Thoughts On Machiavelli

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Thoughts On Machiavelli

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.
 There is no record of the carrying out of this threat.
Despite its original composition of men of both parties, the
Tammany Society drifted year by year into being the principal
upholder of the doctrines of which Jefferson was the chief exponent.
Toward the end of Washington’s administration political feelings
developed into violent party divisions, and the Tammany Society
became largely Anti-Federalist, or Republican, the Federalist
members either withdrawing or being reduced to a harmless
minority. It toasted the Republican leaders vociferously to show the
world its sympathies and principles. On May 12, 1796, the glasses
ascended to “Citizen” Thomas Jefferson, whose name was received
with three cheers, and to “Citizen” Edward Livingston, for whom nine
cheers were given. “The people,” ran one toast, “may they ever at
the risk of life and liberty support their equal rights in opposition to
Ambition, Tyranny, to Sophistry and Deception, to Bribery and
Corruption and to an enthusiastic fondness and implicit confidence in
their fellow-fallible mortals.”
Tammany had become, by 1796-97, a powerful and an extremely
partizan body. But it came near being snuffed out of existence in the
last year of Washington’s presidency. Judah Hammond writes that
when Washington, before the close of his second term,
“rebuked self-creative societies from an apprehension
that their ultimate tendency would be hostile to the
public tranquillity, the members of Tammany supposed
their institution to be included in the reproof, and they
almost all forsook it. The founder, William Mooney, and
a few others continued steadfast. At one anniversary
they were reduced so low that but three persons
attended its festival.[7] From this time it became a
political institution and took ground with Thomas
Jefferson.”
To such straits was driven the society which, a short time after,
secured absolute control of New York City, and which has held that
grasp, with but few and brief intermissions, ever since. The contrast
between that sorry festival, with its trio of lonesome celebrators, and
the Tammany Society of a few years afterwards presents one of the
most striking pictures in American politics.

FOOTNOTES
[1] Mooney was an ex-soldier, who at this time kept a small
upholstery shop at 23 Nassau street. He was charged with having
deserted the American Army, September 16, 1776, and with
joining the British forces in New York, where for a year he wore
the King’s uniform. The truth or falsity of this charge cannot be
ascertained.
[2] Hammond, Political History of the State of New York, Vol. I,
p. 341.
[3] So spelled in all the earlier records. Later, the s in the
penultimate syllable came to be dropped.
[4] John Pintard was one of the founders of the New York
Historical Society, the Academy of Design and other institutions.
He was a very rich man at one time, but subsequently failed in
business.
[5] Dunlap’s American Daily Register, May 16, 1791.
[6] New York Journal and Patriotic Register, May 15, 1793.
[7] This statement of Hammond probably refers to May 12,
1797.
 CHAPTER II
AARON BURR AT THE HELM
1798-1802

T
he second period of the Tammany Society began about 1798.
Relieved of its Federalist members, it became purely partizan. As
yet it was not an “organization,” in the modern political sense; it did
not seek the enrollment and regimentation of voters. Its nature was
more that of a private political club, which sought to influence
elections by speeches, pamphlets and social means. It shifted its
quarters from Barden’s Tavern to the “Long Room,” a place kept by a
sometime Sachem, Abraham or “Brom” Martling,[1] at the corner of
Nassau and Spruce streets. This Wigwam was a forlorn, one-story
wooden building attached to Martling’s Tavern, near, or partly
overlapping, the spot where subsequently Tammany Hall erected its
first building—recently the Sun newspaper building. No larger than a
good-sized room the Wigwam was contemptuously styled by the
Federalists “the Pig Pen.” In that year New York City had only 58,000
inhabitants. The Wigwam stood on the very outskirts of the city. But
it formed a social rendezvous very popular with the “Bucktails” of the
time. Every night men gathered there to drink, smoke and “swap”
stories. Fitz-Greene Halleck has written of a later time:

“There’s a barrel of porter at Tammany Hall,

And the Bucktails are swigging it all the night long;
In the time of my boyhood ’twas pleasant to call
For a seat and cigar mid the jovial throng.”

This social custom was begun early in the life of the society, and
was maintained for several decades.
 Aaron Burr was the first real leader of the Tammany Society. He
was never Grand Sachem or even Sachem; it is doubtful whether he
ever set foot in the Wigwam; it is known that it was never his habit
to attend caucuses; but he controlled the society through his friends
and protégés. The transition of Tammany from an effusive, speech-
making society to an active political club was mainly through his
instrumentality. Mooney[2] was a mediocre man, delighting in
extravagant language and Indian ceremonials, and was merely a tool
in the hands of far abler men. “Burr was our chief,”[3] said Matthew
L. Davis, Burr’s friend and biographer, and several times Grand
Sachem of the society.
Davis’s influence on the early career of Tammany was second only
to that of Burr himself. He was reputed to be the originator of the
time-honored modes of manufacturing public opinion, carrying
primary meetings, obtaining the nomination of certain candidates,
carrying a ward, a city, a county or even a State. During one period
of his activity, it is related, meetings were held on different nights in
every ward in New York City. The most forcible and spirited
resolutions and addresses were passed and published. Not only the
city, but the entire country, was aroused. It was some time before
the secret was known—that at each of these meetings but three
persons were present, Davis and two friends.
Though Davis was credited with the authorship of these methods,
it is not so certain that he did not receive his lessons from Burr.
Besides Davis, Burr’s chief protégés, all of whom became persons of
importance in early New York, were Jacob Barker, John and Robert
Swartwout, John and William P. Van Ness; Benjamin Romaine, Isaac
Pierson, John P. Haff and Jacob Hayes.[4] When Burr was in disgrace
William P. Van Ness, at that time the patron of the law student
Martin Van Buren, wrote a long pamphlet defending him. At the time
of his duel with Hamilton these men supported him. They made
Tammany his machine; and it is clear that they were attached to him
sincerely, for long after his trial for treason, Tammany Hall, under
their influence, tried unsuccessfully to restore him to some degree of
political power. Burr controlled Tammany Hall from 1797 until even
after his fall. From then on to about 1835 his protégés either
controlled it or were its influential men. The phrase, “the old Burr
faction still active,” is met with as late as 1832, and the Burrites
were a considerable factor in politics for several years thereafter.
