernicious, should form the basis for an impartial judgment of its worth, is the postulate from which a compendious history of the Society should proceed."
Mr. Kilroe's passing reference to Tammany as dominating the public life of the metropolis "for three-quarters of a century" calls forth more than equally casual treatment by the friends of Tammany in their special pleading for their beloved organiza- tion. They point to the proportion that the mentioned seventy-five years bears to the life of the metropolis since the beginning of its phenomenal growth. How is it possible, they ask, that New York could have progressed to its acknowledged and proud preëminence on this continent, if not in the whole world, if it was ruled for so much of the time by a gang of thieves and corrupt politicians such as Tammany is described
366
POLITICAL AND GOVERNMENTAL HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
to be by its political enemies? And they complacently declare that the question in its asking answers itself.
One of the severe critics of Tammany, L. P. Grata- cap, supplies an analysis of the institution which will interest all who desire to reach an intelligent and fair verdict. His prelude and conclusion follow :
"The city of New York is an enormous charge, its interests are numerous, its expenditures princely, and Tammany Hall is the repre- sentative expression of an organized body of men who appreciate the pecuniary benefits of ruling it. They move together with an instinct of unanimity born of self-interest. They have that duplicity of temperament which deceives alike the confiding and the shrewd, and they disarm the vigor of their enemies by the affectation of humility and candor. In short, Tammany Hall exists for political power, and it will retain political power, for it has all its parts so made, so edu- cated, so paid as to render dislodgement impossible, and it has shrewd- ness enough not to permit itself to sink so low, or to play so fast and loose with public interest, as to weaken the adhesion of its admirers or dismay their confidence.
"The machine is unavoidable in the politics of this country, and in itself represents a mechanical regulation of the public acts of govern- ment, and nothing else. Accidents, circumstances, race conditions give the running of the machine to various men and sets of men, and the ulterior results are good or bad, public-spirited or selfish, reputable or disreputable, patriotic or treacherous. Tammany Hall controls the 'machine' in this city, and is now running it, we think, with an im- proved sense of its responsibilities and, beyond cavil, at least with a determination to make and keep this city a safe and a salutary place to live in. Tammany can never be as bad as it once was, is by no means as bad as it is painted, and is succumbing already to influences which, if progressively strenghtened, may make the ideal machine."
PARTI
ORIGIN AND EARLY PHASES
T HE Tammany Societies which originated in Philadelphia and flourished in New Jersey and in States of the nearer south previously to 1879, do not bear much more relation to the Society of Tammany or Columbian Order of New York than their Indian forerunners do to the one hundred and ten mil- lions of the people of this country. They may be con- sidered in passing, however, for their indication of some of the spirit of their time and for the influence they had in the beginning of the institution. In their earlier Colonial days they were of a social character and their gradual assumption of political activities was part of the general feeling of dissatisfaction and unrest over Colonial conditions and of the American and national sentiment which was to grow out of those feelings. The features they adopted from Indian forms, ceremonies, and costumes were chosen as an indication of this belief in the fullest maintenance and expression of aggressive Americanism and their separation in habits of thought from those who clung to the form and substance of old world ideals and conditions.
The legendary Indian chieftain chosen as the tute- lary saint of the Tammany Societies, and the vague and various traditions of his heroism and his wisdom, need
367
368
POLITICAL AND GOVERNMENTAL
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
not concern us in connection with this record. There is too much of confusion and contradiction in them to justify the hasty acceptance of any of their phases, and they have too little relation with the his- tory of the Society in New York to warrant the labor and effort of sifting out the truth concerning him either as a warrior or a philosopher, as a friend of the white man or the out-traded and out-bargained representa- tive of the red.
Mr. Kilroe gives considerable credence to the theory that the great Iroquois Hiawatha and his works have been largely confounded with Tammany and his ac- complishments. He writes :
"In contrast to this remarkable figure, Tammany stands as a mere name, leaving no memorial of epoch-making accomplishment or institu- tion of permanence among his people. Through the arbitrary selection of his name by writers of romance, and through the blunders and con- fusion of the early missionaries, and perhaps the Delawares themselves, the glory and fame of right belonging to the talented Hiawatha have been attributed to Tammany. The real Tammany, it must be con- cluded, was a chief of ordinary attainments, who made little or no impression on his white contemporaries and whose conduct in no wise influenced the history of the land in which he lived. His notable virtues and fancied deeds are wholly incongruous with his recorded characteristics and achievements, and the eager veneration bestowed upon this pagan saint finds no warrant either in historic fact or in relevant legendary to any extent commensurate with the dignity and grandeur of his fame."
