(1917) History of Tammany Hall

THE HISTORY OF TAMMANY HALL
THE HISTORY OF
TAMMANY HALL
BY
GUSTAVUS MYERS
Author of "A History of Public Franchises
in New York City," etc., etc.
SECOND EDITION
REVISED AND ENLARGED
NEW YORK
BONI & LIVERIGHT, INC.
f~ 3
1917
{ l(
COPYRIGHT, 1917,
Br BONI & LIVERIGHT. INC.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION (1901)
In most men's minds a certain spell of wonder attaches

to the career and character of the Tammany Society and
Tammany Hall. The long continuance of this dual
power; its control of the city, infrequently interrupted,
throughout the century; the nature of its principles, the
method of its practices and the character of its personnel
all these combine to furnish a spectacle which exerts
over the general mind a peculiar and strong fascination.
It was under the sway of this mood that I began the
investigation which has resulted in this volume. I had no
thought, on beginning, to carry the work so far : I sought
merely to satisfy my curiosity regarding the more impor-
tant particulars of Tammany's history. But I soon
learned that what I sought was not easily to be obtained,
The few narratives already published were generally
found to be either extravagant panegyrics, printed under
the patronage of the Tammany Society, or else partisan
attacks, violent in style and untruthful in statement.
Usually both were characterized by their paucity of real
information no less than by the number of their palpable
errors of fact.
Turning from these, I determined to find the facts for
myself. My search led me first through the files of all
the available newspapers from 1789 to the present time,
and thence for origins and contributory causes
through publications as far back as 1783 thence through
;
State and city histories, and a great number of biogra-

phies, sketches, essays, political pamphlets and broad-
sides. The fragmentary matter gleaned from these
sources was found to be extremely valuable in helping to
form the continuous thread of a narrative, and in deter-
vi PREFACE
mining contemporary spirit; but the statements and
conclusions, particularly with regard to the character
and conduct of public men, were generally contradictory
and inconclusive. Realizing this, I began the last phase
of my search a task that has led me through number-
less dreary pages of the Minutes and Documents of the
Common Council (which for the years previous to 1831
exist only in manuscript), Journals and Documents of the
Senate and Assembly, including the reports of various
legislative committees Congressional and Executive Rec-
;
ords, Treasury Reports, Records of the Police, Common

Pleas, Superior and Supreme Courts ; Minutes of the Oyer
and Terminer; Grand Jury Presentments, and Records
of the Board of Supervisors. Finally, I have had the
good fortune, in developing the story of the middle and
later periods, of having secured many valuable interviews
with a number of men who actively participated in the stir-
ring events of thirty, forty and even fifty years ago.
The purpose to write a book became fixed as my search
progressed. The work is finished, and the result is now
to be given to the public. What I have sought to pro-
duce is a narrative history plain, compact and impar-
tial. I have sought to avoid an indulgence, on the one
hand, in political speculation, and on the other, in moral-
izing platitudes. Such deductions and generalizations as
from time to time I have made, seem to me necessary in
elucidating the narrative; without them the story would
prove to the reader a mere chronology of unrelated facts.
If my narrative furnishes a sad story for the leaders
and chieftains of the Tammany Society and the Tam-
many Hall political organization, the fault is not mine,
but that of a multitude of incontestible public records.
It was in no partizan spirit that I began the work, and
in none that I now conclude it. I have always been an
independent in politics; and I have even voted, when

there seemed to me ample reason for doing so, a Tammany
ticket. I have tried to set down nothing in malice, nor
PREFACE vii
with such exceptions as are obviously necessary with -re-

gard to living men, to extenuate anything whatever.
Those who may be tempted to consider my work partial
and partizan, on account of the showing that it makes of
Tammany corruption and inefficiency, will do well to read
carefully the pages relating to the Whigs and to some
other opponents of Tammany Hall.
The records show that a succession of prominent Tam-

many leaders were involved in some theft or swindle,
public or private. These peculations or frauds ranged, in
point of time, from 1799 and 18056 to the later decades;
in the matter of persons, from the founder of the Tam-
"
many Society to some of the subsequent bosses," and
in gradation of amount, from the petty thousands taken
by Mooney, Stagg and Page, in the first decade of the
century, to the $1,220,000 taken by Swartwout in 1830-
38, and the undetermined millions taken by Wood and
Tweed in the fifties, sixties and first two years of the
seventies. From nearly the beginning of its active politi-
cal career, Tammany leaders, with generally brief inter
ruptions, thus continued to abstract money from the city,
the State and the nation the interruptions to the
practice generally coinciding with the periods when Tam-
many in those years was deprived of political power.
My search has shown me the absurdity of the pretense
that any vital distinction exists between the Tammany
Society and the Tammany Hall political organization.
Tammany members industriously propagate this pre-
tense, but it has neither a historic nor an actual basis.
From 1805, the date of the apparent separation of the
organization from the society, the Sachems of the latter
have ruled the policies of the former. Repeatedly, as in
1828, 1838, 1853, and 1857, they have determined the
" "
regularity of contending factions in the organization,
and have shut the hall to members of the faction against
which they have decided. The Sachems have at all times
viii PREFACE
been the leaders in the political body, and the control of
the society in every year that Tammany has held control
of the city, has determined the division of plunder for the
ensuing year. The Tammany Society and the Tammany
political organization constitute a dual power but, un-
like Ormuzd and Ahrimanes, a duality working by identi-
cal means for an identical end.
The records show that Tammany was thus, from the
beginning, an evil force in politics. Its characteristics
were formed by its first great leader, Aaron Burr, and his
chief lieutenant, Matthew L. Davis; and whatever is dis-
tinctive of Tammany methods and policies in 1900 is, for
the most part, but the development of features initiated
by these two men one hundred years ago. It is curious
to recall, on looking back to the time when my researches
began, the abundant evidences of misapprehension regard-
" No
ing Tammany's earlier history. especial discredit
attached to Tammany Hall before Tweed's time," wrote,
in effect, Mr. E. L. Godkin in an essay published a few
years ago. State Senator Fassett, in 1890, made a sim-

ilar statement in his report on the investigation of condi-
tions in New York City. "
Down to the time," he says,
" that the '
Tammany ring,' under the leadership of
William M. Tweed, took possession of the government of
New York City . . the office [of Alderman] was held
.
in credit and esteem." The exact reverse of both state-

ments true; and abundant proof of my contention, I
is
believe, will befound in the pages of this book. Another

instance may be given though the opinion expressed, in-
stead of being founded upon misapprehension, may char-
" I
itably be set down as one of mis judgment. was a
Sachem of Tammany," said a one-time noted politician
recently, before the Society for the Reformation of Ju-
" in the
venile Delinquents, days when it was an honor to
be a Sachem" The precise time he did not specify ; and
it would be difficult to identify it from the
description he
has given. Certainly, since 1805, the office of Sachem
PREFACE ix
has been one ill calculated, of itself, to bring particular
honor to the incumbent.

It would be dishonest to pretend for a moment that
Tammany has been alone in its evil-doing; it has been
simply the most ingenious and the most pretentious; and
its practices have a historic continuity and persistence
not shared by any of its rivals. The Whigs, for in-
stance, sought in every possible way to outdo Tammany
in election frauds; they stuffed ballot boxes, colonized
voters, employed rowdies and thugs at the polls and dis-
tributed thousands of deceptive ballots for the use of their
opponents. In fiscal frauds, likewise, they left a rec-
ord well-nigh equaling that of Tammany. The Native
Americans imitated both Whigs and Tammany men, and
the Republicans have given instances at Albany of a
wholesale venality unapproached in the history of legis-
lative bodies. Among the few exceptions, during the
earlier half of the century, to the general prostitution of
civic ideals, was the career of the Workingmen's party
(1829-31) and of its successor, the Equal Rights party
(1834-38). The principles of both these parties were
far in advance of their time and though the effect tended
;
somewhat to the temporary heightening of political stand-

ards, a reaction followed, which again brought in a long
period of fraud and corruption.
But shameful as this record is, it is one which, viewed in
the light of present practises and present ideals, gives the
basis for a robust faith in the future. The hiding of vice
and the employment of indirect methods in cheating and
plundering, are themselves an evidence of the existence of
moral standards and it is unquestionable that Tammany
;
to-day outwardly conforms to ethical demands which

would have been scoffed at a half century ago. No one
can read the details of political history without acknowl-
edging a growing betterment in political methods.
"
Hardly a man [before the Civil War] could be found,"
says Jesse Macy in his recent History of Political Parties
x PREFACE
" who felt himself too virtuous to
in the United States,
go into politics. The sensitively moral were not repelled
by politicalmethods which to-day are regarded as dis-
And
further along he says
" It is
graceful." :
easy to
forget that, from the very nature of moral progress, it
often happens that intelligent moral leaders of one gener-
ation will in all good conscience say and do things which
only the conscious hypocrite or the knave of a later gener-
ation can do." Pessimism as to political progress secures
no support from real research.
It may be asked, and with some show of reason, how
ithas been possible for New York City to achieve its pres-
ent rank in population, in wealth, in commerce and in
transportation facilities how it has acquired its splendid
;
libraries, its magnificent buildings, its museums, its parks,

its benevolent institutions, in the face of this continued
dominancy of corruption, violence and fraud. The an-

swer is simple: the city has grown despite these adverse
influences. The harbor of New York is one factor; the
Erie Canal (constructed notwithstanding the opposition
of the dominant political party of the city) is another;
the tremendous growth of the nation, and the thousand
external influences that determined the location of the
nation's metropolis, are yet other factors. The city has
grown to magnificence and world-wide influence but it has
;
paid dear tribute for every forward step it has taken.

Imagination fails at picturing the metropolis that might
have been, could the city throughout the century have
been guided and controlled in the light of present-day civic
ideals.
The difficulties of securing the publication of this work

by any of the regular publishing houses proved insur-
mountable. Two of the best known firms wrote that they
could not encourage me to submit the manuscript to them
for consideration. Four others considered its publication
"
inadvisable," though their readers had returned favor-
PREFACE xi
able recommendations. One other declined it without

giving reasons. More recently, when the offer of certain
responsible persons who had read the manuscript, to guar-
antee the expense of its publication, was made to a certain
house, the firm replied "... we should hardly feel war-
:
ranted in locking horns with Tammany Hall . . ." It

was thought that perhaps an out-of-town house might
issue it, but here again declinations were forthcoming.
Finally it was decided to attempt its publication by pri-
vate subscription. To this end I solicited individual ad-
vances to a publication fund, from a number of the city's
public-spirited citizens. The appearance of the work at
this time is due to the kindly interests of these men.
Acknowledgments for the courtesies tendered me, and

for material aid rendered in the project of issuing the
work, are due to a number of persons: To the public-
spirited citizens of different political faiths, who, while
familiar with the scope of the work, contributed the funds
for its publication without insisting upon a censorship of
the manuscript or its alteration in any way for political
purposes; and particularly to Mr. James B. Reynolds,
Mr. James W. Pryor and Milo R. Maltbie, Ph. D.
GUSTAVUS MYEES.
New York City, January, 1901.
FOREWORD TO THE NEW EDITION (1917)
Since the original publication of this work, a large num-

ber of inquiries have appeared in the Publisher's Weekly
and have come from other quarters requesting information
as to where copies of The History of Tammany Hall could
be obtained. For the last ten years this work has been in
continuous demand but unavailable. For reasons fully
set forth in the preface to that issue, the edition of 1901
was brought out in the face of difficulties. Not the least
of these was the self-expressed dread of certain publishing
houses to bring out a work which (as some of them
frankly admitted in their letters of declination) might
bring reprisals to them in some unexplained form or other.
Hence to all intents and purposes, that edition was in
the nature of a restricted private edition. Denied the
usual and almost indispensable publication and distribu-
tion facilities by the publishing houses, the work neces-
sarily was subject to obvious disadvantages, and, so far as
circulation went, practically took rank as a suppressed
book not, it is true, suppressed by any particular
agency, but by the circumstances of the case.
In 1913 Mr. Edward Kellogg Baird, a public-spirited
attorney in New York City, kindly undertook, in behalf
of the author (who was absent in another country at the
time) to see whether some one of the publishing houses
would not bring out a new edition of The History of Tam-
many Hall, brought down to date. In his letters to these
publishers, Mr. Baird pointed out that there never had
been any lack of general interest in this work, and re-
ferred to the extremely large number of reviews in impor-
tant publications in many countries treating the book at
xiii
xiv FOREWORD
length and commending its purpose and scope. Mr.
Baird also called the attention of publishers to the fact
that the book was recognized as the only authority on the
subject; that it had been tested by time; that there had
never been a libel suit arising from any of the statements
made therein and that, therefore, there could be no valid
;
objection on the part of any publisher that publication of

further editions would lead to any legal trouble.
With such possible objections thus disposed of in ad-
vance, Mr. Baird confidently expected that he would find
at least one of the old-established publishers who would
not be deterred by such considerations as influenced them to
refuse publication in 1901. But the replies were virtually
repetitions of those received twelve years previously. One
of the first replies, dated February 24, 1913, from the
senior member of a New York publishing house, read as
follows :
" For the

very same reason that the author of The
History of Tammany Hall was unable to obtain a pub-
lisher for the original edition, leads us to decide unfavor-
ably so far as we are concerned. The policy of publish-

ing the book was the first question raised by one of my
partners, before he had a chance even to read the preface,
and we as a firm have decided that the objection is too
strong to permit us to bring the book out over our im-
print. I am sorry that we must be so cowardly, for the
book itself is worthy of reissue, and I personally should be
glad to see it published by my firm. . ."
.
At about the same time, the head of another prominent

and older New York publishing house a citizen, by the
way, who had served as foreman of a noted grand jury
exposing Tammany corruption wrote this reply :
" I have
given due consideration, with my partners, to
the suggestion you are so kind to submit to us in regard
to the publication of a new edition of The History of Tam-
many Hall brought down to date. ... I must report
that our judgment is adverse to the desirability of re-
FOREWORD xv
issuing such a book with the imprint of our house. I

should be individually interested in obtaining a copy for
my own library in case you may be able to secure for the
work a satisfactory arrangement with some other house."
An equally well-known New York publishing house sent
this declination
" We have
: looked over with interest
The History of Tammany Hall, which you were good
enough to submit to us, but are sorry to say that after a
careful examination we are unable to persuade ourselves
that we could successfully undertake its publication."
The head of still another old-established New York pub-
lishing house wrote, on March 4, 1913, a long apologetic
letter giving his reasons for not caring to undertake the
publication of the work, the principal of those reasons

being the plea that there was not sufficient prospect of
" to
gain compensate for some of the unpleasantness its
publishers would have to endure." Yet a year later a
magazine published by this identical house contained a
"
laudatory reference to Myers's excellent History of
Tammany Hall."
On April 10, 1913, Mr. Baird wrote to a prominent
Boston publishing house. " Before offering the book,"
Mr. Baird wrote in part, " I want to tell you frankly that
it has been turned down by other publishers, not because
of any lack of excellence or authenticity, but simply be-
cause, as several of the publishers have frankly acknowl-
*
edged, they are afraid of reprisals from Tammany Hall.'
" Your house has been suggested by a publisher as one
which is
probably not so timid as some others, and as you
are located out of town you are therefore not
subject to
local influences, and I write to ask if
you would be inter-
ested in having the publication submitted to you.
"
I might add that I have been
lecturing on this subject
at the City Club and other prominent clubs in the
city, and
the subject itself seemed to bring out record audiences
wherever the lecture was given, and it is because so
many
people have asked me where they can obtain copies of Mr.
xvi FOREWORD
Myers's book, that I am prompted to endeavor to have a
reprint of it."
The reply of the Boston publishing house was a curt
declination.
Subsequently the following letter was received by the
author from a prominent New York City attorney :
" I have been

endeavoring to purchase a copy of The
History of Tammany Hall published by you, but as yet
have been unable to find a copy in any of the book stores.
I shall appreciate it very much if you can tell me where
I can obtain a copy.
" You
may be interested to know that a few months
ago a number of booksellers were given instructions to
purchase and retire all outstanding copies of the book.
For whose account this order was given I do not know. I
am told by the booksellers that an advertisement for the
book resulted in their being able to purchase only a few
copies."
To the present publishers the author gives all due appre-
ciation for their unqualified recognition of the need of the
publication of this work.
GUSTAVUS MYEES.
March, 1917.
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION (1901) v
FOREWORD TO THE NEW EDITION (1917) . ... . . xiii
CHAPTER I
RESISTANCE TO ARISTOCRACY 1789-1798 . . . . 1
CHAPTER II
AARON BURR AT THE HELM 1798-1802 . . . . 11
CHAPTER III
TAMMANY QUARRELS WITH DE WITT CLINTON 1802-
1809 17
CHAPTER IV
SLOW RECOVERY FROM DISASTER 1809-1815 ... 29
CHAPTER V
/ TAMMANY IN ABSOLUTE CONTROL 1815-J817 . . 87
CHAPTER VI
CLINTON MAINTAINS His SUPREMACY 1817-1820 . 47
CHAPTER VII
THE SUFFRAGE CONTEST 1820-1822 ..... \
56
CHAPTER VIII
STRUGGLES OF THE PRESIDENTIAL FACTIONS 1822-1825 <?Q
xvii
xviii CONTENTS
CHAPTER IX
THE JACKSON ELEMENT VICTORIOUS 1825-1828 . . 69
CHAPTER X
/THE WORKINGMEN'S PARTY 1829-1830 .... 77
CHAPTER XI
TAMMANY AND THE BANK CONTEST 1831-1834 . . 85
CHAPTER XII
-> THE EQUAL RIGHTS PARTY 1834-1837 .... 94
CHAPTER XIII
TAMMANY "PURIFIED" 1837-1838 112
CHAPTER XIV
WHIG FAILURE RESTORES TAMMANY TO POWER 1838-
1840 . 117
CHAPTER XV
'
RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE "GANGS" 1840-1846 . 128
CHAPTER XVI
"
-" BARNBURNERS" AND HUNKERS" 1846-1850 . .140
CHAPTER XVII
DEFEAT AND VICTORY 1850-1852 150
CHAPTER XVIII
" " "
HARDSHELLS AND "SOFTSHELLS 1852-1853 . . 161
CHAPTER XIX
A CHAPTER OF DISCLOSURES 1853-1854 .... 167
CHAPTER XX
FERNANDO WOOD'S FIRST ADMINISTRATION 1854-1856 174
CONTENTS xix
CHAPTER XXI *AGE
WOOD'S SECOND ADMINISTRATION 1856-1859 . . 181
CHAPTER XXII
THE CIVIL WAR AND AFTER 1859-1867 .... 194
CHAPTER XXIII
"
I
THE TWEED RING" 1867-1870 211
CHAPTER XXIV
v TWEED IN His GLORY 1870-1871 225
CHAPTER XXV
COLLAPSE AND DISPERSION OF THE
"
RING " 1871-1872 237
CHAPTER XXVI
TAMMANY RISES FROM THE ASHES 1872-1874 . . 250
CHAPTER XXVII
THE DICTATORSHIP OF JOHN KELLY 1874-1886 . 258
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE DICTATORSHIP OF RICHARD CROKER 1886-1897 . 267
CHAPTER XXIX
THE DICTATORSHIP OF RICHARD CROKER
"
(Concluded)
1897-1901 . . . 284
CHAPTER XXX
TAMMANY UNDER ABSENTEE DIRECTION 1901-1902 . 290
CHAPTER XXXI
CHARLES F. MURPHY'S AUTOCRACY 1902-1903 . . 299
CHAPTER XXXII
" "
THE SWAY OF BRIBERY AND HONEST GRAFT 1903-
1905 . 307
xx CONTENTS
CHAPTER XXXIII *AGE
TAMMANY'S CONTROL UNDER LEADER MURPHY 1906-