Nearly every one of the Burr leaders, as will be shown, was guilty of
some act of official or private peculation.
These were the men Burr used in changing the character of the
Tammany Society. The leader and his satellites were quite content to
have the Tammany rank and file parade in Indian garb and use
savage ceremonies; such forms gave the people an idea of pristine
simplicity which was a good enough cloak for election scheming.
Audacious to a degree and working through others, Burr was
exceedingly adroit. One of his most important moves was the
chartering of the Manhattan Bank. Without this institution Tammany
would have been quite ineffective. In those days banks had a
mightier influence over politics than is now thought. New York had
only one bank, and that one was violently Federalist. Its affairs were
administered always with a view to contributing to Federalist
success. The directors loaned money to their personal and party
friends with gross partiality and for questionable purposes. If a
merchant dared help the opposite party or offended the directors he
was taught to repent his independence by a rejection of his paper
when he most needed cash.
Burr needed this means of monopoly and favoritism to make his
political machine complete, as well as to amass funds. He, therefore,
had introduced into the Legislature (1799) a bill, apparently for the
purpose of diminishing the future possibility of yellow fever in New
York City, incorporating a company, styled the Manhattan Company,
to supply pure, wholesome water. Supposing the charter granted
nothing more than this, the legislators passed it. They were much
surprised later to hear that it contained a carefully worded clause
vesting the Manhattan Company with banking powers.[5] The
Manhattan Bank speedily adopted the prevailing partizan tactics.
 The campaign of 1800 was full of personal and party bitterness
and was contested hotly. To evade the election laws disqualifying the
poor, and working to the advantage of the Federalists, Tammany had
recourse to artifice. Poor Republicans, being unable individually to
meet the property qualification, clubbed together and bought
property. On the three election days[6] Hamilton made speeches at
the polls for the Federalists, and Burr directed political affairs for the
Republicans. Tammany used every influence, social and political, to
carry the city for Jefferson.
Assemblymen then were not elected by wards, but in bulk, the
Legislature in turn selecting the Presidential electors. The Republican
Assembly candidates in New York City were elected[7] by a majority
of one, the vote of a butcher, Thomas Winship, being the decisive
ballot. The Legislature selected Republican electors. This threw the
Presidential contest into the House of Representatives, insuring
Jefferson’s success. Though Burr was the choice of the Tammany
chiefs, Jefferson was a favored second. Tammany claimed to have
brought about the result; and the claim was generally allowed.[8]
The success of the Republicans in 1800 opened new possibilities
to the members of the Tammany Society. Jefferson richly rewarded
some of them with offices. In 1801 they advanced their sway further.
The society had declared that one of its objects was the repeal of
the odious election laws. For the present, however, it schemed to
circumvent them. The practise of the previous year of the collective
buying of property to meet the voting qualifications was continued.
Under the society’s encouragement, and with money probably
furnished by it, thirty-nine poor Republicans in November, 1801,
bought a house and lot of ground in the Fifth Ward. Their votes
turned the ward election. The thirty-nine were mainly penniless
students and mechanics; among them were such men as Daniel D.
Tompkins, future Governor of New York and Vice-President of the
United States; Richard Riker, coming Recorder of New York City;
William P. Van Ness, United States Judge to be, Teunis Wortman,
William A. Davis, Robert Swartwout and John L. Broome, all of
whom became men of power.
The result in the Fifth Ward, and in the Fourth Ward, where
seventy Tammany votes had been secured through the joint
purchase of a house and lot at 50 Dey street, gave the society a
majority in the Common Council.[9] The Federalist Aldermen decided
to throw out these votes, as being against the spirit of the law, and
to seat their own party candidates. The Republican Mayor, Edward
Livingston, who presided over the deliberations, maintained that he
had a right to vote.[10] His vote made a tie. The Tammany, or
Republican, men were arbitrarily seated, upon which, on December
14, 1801, eight Federalists seceded to prevent a quorum;[11] they
did not return until the following March.
The Tammany Society members, or as they were called until 1813
or 1814, the Martling Men (from their meeting place), soon had a far
more interesting task than fighting Federalists. This was the long,
bitter warfare, extending over twenty-six years, which they waged
against De Witt Clinton, one of the ablest politicians New York has
known, and remembered by a grateful posterity as the creator of the
Erie Canal.

FOOTNOTES
[1] Martling was several times elected a Sachem. Like most of
the Republican politicians of the day he had a habit of settling his
disputes in person. Taking offense, one day, at the remarks of
one John Richard Huggins, a hair-dresser, he called at Huggins’s
shop, 104 Broadway, and administered to him a sound thrashing
with a rope. When he grew old Tammany took care of him by
appointing him to an obscure office (Keeper of the City Hall).
[2] Mooney was a life-long admirer of Burr, but was ill-requited
in his friendship. At Mooney’s death, in 1831, a heap of unpaid
bills for goods charged to Burr was found.
 [3] American Citizen, July 18, 1809.
[4] Hayes, as High Constable of the city from 1800 to 1850,
was a character in old New York. He was so devoted to Burr that
he named his second son for him.
[5] Hammond, Vol. I, pp. 129-30.
[6] Until 1840 three days were required for elections in the city
and State. In the earlier period ballots were invariably written.
The first one-day election held in the city was that of April 14,
1840. For the rest of the State, however, the change from three-
day elections was not made until several years later.
[7] During the greater part of the first quarter of the century
members of the Legislature, Governor and certain other State
officers were elected in April, the Aldermen being elected in
November.