The plan for the formation of a Tammany Society in New York seems to date back to the latter part of 1785 or early 1786. The Marine Society of New York at a dinner on January 25, 1786, toasted "St. Tam- many and the New Constellation." The plan and this
369
TAMMANY
recognition are probably traceable to the influence of John Pintard, who was prominent in the Marine Society and had been formerly a conspicuous member of the Sons of St. Tammany in New Jersey before he became a resident of New York. In May, 1787, as the Tammany Society, the organization appears with a dinner of its own at Mr. Talmadge Hall's tavern, 49 Cortlandt Street. The list of toasts and their simi- larity in language and sentiment with those of previ- ous celebrations of the New Jersey Society indicate the active interest of Pintard. They were as follows:
"1. The Day, and all who honor it.
"2. The Land of Liberty.
"3. Congress and their Allies.
"4. The State of New York, and all who wish it prosperity.
"5. His Excellency, the truly great and virtuous George Wash- ington, Esq.
"6. Louis XVI, King of France, his amiable Queen and Royal Family.
"7. Perpetual Unanimity and prosperity to the Sons of Tammany throughout the world.
"8. The noble patriots who fell in the cause of American Liberty.
"9. May the war hatchet be buried and the pipe of peace be smoked till time shall be no more.
"10. May the industry of the Beaver, the frugality of the Ant, and the constancy of the Dove be perpetual characteristics of the Sons of St. Tammany.
"11. The daughters of St. Tammany and their papooses.
"12. May the American chain never be tarnished by the rust of discord.
"13. May honor, virtue, a true sense of liberty, and a detestation of slavery be the characteristics of Americans and all their adopted brethren."
370
POLITICAL AND GOVERNMENTAL HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
The new organization, though apparently without an abiding place, continued in some fashion, and in May, 1789, it announced a dinner, tickets for which were to be had at Aorson's tavern. The newspaper reports of the dinner show that it was enjoyed in a marquee erected on the banks of the Hudson about two miles from the city. It was further described by three daily newspapers as "an elegant entertainment." They all printed the toast list. A contemporary comment had this prophetic paragraph: "The number which attended at this festival was very respectable, and affords, to the first Institutors of that Society, a happy presage of its growing importance and respectability."
This successful demonstration of the assured status of the Society was followed in a few days by the pub- lication of a notice for a meeting of the members of the Society of St. Tammany "at the usual place" for business of importance. This would indicate that it was regularly established and had a home. It was confirmed by the appearance in the "New York Direc- tory and Register," published later in the year, of a description of the organization and a list of the officers, whose election was likely enough the business of impor- tance before referred to. That publication said :
"St. Tammany's Society, or Independent Order of Liberty .- This being a national society consists of American-born, who fill all the offices, and adopted Americans, who are elegible to the honorary posts of warrior and hunter. It is founded on the true principles of patriot- ism, and has for its motives charity and brotherly love. Its officers consist of one grand sachem, twelve sachems, one treasurer, one door- keeper. It is divided into thirteen tribes, which severally represent a
371
TAMMANY
State; each tribe is governed by a sachem, the honorary posts in which are one warrior and one hunter. Officers for the present year :- Grand Sachem, William Mooney; Sachems, White Matlack, Oliver Glean, Philip Hone, John Burger, Jonathan Pierce, James Tylee, John Campbell, Gabriel Furman, Abel Hardenbrook, Cortlandt Van Buren, Thomas Greenleaf, Joseph Gadwin; Treasurer, Thomas Ash ; Secretary, Anthony Ernest ; Doorkeeper, Gardner Baker."
In its original period it is evident that the Tammany Society of New York was a pillar of support to Presi- dent Washington and his administration. This atti- tude was both understood and avowed. The necessity for and the significance of it are found in the fact that the city, while the seat of the new national government, was also the head and center of the reactionary influ- ences of the pro-British, the tory, and the aristocratic enemies of the proclaimed popular sovereignty. It is undeniable that the organization, with its spectacular features to catch the eye and excite the imagination, and its alert and active assertion of its Americanism, was a tower of strength to the Federal authority.