1909 324
CHAPTER XXXIV
ANOTHER ERA OF LEGISLATIVE CORRUPTION 1909-1911 342
CHAPTER XXXV
" "
CHIEF MURPHY'S LEADERSHIP FURTHER DETAILS
1912-1913 356
CHAPTER XXXVI
GOVERNOR SULZER'S IMPEACHMENT AND TAMMANY'S DE-
FEAT 1913-1914 375
CHAPTER XXXVII
TAMMANY'S PRESENT STATUS 1914-1917 . . . . 392
HISTORY OF TAMMANY
HALL
CHAPTER I
BESISTANXJE TO AEISTOCRACY
1789-1798
Society of St. Tammany, or Columbian Order,

was founded on May 12, 1789, a fortnight later
THE than the establishment of the National Government,
" His
object," says Judah Ham-
1
by William Mooney.
2
member "
mond, an early of Tammany, was to fill the coun-
try with institutions designed, and men determined, to pre-
serve the just balance of power. His purpose was patri-
otic and purely republican. The constitution provided by
his care contained, among other things, a solemn assevera-
tion, which every member at his initiation was required to
repeat and subscribe to, that he would sustain the State
institutions and resist a consolidation of power in the gen-
eral Government."
Before the Revolution, societies variously known as the
" Sons of " and the " Sons of St. "
Liberty Tammany had
been formed to aid the cause of independence. Tammany,
1
Mooney was an ex-soldier, who at this time kept a small up-
holstery shop at 23 Nassau street. He was charged with having de-
serted 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.
1
3 HISTORY OF TAMMANY HALL
or Tamanend, was an Indian chief, of whom fanciful
legends have been woven, but of whose real life little can
be told. Some maintain that he lived in the neighborhood
of Scranton, Pa., when William Penn arrived, and that he
was present at the great council under the elm tree. His
name is said to have been on Penn's first treaty with
the Indians, April 23, 1683. He is also described as a
great chief of the Delaware nation, and his wigwam is
said to have stood on the grounds now occupied by Prince-
ton University. The fame of his wisdom, benevolence and
love of liberty spreading to the colonists, they adopted
his name for their patriotic lodges. When societies
sprang up bearing the names of St. George, St. Andrew
or St. David and proclaiming their fealty to King George,
the Separatists dubbed Tammany a saint in ridicule of the
"
imported saints. The Revolution over, the Sons of Lib-
" and the " Sons of "
erty St. Tammany dissolved.
The controversy over the adoption of the Federal con-
stitutionhad the effect of re-uniting the patriotic lodges.
The and influential classes favored Hamilton's design
rich
of a republic having a President and a Senate chosen for
life, and State governments elected by Congress. Op-
posed to this attempt toward a highly centralized govern-
ment were the forces which afterward organized the Anti-
Federalist party. Their leader in New York was Gov-
ernor George Clinton. The greater number of the old
members of the Liberty and Tammany societies, now fa-
known as " Liberty boys," belonged to this oppo-
miliarly
sition.
During this agitation Hamilton managed to strengthen

his party, by causing to be removed, in 1787, the political
disabilities bearing upon the Tories. New York was
noted for its Tories, more numerous in proportion than
in any other colony, since here, under the Crown, offices
were dispensed more liberally than ,elsewhere. In the
heat of the Revolutionary War and the times immediately
following it, popular indignation struck at them in severe
1789 1798 3
laws. all places held by the patriot army a Tory

In
refusing to renounce his allegiance to King George ran
considerable danger not only of mob visit, but of confisca-
tion of property, exile, imprisonment, or, in flagrant
cases of adherence to the enemy, death. From 1783 to
" " of the
1787 the Liberty boys Revolution, who formed
the bulk of the middle and working
classes, governed
New York City politics. In freeing the Tories from op-
pressive laws, and opening political life to them,
Hamilton
at once secured the support of a propertied class (for
many of them had succeeded in retaining their estates)
numerous enough to form a balance of power and to en-
" Lib-
able him to wrest the control of the city from the
erty boys."
The elevation to office of many of the hated, aristo-
cratic supporters of Great Britain inflamed the minds of
the " Liberty boys
" and their
followers, and made the
chasm between the classes, already wide, yet wider. The
bitterest feeling cropped out. Hamilton, put upon the
defensive, took pains in his addresses to assure the people
of the baselessness of the accusation that he aimed to
keep the rich families in power. That result, however,
had been partially assured by the State constitution of
1777. Gaging sound citizenship by the ownership of
property, the draughtsmen of that instrument allowed
only actual residents having freeholds to the value of
100, free of all debts, to vote for Governor, Lieutenant-
Governor and State Senators, while a vote for the hum-
bler office of Assemblyman was given only to those having
freeholds of 20 in the county or paying forty shillings
rent yearly. Poor soldiers who had nobly sustained the
Revolutionary cause were justly embittered at being dis-
qualified by reason of their poverty, while full political
power was given to the property-owning Tories.
" The
inequality," wrote one who lived in those days,
"was greatly added to by the social and business customs of the
times. . . . There was an aristocracy and a democracy whose limits
were as clearly marked by manner and dress as by legal enactment.
. The aristocracy controlled capital in trade, monopolized banks
. .
and banking privileges, which they did not hesitate to employ as a

means of perpetuating their power."
Dr. John W. Francis tells, in his Reminiscences, of

the prevalence in New York for years after the Revolu-
tion of a supercilious class that missed no opportunity of
sneering at the demand for political equality made by
the leather-breeched mechanic with his few shillings a
day.
Permeated with democratic doctrines, the populace de-
tested the landed class. The founding of the Society of
the Cincinnati was an additional irritant. Formed by
the officers of the Continental army before disbandment,
this society adopted one clause especially obnoxious to the
radicals. It provided that the eldest male descendant of
an original member should be entitled to wear the insignia
of the order and enjoy the privileges of the society, which,
it was argued, would be best perpetuated in that way.
Jefferson saw a danger to the liberties of the people in

this provision, since it would tend to give rise to a race
of hereditary nobles, founded on the military, and breed-
ing in turn other subordinate orders. At Washington's
suggestion the clause was modified, but an ugly feeling
rankled in the public mind, due to the existence of an
active party supposedly bent on the establishment of a
disguised form of monarchy.
It was at such a juncture of movements and tendencies
that the Society of St. Tammany or Columbian Order was
formed. The new organization constituted a formal pro-
test against aristocratic influences, and stood for the
widest democratization in political life.
As a contrast to the old-world distinctions of the Cin-
cinnati and other societies, the Tammany Society adopted
aboriginal forms and usages. The officers held Indian
titles. The head, or president, chosen from thirteen
Sachems, corresponding to trustees, elected annually, was
1789 1798 5
styled Grand Sachem. In its early years the society had

a custom, now obsolete, of conferring the honorary office
of Kitchi Okemaw, or Great Grand Sachem, upon the
President of the United States. Washington, John Ad-
ams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, John Quincy Adams
and Jackson were hailed successively as the Great Grand
Sachems of Tammany. After the Sachems came the Sag-
amore, or Master of Ceremonies, a Scribe, or secretary,
and a Wiskinskie, 3 or doorkeeper. Instead of using the
ordinary calendar designations, the society divided the
year into seasons and these into moons. Its notices bore
reckoning from the year Columbus discovered America,
that of the Declaration of American Independence and of
its own organization. Instead of inscribing " New York,
:
"
July, 1800," there would appear Manhattan, Season
:
of Fruits, Seventh Moon, Year of Discovery three hun-

dred and eighth; of -Independence twenty-fourth, and of
the Institution the twelfth." In early times the society
was divided into tribes, one for each of the thirteen orig-
inal States ; there were the Eagle, Otter, Panther, Beaver,
Bear, Tortoise, Rattlesnake, Tiger, Fox, Deer, Buffalo,
Raccoon and Wolf tribes, which stood respectively for
New York, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island,
Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Mary-
land, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Geor-
gia. A new member of the Tammany Society had the
choice of saying to which of these tribes he cared to be
attached. Frequently the members dressed in Indian
garb and carried papooses in their public parades. They
introduced the distinction between " long talks " and
" short talks " in their
public addresses. The name
" " was
Wigwam given to their meeting-place, and Bar-
den's Tavern was selected as their first home.
At the initiation of the Grand Sachem a song begin-
"
ning, Brothers, Our Council Fire Shines Bright, et-
a So
spelled in all the earlier records. Later, the * in the penulti-
mate syllable came to be dropped.
hoh " was sung, and at the initiation
! of a member an-
other song was sung, beginning :
"Sacred's the ground where Freedom's found,

And Virtue stamps her Name."
The society contemplated founding a chain of Tam-

many societies over the country, and accordingly desig-
nated itself as Society, No. 1.
Tammany A number
sprang into but only a few
life, those in Philadelphia,
Providence, Brooklyn and Lexington, Ky., continued for
any time, and even these disappeared about the year 1818
or a few years later.
The society showed its Indian ceremonies to advantage
and gained much prestige by aiding in the conciliation of
the Creek Indians. After useless attempts to make a
treaty with them, the Government undertook, as a last
resort, in February, 1790, to influence Alexander McGilli-
vray, their half-breed chief, to visit New York, where he
might be induced to sign a treaty. To Col. Marinus Wil-
lett, a brave soldier of the Revolution, and later Mayor of
New York City, the mission was intrusted. In July,
1790, Willett started North accompanied by McGillivray
and twenty-eight Creek chiefs and warriors. Upon their
arrival in New York, then the seat of the National Gov-
ernment, the members of the Tammany Society, in full In-
dian costume, welcomed them. One phase of the tale has
it that the Creeks set up a wild whoop, at whose terrifying
sound the Tammany make-believe red-faces fled in dismay.

Another version tells that the Tammany Society and the
military escorted the Indians to Secretary Knox's house,
introduced them to Washington and then led them to the
Wigwam at Barden's Tavern, where seductive drink was
served. On August 2 the Creeks were entertained at a
Tammany banquet. A
treaty was signed on August 13.
In June of the same year Tammany had established, in
the old City Hall, a museum " for the preservation of
Indian relics." For a brief while the society devoted
1789 1798 7
itselfwith assiduity to this department, but the practical

men grew tired of it. On June 25, 1795, the museum was
given over to Gardiner Baker, its curator, on condition
that it was to be known for all time as the Tammany Mu-
seum and that each member of the society and his family
were to have entrance free. Baker dying, the museum
eventually passed into the hands of a professional mu-
seum-owner.
Tammany's chief functions at first seem to have been
the celebration of its anniversary day, May 12 the ;
Fourth of July and Evacuation Day. The society's pa-

rades were events in old New York. On May 12, 1789,
the day of organization, two marquees were built two miles
above the city, whither the Tammany brethren went to
hold their banquet. Thirteen discharges of cannon fol-
lowed each toast. The first one read "
May Honor,
:
Virtue and Patriotism ever be the distinguishing charac-

teristics of the sons of St. Tammany." John Pintard,4
5
Tammany's first Sagamore, wrote an account of the
" The day," he
society's celebration of May 12, 1791.
says,
**
was ushered in by a Federal salute from the battery and wel-
comed by a discharge of 13 guns from the brig Grand Sachem,
lying in the stream. The society assembled at the great Wigwam,
in Broad street, five hours after the rising of the sun, and was
conducted from there in an elegant procession to the brick meet-
ing house in Beekman street. Before them was borne the cap of
liberty; after following seven hunters in Tammanial dress, then
the great standard of the society, in the rear of which was the
Grand Sachem and other officers. On either side of these were
formed the members in tribes, each headed by its standard bearers
and Sachem in full dress. At the brick meeting house an oration
was delivered by their brother, Josiah Ogden Hoffman, to the so-
ciety and to a most respectable and crowded audience. In the
most brilliant and pathetic language he traced the origin of the
Columbian Order and the Society of the Cincinnati. From the meet-
ing house the procession proceeded (as before) to Campbell's
* 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.
American Daily Register, May 16, 1791.
grounds, where upwards of two hundred people partook of a hand-
some and plentiful repast. The dinner was honored by his Ex-
cellency [George Clinton]
'
and many of the most respectable citi-
zens."
The toasts, that now seem so quaint, mirror the spirit

of the diners. "The Grand Sachem of the Thirteen
United Fires," ran the first, " may his declining sun be
precious in the sight of the Great Spirit that the mild
luster of his departing beams may prove no less glorious
than the effulgence of the rising or transcendent splendor
of his meridian greatness." The second " The head men
:
and chiefs of the Grand Council of the Thirteen United

Fires may they convince our foes not only of their
courage to lift, prudence to direct and clemency to with-
hold the hatchet, but of their power to inflict it in their
country's cause."
Up to 1835, at least, toasts were an important feature
in public dinners, as they were supposed to disclose the
sentiments, political or otherwise, of the person or body
from whom they came. In this fashion the Tammany
Society announced its instant sympathy with the French
Revolution in all its stages. On May 12, 1793, the sixth
" Success to the Armies of
toast read: France, and Wis-
" The
dom, Concord and Firmness to the Convention."
8
first sentence was hardly articulated," a newspaper re-
" when as one the whole
cords, company arose and gave
three cheers, continued by roars of applause for several
minutes ; the toast was then given in whole and the ap-
plauses re-iterated."
At ten o'clock that morning, the same account relates,
" the
society had assembled at Tammanial Hall, in Broad
street,and marched to St. Paul's Church, where Brother
Cadwallader D. Golden delivered to a crowded and bril-
liant audience an animated talk on the excellence of the
Government and situation of the United States when con-
trasted with those of despotic countries." In the proces-
*New York Journal and Patriotic Register, May 15, 1793.
1789 1798 9
sion were about 400 members in civilian dress. From

each hat flowed a bucktail the symbol of Liberty
and the standard and cap of Liberty were carried in
" the Tammanials
front of the line. From the church
went to their Hall, where some 150 of them partook of an
elegant dinner."
Public feeling ran high in discussing the French Revo-
lution, and there were many personal collisions. The
Tammany Society was in the vanguard of the American
sympathizers and bore the brunt of abuse. The pam-
phlets and newspapers were filled with anonymous threats
from both sides. " An Oneida Chief " writes in the New
York Journal and Patriotic Register, June 8, 1793:
"A Hint to the Whigs of New York: To hear our Brethren of
France villified (with all that low Scurrility of which their enemies
the English are so well stocked) in our streets and on the wharves;
nay, in our new and elegant Coffee House ; but more particularly in
that den of ingrates, called Belvidere Club House, where at this
very moment those enemies to liberty are swallowing potent
draughts to the destruction and annihilation of Liberty, Equality
and the Rights of Man, is not to be borne by freemen and I am
fully of opinion that if some method is not adopted to suppress
such daring and presumptuous insults, a band of determined Mo-
hawks, Oneidas and Senekas will take upon themselves that neces-
sary duty."
There is no record of the carrying out of this threat.