[8] Shortly after Jefferson’s inauguration Matthew L. Davis
called upon the President at Washington and talked in a boastful
spirit of the immense influence New York had exerted, telling
Jefferson that his elevation was brought about solely by the
power and management of the Tammany Society. Jefferson
listened. Then reaching out his hand and catching a large fly, he
requested Davis to note the remarkable disproportion in size
between one portion of the insect and its body. The hint was not
lost on Davis, who, though not knowing whether Jefferson
referred to New York or to him, ceased to talk on the subject.
[9] The Common Council from 1730 to 1830 consisted of
Aldermen and Assistant Aldermen, sitting as one board. The
terms “Board of Aldermen” and “Common Council” are used
interchangeably.
[10] Ms. Minutes of the Common Council, Vol. 13, pp. 351-52.
[11] Ibid., pp. 353-56.
 CHAPTER III
TAMMANY QUARRELS WITH DE WITT
CLINTON
1802-1809

T
he quarrel between Tammany and De Witt Clinton arose from
Clinton’s charge in 1802 that Burr was a traitor to the Republican
party and had conspired to defeat Jefferson. De Witt Clinton was a
nephew of George Clinton. When a very young man he was Scribe of
the Tammany Society. Owing to the influence of his powerful
relative, backed by his own ability, he had become a United States
Senator, at the promising age of thirty-three. His principal fault was
his unbridled temper, which led him to speak harshly of those who
displeased him. George Clinton thought himself, on account of his
age and long public service, entitled to the place and honors heaped
upon Burr, whom he despised as an unprincipled usurper. He was
too old, however, to carry on a contest, and De Witt Clinton
undertook to shatter the Burr faction for him. To oppose the
Tammany Society, which embraced in itself nearly all there was of
the Republican party in New York City, was no slight matter. But De
Witt Clinton, with the confidence that comes of steady, rapid
advancement, went about it aggressively. He had extraordinary
qualities of mind and heart which raised him far above the mere
politicians of his day.
Such of the elective offices as were allowed the city were filled by
the Tammany Republicans from 1800 to 1809. State Senators,
Assemblymen and Aldermen were elective, but the Mayor, Sheriff,
Recorder, Justices of the Peace of counties—in fact, nearly all civil
and military officers from the heads of departments and Judgeships
of the Supreme Court down to even auctioneers—were appointed by
a body at Albany known as the Council of Appointment, which was
one of the old constitutional devices for centralizing political power.
Four State Senators, chosen by the Assembly, comprised, with the
Governor, this Council. Gov. Clinton, as president of this board,
claimed the exclusive right of nomination, and effectually
concentrated in himself all the immense power it yielded. He had De
Witt Clinton transferred from the post of United States Senator to
that of Mayor of New York City in 1803, and filled offices in all the
counties with his relatives or partizans. The spoils system was in full
force, as exemplified by the Council’s sudden and frequent changes.
Though swaying New York City, Tammany could get only a few State
and city offices, the Clintons holding the power elsewhere
throughout the State and in the Council of Appointment. Hence in
fighting the Clintons, Tammany confronted a power much superior in
resources.
One of the first moves of the Clintons was to get control of the
Manhattan Bank. They caused John Swartwout, Burr’s associate
director, to be turned out. Some words ensued, and De Witt Clinton
styled Swartwout a liar, a scoundrel and a villain. Swartwout set
about resenting the insult in the gentlemanly mode of the day.
Clinton readily accepted a challenge, and five shots were fired, two
of which hit Swartwout, who, upon being asked whether he had had
enough said that he had not; but the duel was stopped by the
seconds.
While the Clintons were searching for a good pretext to overthrow
Burr, the latter injudiciously supplied it himself when in 1804 he
opposed the election of Morgan Lewis, his own party’s nominee for
Governor. Burr’s action gave rise to much acrimony; and from that
time he was ostracized by every part of the Republican party in New
York except the chiefs of the Tammany Society, or Martling Men. He
fell altogether into disgrace with the general public when he shot
Alexander Hamilton in a duel, July 11, 1804. Tammany, however, still
clung to him. Two of Tammany’s chiefs—Nathaniel Pendleton and
William P. Van Ness—accompanied Burr to the field; John
Swartwout, another chief, was at Burr’s house awaiting his return.
The Tammany men looked upon much of the excitement over
Hamilton’s death as manufactured. But as if to yield to public
opinion, the society on July 13 issued a notice to its members to join
in the procession to pay the “last tribute of respect to the manes of
Hamilton.”
In the inflamed state of public feeling which condemned
everything connected with Burr and caused his indictment in two
States, the Sachems knew it would be unwise for a time to make
any attempt to restore him to political power. They found their
opportunity in December, 1805, when, strangely enough, De Witt
Clinton, forced by the exigencies of politics, made overtures to form
a union with the Burrites in order to resist the powerful Livingston
family, which, with Gov. Morgan Lewis at its head, was threatening
the Clinton family. The Burrites thought they would get the better of
the bargain and be able to reinstate their chief.
The negotiators met secretly February 20, 1806, at Dyde’s Hotel.
John Swartwout and the other Tammany chiefs insisted as conditions
of the union that Burr should be recognized as a Republican; that his
friends should be well cared for in the distribution of offices, and
that “Burrism” should never be urged as an objection against them.
The Clintons, anxious to beat down the Livingstons, were ready to
agree to these terms, knowing that Burr’s prestige was utterly swept
away and that any effort of his followers to thrust him forward again
would be a failure. Clintonites and Burrites set to drinking hilariously
as a token of good will. But their joy was premature.
When the body of the Tammany men learned of the arrangement
they were aroused. The Sachems drew off, and the Tammany
Society continued to revile Clinton and to be reviled in return.
It was just before this that the Tammany Hall political
organization, as apparently distinct from the Tammany Society, was
created. In 1805 the society made application for, and obtained from
the Legislature, the charter, which still remains in force,
incorporating it as a benevolent and charitable body “for the purpose
of affording relief to the indigent and distressed members of said
association, their widows and orphans and others who may be
proper objects of their charity.”
