Tammany
Hall
Political organization
formed in 1788 in New York City as the Society of St. Tammany or
Columbian Order, in response to the city's more exclusive clubs.
Initially most of its members were craftsmen; they adopted Tamanend,
a legendary Delaware chief, as their patron and used pseudo-Indian
insignia and titles (the lowest ranks were known as braves, the
council members as sachems). Meetings were held in a hall on Spruce
Street from 1798 to 1812 and in another at Nassau and Frankfort
streets from 1812 to 1868.
In the early
nineteenth century the society supported Aaron Burr, Martin Van
Buren, and such progressive policies as universal male suffrage,
lien laws to protect craftsmen, and the abolition of imprisonment
for debt. It was soon riddled with graft, scandals, and internal
conflicts of which the most notable was a struggle in 1835 between
the Locofocos and the conservative old guard. The leaders expanded
their political base by helping immigrants to survive, find work,
and quickly gain citizenship; the organization also opposed anti-Catholic
and nativist movements of the day, thus earning loyalties that endured
for generations. During the mid nineteenth century Mayor Fernando
Wood furthered his career through the society, as did William M.
Tweed (the insigne of his volunteer fire company, a tiger, became
the society's symbol). In 1868 the society moved into its "wigwam"
on East 14th Street near 3rd Avenue, where it was the host of the
Democratic National Convention during the same year.
Tammany Hall
did not become a disciplined political machine until it came under
the direction of John Kelly (1872-86), the first of ten successive
Irish-American bosses; it is said that he found the society a horde
and left it an army. He introduced a system of organization in which
assembly district leaders elected a leader, an unsalaried, extra-legal
commander of operations. They also appointed precinct captains whose
job it was to help families in their neighborhoods in times of emergency,
to find them work, to ease any problems they had with the law, and
to make sure that they voted. Although ballot boxes were often stolen
on election day, most victories by candidates allied with Tammany
Hall were achieved through year-round attention to voters' needs
and interests. Because the boss controlled nominations to elective
offices, he had the last word in the discretionary appointments
made by successful candidates for municipal office and used this
power to reward loyal district leaders and supporters and to punish
dissenters. Political integration of different ethnic groups varied
widely. From mid century Irish men dominated Tammany Hall and virtually
monopolized district leaderships, remaining in power despite the
changing population of their neighborhoods. Many Jews and Germans
were admitted to the Tammany Society and were chosen to be state
legislators, congressional representatives, and judges. The growing
Italian population was largely ignored, and when the number of black
voters in Harlem became significant the neighborhood was subdivided
and reallocated to adjacent districts with white majorities, Richard
Croker, the boss from 1886 to 1902 retained Kelly's system but delegated
decisions about patronage to local leaders more than Kelly had done.
After consolidation
in 1898 the primacy of Tammany Hall depended on gaining the cooperation
of Democrats in the outer boroughs. Those in Brooklyn opposed the
organization until John H. McCooey became the leader of Kings County
in 1909. He was a long-time friend of Croker's successor, Charles
F. Murphy. One result of their collaboration was the nomination
of two mayoral candidates from Brooklyn, William J. Gaynor in 1909
and John F. Hylan in 1921. In state government during these years
politicians allied with Tammany Hall sponsored progressive labor
laws and opposed Prohibition and censorship. Murphy promised the
suffrage leader Carrie Chapman Catt that his organization would
do nothing to prevent women from gaining the right to vote; women
were later allowed to be district co-leaders but rarely had a voice
in decisions. After Murphy's death the leaders decided to replace
Mayor Hylan with James J. Walker, a member of Tammany Hall and a
state senator. Their efforts were successful owing largely to the
support of Edward J. Flynn, the leader in the Bronx, and to an effective
campaign against Hylan by Governor Alfred E. Smith; after winning
the Democratic primary they swept the November elections.
The machine
received money and "kick-backs" from many sources: municipal suppliers,
real-estate interests, aspirants for judgeships, and businessmen
bidding for transit franchises and pier leases. Legal fees and brokerage
commissions were funneled to politically active lawyers and insurance
men, and generous campaign contributions were often made by such
wealthy families as the Lehmans and the Strauses. Members of the
inner circle profited from "honest graft," successful speculations
based on confidential information about plans for schools and public
works. As George Washington Plunkitt, a sachem who died a millionaire,
declared: "I seen my opportunities and I took 'em."
Tammany Hall
reached its zenith in 1928. Smith was a powerful and widely respected
governor, Walker an extraordinarily popular mayor. George W. Olvany,
a college graduate was the boss, a new building was completed in
1929 on Union Square at 17th Street, and even reformers had few
criticisms of Tarnmany Hall. The organization's fortunes soon changed.
Investigations of civic corruption by Samuel Seabury led to Walker's
resignation in 1932 John F. Curry, Olvany's successor, sought to
block Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidential nomination allowing Flynn,
no longer in ally of Tammany Hall, to become the strongest link
between the Democratic White House and the city. In 1933 Mayor John
P. O' Brien, the incumbent and a loyalist chosen by Curry, finished
last in a three-way mayoral election won by Fiorello H. La Guardia,
who led a coalition opposed to Tammany Hall that remained in place
for twelve years. Unable to meet mortgage payments, the sachems
sold their building to Local 91 of the International Ladies' Garment
Workers' Union in 1943. By the time the Democrats recaptured the
mayoralty in 1945, Tammany Hall had virtually ceased to exist, although
politicians bred in the organization continued to flourish into
tap the 1950s and beyond.
Louis Eisenstein
and Elliot Rosenberg: A Stripe of Tammany's Tiger (New York:
R. Speller, 1966)
Alfred Connable
and Edward Silberfarb: Tigers of Tammany: Nine Men Who Ran New
York (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1967)
-Frank
Vos
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