Despite original composition of men of both parties,
its
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 minor-
ity. It toasted the Republican leaders vociferously to
show the world its sympathies and principles. On May
" Citizen " Thomas
12, 1796, the glasses ascended to Jef-
ferson, whose name was received with three cheers, and to
" Citizen " Edward
Livingston, for whom nine cheers were
" "
The people," ran one toast, may they ever at
given.
the risk of life and liberty support their equal rights in op-
position to Ambition, Tyranny, to Sophistry and Decep-
tion, 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 presi-
dency. 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 festi-
val. 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.
7 This statement of Hammond probably refers to May 12, 1797.
CHAPTER II
AAEON BUEE AT THE HELM
1798-1802
second period of the Tammany Society began
THE
"
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 na-

ture 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 Tav-
ern to the " Long Room," a place kept by a sometime
" " 1
Sachem, Abraham or Brom Martling, 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 Fed-
" the
eralists 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 :
i
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 Rich-
ard Huggins, a hair-dresser, he called at Muggins's shop, 104 Broad-
way, and administered to him a sound thrashing with a rope. When
he grew old Tammany took care of him by appointing him to an ob-
seure office (Keeper of the City Hall).
11
"
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 pro-

teges. The transition of Tammany from an effusive,
speech-making society to an active political club was
2
mainly through his instrumentality. Mooney was a
mediocre man, delighting in extravagant language and
Indian ceremonials, and was merely a tool in the hands
" Burr was our 3
said Matthew
of far abler men. chief,"
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 manufac-
turing public opinion, carrying primary meetings, obtain-
ing 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 for-
cible 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 s*o certain that he did not receive his les-
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.
* American Citizen, July 18, 1809.
1798 1802 13
sons from Burr. Besides Davis, Burr's chief proteges, 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 dis-
grace William P. Van Ness, at that time the patron of the
law student Martin Van Buren, wrote a long pamphlet de-
fending 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 proteges 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 there-
after. Nearly every one of the Burr leaders, as will be
shown, was guilty of some act of official or private pecula-
tion.
These were the men Burr used in changing the char-
acter of the Tammany Society. The leader and his sat-
ellites 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. Auda-
cious 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 in-
stitution 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 admin-
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.
istered always with a view to contributing to Federalist
success. The directors loaned money to their personal
and party friends with gross partiality and for question-
able 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 Legisla-
ture (1799) a bill, apparently for the purpose of dimin-
ishing 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 Man-
hattan Company with banking powers. 5 The Manhattan
Bank speedily adopted the prevailing partizan tactics.
The campaign of 180t) was full of personal and party
bitterness and was contested hotly. To evade the elec-
tion laws disqualifying the poor, and working to the ad-
vantage of the Federalists, Tammany had recourse to arti-
fice. 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
s
Hammond, Vol. I, pp. 129-30.
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.
1798 1802 15
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
8
the claim was generally allowed.
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 quali-
fications was continued. Under the society's encourage-
ment, 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. Thethirty-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, com-
;
ing Recorder of New York City; William P. Van Ness,

United States Judge to be, Teunis Wortman, William
7
During the greater part of the first quarter of the century mem-
bers of the Legislature, Governor and certain other State officers were
elected in April, the Aldermen being elected in November.
s
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 manage-
ment 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 know-
ing whether Jefferson referred to New York or to him, ceased to
talk on the subject.
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,
9
gave the society a majority in the Common Council. 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 Liv-
ingston, 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 u 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.
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.
pp. 353-56.
CHAPTER III
TAMMANY QUARRELS WITH DE WITT CLINTON

1802-1809
quarrel between Tammany and De Witt Clin-
THE ton 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 influ-
ence 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 dis-
pleased 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 un-
principled 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 So-
ciety, 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
'eace of counties in fact, nearly all civil and military
17
from the heads of departments and Judgeships of
officers
the Supreme Court down to even auctioneers were ap-
pointed by a body at Albany known as the Council of Ap-
pointment, 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 rela-
tives 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 Ap-
pointment. 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 him-
self 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 Mart-
ling Men. He fell altogether into disgrace with the gen-
1802 1809 19
eral 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 await-
ing 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 Hamil-
ton."
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 exigen-
cies 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 threaten-
ing 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 Living-
stons, were ready to agree to these terms, knowing that
Burr's prestige was utterly swept away and that any ef-
fort 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 applica-
tion for, and obtained from the Legislature, the charter,
which still remains in force, incorporating it as a benevo-
lent and charitable body
" for the
purpose of affording
relief to the indigent and distressed members of said asso-
ciation, 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
" This
had its public and its secret aspects. society,"
says Longwortlis American Almanac, New York Register
and City Directory for 1807-1808, in a description of
" has a constitution in two
Tammany, parts public
and private the public relates to all external or public
matters and the private, to the arcana and all transac-
;
tions 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 po-
litical 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 sus-
picions of caucuses which never met and public meetings
called by nobody knew whom. The Sachems, though per-
fectly 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 com-
1802 1809 21
mittee, which should have the power of convening all public

meetings of the party and of making preparatory arrange-
ments 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 form-
ing a nominating committee, which alone had the right to
nominate candidates. The seventy met in open conven-
tion. 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 con-
trived 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 nom-
inations 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 dila-
tory. 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 patri-
otic 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
cornerstone 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 de-
velopments 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 pro-
ject until ugly rumors, pointing to the misuse of the money
collected, forced the society in 1821 to petition the Legis-
lature 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,
1
however, granted $1,000 in cash. This sum was not
enough; and as Tammany did not swell the amount,
though its Sachems were rich with the spoils of office, a

i Journal of the Assembly, 1821, p. 532, also p. 759.
1802 1809 23
2
resolution was introduced in the Assembly, March 4, 1826,
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 dis-
closures regarding the corruption of Tammany officials
astounded the city. Rumors grew so persistent that the
Common Council was forced by public opinion to investi-
gate. In the resultant revelations many Tammany chiefs
suffered.
Benjamin Romaine, variously Sachem and Grand
Sachem, was removed in 1806 from the office of City Con-
troller for malfeasance, though the Common Council was
controlled by his own party. 3 As a trustee of corpora-
tion property he had fraudulently obtained valuable land
in the heart of the city, without paying for it. The af-
fair 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, Superin-

tendent of the Almshouse, and Cornelius Warner, Super-
intendent 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
2
Ibid., 1826, p. 750.
3MS. Minutes of. the Common Council, Vol. 16, pp. 239-40 and 405.
*MS. Minutes of the Common Council. Vol. 16. pp. 288-89.
s
Ibid., p. 316.
the facts becoming known, Humbert and his associate
Inspector, Christian Nestell, discreetly resigned their
8
offices probably to avert official investigation.
Abraham Stagg, another of the dynasty of Grand
Sachems, as Collector of Assessments failed, it was dis-
closed 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 poli-
tician 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 recon-
9
veyance. Even Bingham's powerful friend, Matthew
L. Davis, could not silence the scandal, for Davis him-
self 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 ap-
pointed 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
Ibid., p. 50. Ibid.

1 1bid.,Vol. 18, p. 194. Ibid., Vol. 20, pp. 355-56.
1802 1809 35
Mrs. Mooney" a term which survived for many years in

local politics. The ofttimes Grand Sachem of the Tam-
many Society could not explain his indulgences satis-
factorily, and the Common Council relieved him of the
cares of office, only one Alderman voting for his re-
tention. 10
Most of these leaders were only momentarily in-
commoded, 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
n 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 in-
fluence 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 buck-
tail 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 consider-
ably. 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
io/6tU, Vol. 20, p. 303. The full report on Mooney's administra-

tion 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.
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 suc-
cessors 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 citi-
zens of the county, on the completion of its investigation,
and to report to them, that it might be known who were
and who their enemies. Here is to be seen
their friends
the manifestation of that systematic discipline which
first
Tammany Hall thereafter exercised. Wortman's plan

excited both Clintonites and Federalists. The committee
" the committee of
was called 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 Tam-
many 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
is Wortman had been a follower of Clinton and had been
gen-
erously aided by him. He suddenly shifted to Tammany, on seeing
better opportunities of advancement with that body.
1802 1809 27
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 bar-
barity."
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. Cow-
drey expressed regret at not being able to accommodate
"
him. Tammany Society," wrote Cowdrey,
" an institution that has done much good and may and undoubtedly
is
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 in-
corporation, the basis of its stability and existence."
The American Citizen thereupon bristled with fiercer

attacks " Jacobin "A
upon Tammany. clubs," says
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 harm-
less 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,
. .
consists of at least two thousand rank and file, and the

it is said,
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 posi-
tion 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 com-
promise 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. Mat-
thew L. Davis told them the chiefs ought to unite ; experi-
ence 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, Clinton-
ites and Madisonians were to be admitted members under
the general family and brotherly name of Republican.
De Witt Clinton cautiously kept away from this meet-
ing, allowing his lieutenants to do the work of outwitting
Tammany. A committee of ten was appointed to con-
sider 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 de-
stroyed and whether the Tammany Society should be re-
enforced.
The meeting came to naught. In this effort to win
over the Tammany chiefs, De Witt Clinton abandoned his
protege 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.
CHAPTER IV
SLOW RECOVERY FROM DISASTER
1809-1815
Tammany men fared badly for a time. During

1809 the Council of Appointment removed numbers
THE 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 ma-
jority 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 in-
trigued 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
29
and distributed bounty liberally among his supporters.
His income aroused the wonder of his contemporaries.
The President of the United States received $25,000
the of Philadelphia, $2,000. " Poster-
annually ; Mayor
"
ity," 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 inconse-
quential 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 hav-
ing 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 demon-
strations 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
" The Livingstons, intent on supersed-
respectability."
ing the Clintons, seized on Tammany as a good lever.
1809 1815 31
Above all, itwas necessary to have a full application of

"
respectability," and to
further that end the society
put up a pretentious building the recent Sim news-
paper 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 techni-
;
cally the Democratic-Republican General Committee.

The Tammany Society, with its eleven hundred mem-
bers, now more than ever appeared distinct from the
Tammany Hall political body. Though the general com-
mittee 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 Tam-
many political leaders.
De Witt Clinton aimed to be President of the United
States and schemed for his nomination by the Republican
IMS. Minutes of the Common Council, Vol. 72, p. 137. Judge

Irving and an Aldermanic committee, after a searching investiga-
tion, found Valentine guilty of receiving from prisoners money ^ for
which he did not account to the city.
Legislative caucus. Early in 1811 he sought and re-

ceived from the caucus the nomination for Lieutenant-
Governor. He purposed to hold both the offices of
Major 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 Re-
publican 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 meet-
ing 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 Fed-
eralist 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 pro-
fessed to belong. In a short time the Wigwam succeeded
New York City
in influencing nearly all the Republicans in
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
2 Vol.
Hammond, I, p. 294.
1809 1815 33
Society passed resolutions recommending immediate war

" Orders
with Great Britain unless she should repeal her
in Council." The members pledged themselves to sup-
" in that
port the Government just and necessary war"
" The con-
with their lives, fortunes and sacred honor."
servative 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 be-
fore 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 suc-
cessful military and naval men were banqueted there, while
hundreds of candles illumined every window in the build-
ing. 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 volun-
teered, 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 consider-
able interest in the success of Madison's administration,
they were indefatigable partizans. Some of the Tam-
many leaders proved their devotion to their country's
cause by doing service in the Quartermaster's Depart-
ment. 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 aban-
don its custom of marching in Indian garb. 3 In 1813
the Indians in the Northwest, incited by British agents,
s R. S. Guernsey, New York City During the War of 1812.
went on the war-path, torturing and scalping, devastat-
ing 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 carry-
ing papooses. The Federalists declared that these ex-
hibitions, at all times ridiculous and absurd, would be little
short of criminal after the cruelties which were being com-
mitted by the Tammany men of the wilderness. These at-
tacks affected the Tammany Society so much that a
majority of the members, consisting mainly of the poli-
ticians 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.
4
Mooney opposed the change. 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 1813, Benjamin Romaine was elected Grand
1,
and other " reformers
" were
Sachem, chosen as Sachems.
On July 4 the Tammany Society marched with reduced
numbers in ordinary civilian garb. From tliat 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 hav-
ing tried to paralyze the energies of Madison's administra-
tion. Meanwhile the Federalist leaders in the city, with
a singular lack of tact, were constantly offending the
*
Mooney had now become opulent, being the owner of three or four
houses and lots.
1809 1815 35
popular feeling with their political doctrines and their

naughty 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

5
Republican Young Men's General Committee, 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 Com-
mittee was supposed to comprise only the trusted ward
leaders, ripe with years and experience. About the be-
ginning 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 ex-
pected 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 or-
ganization was in a superb state by the year 1814, and in
active operation ceaselessly. The Federalists, on the con-
trary, 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
s 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.
said, with their party's opposition to the war joined the
Tammany Society. They were led by Gulian C. Ver-
planck, who severely assailed Clinton, much to the Wig-
wam'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 aban-
doned, by which Tammany Hall has frequently broken
up opposing parties or factions. The winning over of
leadersfrom the other side and conferring upon them re-
wards form of profitable public office or contracts
in the
has been one of the most notable methods of Tammany's
diplomacy.
CHAPTER V
TAMMANY IN ABSOLUTE CONTEOL
1815-1817
1815 Tammany Hall obtained control of the State,
BY 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 succes-
sion 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 Manhat-
tan Company, by means of bored wooden logs laid under-
ground 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 po-
litical 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
37
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 de-
pended and to which they attended in the day, holding ses-
sions of the board sporadically at night. The only excep-
tion to this routine was when the Alderman performed
some judicial office. Under the law, as soon as an Alder-
man 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 con-
sisted in their power and custom of making appropria-
tions, 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.
Nosooner did a Republican Council of Appointment
step office, early in 1815, than Tammany Hall
into
pressed for the removal of Clinton as Mayor and an-
nounced that John Ferguson, the Grand Sachem of the
1
Society, would have to be appointed in his place. The
i
Hammond, Vol. I, p. 399.
1815 1817 39
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 ac-
cept office under the Council, did it fail to remove Clin-
ton. This action implied the turning out of the Council
of Appointment at the next election. Yielding to these
menaces, the Council removed Clinton. Then by a com-
promise, Ferguson was made Mayor until the National
Government should appoint him Naval Officer when Jacob
Radcliff (Mayor 1810-1811) was to succeed him an
2
arrangement which was carried out.
The Wigwam was overjoyed at having struck down
Clinton, and now expected many years of supremacy.
From youth Clinton's sole occupation had been politics.
He had spent his yearly salaries and was deeply in debt.
His political aspirations seemed doomed. Stripped, as
he appeared, of a party or even a fraction of one, the
Sachems felt sure of his retirement to private life forever.
In this belief they were as much animated by personal as
by political enmity. Clinton had sneered at or ridiculed
nearly all of them, and he spoke of them habitually in
withering terms.
Besides, to enlarge their power in the city they needed
the Mayor's office. The Mayor had the right to appoints
a Deputy Mayor from among the Aldermen, the Deputy
Mayor acting with full power in his absence. The Mayor
could convene the Common Council, and he appointed and
licensed marshals, porters, carriers, cartmen, carmen,
cryers, scullersand scavengers, and removed them at
of the Common Council of New York,
2 Valentine in his Manual
for 1842-44, p. 163, states that Ferguson held on to both offices until
President Monroe required him to say which office he preferred.
Ferguson soon after resigned the Mayoralty. He held the other post
until his death in 1832.
pleasure. He licensed tavern-keepers and all who sold ex-
cisable liquors by retail. The Mayor, the Deputy Mayor,
Recorder and Aldermen were ex-officio Justices of the
Peace, and were empowered to hold Courts of General Ses-
sions. The Mayor, Recorder and Aldermen were also
Justices of Oyer and Terminer; and the Mayor, Deputy
Mayor and Recorder could preside over the Court of Com-
mon Pleas with or without the Aldermen. The gathering
of all this power into its own control gave further strength
to Tammany Hall.
But the expressions of regret at Clinton's removal were
so spontaneous and sincere that Tammany feigneH par-
ticipation in them and took the utmost pains to represent
the removal as only a political exigency. The Common
Council (which was now Federalist) passed, on March 21,
1815, a vote of thanks to Clinton for his able administra-
tion. 3 Curiously, the very Wigwam men who had made it
their business to undertake the tedious travel over bad
roads to Albany to effect his removal (Aldermen Smith,
George Buckmaster, Mann and Burtis) voted loudest in
favor of the resolution.
Out of office, Clinton found time to agitate for the
building of a navigable canal between the great western
lakes and the tide waters of the Hudson. The idea of
this enterprise was not original with him. It had been
suggested over thirty years before, but it was he who
carried it forward to success. The bigotry and animus
with which it was assailed were amazing. Tammany Hall
frequently passed resolutions denouncing the project as
impracticable and chimerical, declaring that the canal
would make a ditch fit to bury its author in. At Albany
the Tammany representatives greeted the project with a
burst of mockery, and placed obstacle after obstacle in its
path.
In the intervals of warring upon Clinton, Tammany
8 MS. Minutes of the Common Council, Vol. 29, p. 150.
1815 1817 41
was adroitly seizing every post of vantage in the city.