The names of many of the officers, as well as of those who were on the roll of membership in the new society, are also to be found in the lists of the Sons of Liberty or "Liberty Boys," and some confusion has arisen from the fact. It has even been mistakenly said that the Tammany organization grew out of the other. Yet it is not too much to say that Tammany was the legitimate heir and successor of the Sons of Liberty, who raised Liberty poles and rallied round them in the Revolutionary days and the pre-Revolutionary days when love of country and devotion to liberty were the
372
POLITICAL AND GOVERNMENTAL HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
main inspirations that moved the majority of the people, as they were in our late days when the World War spirit united even those ordinarily divided by all sorts of differences and cleavages. The organizations were alike the outgrowth of patriotic American sentiment. Both were recruited from among those who opposed bitterly, and sometimes turbulently, the aggressions and oppressions of the British and the tories and were stirred to fury by the insolence of the red-coats. The Sons of Liberty took their name from a catch phrase uttered in debate on the question of the Stamp act. Charles Town- shend, the Acting-Secretary of State to the Colonies, had referred to the colonists as ungracious and ungrate- ful, terming them "children of England's planting." Colonel Barre ridiculed Townshend's position and scoffed at this description of the colonists, declaring, "The Americans are Sons of Liberty."
The aggressions of the red-coats and the manifesta- tions of the instinct of defense by the Liberty Boys and the Tammany men often centered around the Liberty pole on The Common, now City Hall Park. The re- sulting turbulence led to a prohibition of such poles on the Common, and the patriots were forced to buy a lot at Broadway and Murray Street, where the Postal Tele- graph building now stands, to put one up to replace that torn down by the British soldiers. The Society of Tam- many recently voted to place a memorial tablet on the building recalling this historic incident.
The first Liberty pole in New York was raised by the Sons of Liberty in 1766; it was pine mast or staff. The last one was erected on the same spot in City Hall Park,
373
TAMMANY
on Flag day, June 14, 1921, being presented to the city by the New York Historical Society and the Sons of the Revolution of the State of New York-delegations from the various patriotic societies, including Tam- many, participating in the impressive ceremony. An- other recent Liberty pole raising was in Union Square on the Fourth of July, 1917, under the auspices of the Society of Tammany in connection with the regular Independence day celebration at the Wigwam. A parade, music by the navy band, and speeches by na- tional celebrities were incidental to what proved to be the high water mark of the patriotic spirit of our great war time. This high level of inspiration was kept up in New York City until the end of the war and culminated in the wild turmoil of Armistice day and the enthusi- astic welcomes extended to the returning soldiers.
The Liberty pole is essentially an American institu- tion, and thus commended itself to Tammany. No men- tion of it appears in other history. In the earlier days no hamlet was too small in numbers or too weak in pub- lic spirit to have its Liberty pole or tree, which was always the center of gatherings with a patriotic or polit- ical purpose. The general use of the cap of liberty in connection with these poles has sometimes been thought to have been adopted at the time of the French Revo- lution. This is not true, and neither can the use of the cap in the ceremonies of the Society of Tammany be traced to any French origin or be found to be due to the suggestion of sympathy with the transatlantic devotees of "Liberty, Fraternity, Equality." It is a Phrygian cap, and when placed on the head of a manumitted slave
374
POLITICAL AND GOVERNMENTAL HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
whose freedom had been secured by gift or purchase was the symbol that the former slave had become a free man. Very naturally it became the badge and symbol of the Sons of Liberty and of their Tammany colleagues and successors. It is very true, though, that the French revolutionists used the liberty cap and that both Tam- many and the Liberty Boys sympathized heartily with the struggle for liberty in France. But for twenty years before the French Revolution the cap of liberty was familiar, with the Liberty pole or tree, all along the Atlantic seaboard of America.