The wording of the charter deluded only the simple. Everybody
knew that the society was the center around which the Republican
politics of the city revolved. It had its public and its secret aspects.
“This society,” says Longworth’s American Almanac, New York
Register and City Directory for 1807-1808, in a description of
Tammany, “has a constitution in two parts—public and private—the
public relates to all external or public matters; and the private, to
the arcana and all transactions which do not meet the public eye,
and on which its code of laws are founded.”
The Sachems knew that to continue appearing as a political club
would be most impolitic. Year after year since 1798 the criticisms
directed at the self-appointed task of providing candidates for the
popular suffrage grew louder. In 1806 these murmurings extended
to Tammany’s own voters. Honest Republicans began to voice their
suspicions of caucuses which never met and public meetings called
by nobody knew whom. The Sachems, though perfectly satisfied
with the established forms which gave them such direct authority,
wisely recognized the need of a change.
It was agreed that the Republicans should assemble in each ward
to choose a ward committee of three and that these ward
committees should constitute a general committee, which should
have the power of convening all public meetings of the party and of
making preparatory arrangements for approaching elections. This
was the origin of the Tammany Hall General Committee, which,
consisting then of thirty members, has been expanded in present
times to over five thousand members.
At about the same time each of the ten wards began sending
seven delegates to Martling’s, the seventy forming a nominating
committee, which alone had the right to nominate candidates. The
seventy met in open convention. At times each member would have
a candidate for the Assembly, to which the city then sent eleven
members. These improvements on the old method gave, naturally,
an air of real democracy to the proceedings of the Tammany faction
in the city and had the effect of softening public criticism. Yet behind
the scenes the former leaders contrived to bring things about pretty
much as they planned.
The action of the nominating committee was not final, however. It
was a strict rule that the committee’s nominations be submitted to
the wards and to a later meeting of all the Republican electors who
chose to attend and who would vote their approval or disapproval. If
a name were voted down, another candidate was substituted by the
meeting itself. This was called the “great popular meeting,” and its
design was supposed to vest fully in the Republican voters the
choice of the candidates for whom they were to vote. But in those
days, as has always been the case, most voters were so engrossed
in their ordinary occupations that they gave little more attention to
politics than to vote; and the leaders, except on special occasions,
found it easy to fill the great popular meeting, as well as other
meetings, with their friends and creatures, sending out runners, and
often in the winter, sleighs, for the dilatory. To the general and
nominating committees was added, several years later, a
correspondence committee, which was empowered to call meetings
of the party when necessary, the leaders having found the general
committee too slow and cumbersome a means through which to
reach that important end.
To hold public favor, the Tammany Society thought prudent to
make it appear that it was animated by patriotic motives instead of
the desire for offices. That the people might see how dearly above
all things Tammany prized its Revolutionary traditions, the society on
April 13, 1808, marched in rank to Wallabout, where it laid the
corner-stone of a vault in which were to be placed the bones of
11,500 patriots who had died on board the British prison ships. On
April 26, the vault being completed, the remains were laid in it. The
Tammany Society, headed by Benjamin Romaine and the military;
the municipal officials, Gov. Daniel D. Tompkins, members of
Congress, Army and Navy officers, and many other detachments of
men of lesser note participated in the ceremony.
 The Federalists maintained that Tammany’s patriotic show was
merely an election maneuver. Subsequent developments did not help
to disprove the charge. The society proclaimed far and wide its
intention of building a monument over the vault, and induced the
Legislature to make a grant of land worth $1,000 for the purpose.
Associations and individuals likewise contributed. The political
ceremonies connected with the burial having their expected effect,
Tammany forgot altogether about its project until ugly rumors,
pointing to the misuse of the money collected, forced the society in
1821 to petition the Legislature for further aid in erecting the
monument. On that occasion the Tammany Society was denounced
bitterly. It was brought out that such was Tammany’s interest in the
monument that no request was ever made for the land granted by
the Legislature in 1808. The Legislature, however, granted $1,000 in
cash.[1] This sum was not enough; and as Tammany did not swell
the amount, though its Sachems were rich with the spoils of office, a
resolution was introduced in the Assembly, March 4, 1826,[2] stating
that as the $1,000 appropriated February 27, 1821, had not been
used for the purpose but remained in the hands of Benjamin
Romaine, the society’s treasurer, it should be returned, and
threatening legal proceedings in case it was not. This resolution,
slightly amended, was passed on a close vote. There is, however, no
available record of what became of the $1,000.
During three years, culminating in 1809, a series of disclosures
regarding the corruption of Tammany officials astounded the city.
Rumors grew so persistent that the Common Council was forced by
public opinion to investigate. In the resultant revelations many
Tammany chiefs suffered.
Benjamin Romaine, variously Sachem and Grand Sachem, was
removed in 1806 from the office of City Controller for malfeasance,
though the Common Council was controlled by his own party.[3] As a
trustee of corporation property he had fraudulently obtained
valuable land in the heart of the city, without paying for it. The affair
caused a very considerable scandal. The Common Council had
repeatedly passed strong resolutions calling on him to explain.
Romaine must have settled in some fashion; for there is no evidence
that he was prosecuted.
On January 26, 1807, Philip I. Arcularius, Superintendent of the
Almshouse, and Cornelius Warner, Superintendent of Public Repairs,
were removed summarily.[4] It was shown that Warner had
defrauded the city as well as the men who worked under him.[5]
Jonas Humbert, Inspector of Bread and sometime Sachem, was
proved to have extorted a third of the fees collected by Flour
Inspector Jones, under the threat of having Jones put out of office.
In consequence of the facts becoming known, Humbert and his
associate Inspector, Christian Nestell, discreetly resigned their offices
—probably to avert official investigation.[6]
Abraham Stagg, another of the dynasty of Grand Sachems, as
Collector of Assessments failed, it was disclosed in 1808, to account
for about $1,000.[7] Two other Assessment Collectors, Samuel L.