The Burr men ruled its councils and directed the policy
and nominations of the Republican, or, as it was getting
to be more generally known, the Democratic-Republican
party. Three men, in particular, were foremost as lead-
ers George Buckmaster, a boat builder Roger Strong;
and Benjamin Prince, a druggist and physician. Teunis

Wortman, one of the energetic leaders in 1807-10, was
now not quite so conspicuous. What the Wigwam lacked
tomake the city complete was a majority in the
its rule in
Common Council. The committees of the Council not
only had the exclusive power of expenditures, but they in-
4
variably refused an acceptable accounting. The Fed- ;
eralists, though vanishing as a party owing to their at-

titude in the recent war, still managed, through local dis-
sensions among the Republicans, to retain control of the
Common Council. The Federalists, therefore, held the
key to the purse. It had always been customary for the
Mayor to appoint the Common Council committees from
the party which happened to be dominant.
Established forms meant nothing to Mayor Radcliff
and to Buckmaster 5 and other Tammany Aldermen, who
late in December, 1815, decided to turn out the Federalist
chairmen of committees and put Tammany men in their
* As Common Council refused such an ac-
late as July 28, 1829, the
counting. Charles King, a prominent citizen, memorialized the Coun-
cil, through Alderman Lozier, to furnish an itemized statement of the
expenditure of over half a million dollars for the previous fiscal
year. By a vote of 15 to 6 the Council refused to grant the request.
A public agitation on the question following, the board later rescinded
its action, and supplied the statement.
5 Buckmaster had a record. On October 9, 1815, the Common
Council passed a secret resolution to sell $440,000 of United States
bonds it held at 97 the stock being then under par. About $30,000
worth was disposed of at that figure, when the officials found that
not a dollar's worth more could be sold. Investigation followed.
Gould Hoyt proved that Buckmaster had disclosed the secret to cer-
tain Wall street men, who, taking advantage of the city's plight,
forced the sale of the stock at 95. Buckmaster was chairman of the
general commitee in 1815 and at other times, and chairman of the
nominating committee in 1820.
places. Radcliff imprudently printed a handbill of of-
ficers he intended appointing, copies of which he sent to
his partizans. A copy fell into a Federalist's hands. At
the next meeting, before the Mayor could get a chance to
act, the Federalist majority altered the rules so as to vest
in future the appointment of all committees in a majority
of the board. The Sachems were so enraged at Radcliff's
bungling that they declared they would have him removed
from office. About a year afterward they carried out
their threat.
In 1816 Tammanyelected not only its Congress and
Assembly ticket, Common Council, by over 1000
but a
majority out of 9000 votes. This victory was the re-
sult of the wily policy of further disrupting the Federalist
party by nominating its most popular men. Walter
Bowne, a late Federalist, an enemy of Clinton and a man
of standing in the community, was one of those nominated
by Tammany Hall for State Senator, and the support of
the wealthy was solicited by the selection of men of their
own class, such as Col. Rutgers, said to be the richest man
in the State.
Mostof Tammany's early members, certainly the lead-
ers, were now rich and had stepped into the upper middle
class but their wealth could not quite secure them ad-
;
mittance to that stiff aristocracy above them, which

demanded something more of a passport than the pos-
session of money. Another body of members were the
small tradesmen and the like, to whom denunciations of
the aristocracy were extremely palatable. A third class,
that of the mechanics and laborers, believed that Tam-
many Hall exclusively represented them in its onslaughts
on the aristocracy. From the demands of these various
interests arose the singular sight of Tammany Hall win-
ning the support of the rich by systematically catering
to them of the middle class, which it reflected, and of the
;
poor, in whose interests it claimed to work. The spirit

of the Tammany Society was well illustrated in its odd
1815 1817 43
address on public affairs in 1817, wherein it lamented the

spread of the foreign game of billiards among the aristo-
cratic youth and the prevalence of vice among the lower
classes. Again, in May, 1817, the Tammany majority of
the Common Council, under pressure from the religious
element, passed an ordinance fining every person $5 who
should hunt, shoot, fish, spar or play on Sunday a law
which cut off from the poor their favorite pastimes.
Here, too, another of the secrets by which the organ-
ization was enabled to thrive, should be mentioned. This
was the " regularity " of its nominations. Teunis Wort-
man, a few years before, had disclosed the real substance
of the principle of
" " when he wrote " The
regularity :
nominating power is an omnipotent one. Though it ap-

proaches us in -the humble attitude of the recommenda-
tion, its influence is irresistible. Every year's experience
demonstrates that recommendations are commands.
its
That instead of presenting a choice it deprives us of all
6
option." The plain meaning was that, regardless of the
candidate's character, the mass of the party would vote
for him once he happened to be put forth on the "regular "
ticket. Fully alive to the value of this particular power,
the Tammany Hall General Committee, successively and
unfailingly, would invite in its calls for all meetings
"
those friendly to regular nominations." Its answer to
charges of dictatorship was plain and direct. Discipline
was necessary, its leaders said, to prevent aristocrats from
disrupting their party by inciting a variety of
nominations.
It was through this fertile agency that " bossism " be-
came an easy possibility. With the voters in such a
receptive state of mind it was not difficult to dictate
nominations. The general commitee was composed of
thirty members; its meetings were secret and attended
seldom by more than fourteen members. So, substan-
*New York Public Advertiser, April 13, 1809. This journal was
secretly supported for a time by the funds of the Tammany Society.
tially, fourteen men were acting

for over five thousand Re-
publican voters,and eight members of the fourteen com-
posed a majority. Yet the system had all the pretense
of being pure democracy the wards were called upon at
;
regular intervals to elect delegates ; the latter chose candi-

dates or made party rules ; and the
"
great popular meet-
" or
ing accepted rejected nominees; it all seemed to
spring directly from the people.
This exquisitely working machine was in full order
when the organization secured a firm hold upon the city
in 1816. The newly elected Common Council removed
every Federalist possible and put a stanch Tammany man
in his place. The Federalist Captains of Police and the
heads and subordinates of many departments whose ap-
pointments and removal were vested in the Common Coun-
cil were all ejected. This frequent practice of changes
in the police force, solely because of political considera-
tions, had a demoralizing effect upon the welfare of the
city.
Both parties were as responsible for this state of
affairs as they were for the increase in the city's debt.
To provide revenue the Aldermen repeatedly caused to
be sold ground owned by the municipality in the heart
of the city. This was one of their clumsy or fraudulent
methods of concealing the squandering of city funds, on
what no one knew. They were not ignorant that with the
growth of the city the value of the land would increase
vastly. It was perhaps for this very reason they sold it ;
for it was generally themselves or the Tammany leaders

who were the buyers. One sale was of land fronting
Bowling Green, among the purchasers being John Swart-
wout, Jacob Barker and John Sharpe. A hint as to the
fraudulent ways in which the Tammany leaders became
rich is furnished by a report made to the Common Council
respecting land in Hamilton Square, bought from the city
by Jacob Barker, John S. Hunn and others. The report
1815 1817 4?5
stated that repeated applications for the payment of prin-

7
cipal and interest had been made without effect.
the Federalists in New York City were crushed,
By 1817
quite beyond hope of resurrection as a winning party.
The only remaining fear was Clinton, whose political death
the organization celebrated prematurely. Public opinion
was one factor Tammany had not conquered.
This inclined more and more daily to the support of
Clinton. Notwithstanding all the opposition which
narrow-mindedness and hatred could invent, Clinton's
grand project of the Erie Canal became popular dis-
tinctively so throughout the State, then so greatly agri-

cultural. On April 15, 1817, the bill pledging the State
to the building of the canal became a law, the Tammany
delegation and all their friends voting against it.
Gov. Tompkins becoming Vice-President, a special elec-
tion to fill the gubernatorial vacancy became necessary.
A new and powerful junction of Clinton's old friends and
the disunited Federalists joined in nominating him to suc-
ceed Tompkins. This was bitter news to Tammany, which
made heroic efforts to defeat him, nominating as its candi-
date Peter B. Porter, and sending tickets with his name
into every county in the State.
Inopportunely for the Wigwam, the resentment of the
Irish broke out against it at this time. Tammany's
long-continued refusal to give the Irish proper repre-
sentation among its nominations, either in the society or
for public office, irritated them greatly. On February 7,
a writer in a newspaper over the signature " Connal,"
averred in an open letter to Matthew L. Davis that on the
evening of February S, the Tammany Society had con-
sidered a resolution for the adoption of a new constitution,
the object of which was to exclude foreigners entirely
from holding office in the society. This may not have been
strictly true, but the anti-foreign feeling in the organiza-
7 MS. Minutes of the Common Council, Vol. 18, p. 359.
tion was unquestionably strong. The Irish had sought,
some time before, to have the organization nominate for
Congress Thomas Addis Emmett, an Irish orator and
patriot and an ardent friend of Clinton. As Tammany
Hall since 1802 had not only invariably excommunicated
all Clintonites, but had broken up such Clinton meetings
as were held, this demand was refused without discussion.
The Irish grew to regard Tammany Hall as the home of
bigotry the
Wigwam,
; was resolved not to alienate
in turn,
the prejudiced native support by recognizing foreigners;
furthermore, the Irish were held to be Clintonites trying to
get into Tammany Hall and control it.
The long-smouldering enmity burst out on the night
of April 24, 1817, when the general committee was in
session. Two hundred Irishmen, assembled at Dooley's
Long Room, marched in rank to the Wigwam and broke
into the meeting room. The intention of their leaders
was to impress upon the committee the wisdom of nom-
inating Emmett for Congress, as well as other Irish
Catholics on the Tammany ticket in future, but the
more fiery spirits at once started a fight. Eyes were
blackened, noses and heads battered freely. The in-
vaders broke the furniture, using it for weapons and
shattering it maliciously; tore down the fixtures and
shivered the windows. Reinforcements arriving, the in-
truders were driven out, but not before nearly all present
had been bruised and beaten. 8
Clinton received an overwhelming majority for Gov-
ernor, Porter obtaining a ridiculously small vote in both
New York City and the rest of the State. 9 Thus in the
feud between Tammany Hall and DeWitt Clinton, the
latter, lacking a political machine and basing his con-
test solely on a political idea that of internal improve-
ments emerged triumphant.
s The National Advocate,
May 10, asserted that the Irish entered
Tammany Hall, shouting "Down with the Natives!" but the asser-
tion was denied.
Clinton's vote was nearly 44,000; Porter's not quite 1,400.
CHAPTER VI
CLINTON MAINTAINS HIS SUPREMACY
1817-1820
Gov. Clinton at the head of the Council of
WITH Appointment, Tammany men

force of his vengeance.
expected
They were not
the
disap-
pointed. He removed many of them for no other reason
than that they belonged to the organization.
Hoping to make terms with him, the Wigwam Assembly-
men, early in 1818, presented to the Council of Appoint-
ment a petition praying for the removal of Mayor Rad-
cliff and the appointment in his place of William Pauld-
" Radcliff " is an unfit
ing, Jr. ," the paper read, person
longer to fill that honorable and respectful office." Clin-
ton smiled at this ambidexterity. It was rumored that he
intended to award the honor to Cadwallader D. Golden, a
Federalist supporter of the War of 1812, and one of the
Federalists Tammany Hall had sent to the Assembly in
1817, as a means of breaking up that party. Golden now
let it be understood that he sided with Clinton.
The whole Tammany delegation lived in a single house
at Albany and met in a large room, No. 10, in Eagle
Tavern. " This system of acting as a separate body,"
admitted Tammany's own organ, 1 "was very injudicious
to our city. It created suspicion and distrust among
country members ; it looked like a separate interest a com-
;
bination of a powerful delegation to frown down or over-

* National
Advocate, October 7, 1822. A circumstantial account
of the meeting referred to on the following page appears in this issue.
The paper was edited and owned by M. M. Noah, who became Grand
Sachem in 1824.
47
power the delegation of a smaller county." Golden did

not join in these nightly meetings. One day he was
coaxed in to take a glass of wine. To his surprise, upon
opening the door of No. 10, he found the delegation in
caucus. The meeting seemed to be waiting for him before
transacting business. He had scarcely taken a seat, when
one of the members arose, and in a long speech protested
against any member of the city delegation accepting an
office, and suggested that each member should pledge him-
self not to do so. Golden saw at once that the resolution
was directed against himself. He exclaimed energetically
against the trickery, declaring that he had not asked for
the office of Mayor, but would accept it if offered. The
meeting broke up; Golden was appointed Mayor, and
Tammany Hall from that time denounced him.
In Albany, Clinton was vigorously pushing forward the
Erie Canal project; the Tammany men were as aggres-
2
sively combatting it. While Clinton was thus absorbed in
this great public enterprise the Wigwam was enriching its
leaders in manifold ways. An instance of this was the
noted Barker episode. Jacob Barker was a Sachem, a
leader of great influence in the political organization, and
such a power in financial and business circles that at one
time he defied the United States Bank. He and Matthew
L. Davis were Burr's firmest friends to the hour of Burr's
death. Early in 1818 a bill prohibiting private banking,
prepared at the instance of the incorporated banks, which
sought a monopoly, passed the Senate though as a special
;
favor to Barker the Senate exempted from its provisions

the latter's Exchange Bank for three years. But Barker
desired an indefinite lease. To create a show of public
sentiment he had the hall packed with his friends and
creatures on April 14, when resolutions were passed stat-
ing that the proposed bill would dfestroy all competition
with the incorporated banks, " benefit the rich, oppress
2
Hammond, Vol. I, p. 450.
1817 1820 49
the poor, extend the power of existing aristocracies, and

terminate the banking transactions of an individual whose
loans have been highly advantageous to many laborious
and industrious mechanics and neighboring farmers."
The Legislature granted the privileges Barker asked. A
few years later (1826) the sequel to this legislative
favoritism appeared in the form of one of the most sensa-
tional trials witnessed in early New York.
The year 1818 saw Tammany Hall in the unusual posi-
The War of 1812
tion of advocating a protective tariff.
having injured domestic manufacturing, the demand for
such a measure was general. Party asperity had
softened, and Republicans, or Democrats as they were
coming to be known and Federalists alike favored it.
The society made the best of this popular wave. It issued
an address, advising moderate protective duties on foreign
goods. But New York then, and until after the Civil
War, was a great shipbuilding center and the shipbuilders
;
and owners and the importing merchants soon influenced

Tammany to revert to the stanch advocacy of free
trade.
The almost complete extinction of national party lines
under Monroe caused the disappearance of violent par-
tizan recriminations and brought municipal affairs more
to public attention. From 1817 onward public bodies agi-
tated much more forcibly and persistently than before for
the correction of certain local evils. Chief among these
were the high taxes. In 1817 the city tax levy was
$180,000; in 1818 it rose to $250,000, "an enormous
amount," one newspaper said. Though the city received
annually $200,000 in rents from houses and lots, for
wharves, slips and piers, and also a considerable amount
from fines, yet there was a constantly increasing deficit.
The city expenses were thought to be too slight to devour
the ordinary revenue. The Democratic, or Tammany,
officials made attempts to explain that much of the debt
was contracted under Federalist Common Councils, and
"
said that sufficient money must he provided or the poor
would starve."
At almost the identical time this plea was entered, E.
C. Genet was laying before the Grand Jury a statement to
this effect: that although it was known that the aggre-
gate capital of the incorporated banks, insurance and

commission companies in New York City, exclusive of one
branch of the United States Bank, amounted in 1817 to
about $22,000,000, in addition to the shares in those com-
" on all
panies, yet the city and States taxes combined
that vast personal estate in New York City are only a pal-
try $97,000."
The explanation of the blindness of the Wigwam officials
to the escape of the rich from taxation is simple. The
Tammany Hall of 1818 was not the Tammany Hall of
1800. In that interval the poor young men who once had
to club together in order to vote had become directors in
banking, insurance and various other corporations, which
as members of the Legislature or as city officials they
themselves had helped to form. Being such, they exerted
all the influence of their political machinery to save their
property from taxation. From about 1805 to 1837 Tam-

many Hall was ruled directly by about one-third bank-
ers, one-third merchants and the remaining third poli-
ticians of various pursuits. The masses formed ex-
cept at rare times the easily wielded body. The lead-
ers safeguarded their own interests at every point, how-
ever they might profess at election times an abhorrence of
the aristocracy; and the Grand Jury being of them,
ignored Genet's complaint.
Anew series of revelations concerning the conduct of
Tammany chieftainswas made public during 181718.
Ruggles Hubbard, a one-time Sachem and at the time
Sheriff of the county, absconded from the city August 15,
3
1817, leaving a gap in the treasury. John L. Broome,
8 In what
year Hubbard was Sachem is uncertain. His name is
included in Horton's list. He was one of the chiefs in the nominat-
1817 1820 51
another Sachem, was shortly after removed from the office

of City Clerk by the Council of Appointment for having
neglected to take the necessary securities from Hubbard.
John P. Haff, a one-time Grand Sachem and long a power
in the organization, was removed by President Monroe on
November 14, 1818, from the office of Surveyor of the
4
Port, for corruption and general unfitness.
But the most sensational of these exposures was that
concerning the swindling of the Medical Science Lottery,
5
by which Naphthali Judah and others profited hand-
somely. The testimony brought out before Mayor Col-
den, November 10, 1818, showed that a corrupt under-
standing existed between Judah and one of the lottery's
managers, by which the former was enabled to have a
knowledge of the state of the wheel. Not less than
$100,000 was drawn on the first day, of which Judah re-
ceived a large share. Further affidavits were submitted
tending to show a corrupt understanding between Judah
and Alderman Isaac Denniston in the drawing of the
Owego Lottery, by which Denniston won $35,000. John
L. Broome was also implicated in the scandal, and Teunis
Wortman, while not directly concerned in it, was consid-
ered involved by the public, and suffered a complete loss
of popular favor, 6 though retaining for some time a cer-
ing committee from 1815 to 1817. It is worthy of note that only

a short time before his flight a committee of the Common Council had
examined his accounts and approved them as correct.
* That Haff was removed is
certain, though the author has been
unable to find a record of the fact in the available papers of the
Treasury Department. The Tammany organ, the National Advocate,
November 19, 1818, commented as follows: "The rumors which, for
several days past, have been afloat and which we treated as idle and
interested, are confirmed Captain Haff has been removed from
office." Many evidences of public gratification were shown. In
one instance, eighty citizens dragged a field piece from the Arsenal
to the Battery and fired a salute.
5
Naphthali Judah had been Sachem of the Maryland tribe in 1808,
and continued for some time to be a leader in the
party's councils.
He was again elected a Sachem in 1819.
How deeply the people of New York were concerned in lotteries
may be gathered from the fact that in 1826 there were 190 lottery
tain degree of influence in the society and organization.
Always as popular criticism began to assert itself, Tam-
many would make a sudden display of patriotism, accom-
panied by the pronouncement of high-sounding toasts and
other exalted utterances. Such it did in 1817, when the
society took part in the interment of the remains of Gen.
Montgomery in St. Paul's Church. And now the Sachems
prepared to entertain Andrew Jackson at a banquet, and
also indirectly signify that he was their choice for Presi-
dent. William Mooney, again elected Grand Sachem, sent
to Gen. Jackson, under date of February 15, 1819, a gran-
diloquent letter of invitation which, referring to the battle
of New Orleans, said in part :
"
Columbia's voice, in peals of iron thunder, proclaimed the dread
fiatof that eventful morn! Terra was drenched with human gore!
The perturbed elements were hushed! Mars and Bellona retired
from the ensanguined field! and godlike Hera resumed her gentle
reign. . We approbate your noble deeds and greet you hero.
. .
Scourge of British insolence, Spanish perfidy and Indian cruelty

these, sir, are the sentiments of the Sons of Liberty in New York
who compose the National Institution of Tammany Society No. 1 of
Here, sir, we guard the patriot flame
*
the United States .
pre-
served by concord' its effulgence, in a blaze of glory, shall sur-
round and accompany you to the temple of interminable fame and
honor."
Jackson accepted the invitation. Cadwallader D.