The prominence of the name of William Mooney, who appears as grand sachem in the above list of the officers of the Tammany Society elected in 1789, is to be noted as a continuing aspect of its annals for many years. Yet it is apparent, on scanning less superficially, that the guiding mind of the organization and the real inspiration that brought it into being were furnished by John Pintard. William Mooney, an upholsterer with a store in Nassau Street, was an energetic and patriotic man-with a genius for self-advertising. His carefully connoted activities are not to be lost sight of by anyone who even skims the record of the early days of the Society. Indeed, by reason of this fact and the further fact of his acquaintance and relations with Aaron Burr. Mr. Mooney in later years was credited with being the creature of Burr and the latter's instrument in the for- mation of the Society for Burr's political purposes. Some support for attributing power in Tammany to Burr, avowed or hidden, is found in the fact that the organization and the individual for quite a period
375
TAMMANY
shared in devotion to the cause of Jefferson. But Tam- many was among the first, and among those most bitter, who turned against Burr when he tried to nose Jeffer- son out of the Presidency though his campaign had been made as a candidate for Vice-President. The most stirring and sensational political situations familiar to the present generation do not give us any counterpart of the excitement over that action. It can be imagined, however, if it is recalled that there was a tie in the Electoral vote for Jefferson and Burr, and though the ballots for both were cast for the office of President the custom was to give that place to the man who had the highest vote and to name for Vice-President the one with the next highest vote. Burr's action was so thor- oughly unpopular that to it may be traced the beginning of his rather rapid loss of public standing, which the killing of Hamilton in a duel made complete and irre- trievable.
The particulars of the connection between Mooney and Burr seem to show that the alliance was somewhat one-sided. Mooney was undoubtedly an ad- mirer of Burr, and just as certainly counted himself as one of the friends of that brilliant but not well-balanced politician. That the friendship was not exactly re- turned or at all well requited is shown by the condition of the estate of Mooney, whose executor found a lot of valueless notes of Burr's for goods sold and for money loaned to him. The interest in this consideration of the relations of Burr and Mooney lies in the revelation that the name of Aaron Burr does not appear on the roll of the Tammany Society, which is intact from the signa-
376
POLITICAL AND GOVERNMENTAL HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
tures of Mooney and his colleagues on the first roster of officers down to the signatures at the last regular meet- ing. It is quite likely that the lampoon writers attack- ing Burr would appeal to the enemies of Tammany and charge him with connection with it in the effort to thus discredit him. Then the diatribe aimed at Tammany would, in turn, be weighted with the accusation that it was Burr's machine so that the enemies of Burr would be rallied against Tammany. So history is sometimes made.
John Pintard's activities in connection with the new Society were in distinct contrast to Mooney's. His work, as became a merchant and a scholar, was accom- plished quietly, and a characteristic modesty that was almost timidity precluded him from public appearances as a speaker. His language and his habits of thought are in evidence all through the written material that has come down to us. The toasts at the annual celebra- tions, the ritual, the constitution, and the proclamations of purposes are alike in this showing. An example is in the second paragraph of the constitution: "It shall connect in the indissoluble bonds of patriotic friendship, American Brethren, of known attachment to the politi- cal rights of human nature and the liberties of this Country."
In James Grant Wilson's "Memorial History of the City of New York" Tammany's position in 1790 as "a power to be reckoned with" is attributed largely to Pintard in these words:
"Probably Jefferson, who had assumed his duties as Secretary of State on March 21 [1790], had something to do with the rapid devel-
JOHN KELLY
John Kelly, Tammany leader; born in New York City, April 21, 1821; attended the common schools; pursued the mason's trade ; elected alderman in 1854; elected to congress and served from March 4, 1855 until he resigned, December 25, 1858; sheriff of the city and county of New York, 1859-1862 and 1865-1867; defeated for mayor of New York City in 1868; appointed comptroller of New York in 1876 and served three years; delegate to the democratic national conventions of 1864, 1868, 1872, 1876, 1880 and 1884; died in New York City, June 1, 1886.
RICHARD CROKER
Richard Croker, political leader; born at Clonkilly, county Cork, Ireland, November 23, 1841 ; came to America as a boy and studied the machinist's trade; entered politics in 1865; alder- inan in New York City, 1868, 1870 and 1873; coroner, 1873- 1879; opposed the Tweed ring and fought bitterly against its domination, 1873-1874; fire commissioner, 1883; city chamber- lain, 1889-1890; leader of Tammany Hall for 17 years; retired from politics and went abroad purchasing a country place in Ireland, where he occupied himself with horse racing; died in Ireland, April 29, 1922.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.