Page (for a long time prominent in Tammany councils), and Simon
Ackerman, were likewise found to be embezzlers.[8] Stagg and Page
managed to make good their deficit by turning over to the city
certain property, but Ackerman disappeared.
John Bingham, at times Sachem, and a noted politician of the day,
managed, through his position as an Alderman, to wheedle the city
into selling to his brother-in-law land which later he influenced the
corporation to buy back at an exorbitant price. The Common Council,
spurred by public opinion, demanded its reconveyance.[9] Even
Bingham’s powerful friend, Matthew L. Davis, could not silence the
scandal, for Davis himself had to meet a charge that while defending
the Embargo at Martling’s he was caught smuggling out flour in
quantities that yielded him a desirable income.
But worse than these disclosures was that affecting the society’s
founder, William Mooney. The Common Council in 1808 appointed
him Superintendent of the Almshouse, at an annual recompense of
$1,000 and the support of his family in the place, provided that this
latter item should not amount to over $500. Mooney had a more
exalted idea of how he and his family ought to live. In the summer
of 1809 the city fathers appointed a committee to investigate. The
outcome was surprising. Mooney had spent nearly $4,000 on himself
and family in addition to his salary; he had taken from the city
supplies about $1,000 worth of articles, and moreover had expended
various sums for “trifles for Mrs. Mooney”—a term which survived for
many years in local politics. The ofttimes Grand Sachem of the
Tammany Society could not explain his indulgences satisfactorily, and
the Common Council relieved him of the cares of office, only one
Alderman voting for his retention.[10]
Most of these leaders were only momentarily incommoded, the
Tammany Society continuing many of them, for years after, in
positions of trust and influence. Mooney subsequently was
repeatedly chosen Grand Sachem and Father of the Council;
Romaine was elected Grand Sachem in 1808, again in 1813, and
frequently Sachem; Matthew L. Davis was elected Grand Sachem in
1814 and reelected in 1815[11] and was a Sachem for years later;
Abraham Stagg remained a leader and continued to get contracts for
street paving and regulating, and neither Jonas Humbert nor John
Bingham suffered a loss of influence with the Wigwam men.
Meanwhile the Sachems were professing the highest virtue. The
society’s calls for meetings ran like this:
“Tammany Society, or Columbian Order—Brothers,
You are requested to assemble around the council fire
in the Great Wigwam, No. 1, on Saturday, the 12th
inst., at 9 o’clock a. m. (wearing a bucktail in your hat),
to celebrate the anniversary of the Columbian Order
and recount to each other the deeds of our departed
chiefs and warriors in order that it may stimulate us to
imitate them in whatever is virtuous and just.”[12]
 The public, however, took another view of the matter. These
scandals, and the showing of a deficit in the city’s accounts of
$250,000, hurt Tammany’s prestige considerably. The Republican
strength in the city at the election of April, 1809, showed a decrease
of six hundred votes, the majority being only 116, while the
Federalists carried the State, and thus secured control of the Council
of Appointment.
The lesson was lost on the leaders. The society at this time was
led by various men, of whom Teunis Wortman[13] was considered
the chief power. Wortman was as enraged at the defection of these
few hundred voters as his successors were at a later day at an
adverse majority of tens of thousands. He caused a meeting to be
held at Martling’s on May 19, and secured the appointment of a
committee, with one member from each of the ten wards, instructed
to inquire into the causes contributing to lessen Tammany’s usual
majority. The committee was further instructed to call a general
meeting of the Republican citizens of the county, on the completion
of its investigation, and to report to them, that it might be known
who were their friends and who their enemies. Here is to be seen
the first manifestation of that systematic discipline which Tammany
Hall thereafter exercised. Wortman’s plan excited both Clintonites
and Federalists. The committee was called “the committee of spies,”
and was regarded generally as the beginning of a system of
intimidation and proscription.
In the passionate acrimony of the struggle between Tammany and
the Clintons, the Federalists seemed to be well-nigh forgotten. The
speakers and writers of each side assailed the other with great fury.
One of these was James Cheetham, a Clinton supporter and editor
of the American Citizen. Goaded by his strictures, the Tammany
Society on the night of February 28, 1809, expelled him from
membership on the grounds that he had assailed the general
Government and vilified Jefferson.
In the American Citizen of March 1, Cheetham replied that the
resolution was carried by trickery. “Tammany Society,” Cheetham
continued, “was chartered by the Legislature of the State for
charitable purposes. Not a member of the Legislature, when it was
chartered, imagined, I dare to say, that it would be thus perverted to
the worst purposes of faction.” On May 1 he sent this note to the
Grand Sachem:
“Sir, I decline membership in Tammany Society.
Originally national and Republican, it has degenerated
into a savage barbarity.”
Cheetham then wrote to Grand Sachem Cowdrey for a certified
copy of the proceedings, saying he wanted it to base an action
which he would bring for the annulment of the charter of the
Tammany Society for misuser. Cowdrey expressed regret at not
being able to accommodate him. “Tammany Society,” wrote
Cowdrey,
“is an institution that has done much good and may
and undoubtedly will do more.… I do not think one
error can or ought to cancel its long list of good
actions and wrest from it its charter of incorporation,
the basis of its stability and existence.”
The American Citizen thereupon bristled with fiercer attacks upon
Tammany. “Jacobin clubs,” says “A Disciple of Washington,” in this
newspaper, July 29, 1809,
“are becoming organized to overawe, not only the
electors but the elected under our government; such
are the Washington and the Tammany Societies. The
latter was originally instituted for harmless purposes
and long remained harmless in its acts; members from
all parties were admitted to it; but we have seen it
become a tremendous political machine.… The
Washington Jacobin Club, it is said, consists of at least
two thousand rank and file, and the Tammany Jacobins
to perhaps as many.… The time will come, and that
speedily, when the Legislature, the Governor and the
 Council of Appointment shall not dare to disobey their
edicts.”