Golden, who had been re-appointed Mayor a few days be-
fore, was asked to preside. When, on February 23, the
banquet was held and Jackson was called for his toast,
Golden arose, and to the consternation of the Tammany
men proposed: "De Witt Clinton, the Governor of the
great and patriotic State of New York." This surprising
move made it appear that Jackson favored the Clinton
party. To counteract the impression, the General in-
by statute in New York City.
offices legalized A
saying obtained that
" one-half the citizens
got their living by affording the opportunity of
gambling to the rest." Many State institutions were in part supported
from the proceeds of the lotteries. These swindles, therefore, became
a matter for legislative investigation. A great number of pages of
the Journal of the Assembly for 1819 are taken up with the testimony.
1817 1820 53
"amidst reiterated applauses," and

stantly left the room,
a dead silence ensued for three minutes. This incident, it
may well be believed, did not dampen the society's en-
thusiasm for Jackson; it continued to champion him
ardently.
Golden was re-appointed Mayor for the third time in
February, 1820. Municipal issues were dividing the pub-
lic consideration with Tammany's renewed efforts to over-
throw Clinton. The report of the Common Council
Finance Committee, January 10, 1820, showed that the
city would soon be $1,300,000 in debt. An attempt
was
made to show how the money had been spent on the new
City Hall and Bellevue Hospital, but it proved nothing.
Although the law expressly prohibited Aldermen from be-
ing directly or indirectly interested in any contract or
job, violations were common. It was alleged that streets
were sunk, raised and sunk again, to enable the contractors
to make large claims against the city. To soothe public
clamor, the Aldermen made a show of reducing city ex-
penses. The salary of Golden he being a Clintonite
was reduced $2,500, and the pay of various other city
officers was cut down. The salaries of the Wigwam men
were not interfered with.
The wholesome criticism of municipal affairs was soon
obscured again by the reviving tumult of the contest be-
tween Tammany and Clinton. The Governor stood for
re-election against Daniel D. Tompkins in April, 1820.
Tompkins had long been the idol of the Tammany men and
for a time was one of the society's Sachems. In 1818 he
had been practically charged with being a public de-
'
faulter. State Controller Archibald M'Intyre submitted

to the Legislature a mass of his vouchers, public and
private (for the time Tompkins was Governor), which
showed a balance against him of $197,297.64. In this
balance, however, was included the sum of $142,763.60
which was not allowed to Tompkins's credit because the
vouchers were insufficient. Allowing Tompkins this
5* HISTORY OF TAMMANY HALL
amount, the balance against him was $54,533.44. Tomp-
kins, on the other hand, claimed the State owed him
$120,000. His partisans in the Senate in 1819 passed a
bill to re-imburse him, but it was voted down in the
7
Assembly.
The statements of both sides during the campaign of
1820 were filled with epithets and strings of accusations.
Tammany contrasted Clinton's alleged going over to the
British with Tompkins's patriotism in the War of 1812.
Party lines were broken down, and Federalists and Tam-
many men acted together, as they had done the year be-
fore (1819), when their Legislative ticket won over the
Clintonites by 2,500 majority. The Clintonites were
tauntingly invited to visit the Wigwam, because in that
" '
Swiss '
stronghold of Democracy would be found no
Federalism, no British partizans, no opponents of the late
war, no bribers or bribed for bank charters, no trim-
ming politicians, no lobby members or legislative brokers."
In Tammany Hall they would see a body of independent
yeomen, of steady and unerring Republicans and men who
8
rallied around their country in the hour of danger.
While Clinton's adherents in New York City on election
day were inactive, his opponents, ever on the lookout, car-
ried the city by 675 majority. The popularity of the
Erie Canal, however, which was fast nearing completion,
carried the rest of the State for Clinton. 9 "Heads up!
tails down," shouted the exuberant, successful Clintonites
some days after, pointing to the disappointed, discomfited
Bucktails. For Tammany had been so sure of Tompkins's
7 Journal
of the Assembly, 1819, pp. 222-45, and Ibid.,
"
pp. 1046-53.
Torapkins, now Vice President, made this race for vindication." It
is altogether likely that this particular charge against Tompkins was
made for political effect in a campaign in which each side sought to
blacken the other by fierce personal attacks.
* National
Advocate, March 29, 1820.
9
Tammany charged that in the construction of the Erie Canal,
land had been cut up in slips to make additional voters for Clinton
and cited the county of Genesee, which, though polling but 750 free-
hold votes in 1815, gave nearly 5,000 votes in this election.
1817 1820 55
election that it had procured, at considerable expense, a
painting of him which was to be exhibited in the hall when

the news of his election should arrive. By way of con-
solation the Sachems drank to this toast at their anniver-
sary on May 1:
**De Witt Clinton, our lean Governor
May he never get fat,
While he wears two faces under one hat."
CHAPTER VII
THE SUFFRAGE CONTEST

1820-1822
HALLnow entered upon a step destined

to change its composition and career, and greatly
TAMMANYaffect the political course of the State and nation.
From its inception the society had declared among its
objects the acomplishment of two special reforms the
securing of manhood suffrage and the abolition of the
law for the imprisonment of debtors. No steps so far
had been taken by either the organization or the society
toward the promotion of these reforms ; first, because the
leaders were engaged too busily in the contest for office,
and second, because Tammany Hall, though professing it-
self devoted to the welfare of the poor, was, to repeat,
essentially a middle-class institution. Having property
themselves, the men who controlled and influenced the or-
ganization were well satisfied with the laws under which
Tammany had grown powerful and they rich ; they could
not see so blissful a state of affairs should be changed
why
for something the outcome of which was doubtful. The
farmer, the independent blacksmith, the shoemaker with an
apprentice or two, the grocer these had votes, and
though they looked with envy on the aristocratic class
above them, yet they were not willing that the man with the
spade should be placed on a political equality with them-
selves. In addition, most of the aristocratic rich were
opposed to these reforms, and the Tammany leaders were
either ambitious to enter that class or desirous of not
estranging it. Lastly, the lower classes had sided with
56
1820 1822 57
Clinton generally ; they regarded him as their best friend ;

to place the ballot unrestrictedly in their hands, Tammany
Hall reckoned, would be fatuous. As to the debtors' law,
the tradesmen that thronged Tammany were only too well
satisfied with a statute that allowed them to throw their
debtors, no matter for how small an amount, into jail in-
definitely.
Agitation for these two reforms, begun by a few radi-
cals, gradually made headway with the public. The de-
mand for manhood suffrage made the greater progress,
until in 1820 it overshadowed all other questions. The
movement took an such force and popularity that Tam-
many Hall was forced, for its own preservation, to join.
Agreeable to instructions, the National Advocate, Septem-
ber 13, 1820, began to urge the extension of the right
of suffrage and the abolition of those cumbersome relics
of old centralizing methods, the Council of Appointment
and the Council of Revision the latter a body passing
finally on all laws enacted by the Legislature. On October
7, a meeting of Democrats from all parts of the State was
held in the Wigwam, Stephen Allen presiding, and the
Legislature was called upon to provide for a constitutional
convention for the adoption of the amendments.
The aristocracy and all the powers at its command
assailed the proposed reforms with passionate bitterness.
"Would you admit the populace, the patron's coach-
man to vote ? " asked one Federalist writer. " His ex-
cellency (the Governor) cannot retain the gentry, the
'
Judges, and the 'manors in his interest without he op-
poses either openly or clandestinely every attempt to
" We would rather be
enlarge the elective franchise."
ruled by a man without an estate than by an estate with-
out a man" replied one reform writer. The Legislature
passed a bill providing for the holding of a constitutional
convention, and the Council of Revision, by the deciding
vote of Clinton, promptly rejected it. Doubtless this
action was due to the declared intention of the advocates
of the constitutional convention to abolish this body.
Again an assemblage gathered at Tammany Hall (De-
cember 1 ) and resolved that as the " distinction of the
electorial rights, the mode of appointment to office and the
union of the judiciary and legislative functions were ob-
jectional and highly pernicious," the next Legislature
should pass the pending bill.
Upon this issue a Legislature overwhelmingly favor-
able to the extension of suffrage and other projected re-
forms was elected. The aristocratic party opened a still
fiercer onslaught. But when the Legislature re-passed
the convention bill, the Council of Revision did not dare to
veto it. The convention bill was promptly submitted to
the people and ratified. On the news of its success the
Democratic voters celebrated the event in the Wigwam,
June 14, 1821.
Beaten so far, the Federalists tried to form a union
with the reactionary element in Tammany Hall by
which they could elect delegates opposed to the pro-
jected reforms. All opposition was unavailing, however;
the reformers had a clear majority in the convention,
and the new amendments, embodying the reforms, were
submitted to the people. They were adopted in January,
1822, the city alone giving them 4608 majority.
1
When
the Legislature took oath under the revised constitution
on March 4, the bells of the city churches were rung flags ;
were flung on the shipping and public buildings " a grand

;
" was fired

salute by a corps of artillery from the Battery ;
the City Hall was illuminated at night, and the municipal-

ity held a popular reception there. In Tammany Hall a
i A
considerable increase in the number of voters was made by the
suffrage reform. The last remnant of the property qualification was
abolished in the State in 1826 by a vote of 104,900 to 3,901.
The abolition of the Council of Appointment carried with it a clause
vesting the Appointment of the Mayor in the Common Council. It
was not until 1834 that the Mayor was elected by the people. By the
Constitutional Amendments the gubernatorial term was changed to
two years and the election time to November.
1820 1822 59
" The
gala banquet was spread, one toast of which ran :
right of suffrage Corruption in its exercise most to be

apprehended from its limitation to a few." After that
pronouncement, so edifying in view of later developments,
came another as instructive " The young and rising poli-
:
tician May integrity and principle guide him study-

ing the public good, not popularity."
So Tammany Hall built for itself a vast political
following, which soon made it practically invincible.
CHAPTER VIII
STRUGGLES OF THE PRESIDENTIAL FACTIONS
1822-1825
the greater part of the newly created

voters gravitated to Tammany Hall, but they did not
INEVITABLY
instantly overrun and rule it.
A new set of leaders came in view. Wortman and
Judah had been forced from public life through the
lottery exposures of 1818, and Broome had lost prestige.
Hubbard had fled; Haff, Buckmaster, Strong and Prince
were no longer powerful, and Jonas Humbert, who until
1820 had been a person of some authority, was now no
longer in public notice. Stephen Allen and Mordecai M.
Noah, with a following of some of the old Burrites, were
now regarded as being at the helm.
The pro-Tammany Council of Appointment chosen late
in 1820, before the new constitutional amendments were
adopted, had removed Golden and appointed Allen (Grand

Sachem about this time) Mayor l in his place. Noah was
made Sheriff, and all the other offices were filled with
Wigwam men.
The new voting element coming into the organization
had to be impressed with the traditional principle of dis-
cipline. Otherwise there might be all kinds of nomina-
tions, whose effect upon the machine-made " regular "
nominations of the organization would be disastrous, if
not destructive. To this end the different ward commit-
i The first election for
Mayor by the Common Council, under the
new constitution, resulted in the choice of William Paulding, Jr., 1823-
25).
1825 61
tees passed resolutions (April 27 and 28, 1822) declar-

ing in nearly identical terms that the sense of a majority,
fairly expressed, ought always to govern, and that no
party, however actuated by principle, could be truly use-
ful without organization.
"
Therefore, that the discipline
of the Republican party, as established and practised for
the last twenty-five years, has, by experience, been found
conducive to the general good and success of the party." 2
In 1822 Clinton declined to stand for re-election.
Tammany Hall was considered so invincible in the city
that the Clintonites and the remnant of the Federalists
refused to nominate contesting candidates for Congress
and the Legislature. Experience demonstrating that al-
most all the voters cast their ballots for the " regular "
ticket without asking questions, competition for a place
on that ticket, which now was equivalent to election, be-
came sharp. When, on October 30, the nominating com-
mittee reported the name of M. M. Noah for the office of
Sheriff, Benjamin Romaine moved to have that of Peter
H. Wendover substituted. Two factors were at work
here; one was religious prejudice against Noah, who was a
Jew; the other and greater, was the struggle between the
partizans of Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams and
William H. Crawford to get control of Tammany Hall, as
a necessary preliminary to the efforts of each for the nom-
ination for President.'3 Romaine was an Adams sup-
porter and could easily have nominated a ticket inde-
pendent of Tammany Hall, but it would have lacked
"
regularity," and hence popular support. A row ensued ;
and while Noah's party rushed out of Tammany Hall
claiming the " regular
"
nomination, the other faction, by
the light of a solitary candle, passed resolutions denounc-
2 Advertisements of the ward committees in the

National Advocate.
April 29, 1822.
s it is a
convincing commentary on the absolute disruption of party
lines at this epoch that a contest could arise in such an
organization as
Tammany Hall between supporters of men of such diverse political
beliefs as Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams.
"
ing Noah and claiming that Wendover was the "regular
nominee.
Each of the candidates put himself before the people,
declaring that a majority of the nominating committee
favored him as " regular." The leaders of the organ-
ization inclined to Noah, as one of its heads, but Wen-
dover skillfully appealed to Anti-Semitic bigotry and
gathered a large following. The Sachems dared not in-
terfere between them, and each in consequence had -a room
in Tammany Hall, where his tickets were distributed and
his agents made their headquarters. Noah was defeated
at the polls ; but his defeat did not impair his influence
in Tammany Hall. He was a person of singular ability.
A facile writer and effective manipulator, he maintained
his hold.
"
Regularity," then, was the agency by which the lead-
ers imposed their candidates upon the thousands of voters
who, from their stores and benches, offices and farms, went
to the polls to deposit a list of names prepared for them.
The voters were expected only to vote ; the leaders assumed
the burden of determining for whom the voting should be
done. An instance of the general recognition of this fact
was given in 1820 when the counties of Suffolk, Queens,
Kings and Dutchess voted to discontinue the practice of
holding Senatorial conventions in Tammany Hall because
a fair expression of the wishes of a great proportion of
the Democratic-Republican electors was not obtainable
there. At the same time, and for years later, complaints
were frequent that the ward meetings had long since be-
come an object of so little interest that they were nearly
neglected ; and that a small knot of six or eight men manr
aged them for their own purposes.
In 1823 attempts were made by different factions to
obtain the invaluable " regular
" nominations. Seem-
ingly a local election, the real point turned on whether
partisans of Jackson, Adams or Crawford should be
chosen. Upon this question Tammany Hall was still
1825 63
divided. The nominating committee, however, was for

Jackson. The voters were bidden to assemble in the
hall at 7 o'clock on the evening of October 30 to hear
that committee's report. When they tried to enter, they
found the hall occupied by the committee and its friends.
This was a new departure in Tammany practices. Since
the building of the hall the nominating commitee had al-
ways waited in a lower room for the opening of the great
popular meeting, and had then marched up stairs and re-
ported. To head off expected hostile action by the Adams
men, the committee this time started proceedings before
the appointed hour. The names of its candidates were
called and affirmed in haste. Gen. Robert Swartwout, a
corrupt but skillful politician and an Adams supporter,
proposed a substitute list of names, upon which the chair-
man declared that the meeting stood adjourned. A gen-
eral fist-fight followed, in the excitement of which Swart-
wout took the chair, read off a list of names and declared
" liar " and
it adopted. Epithets, among which
" traitor "
figured most, were distributed freely. Both
tickets went to the people under the claim of
"
regularity,"
and each carried five of the ten wards.
4
Though Robert Swartwout was for Adams, another
Swartwout (Samuel), an even shrewder politician, was
Jackson's direct representative in the task of securing
the organization's support for President. A
third and
lessimportant group were the Crawford advocates. They
were led by Gen. John P. Van Ness, an adroit intriguer
* When United StatesNavy Agent in 1820, Robert Swartwout be-
came indebted to theGovernment in the sum of $68,000, a defalcation
he could not make good. The Government took a mortgage on his
property for $75,000. This and political influence saved him from
prison. It was because of Adams's efforts in his behalf that his ex-
traordinary devotion to the sixth President was credited. Tammany
Hall, considerate of human infirmity, continued him in full favor as
a leader. These facts were brought out in the suit of the United
States Government against Francis H. Nicholl, one of Robert Swart-
wout's sureties, before Judge Van Ness in the United States District
Court, April 8, 1824.
64. HISTORY OF TAMMANY HALL
and one of the old Burr chieftains of Tammany. In 1821
Adams, then Secretary of State, ascertaining that
Van Ness, as president of the Bank of the Metropolis, was
indebted to that institution to the amount of $60,000 and
that its affairs were in bad condition, transferred the ac-
count of the State Department to another bank. From
that time Van Ness bore deep hatred against Adams, and
supported Crawford, Secretary of the Treasury, for
President. Crawford had deposited as a standing bal-
ance with Van Ness about the same sum Adams had with-
drawn, notwithstanding the bank's suspicious character.
The Crawford men went first about the business of ob-
taining complete ascendency in the Tammany Society.
With that end in view they tried in 1823 to elect a Grand
Sachem favoring Crawford. The old Burr faction now
brought forth a Presidential candidate of its own in the
person of John C. Calhoun, and taking advantage of the
absence of most of the society's members, dexterously
managed to elect William Todd, a partisan of Calhoun,
Grand Sachem.
The popular voice for Jackson becoming daily
stronger, some of the Adams leaders changed about.
Perhaps having a premonition that Adams would be chosen
President by the House of Representatives, the general
committee of Tammany Hall, on October 3, 1823, resolved
that the election of President by that branch of Congress
was " an event to be deprecated," and that the constitution
ought to be so amended as to give the election directly to
the people without the intervention of electors. The ward
committees passed similar resolutions. This action was
on a line with that of a few years before when the Wigwam,
fearing the nomination of Clinton for Governor by legis-
lative caucus, recommended that State nominations be
made by a State convention of delegates. In the follow-
ing April (1824) Jackson's friends filled Tammany Hall
and nominated him for President.
Before the election came on, however, the organiza-
1825 65
tion, in the full swing of power, again brought public

odium upon De Witt Clinton, having filled his
itself.
gubernatorial term, was now serving in the modest post

of a Canal Commissioner, without pay and utterly with-
out political power. Yet Tammany carried its hatred of
him so far as to cause the Legislature to remove him
(April 12, 1824), despite the protests of a few of its more
5
sagacious members.
Naturally, this petty act caused an immediate and
strong reaction in a community endeared to Clinton by
that splendid creation of his energy the Erie Canal.
No sooner did the news reach New York City than 10,000
persons held an indignation meeting in the City Hall Park
and in front of Tammany Hall. Throughout the State
similar meetings were held. In spite of the politicians,
the cyclonic popular movement forced Clinton to be again
a candidate for Governor.
The chiefs regretted their folly. At the same time
they were subjected to public criticism in another direc-
tion. One of them, William P. Van Ness, Burr's com-
panion at the Hamilton duel, a Judge of the United States
District Court, took it upon himself to select Tammany
Hall permanently for a court-room, his object being to
have the Government pay rent to the Tammany Society.
His colleague, Judge Thompson, a scrupulous official,
indignantly asked why the courts were not to be held in
the City Hall, as usual. Judge Van Ness defiantly held
court in Tammany Hall, Judge Thompson going to the
City Hall. Public digust asserting itself, an investigation
was set afoot. Van Ness tried to throw the blame on
his marshal. But this officer, as was conclusively shown,
acted under written instructions from Van Ness in refusing
to consider any other place than Tammany Hall, and he
agreed to pay to the society $1,500 a year rent. The
lease, which was made under the plea that no room was
6 Journal of the Senate, 1824, p. 409.