Tammany retaliated upon Cheetham by having a bill passed by the
Legislature taking away from him the position of State Printer, which
paid $3,000 a year.
Tammany’s comparative weakness in the city, as shown in the
recent vote, prompted Clinton to suggest a compromise and union of
forces. Overtures were made by his agents, and on July 13, 1809,
twenty-eight of the leaders of the Clinton, Madison, Burr and Lewis
factions met in a private room at Coleman’s Fair House. Matthew L.
Davis told them the chiefs ought to unite; experience demonstrated
that if they did they would lead the rest—meaning the voters.
Tammany, he said, welcomed a union of the Republican forces so as
to prevent the election of a Federalist Council of Appointment. Davis
and Wortman proposed that they unite to prevent any removals from
office; that the two opposition Republican clubs in turn should be
destroyed and that their members should go back to the Tammany
Society, which, being on the decline, must be reenforced. Or, if it
should be thought advisable to put down the Tammany Society,
“considering its prevailing disrepute,” then a new society should be
organized in which Burrites, Lewisites, Clintonites and Madisonians
were to be admitted members under the general family and
brotherly name of Republican.
De Witt Clinton cautiously kept away from this meeting, allowing
his lieutenants to do the work of outwitting Tammany. A committee
of ten was appointed to consider whether a coalition of the chiefs
were practicable; whether, if it were, the people would agree to it;
whether the Whig (opposition Republican) clubs should be destroyed
and whether the Tammany Society should be reenforced.
The meeting came to naught. In this effort to win over the
Tammany chiefs, De Witt Clinton abandoned his protégé and
dependent, Cheetham, who had made himself obnoxious to them.
Finding Clinton’s political and financial support withdrawn,
Cheetham, out of revenge, published the proceedings of this secret
meeting in the American Citizen, and, awakening public indignation,
closed the bargaining. A few nights later a Tammany mob threw
brickbats in the windows of Cheetham’s house. By his death, on
September 19, 1810, Tammany was freed from one of its earliest
and most vindictive assailants.

FOOTNOTES
[1] Journal of the Assembly, 1821, p. 532, also p. 758.
[2] Ibid., 1826, p. 750.
[3] MS. Minutes of the Common Council, Vol. 16, pp. 239-40
and 405.
[4] MS. Minutes of the Common Council, Vol. 16, pp. 288-89.
[5] Ibid., p. 316.
[6] Ibid., p. 50.
[7] Ibid., Vol. 18, p. 194.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid., Vol. 20, pp. 355-56.
[10] Ibid., Vol. 20, p. 308. The full report on Mooney’s
administration appears in Ibid., pp. 376-92.
[11] Although the subsequent laws of the Tammany Society
forbade the successive reelection of a Grand Sachem, the
incumbent of the office was frequently permitted to “hold over.”
[12] Advertisement in the Columbian, May 14, 1810.
[13] Wortman had been a follower of Clinton and had been
generously aided by him. He suddenly shifted to Tammany, on
seeing better opportunities of advancement with that body.
 CHAPTER IV
SLOW RECOVERY FROM DISASTER
1809-1815

T
he Tammany men fared badly for a time. During 1809 the
Council of Appointment removed numbers of them from office.
In November the Federalists elected a majority of their Aldermanic
ticket, and in April, 1810, they elected their Assembly ticket by the
close majority of 36. Even when the Federalists were beaten the
following year, it brought no good to Tammany, for a Clintonite
Council of Appointment dispensed the offices. Clinton, though ousted
from the Mayoralty in 1810 to make room for the Federalist Jacob
Radcliff, was again made Mayor in the Spring of 1811.
But before long affairs took another turn. Tammany was the only
real Republican organization in the city. It stood for the national
party. As men were inclined to vote more for party success than for
particular local nominees, Tammany’s candidates were certain to be
swept in at some time on the strength of party adherence. While the
rank and file of the organization were concerned in seeing its
candidates successful only inasmuch as that meant the success of
democratic principles, the leaders intrigued constantly for spoils at
the expense of principles. But whatever their conduct might be, they
were sure of success when the next wave of Republican feeling
carried the party to victory.
De Witt Clinton’s following was largely personal. Drawing, it was
estimated, from $10,000 to $20,000 a year in salary and fees as
Mayor, he lived in high style and distributed bounty liberally among
his supporters. His income aroused the wonder of his
contemporaries. The President of the United States received $25,000
annually; the Mayor of Philadelphia, $2,000. “Posterity,” said one
observer, “will read with astonishment that a Mayor of New York
should make the enormous sum of $15,000 out of his office.” This
was no inconsequential salary at a time when a man worth $50,000
was thought rich; when a good house could be rented for $350 a
year, and $750 or $800 would meet the expenses of the average
family. Many of those whom Clinton helped picked a quarrel with him
later, in order to have a pretext for the repudiation of their debts,
and joined Tammany.
Tammany had the party machine, but Clinton had a powerful hold
on the lower classes, especially the Irish. As United States Senator
he had been foremost in having the naturalization period reduced
from fourteen to five years, and he made himself popular with them
in other ways. He, himself, was of Irish descent.
The Irish were bitter opponents of Tammany Hall. The prejudice
against allowing “adopted citizens” to mingle in politics was deep;
and Tammany claimed to be a thoroughly native body. As early as
May 12, 1791, at Campbell’s Tavern, Greenwich, the Tammany
Society had announced that being a national body, it consisted of
Americans born, who would fill all offices; though adopted
Americans were eligible to honorary posts, such as warriors and
hunters. An “adopted citizen” was looked upon as an “exotic.”
Religious feeling, too, was conspicuous. It was only after repeated
hostile demonstrations that Tammany would consent, in 1809, for
the first time to place a Catholic—Patrick McKay—upon its Assembly
ticket.