available in the City Hall, contained a stipulation that not
only should the tavern be allowed in Tammany Hall but
that the court-room should be used, when required, as the
meeting place of the society or of the political conventions.
The assembled in the wards and denounced the
citizens
proceeding. The Aldermen decided to shift the responsi-

bility which Van Ness attempted to place upon them.
Their committee reported (October 24, 1824 ), 6 that the
City Hall always had been and would be at the service of
the United States Court Judges, and that a room had
been set apart especially for their use. Judge Van Ness
was forced to return to the City Hall to hold court. 7
Tammany now had recourse to its customary devices in
endeavoring to bring out its usual vote in the coming elec-
tion. The general committee announced that at no period
in the last twenty years had the welfare and perpetuity of
the party more imperiously required a rigid adherence
to ancient usages and discipline. This was meant to play
on the partizan emotions of the Democrats. It was like-
wise a threat to punish any man of independent views who
disobeyed the orders of the general committee. Such sum-
mary, veiled notifications of the general committee were
seldom disregarded by those who profited or expected to
profit by politics. After toasting their " squaws and
" on 4 the society impressively made this
papooses July
toast " May regular nominations ever prevail "
: a
thrust at the method of Clinton's nomination and a warn-
ing for the future guidance of all Tammany men.
Tammany further attempted to counteract the im-
petus of the Clinton movement by touching at length
upon its own patriotism in the past and by stirring up
class hatreds. On the vital issues the Wigwam was silent ;
but in another long fulmination it recalled the
" sins " and
MS. Minutesof the Common Council, Vol. 52, pp. 75-78.

7 this agitation Jacob Barker, Judge Van Ness and M. M.
During
Noah repeatedly presented, in the public prints, arguments in favor
of using Tammany Hall as a court-room. We
shall have need to refer
to Barker again on another page.
1822 1825 67
" treason " of Clinton

against the Democratic party.
" He is it went on,
" and a friend
haughty in his manners,"
of the aristrocracy cold and distant to all who cannot
boast of wealth and family distinctions and selfish in all the
ends he aims at."
The partizans of Jackson carried the city. Presidential
electors were selected by the Legislature, and it is
still
therefore impossible to determine Jackson's vote. A

fusion between the Clintonites and the People's party
caused the defeat of most of Tammany's Assembly can-
didates, but the victors were Jackson men, and Clinton
himself had declared for Old Hickory. The full Jackson
strength was shown in the vote for the three Tammany
candidates for Congress, who were elected.
Clinton's victory was sweeping. The near completion
of the Erie Canal, for which he had labored so zealously
and which Tammany had opposed so pertinaciously, made
him the idol of the people, and he was again elected Gov-
ernor, carrying even New York City by 1,031 majority.
That eye was blind which could not see in the opening of
the canal the incalculable benefits Clinton had estimated
from the first. This great work secured as a virtual gift
to New York City the inland commerce of the vast empire
west of the mountains, no rival being able to contend for it.
The trade of the canal almost immediately increased the
city's business $60,000,000 annually, and year by year the
amount grew. Along its course a hundred new and thrifty
villages sprang into existence, and the State's wealth and
population went upward by leaps and bounds.
Compared with this illustrious achievement, a sum-
mary of the record of Clinton's antagonists, the Tam-
many leaders, makes but a poor showing. Contributing
to the development of democracy, for the most part, only
so far as it benefited themselves ; declining to take up even
the question of manhood suffrage until forced to, they
did little or nothing, even in the closer domain of the city,
for the good of their own time or of posterity. In the
years when Clinton was engaged in projecting and build-
ing the canal, they were too busy wrangling over offices or
cribbing at the public treasury to improve city conditions.
The streets were an abomination of filth. The local
authorities long refused, despite public pressure, to take
steps to have the city furnished with pure water. As a re-
sult of the bad water of a private corporation and the
uncleanliness of the streets, yellow fever and cholera had
several times devastated the city, and in one year (1822) it
was so deserted that grass grew in the streets. To make
up for municipal deficits the city fathers continued sell-
ing the public land, that might have been made into parks
or retained for future uses, buying it in as individuals.
Between 1813 and 1819, according to the admission of
the Tammany organ in the latter year, $440,347 worth
of land, whose present value probably amounts to tens of
8
millions of dollars, was thus fraudulently disposed of.
In a word, their records, public and private, furnish an
extreme contrast to the record of Clinton, who, while a
politician when need be, gave his years and his talents
to the completion of a public work of the greatest utility
and importance.
s For a part of this time, it should be stated, the Federalists were
in power.
CHAPTER IX
THE JACKSON ELEMENT VICTORIOUS
1825-1828
strife had not^ entirely smothered the

demand for improvement in the city government. 1
FACTIONAL
The arbitrary powers of the Common Council, com-
posed, as it was, of one Board in which sat both Aldermen
and Assistant Aldermen, excited general dissatisfaction.
Having the power of making assessments, ordering public
improvements, and disposing of the public property at
will, the Aldermen made no detailed account of their ex-
penditures. One writer advised the Aldermen to curtail
some of their own extravagances " Why not stop," he
:
wrote,
" in their career of
eating the most unreasonable and costly suppers
every time they meet on public business and drinking such wines as
they never in the course of their lives tasted before; choice wines
that cost $40 a dozen? O but I will soon tell a tale that will make
!
our citizens stare. I understand that our city expenses are now
nearly $2,000 a day."
The Stateconstitution of 1821-22 had granted the

Common Council greater powers than before in vacating
and filling important offices in the city. In 1823 the
city debt was rising, and though the Common Council pro-
fessed to attempt retrenchment, no real effort was made,
the fathers being loth to give over the voting of pretended
improvements out of which they benefited as individual
contractors. The agitation continuing, the Legislature,
i William Paulding was succeeded by Philip Hone (1825-26), who
in turn was followed by Paulding (1826-29).
in April, 1824,had passed a law to " erect " two separate
chambers a Board of Aldermen to be elected from
among the freeholders for two years, and a Board of
Assistants for one year, with concurrent powers. The
opponents of the new branch termed it derisively the
" House of Lords " and denounced its aristocratic nature.
The amendment was defeated by the radicals in June,
though the interest in it was slight. Over 8,000 electors
failed to vote.
Other schemes for municipal reform dissolved in talk,
and by the Spring of 1825 public attention became con-
centrated again on the matter of Jackson's candidacy
for the office of President. Barely had John Quincy
Adams been inaugurated when Tammany set about to
make Jackson his successor. On May 12 Sachem
Nicholas Schureman, at the anniversary celebration of
the society, gave this toast: "Jackson, the Hero of
New Orleans, our next President." Again, on July 4, the
2
principal toast was to Jackson.
The Jackson campaign went energetically on. But it
was rudely interrupted during the following Autumn by a
fresh series of revelations regarding certain Tammany
chieftains. The legislative favoritism by which Jacob
Barker was enabled to secure advantages for his Ex-
3
change Bank (1818) now culminated in a grave public
scandal. In September, 1826, Barker, Henry Eckford,
another of the line of Sachems Matthew L. Davis, lately
;
Grand Sachem, and several other accomplices were prin-

cipals in one of the most extended and sensational trials
which the city had known. They stood charged with
swindles aggregating several million dollars. The Grand
Jury's indictment of September 15 charged them, and also
2 This
anniversary was the first on which the society, since its for-
mation, did not march in the streets and go to church. Each
"
brother," wearing a bucktail in front of his hat, went instead to the
great council chamber, where the Declaration of Independence was
read by Matthew L. Davis.
a See
Chapter vi.
1825 1828 71
Mark Spencer, William P. Rathbone, Thomas Vermilyea

and others, with defrauding the Mechanics' Fire Insurance
Company of 1,000 shares of its own capital stock, 1,000
shares of United States Bank stock and $50,000 ; the Ful-
ton Bank of 2,000 shares of its own capital stock and
$50,000; the Tradesmen's Bank of 2,000 shares of its
own capital stock and $50,000; the Morris Canal and
Banking Company of 2,000 shares of its own capital
stock and $50,000 ; and the Life and Fire Insurance Com-
pany of 2,000 shares of its own capital stock. The in-
dictment further charged these men with obtaining
fraudulently 1,000 promissory notes for the amount of
nearly $100 each, belonging to the Fulton Bank; and the
same number of notes for similar sums belonging re-
spectively to the Tradesmen's Bank, the Morris Canal and
Banking Company, and the Life and Fire Insurance Com-
pany, and with additionally obtaining by fraud the sum
of $50,000, the property of Henry Barclay, George Bar-
4
clay and others.
A disagreement of the jury marked the first trial; the
second brought a conviction of the prisoners. Tammany
Hall was unwilling to see any of its leaders go to prison.
As soon as the storm of popular indignation blew over, a
new trial was had for Davis, and owing to strong political
influence his acquittal was the outcome. Barker was again
convicted, but, thanks to the discreet use of his money,
never saw a cell. He went South and lived on till over
5
ninety years of age. Eckford fled to the Orient and died
in Syria. The severity of the law fell on the minor
offenders, two of whom, Mowatt and Hyatt, went to prison
for two years, and the Lambert brothers for one year.
The trial over, public interest again centered on the
Presidential struggle. Alive to the necessity of winning
*Minutes of the Oyer and Terminer, Vol. 6, pp. 3-137.
5Barker maintained that a conspiracy had been formed against him.
A pamphlet entitled, Jacob Barker's Letters Developing the Con-
spiracy Formed in 1826 for His Ruin, was extensively circulated about
this time or later.
Tammany to his interest, President Adams chose most of
his New York appointees from its organization, thereby
creating in that body an alert clique of devoted par-

tizans. If the leaders had been able to direct the organ-
ization absolutely, Adams might have bribed nearly all of
them with offices, favors or promises, but there were other
deciding factors. The first was the mass of the Demo-
crats who favored Jackson and forced most of the leaders
to his support. The second was the organizing genius of
Martin Van Buren. He was a member of the Tammany
Society, and in September, 1827, he visited New York
to compose the discord in the general committee, which was
divided equally on the question of the Presidency, although
in the society itself a majority was for Jackson. The
Jackson men quickly gained predominant influence. On
September 27 the general committee recommended in a
" fellow-citizens " that when
public address to its they met
in their wards, they should elect such citizens only, to rep-
resent them in their different committees, as were favorable
to Jackson. The Adams men were enraged. 6 Col. James
Fairlie, a veteran of the Revolution; Benjamin Romaine,
Peter Sharpe, William Todd, W. H. Ireland, Abraham
Stagg, Peter Stagg and John L. Lawrence, known as
" the elite " of
Tammany Hall, and others, denounced
" Was such a
this action. power of proscription and
dictation ever delegated to or practised by any other
"
general committee? they asked in an address.
The ward primary elections on the night of October
3 were tumultuous. The Jackson men took possession
of the meeting rooms, installed their own chairmen and
passed resolutions, without allowing the Adams support-
ers a chance to be heard. Both factions then alternately
The action of the general committee had a sweeping national im-
"
portance. The State of New York represents the Democracy of the
Union; the City of New York gives tone to the State; the General
Committee govern the City." Quoted by " A Journalist
"
as applying
to these years in his Memoirs of James Gordon Bennett and His
Times, New York, 1855.
1825 1828 73
held meetings in Tammany Hall. So determined was the

struggle to get possession of the Wigwam that the Adams
men contrived to expel their opponents from it for one
day, and the Jackson men had to make their nominations
" the Coal Hole." At a later
in the cellar called meeting
of the Adams faction, embracing a group of old Federal-
ists, Col. Marinus Willett, a venerable Revolutionary
" the
patriot, who presided, spoke of danger and absurdity
of confiding the destinies of the country to a mere arbitrary
soldier." The meeting passed resolutions denouncing the
general committee majority and reiterating its support of
Adams. The Jackson men rallied to the Wigwam in force
and approved the ticket nominated in " the Coal Hole."
The nominees were for local offices and were themselves of
no particular importance. The great question was
whether New York City favored Jackson or Adams, and
the coming election was the accepted test.
The Jackson men made desperate efforts to carry the
city. Now were observable the effects brought about by
the suffrage changes of 1822 and 1826. The formerly dis-
inherited class had become attached to Tammany Hall,
and the organization, entirely reversing its exclusive native
policy, declared for a reduction of the five-year naturaliza-

tion period. From that time forth the patronage of aliens
became a settled policy of Tammany. In this election
these aliens exercised a powerful influence, materially aid-
ing Jackson.
Cases of fraud and violence had hitherto been frequent ;
but nothing like the exhibition at the primaries and polls
in November, 1827, had ever been known. Cart-loads of
voters, many of whom had been in the country less than
three years, were used as repeaters in the different wards.
An instance was known of one cart-load of six men voting
at six different places. Other men boasted of having voted
three and four times. In an upper ward, where the
foreign population had full sway, an American found it
almost impossible to appear or vote at all. If he tried the
experiment, he was arrested immediately, his votes were

taken from him and Jackson votes put in his hands.
Many of the polling places had no challengers, and most
of the inspectors did duty for the Jackson ticket by a dis-
play of stout hickory branches. By such means the
Jackson men rolled up in the city a majority of nearly
five thousand.
Reflective citizens of both parties were alarmed and
humiliated by the events of the election. The public
conscience was not used to the indiscriminate stuffing of
ballot boxes. To the revelations of this election can be
traced the origin of the Native American party, whose
"
cry that political privileges should belong exclusively
" even now was
to the natives of the country heard.
Though a year before the time for choosing a Presi-
dent, the result of this election strongly indicated the
choice of Jackson and caused great exultation and en-
couragement among his supporters in other cities. In
the Winter of 1827, Tammany sent a delegation to visit
him at New Orleans, ostensibly to present an address on
the anniversary of the battle of New Orleans, but in
reality, it was supposed, to confer with him on the work
to be done in his behalf. By the beginning of 1828 the
organization was controlled wholly by Jackson men. Not
a nomination, however petty, was made of a man not
known to be his partizan. The great body of Democrats
approved this course on the ground that Jackson's elec-
tion was the real issue, and that local issues were
subordinate for the time. When the Adams men tried to
hold anti-Jackson meetings in the Wigwam, the Sachems
stepped forward and exercised a long dormant power
a power which explains the real connection between the
society and the organization, and which it frequently used
later against hostile factions. Through pressure, the
lesseeof Tammany Hall sold to the society his lease.
This secured, the society put in charge of the building
1825 1828 75
(which was fitted in part as a hotel as well as a hall) an-

other person, instructed not to let any room to the Adams
committee. The Adams men asked by what right a
" charitable and benevolent " interfered in
society politics.
But, being excluded, they could no longer claim they repre-
sented Tammany Hall a fatal loss to them and an im-
portant advantage to the Jackson men, who now were the
only Tammany organization. The Adams committees
were thus shut off from holding any meetings in the hall.
With the Adams committees put out, the Jackson men
began to quarrel among themselves for local and State
nominations. The Wigwam's inveterate foe, De Witt
Clinton, was out of the way, he having died on February
11, 1828, while still Governor. As nominations continued
to be looked upon as almost certainly resulting in election,
there was a swarm of candidates. 7 The ambitions of few
of these were gratified. The nominations were settled be-
forehand by a small clique, headed, it was said, by M. M.
Noah.
Of a voting population of 25,000, Tammany Hall se-
cured a majority of 5,831 for Jackson 8 and elected
all its candidates except one. That hundreds, if not
thousands, of illegal votes were counted was admitted.
Boys of 19 and 20 years of age voted and were employed
to electioneer for the Jackson ticket. On the other hand,
raftsmen just arrived from the interior and men who had
no homes were gathered in bunches and sent to swell the
T "Should the
Independent electors," wrote one of them, Aaron
Sergeant, "give me a nomination (for Sheriff) (as there will be
several candidates for the office) I shall succeed by a handsome ma-
jority. The Sons of Erin are my most particular friends. I rely with
confidence on their support.
"
Knowing the office to be one worth $10,000 per annum, should I be
elected, I shall give one-third of the income of this office to be divided
equally to [among] the several charitable Religious Societies in the
city. My claims for the office are, that I am a citizen born, and my
father one of the Patriots of the Revolution for seven long years . . .*
s This was the first election in the State in
which Presidential elec-
tors were voted on by the people.
Adams vote, it is doubtful whether their votes were
though
counted. For the first time in city elections money was
used to influence voting.
The Common Council soon after removed every office-
holder not of the Jackson faith. As a matter of course,
Jackson rewarded his friends. He made Samuel Swart-
wout Collector of the Port and filled every Federal local
post with his Tammany adherents.
CHAPTER X
1829-1830
1829 the indignation against the Tammany leaders

" "
crystallized in a purifying movement. Under the
IN direction of its banker, merchant and lawyer leaders,
Tammany Hall had been made a medium for either coerc-
ing or bribing the Legislature or the Common Council into
passing dozens of bank charters and franchises with
scarcely any provision for compensation to either State
or city. 1 In 1819 the Tammany Society, in one of its
pompous addresses, had recited the speculative spirit and
consequent distress brought about by the multiplication
of incorporated banks, and suggested that the Legislature
adopt a prompt and decisive remedy tending to the aboli-
tion of those institutions. This sounded well ; but at that
very time, as before and after, the Sachems were lobby-
ing at Albany for charters of banks of which they became
presidents or directors. By one means or another these
banks yielded fortunes to their owners ; but the currency
issued by them almost invariably depreciated. The labor-
ing classes on whom this bad private money was imposed
complained of suffering severely. Each year, besides, wit-
"
i The members [of the Legislature] themselves sometimes partici-
pated in the benefits growing out of charters created by their own
votes; ... if ten banks were chartered at one session, twenty must
be chartered the next and thirty the next. The cormorants could
never be gorged. If at one session you bought off a pack of greedy
lobby agents they returned with increased numbers and more
. . .
voracious appetite." Hammond, Vol. II, pp. 447-48.