The accession of the Livingston family had helped the society,
adding the support of a considerable faction and “respectability.” The
Livingstons, intent on superseding the Clintons, seized on Tammany
as a good lever. Above all, it was necessary to have a full application
of “respectability,” and to further that end the society put up a
pretentious building—the recent Sun newspaper building. In 1802
the Tammany Society had tried by subscription to build a fine
Wigwam, but was unsuccessful. The unwisdom of staying in such a
place as Martling’s, which subjected them to gibes, and which was
described as “the Den where the Wolves and Bears and Panthers
assemble and drink down large potations of beer,” was impressed
upon the Sachems who, led by Jacob Barker, the largest shipbuilder
in the country at the time, raised the sum of $28,000. The new
Wigwam was opened in 1811, with the peculiar Indian ceremonies.
Sachem Abraham M. Valentine—the same man who, for
malfeasance, was afterward (May 26, 1830) removed from the office
of Police Magistrate[1]—was the grand marshal of the day.
From 1811 the Tammany, or Martling, men came under the
general term of the Tammany Hall party or Tammany Hall; the
general committee was called technically the Democratic-Republican
General Committee. The Tammany Society, with its eleven hundred
members, now more than ever appeared distinct from the Tammany
Hall political body. Though the general committee was supplied with
the use of rooms and the hall in the building, it met on different
nights from the society, and to all appearances acted independently
of it. But the society, in fact, was and continued to be, the secret
ruler of the political organization. Its Sachems were chosen yearly
from the most influential of the local Tammany political leaders.
De Witt Clinton aimed to be President of the United States and
schemed for his nomination by the Republican Legislative caucus.
Early in 1811 he sought and received from the caucus the
nomination for Lieutenant-Governor. He purposed to hold both the
offices of Mayor and Lieutenant-Governor, while spending as much
time as he could at Albany so as to bring his direct influence to bear
in person. As a State officer he could do this without loss of dignity.
He would have preferred the post of State Senator, but he feared if
he stood for election in New York City Tammany would defeat him.
The chiefs, regarding his nomination as treachery toward Madison,
immediately held a meeting and issued a notice that they ceased to
consider him a member of the Republican party; that he was not
only opposing Madison but was bent on establishing a pernicious
family aristocracy.
 When the Clinton men tried to hold a counter meeting at the
Union Hotel a few days later, the Tammany men rushed in and put
them to flight.[2] Tammany was so anxious to defeat Clinton that it
supported the Federalist candidate for Lieutenant-Governor,
defeating the aggressive Mayor. But Clinton obtained the caucus
nomination for President. His partizans voted the Federalist
Assembly ticket (1812) rather than aid the Republican ticket of
Tammany Hall. Assisted by the Federalists, Clinton received the
electoral vote of New York State, but was overwhelmed by Madison.
His course seemed precisely that with which Tammany had charged
him—treason to the party to which he professed to belong. In a
short time, the Wigwam succeeded in influencing nearly all the
Republicans in New York City against him.
One other event helped to bring back strength and prestige to
Tammany Hall. This was the War of 1812, which Tammany called for
and supported. On February 26, four months before war was
declared, the Tammany Society passed resolutions recommending
immediate war with Great Britain unless she should repeal her
“Orders in Council.” The members pledged themselves to support
the Government “in that just and necessary war” with their “lives,
fortunes and sacred honor.” The conservative element execrated
Tammany, but the supporters of the war came to look upon it more
favorably, and about a thousand persons, some of whom had been
members before but had ceased attendance, applied for
membership. Throughout the conflict Tammany Hall was the resort
of the war-party. At the news of each victory the flag was hoisted to
the breeze and a celebration followed. The successful military and
naval men were banqueted there, while hundreds of candles
illumined every window in the building. On August 31, 1814, 1150
members of the society marched to build defenses in Brooklyn; but
this was not done until public pressure forced it, for by August 15 at
least twenty other societies, civil and trades, had volunteered, and
Tammany had to make good its pretensions.
 The leaders prospered by Madison’s favor. From one contract
alone Matthew L. Davis reaped $80,000, and Nathan Sanford was
credited with making his office of United States District Attorney at
New York yield as high as $30,000 a year. The lesser political
workers were rewarded proportionately. Having a direct and
considerable interest in the success of Madison’s administration, they
were indefatigable partizans. Some of the Tammany leaders proved
their devotion to their country’s cause by doing service in the
Quartermaster’s Department. Among these were the two
Swartwouts (John and Robert), who became Generals, and Romaine,
who became a Colonel.
This war had the effect of causing the society to abandon its
custom of marching in Indian garb.[3] In 1813 the Indians in the
Northwest, incited by British agents, went on the war-path, torturing
and scalping, devastating settlements and killing defenseless men,
women and children. Their very name became repulsive to the
whites. The society seemed to be callous to this feeling, and began
preparations for its annual parades, in the usual Indian costumes,
with painted faces, wearing bearskins and carrying papooses. The
Federalists declared that these exhibitions, at all times ridiculous and
absurd, would be little short of criminal after the cruelties which
were being committed by the Tammany men of the wilderness.
These attacks affected the Tammany Society so much that a majority
of the members, consisting mainly of the politicians and young men,
held a secret meeting and abolished all imitations of the Indians, in
dress and manners as well as in name, and resolved that the officers
should thereafter bear plain English titles.
Mooney opposed the change.[4] He would not listen to having
those picturesque and native ceremonies, which he himself had
ordained, wiped out. He resigned as Grand Sachem, and many of
the Sachems went with him. On May 1, 1813, Benjamin Romaine
was elected Grand Sachem, and other “reformers” were chosen as
Sachems. On July 4 the Tammany Society marched with reduced
numbers in ordinary civilian garb. From that time the society
contented itself with civilian costume until 1825, when its parades
ceased.
The attitude of the political parties to the war had the effect of
making Tammany Hall the predominant force in the State, and of
disorganizing the Federalist party beyond hope of recovery.
Tammany began in 1813 to organize for the control of the State and
to put down for all time De Witt Clinton, whom it denounced as
having tried to paralyze the energies of Madison’s administration.