Four conspicuous " charter dealers " at Albany were Sachems Sam-
uel B. Romaine, Michael Ulshoeffer, Peter Sharpe and Abraham
Stagg, all powerful organization leaders.
77
nessed an increase in the number of chartered monopo-
lies* armed with formidable powers for long periods,
or practically in perpetuity. 2 To the first gas company,
in May, 1823, the Common Council had granted the ex-
clusive right to light all the streets south of Grand street
for thirty years, without returns of any kind to the city. 3
At the rate at which the city was expanding, this was a
concession of immense value, and formed one of the sub-
jects of complaint in 1829.
While laws were instituted to create a money aris-
tocracy, the old debt and other laws bearing on the work-
ing classes were not changed. No attempt was made to
improve a condition which allowed a dishonest contractor
to put up a building or a series of buildings, collect his
money and then swindle his laborers out of their wages.
The local administration, moreover, continued corrupt. It
was freely charged at this time that $250,000 of city
money was being stolen outright every year. The city
charter drafted and adopted in 182930 contained pro-
visions which, it was thought, might remedy matters.
It created two bodies of the Common Council the Al-
dermen and Assistant Aldermen and gave each a nega-
tive upon the propositions of the other, vesting a supreme
veto power in the Mayor. It again separated the elec-
tion of the Common Council from the general election.
It abolished secret contracts and compelled all resolutions
involving appropriations of public money or placing
taxes or assessments to be advertised, and included other
precautionary measures against corruption. But it
opposed the public wish in still vesting the appointment

of the Mayor in the Common Council.
To battle against the prevailing injustices the Mechan-
ics'or Workingmen's party was formed. Its chief in-
spiration was Robert Dale Owen, son of the famous
Robert Owen. " Dale " Owen, as he was familiarly
2 Hammond, Vol. II, pp. 447-48.
8 MS. Minutes of the Common Council, Vol. 48, pp. 59-60.
1829 1830 79
known, and others had recently returned to the city after

an unsuccessful experiment at cooperative colonizing at
New Harmony, Indiana, and a number of bright and
ardent intellects gathered about him. Boldly declaring
against the private and exclusive possession of the soil
and against the hereditary transmission of property, the
new party won over a large part of the laboring element.
"
Resolved," ran its resolutions adopted at Military Hall,
October 19, 1829,
'*
in the opinion of this meeting, that the first appropriation of the
soil of the State to private and exclusive possession was eminently
and barbarously unjust. That it was substantially feudal in its
character, inasmuch as those who received enormous and unequal
possessions were lords and those who received little or nothing were
vassals. That hereditary transmission of wealth on the one hand
and poverty on the other, has brought down to the present genera-
tion all the evils of the feudal system, and that, in our opinion, is
the prime source of all our calamities."
After declaring that the Workingmen's party would

oppose all exclusive privileges, monopolies and exemp-
tions, the resolutions proceeded:

"
We consider it an exclusive privilege for one portion of the com-
munity to have the means of education in colleges while another is
restricted to common schools, or perhaps, by extreme poverty, even
deprived of the limited education to be acquired in those establish-
ments. Our voice, therefore, shall be raised in favor of a system
of education which shall be equally open to all, as in a real republic
it should be."
The banks, too, came in for a share of the denunciation.

The bankers were styled " the greatest knaves, impostors
and paupers of the age." The resolutions continued:
" As
banking is now conducted, the owners of the banks receive
annually of the people of this State not less than two millions of
dollars in their paper money (and it might as well be pewter money)
for which there is and can be nothing provided for its redemption
on demand . . ."
The Workingmen put a full ticket in the field.
Tammany by some of the same men

Hall, dominated
and interests denounced by the Workingmen's party,
opened a campaign of abuse. Commercial and banking

men outside the Wigwamjoined ardently in the cam-
paign. The new movement was declared to be a mush-
room party, led by designing men, whose motives were
destructive. The Evening Post, which represented the
commercial element and which sided with Tammany in
opposition to the new party, said that it remained for the
really worthy mechanics who might have associated acci-
dentally with that party, to separate themselves from it,
now that its designs and doctrines were known. The
Courier and Enquirer, partly owned and edited by Noah, 4
styled the Workingmen's party an infidel ticket, hostile
to the morals, to the institutions of society and the rights
of property. The Tammany Hall, or to speak more
technically, the Democratic-Republican General Com-
mittee, declaiming on the virtues of Jackson and Democ-
racy, advised all good men, and especially all self-respect-
ing laborers, not to vote the Workingmen's ticket.
Nevertheless, its principles made such an impression
that in November it polled over 6,000 votes, while Tam-
many, with its compact organization, could claim little
more than 11,000 votes. It was well settled that numbers
of Whig workingmen voted the new party's ticket; and
that the rich Whigs secretly worked for the success of
Tammany Hall, whose ticket was almost entirely success-
ful, though the Workingmen elected Ebenezer Ford to
the Assembly.
Tammany was dismayed at the new party's strength,
and determined to destroy it by championing one of the
reform measures demanded. In January, 1830, a bill for
the better security of mechanics and other laborers of
New York City was introduced by Silas M. Stillwell. The
Tammany men immediately took it up as if it were their
* Noah, after falling into financial difficulties, had been ousted from
the editorship of the National Advocate and had now become asso-
ciated with his former political enemy, James Watson Webb, in the
conduct of the Courier and Enquirer.
1829 1830 81
own, urged its passage and secured the credit of

its adop-
tion, when in April, much emasculated,

became a law.
it
It required, under penalties, the owner of a building to

retain from the contractor the amount due to the
mechanics employed thereon. By exploiting this per-
formance to the utmost, Tammany succeeded in making
some inroads on the Workingmen's party. The organ-
ization leaders had recognized that it was time they did
something for the laboring classes. They were fast los-
ing caste with even independent Democrats of means,
because of their subservience to the aristocracy and of the
common knowledge of the illegitimate ways in which they
were amassing wealth.
One result of the Workingmen's movement was the fail-
ure of the Wigwam to secure a majority in the Common
Council. This seemed to frustrate the design to reelect,
as Mayor, Walter Bowne (Grand Sachem in 1820 and
1831). Fourteen Aldermen and Assistants were opposed
to Bowne, aijd thirteen favored him. There was but one
expedient calculated to reelect him, and to this Tammany
Hall resorted. Bowne, as presiding officer of the Council,
held that the constitution permitted him to vote for the
office of Mayor.
" I will
persist in this opinion even
though the board decide against me," he said. To pre-
vent a vote being taken, seven of Bowne's opponents with-
drew on December 28, 1829. They went back on Jan-
uary 6, 1830, when Tammany managed to reelect Bowne
by one vote. How this vote was obtained was a mystery.
Fourteen members declared under oath that they had
voted for Thomas R. Smith, Bowne's opponent. 5 Charges
of bribery were made, and an investigating committee was
appointed on January 11 ; but as this committee was com-
5 MS. Minutes of the Common Council, Vol. 70, p. 311. Shortly
after this the Wigwam men removed Smith from his
post of Commis-
sioner of the Almshouse for opposing Bowne. So
great was the haste
to oust him, before the Aldermen went out of office, that one of the
board seconded the motion for his removal before the motion was
made.
posed of Bowne's own partizans, it announced its inability

to find proofs. Meanwhile the general committee 6 had
issued a loftily worded manifesto saying that it (the
committee) was established and was maintained to watch
over the political interests of the Democratic-Republicans
of the city and
" to
expose and repel the insidious and
open machinations of their enemies," that it could not
discover anything wrong in the conduct of the Chief
"
Magistrate of the city, and that it repelled the accusa-
tions of his enemies."
The Workingmen's party continued its agitation, and
prepared for another campaign. In the meantime the
Wigwam's agents skilfully went about fomenting divisions,
with the result that three tickets, all purporting to be
the genuine Workingmen's, were put into the field in
October, 1830. One was that of the "Clay Working-
men " ; it was composed of a medley of admirers of Clay,
the owners of stock in various great manufacturing estab-
lishments, workingmen who believed in a protective tariff,
7
Whigs, and a bunch of hack politicians who had taken
up the Workingmen's movement for selfish ends. The
second was that of a fragment of the Workingmen's
party of the year before, standing resolutely for their
principles and containing no suspicious politicians or
monopolists. The third was that of the Agrarian party,
embracing a few individuals of views too advanced even
for the Workingmen's party.
The general committee was now composed of thirty-six members,

mainly the directors in banking and other companies. Remonstrances
at this time were frequent that its important proceedings were a
sealed book to the electors. Among other things it dictated to the
wards not only when, but where, they should meet.
7 The term "
"
Whig had now come to have a definite party meaning,
being used as a popular designation of the group led by John Quincy
Adams and Henry Clay, officially known (1828-36) as the National
Republican party. The term is first found in American politics ap-
plied to the Separatists during the Revolution. About 1808 it was
taken by the anti-Burr faction of the Democratic-Republican party.
1829 1830 83
8
Tothe Clay Workingmen's party Tammany Hall
little attention, since it was made up mainly of Whigs
gave
who had always, under different names, been opposed to
the organization. But the genuine movement Tammany
Hall covered with abuse. " Look, fellow-citizens," said
the address of the
"
general nominating committee,"
" and mark the
upon the political horizon fatal signs prognosticating
evils of a dire and fatal nature! Associations and political sects
of a new and dangerous character have lately stalked into existence,
menacing the welfare and good order of society. These associa-
tions . have assumed to represent two of the most useful and
. .
respectable classes of our citizens our Workingmen and Mechan-

ics. . Confide in them, and when they have gained their ends they
. .
will treat you with derision and scorn! Then rally round your an-
cient and trusty friends and remember that honest men and good
citizens never assume false names nor fight under borrowed ban-
ners!"
To display its devotion to the cause of Democracy,

Tammany Hall celebrated, on November 26, the revolu-
tion in France. It persuaded former President James
Monroe to preside in Tammany Hall at the preliminary
arrangements, and made a studied parade of its zeal.
There was a procession, Samuel Swartwout acting as
grand marshal. Monroe, in a feeble state of health, was
brought in a stage to Washington Square, where for ten
minutes he looked on. A banquet, the usual high-flown
speeches, and fireworks followed.
The election was favorable to Tammany. About 3,800
workingmen who had supported the independent move-
ment the previous year, went back to Tammany, because
of its advocacy of the mechanics' lien law. The average
Tammany plurality was 3,000. The real Workingmen's
ticket polled a vote of about 2,200; the Clay Working-
men's ticket a little above 7,000, and the Agrarian, 116.
s The men of this
party, as a rule, voted the Anti-Masonic State
ticket. While the Anti-Masonic party occasioned political commo-
tion in the State, there is no evidence that it had any perceptible effect
on Tammany's career.
For the next few years the contest of Jackson with the
United States Bank drew together the energies of all
Democrats supporting him. Dropping local contests,
they united to renew his power. For the time, the Work-
ingmen's movement ceased to exist.
CHAPTER XI
TAMMANT AND THE BANK CONTEST
1831-1834
lost no time in announcing its intention

to support the renomination of Jackson. The
TAMMANY general committee, on March 3, 1831, unani-
mously passed a resolution approving of his renomination
by the Democratic members of the Legislature. Seven
days later the General Committee of Democratic Young
Men and the ward committees acted likewise.
Since the campaign of 1800 there had not been a Presi-
dential contest in which the masses joined with such
enthusiasm. Although the national election was more
than 18 months distant, the excitement was intense. The
late Workingmen's party and Tammany men fraternized.
The ward resolutions were full of fire, the meetings
spirited. The Democratic electors of the Sixth Ward
" " on March
friendly to regular nominations resolved,
15:
**. That aristocracy in all its forms is odious to us as Demo-

. .
cratic-Republicans, and that of all aristocracies an aristocracy of

wealth, grinding the faces of the poor and devouring the substance
of the people, is the most alarming. That we regard an incorpor-
ated association of rich men wielding the whole monied capital of
the country as dangerous to our rights and liberties. That we con-
sider the next Presidential election as substantially a contest be-
tween the people on one side and the monied aristocracy of the
country on the other." 1
The organization's first object was to gain a majority

of the local offices in the Spring election of 1831 on the
Jackson issue. The National Republican party, recently
i Advertisement in the New York Evening Post, March 17, 1831.
85
organized in New York City on the same general lines as

Tammany Hall, and headed by Clarkson Crolius, a former
Grand Sachem, set out to crush the Jackson movement.
If a defeat could be administered to it at this time, the
practical effect would be great ; New York would possibly
influence the entire Union. To accomplish this, the
National Republicans tried to divert the issue to local
lines and agitated for the election of the Mayor by the
people. The Tammany men joined issue at once, and in

February, 1831, the Common Council committee on appli-
cation, composed chiefly of Tammany men, reported ad-
versely on a motion to suggest to the Legislature a re-
vision of the charter. The time was declared to be
inexpedient for such an innovation, one Tammany Alder-
man, Thomas T. Woodruff, declaring, when the matter
again came up, on April 8, that the people could not be
trusted with the choice of that important official. The
National Republicans replied by denouncing the Common
Council for its lavish expenditures of public money, its
distribution of favors in the shape of " jobs " and con-
tracts among a few retainers whose sole merits lay in
their close relationship to certain managing members of
the board, and for its efforts to prevent the people from
2
having the right to elect their own Mayor.
The opposition to Tammany was ineffectual. In the
ensuing election, not less than 22 of the 28 members
chosen for the new double-chamber Common Council were
Tammany men, elected solely upon their pledge of alle-
giance to the national and State administrations. The
first trial of the new charter, therefore, showed that the
separation of municipal from general elections did not

prevent the division of the voters on national party lines.
The extent of this preliminary Jackson victory made a
sensation throughout the Union and caused gloom among
the United States Bank supporters.
2 Resolutions of the Sixth Ward Anti-Tammany Republicans,
March 24, 1831.
1831 1834 87
The prestige ofTammany Hall was now overwhelming ;
its influence upon the Democratic party, great before,

became greater. No aspirant for public favor could ig-
nore its demands and decrees. When, on May 12, the
society held an imposing celebration of the forty-second
anniversary of its founding, politicians from the highest
to the lowest, national and local, four hundred and over,
crowded there with words of flattery. Lewis Cass, Na-
thaniel P. Tallmadge, the Governor and Lieutenant-
Governor of the State of New York; members of the
National Senate and of the House of Representatives
these and the rest were glad to avail themselves of the
invitation. William Mooney was there, very old and
feeble, beaming with pride at the power of the institution
he had founded. 3 After the banquet, which was described
" of the
in the old Indian terms, as consisting game of the
forest, the fish of the lakes, the fruits of the season and
the waters of the great spring," came the reading of
"
letters. Jackson wrote :
Nothing could afford me
greater gratification than to participate with your an-
cient and honorable society of Republicans on such an
occasion," but that press of official duties kept him away.
A letter of regret, in high-flown and laudatory diction,
from Secretary of State Martin Van Buren followed.
James Watson Webb proposed this toast " Martin Van
:
Buren, the Grand Sachem of the Eagle Tribe The