Meanwhile the Federalist leaders in the city, with a singular lack of
tact, were constantly offending the popular feeling with their political
doctrines and their haughty airs of superior citizenship. To such an
extent was this carried that at times they were mobbed, as on June
29, 1814, for celebrating the return of the Bourbons to the French
throne.
The organization of Tammany Hall, begun, as has been seen, by
the formation of the general, nominating and correspondence
committees, in 1806 and 1808, was now further elaborated. A
finance committee, whose duty it was to gather for the leaders a
suitable campaign fund, was created, and this was followed by the
creation of the Republican Young Men’s General Committee,[5] which
was a sort of auxiliary to the general committee, having limited
powers, and serving as a province for the ambitions of the young
men. The Democratic-Republican General Committee was supposed
to comprise only the trusted ward leaders, ripe with years and
experience. About the beginning of the War of 1812, it added to its
duties the issuing of long public addresses on political topics. These
general committees were made self-perpetuating. At the close of
every year they would issue a notice to the voters when and where
to meet for the election of their successors. No sooner did the
committee of one year step out than the newly elected committee
instantly took its place. There were also ward or vigilance
committees, which were expected to bring every Tammany-
Republican voter to the polls, to see that no Federalist intimidation
was attempted and to campaign for the party. The Tammany Hall
organization was in a superb state by the year 1814, and in active
operation ceaselessly. The Federalists, on the contrary, were scarcely
organized, and the Clintonites had declined to a mere faction.
The Tammany leaders, moreover, were shrewd and conciliating.
About forty Federalists—disgusted, they said, with their party’s
opposition to the war—joined the Tammany Society. They were led
by Gulian C. Verplanck, who severely assailed Clinton, much to the
Wigwam’s delight. Tammany Hall not only received them with
warmth, but advanced nearly all of them, such as Jacob Radcliff,
Richard Hadfelt, Richard Riker and Hugh Maxwell, to the first public
positions. This was about the beginning of that policy, never since
abandoned, by which Tammany Hall has frequently broken up
opposing parties or factions. The winning over of leaders from the
other side and conferring upon them rewards in the form of
profitable public office or contracts has been one of the most notable
methods of Tammany’s diplomacy.

FOOTNOTES
[1] MS. Minutes of the Common Council, Vol. 72, p. 137. Judge
Irving and an Aldermanic committee, after a searching
investigation, found Valentine guilty of receiving from prisoners
money for which he did not account to the city.
[2] Hammond, Vol. I, p. 294.
[3] R. S. Guernsey, New York City During the War of 1812.
[4] Mooney had now become opulent, being the owner of three
or four houses and lots.
[5] The moving spirit in this committee for some years was
Samuel L. Berrian, who had been indicted in August, 1811, for
instigating a riot in Trinity Church, convicted and fined $100.
 CHAPTER V
TAMMANY IN ABSOLUTE CONTROL.
1815-1817

B
y 1815 Tammany Hall obtained control of the State, and in 1816
completely regained that of the city. The Common Council and
its dependent offices since 1809 had been more or less under
Federalist rule, and from the beginning of the century the city had
had a succession of Clintonite office-holders in those posts controlled
by the Council of Appointment.
At the close of the War of 1812 the population of the city
approached 100,000, and there were 13,941 voters in all. The total
expenses of the municipality reached a little over a million dollars.
The city had but one public school, which was maintained by public
subscription. Water was supplied chiefly by the Manhattan Company,
by means of bored wooden logs laid underground from the reservoir
in Chambers street. No fire department was dreamed of, and every
blaze had the city at its mercy. The streets were uncleaned; only two
or three thoroughfares were fit for the passage of carriages, though
until 1834 the law required the inhabitants to clean the streets in
front of their houses. Many of those elaborate departments which
we now associate with political control were then either in an
embryo state or not thought of.
The Aldermen were not overburdened with public anxieties. No
salary was attached to the office, yet none the less, it was sought
industriously. In early days it was regarded as a post of honor and
filled as such, but with the beginning of the century it was made a
means of profit. The professional politician of the type of to-day was
rare. The Aldermen had business, as a rule, upon which they
depended and to which they attended in the day, holding sessions of
the board sporadically at night. The only exception to this routine
was when the Alderman performed some judicial office. Under the
law, as soon as an Alderman entered office he became a judge of
some of the most important courts, being obliged to preside with the
Mayor at the trial of criminals. This system entailed upon the
Aldermen the trial of offenses against laws many of which they
themselves made, and it had an increasingly pernicious influence
upon politics. Otherwise the sole legal perquisites and compensation
of the Aldermen consisted in their power and custom of making
appropriations, including those for elaborate public dinners for
themselves. It was commonly known that they awarded contracts for
city necessaries either to themselves or to their relatives.
The backward state of the city, its filthy and neglected condition
and the chaotic state of public improvements and expenditures,
excited little public discussion. The Common Councils were
composed of men of inferior mind. It is told of one of them that
hearing that the King of France had taken umbrage he ran home
post haste to get his atlas and find out the location of that particular
spot. In the exclusive charge of such a body New York City would
have struggled along but slowly had it not been for the courage and
genius of the man who at one stroke started it on a dazzling career
of prosperity. This was De Witt Clinton.
No sooner did a Republican Council of Appointment step into
office, early in 1815, than Tammany Hall pressed for the removal of
Clinton as Mayor and announced that John Ferguson, the Grand
Sachem of the Society, would have to be appointed in his place.[1]
The Council, at the head of which was Gov. Tompkins, wavered and
delayed, Tompkins not caring to offend the friends of Clinton by the
latter’s summary removal. At this the entire Tammany
representation, which had gone to Albany for the purpose, grew
furious and threatened that not only would they nominate no ticket
the next Spring, but would see that none of their friends should
accept office under the Council, did it fail to remove Clinton. This
action implied the turning out of the Council of Appointment at the