Great Spirit is pleased with his faithful support of the
Great Grand Sachem of the Nation and smiles graciously
upon the sages and warriors of the tribe who aim to
elevate their chief in 1836 to the highest station in the
country." This was greeted by nine cheers, and in-
stantly disclosed Tammany's choice for Jackson's succes-
sor in 1836- The only troublous note was furnished by
Duff Green, who sprang this toast upon the surprised
a
Mooney passed away the following November. Tammany passed
panegyric 'resolutions on his character, and organized a large funeral
procession which escorted his body to the grave.
" De Witt
Clinton His friends honor his
gathering :
memory enemies dare not assail it " By " ene-

his !
" he referred to those

mies present ; they retorted that he
was an intruder, was not invited, and had not paid for his
4
ticket. Mayor Bowne was then installed as Grand
Sachem in place of Stephen Allen, the former Mayor.
The Fall election of 1831 also turned upon national
issues. Upon Jackson's popularity nearly every Demo-
cratic candidate in New York city was elected by an
average majority of 6,000. There were rumors of ille-
gal voting, but no proof was submitted. The Wigwam
was so overjoyed at the result that a banquet was held on
November 21, presided over by Benjamin Bailey, who for
a dozen years had been chairman of the general commit-
tee. He had reached his seventy-second year and could
claim little political influence. But as a captain in the
Revolutionary army, and as one of those confined in the
Jersey prison ships, the Tammany chiefs considered him
a valuable figurehead. Gen. Wool, Cols. Twiggs and
Crogham and five hundred men of various importance
spent the night in the Wigwam drinking to Jackson, Tam-
many Hall and coming victory.
Not only did Tammany take the initiative in support-
ing Jackson, but it body to nominate Van
was the first
Buren for Vice-President. On the news of the Senate's
rejection of Van Buren as Minister to England, an indig-
nation meeting was held in Tammany Hall, January 30,
1832, this being the opening expression of public opinion.
Van Buren was suggested for Vice-President, and the
Wigwam gathering showed its satisfaction by repeated
5
cheers. Twenty-four leading Tammany men drew up a
* Green was an influential and intimate friend of Jackson and a
member of " Kitchen Cabinet." He had come
his up from Washing-
ton to attend the banquet as one of Jackson's personal representatives.
5 The Courier and
Enquirer, owned by Webb and Noah, promptly
came out with this ticket in large black type upon its editorial page:
For President, Andrew Jackson. For Vice-President, Martin Van
Buren.
1831 1834 89
letter containing their sentiments on Van Buren's rejec-

tion, and on May 31 an outpouring in the Wigwam ap-
proved his nomination.
Then followed a striking revelation, showing the ve-
nality of some of Tammany's leaders. The United States
Bank officials began bargaining for the betrayal of Jack-
son. The Courier and Enquirer suddenly abandoned him
for the support of the bank candidates, giving as a rea-
" fearful
son the fear of the consequences of revolution,
anarchy and despotism," which assuredly would ensue if
Jackson were reelected. The real reason was that Webb
and Noah, as revealed by a Congressional investigation, 6
had borrowed directly and indirectly $50,000 from the
United States Bank, which had now called them to time.
Mayor Bowne was their sponsor to Nicholas Biddle, head
of the bank. Some of the other Tammany leaders, it
appeared, had been for years the bank's retainers. Rep-
resentative Churchill C. Cambreleng enjoyed a place on
its pay rolls. Gulian C. Verplanck, another of the Wig-
wam's representatives in Congress, had voted in its behalf,
and Stephen Allen, in the State Senate, had voted for a
resolution in its favor. Peter Sharpe, Ogden Edwards, 7
William H. Ireland, John Morss all influential men in
times past now vigorously opposed Jackson, and the
services of other Tammany chiefs were secured.
Two influences, however, prevented the organization
leaders from betraying the Democratic cause one the
common people, the other 'he owners of the State banks,
The First Session of the Twenty-Second Congress, Vol. IV., con-
taining reports from Nos. 460 to 463, "Washington, 1831.
7 Edwards was for
many years a person of great power in the or-
ganization. In 1821, while Counsel to the Board of Aldermen, a sal-
aried office, he was specifically charged with having mulcted the city
out of $5,414 as a payment for a few hours' service in arranging the
details of a delinquent tax sale. Further charges credited him with
having cleaned up more than $50,000 in five years, through various
pickings connected with his office. Such, however, was his influence,
that he not only escaped prosecution, but retained an unimpaired
prestige in the organization.
whose self-interest called for the speedy downfall of the
United States Bank. Finding that they could not con-
trol the Wigwam, the Tammany agents of that bank
seceded, and joined the National Republicans. The State
Bank men remained in the organization and labored for
Jackson, with no other idea than that their institutions
would benefit in the distribution of Government funds if
the United States Bank were put down. The course of
the leaders remaining in Tammany smacked of double deal-
ing. Refusing to renominate Verplanck, they put in his
place Dudley Selden, who had borrowed $8,000 from the
United States Bank, but who had professed to support
Jackson's veto. It looked as though certain potent in-
fluences were operating in Tammany Hall for the election
of a pro-bank Congress, whoever might be chosen Presi-
dent.
The Tammany ward organizations, assisted by the men
of the late Workingmen's party, appointed vigilance com-
mittees to undo any mischief the leaders might attempt,
and to electioneer for Jackson's success. So enthusiastic
was the Jackson feeling that many politicians of note,
understanding itsdepth and having a care for their polit-
ical futures, made haste to change front. Almost daily
the people were rallied to the Wigwam by the beating of
drums. A few years before, a hickory tree had been
planted in front of the Wigwam now, on October 30, a
;
second was put there, and a barrel of beer was used to

moisten its roots.
Both sides were guilty of election frauds. Votes were
bought at the rate of $5 each, most of the buying being
done by the National Republicans, who were supplied with
abundant resources. The National Republicans, more-
over, had sought to bribe certain men with the promise of
offices, and on the three election days they foisted upon
the voters a Jackson electoral ticket containing forty-
three names, instead of the legal number, forty-two,
thereby invalidating each of these ballots voted. This
1831 1834 91
trick, it was calculated, lost to Jackson more than a

thousand votes. Of a total of 30,474 votes, Tammany,
carried the city by 5,620 majority. The Wigwam for
many successive nights was filled with celebrating crowds.
Jackson gave a conspicuously public display of his recog-
nition of Tammany's invaluable services, when, on the
evening of June 13, 1833, he visited the society, attended
by the Vice-President, Secretary Woodbury, Gov. Wil-
liam L. Marcy, the Mayor, and the members of the Com-
mon Council.
The United States Bank supporters did not surrender
with Jackson's reelection. They exerted themselves to
influence Congress by means of a defeat for the anti-bank
forces in New York City in the Fall election of 1833.
Tammany Hall during the campaign sent out runners
ordering every office-holder to his electioneering post.
Vigorous meetings were held, and all the secret influences
of the general committee were employed. On the other
hand, merchants laid aside their ruffled shirts and broad-
cloth coats, put on their roundabouts and worked at the
polls on the three election days for the Whig ticket.
Tammany carried the city by between 2,000 and 3,000
majority. Touching this and previous elections a com-
mittee of Assistant Aldermen reported on February 10,
1834: "That frauds have been practised at the polls,
the committee are convinced. At any rate, a universal
and deep conviction prevails among our citizens that
tricks have been resorted to for the purpose of defeating
the election of one candidate and securing that of an-
other." It was further set forth that persons were
brought up to vote who were not citizens of the United
States nor qualified to vote in the State. Others voted in
more than one ward. Voters also were transferred over-
night from a sure to a doubtful ward.
8
No remedy fol-
lowed the report.
s Documents of the Board of Aldermen and Assistant Aldermen,
1834, No. 82.
The Spring election of 1834, though local, again
turned upon national issues. For the first time in the
history of the city, the Mayor was to be elected by the
people. The growth of public opinion had been such that
the Legislature was forced, in 1833, to grant this reform.
The contending hosts were swayed, first, by the ques-
tion of the United States Bank, and second, by the
spoils. The merchants shut their shops and sent their
whole body of clerks and laboring men to surround the
polls and influence voters against Tammany Hall. The
United States Bank spread abroad the cry of " panic."
If its directors could show that public opinion in the fore-
most city in the Union had altered so as to favor the con-
tinuation of the bank charter, then they could use that as
a good basis for influencing Congress. There was no con-
cealment of coercion of voters; the weak, the timid, the
fearful were overawed by the increasing clamor of paid
newspapers that the destruction of the United States
Bank meant " widespread revulsion of trade and everlast-
ing injury to the poor." In fact, a general depression
of business was produced. row began in the " bloody
A
ould Sixth," by the breaking of some ballot boxes. Both
parties armed with stones and bludgeons, and turned the
scene into one of violence. The riot became general. A
crowd, composed chiefly of Whigs, ransacked gun-shops
in Broadway and made for the State arsenal at Elm and
Franklin streets. Rumors of their intentions spreading,
a gathering of peaceably inclined citizens arrived before
them and held the arsenal until the militia hastened there
and restored order. 9
Cornelius W. Lawrence, the Tammany candidate, was
declared elected by 181 votes out of a total of nearly
10
35,000 over Gulian G. Verplanck, who had gone over to
the Whigs. Verplanck never ceased to contend that he
e Documents of the Board of Alderman, 1839, No. 29.
10 Lawrence, 17,576; Verplanck, 17,395; blank and scattering, 18;
total, 34,989.
1831 1834 93
had been defrauded of the The Whigs obtained a

office.
majority in the Common

Council, 17 members to the Wig-
wam's 15, and joyfully said that Tammany Hall in elect-
ing the Mayor had the shadow ; while they, in securing the
corporation, had the substance. With the Common
Council they could carry the whole patronage of the city,
amounting to more than $1,000,000 a year.
This election demonstrated clearly that the propertied
classes as a whole were combined against the laborers,
mechanics, farmers and producing classes generally, and
that they were as much concerned over the spoils of office
as was the most rabid Tammany man. As a protest
against the indifference of the local leaders of both parties
to the real interests of the people, and to put a stop to
the granting of special privileges, the Equal Rights party
now came into existence.
CHAPTER XII
THE EQUAL EIGHTS PAETY
1834-1837
Equal Rights movement, which began its ac-

THE Tammany organization, was vir-
tivity inside the
tually a moral, then a political, revival of the
Workingmen's movement. Its principles, however, were
less radical, and its demands more moderate. It advo-
cated the equal rights of every citizen in his person and
property and in their management; declared unqualified
and uncompromising opposition to bank notes as a circu-
lating medium, because gold and silver were the only safe
and constitutional currency, and a like opposition to all
monopolies by legislation. It also announced hostility
"
to the dangerous and unconstitutional creation of
vested rights by legislation, because these were a usurp-
ation of the people's sovereign rights," and asserted that
all laws or acts of incorporation passed by the Legisla-
ture could be rightfully altered or repealed
by its suc-
cessors. The Equal Rights movement comprised men of
various classes. Moses Jacques and Levi D. Slamm were
its principal leaders. To comprehend its nature, a brief
review of the causes which conspired to bring it into being
will be necessary.
Up to 1831 the repeal of the law for the imprisonment

of debtors had been a subject of almost constant agita-
tion by reformers and workingmen. Under this law more
than 10,000 persons, mainly unfortunate laborers, were
imprisoned annually in loathsome prisons, without in-
quiry as to their innocence or guilt, lying there at their
94
1834 1837 95
creditors' will, unsupplied city with any of the

by the
1
necessities of Tammany
life. Hall had taken no action
until 1831, when its leaders gave a belated approval to a
bill introduced in the Assembly, abolishing imprisonment
2
for debts of any sum except in the cases of non-residents.
This bill had become a law in that year; yet by 1833
the interest of Tammany's chiefs in the workingman had
died away to such an extent that the Assembly was al-
" a law
lowed to pass a measure entitled abolishing
imprisonment for debt," but reinstituting imprisonment
on all debts under $50, thus completely nullifying the law
so far as the poor were concerned.
The measure failed to become a law; but the sharp
practise shown in its wording, and in the means taken to
push it through the Assembly, disgusted the Equal Rights
men, and in their meetings they passed resolutions de-
nouncing the chiefs responsible therefor. Their resolu-
tions furthermore declared that the proceedings at Tam-
many Hall were a sealed book that a few men
; Wil-
liam Paxen Hallett, Elisha Tibbits, J. J. Roosevelt and
John Y. Cebra made up important nominations in
Wall street after the bankers had decided upon the can-
didates and then had the nominating committee accept
them.
Popular disaffection was increased by the manner in
which the Legislature and the Aldermen continued to
create corporations with enormous grants. The scan-
dals over the procurement of legislative charters, par-
ticularly bank charters, had for more than 25 years
aroused a growing indignation among the people. In
1 The minutes of the Common Council
covering these years show
continuous records of petitions from imprisoned debtors, praying for
fuel and the patching up of windows in the dead of Winter. Char-
itable societies were in existence to supply the jailed debtors with
food.
singular provision, by which non-residents were liable to im-
2 This
prisonment for debt, while the natives of the city were exempted, was
erased in 1840.
1805, shortly after the passage of the Merchants' Bank
charter, Peter Betts, an Assemblyman, declared in open
session of the lower house, that Luke Metcalfe, a fellow-
member, had sought to bribe him to vote for the meas-
ure. The price promised was 15 shares of the bank's
stock, valued at $50 each. Conflicting testimony was
given on the matter, and a motion was made to expel
Metcalfe; the house, however, retained him in his seat
3
by a vote of 37 to 16.
Charges of the same kind, affecting practically every
session of the Legislature, were common, though only
occasionally were they made the subject of official investi-
gation. In 1812, however, shortly after the Assembly,
forced by public criticism, had passed a resolution com-
pelling each member to pledge himself that he had neither
taken nor would take, " any reward or profit, direct or
4
indirect, for any vote on any measure," another scan-
dal arose. The Bank of America, with very moderate
assets of any sort, received a charter on a stated capi-
talization of $6,000,000, an enormous sum in those days.
Charges of corruption were bandied about, one Assem-
blyman, Silas Holmes, declaring under oath that the
sum of $500, " besides a handsome present," had been
offered him. A committee of the lower house listened to
testimony in the case, and then, by a decisive majority,
voted that the body was above suspicion. 5 But in a
pronunciamento to Gov. Tompkins during the same year
the same house graciously reported " We are well
:
aware that the number of charters for banking institu-

tions already granted has awakened general solicitude
and anxiety."
The Chemical Bank was a more modern instance. The
report of the joint legislative committee in 1824 had
shown that its promoters set apart $50,000 worth of
s Journal of the Senate and Assembly, 1805, pp. 351 and 399.
*
Ibid., 1812, p. 134.
B Journal of the Senate and Assembly, 1812, pp. 259-60.
1834 1837 97
6
stock at par value to buy the votes of members, Gen.
Robert Swartwout he who had defaulted for $68,000
in 1820 acting as one of the lobbyists and claiming
7
$5,000 for his services. Other scandals throwing strong
light on legislative practises were those of the ./Etna and
Chatham Fire Insurance Companies. The testimony
brought out in the investigation of these companies in
1826 showed that William J. Waldron (one of the line
of Grand Sachems) gave $20,000 in certificates of stock
to Gen. Jasper Ward, a State Senator, and $20,000 more
to various other persons to get the JEtna charter through
8
the Legislature. The Chatham charter, passed in 1822,
cost $20,000 in stock at par value, additional sums being
9
paid for the passage of certain amendments in 1824.
Ward wrote from Albany to a friend in the city, com-
plaining that the Jefferson Fire Insurance Company,
which secured a charter at the same time (1824), had
paid only 5 per cent, of what it had promised, giving
notes for the remainder. 10 These were but a few ex-
amples of the general legislative corruption. The men
who profited by these charters brought about, in 1830,
the exemption of bank stock in the city from taxation.
That nearly every Tammany leader held bank stock
was proved by the testimony before an investigating com-
mittee in June, 1833, which set forth how the organ-
izers of the newly founded Seventh Ward Bank had dis-
tributed thousands of shares among over one hundred
State and city office-holders, both Tammany and Anti-
Masonic. Every Tammany Senator was involved.
Stock given at par value meant an almost immediate rise in value
to the legislator. Most stocks went upward from 10 to 15 per cent.
on the passage of the charter, and in the case of the more profitable
and exploitative corporations, far higher advances were scored in a
short time.
i Journal
of the Senate, 1824, pp. 498-532.
8 Journal
of the Senate, 1826, Vol. 6, Appendix B. A considerable
part of the money and stock promised the members of the Legislature
for their votes was withheld owing to the expected investigation.
James Perkins, the principal lobbyist for the charter,
swore repeatedly that $5,000 in stock at par value had
been taken directly by State Senators and from $10,000
11
to $25,000 in stock distributed indirectly. Perkins
charged Thurlow Weed with accepting a $500 bribe.
12
The investigating committee reported finally that it could

find no proof involving any but one of the accused. 13
As the bill for the charter had originally passed the Sen-
ate by a vote of 27 to 2, 14 and as the members of the
investigating committee had been chosen from this ma-
jority, its conclusions were naturally viewed with a good
deal of suspicion.
The Equal Rights men complained that 75 per cent,
of the whole of the bank notes circulating in New York
City consisted of depreciated paper. The circulation of
these in notes of $5 or under amounted by March, 1835,
to nearly $1,500,000. One establishment alone, whose
weekly pay-roll in 1834 amounted to $40,000, paid the
greater part of this sum in depreciated notes. The wage-
earner was in constant fear that any morning he might
wake to hear that the bank whose notes he held had failed.
Frequently the worst deceptions on the public were con-
nived at by the officials. The Hudson Insurance Com-
pany, for instance, with a nominal capital of $200,000,
was permitted to issue bonds to the amount of $800,000,
upon the most fictitious resources. This was far from
being an isolated instance. The law allowed a bank with
only $100,000 capital to loan $250,000, thus receiving
intereston more than twice the capital actually in-
vested. 15
The Council was more than ever a hotbed of venality.
Numberless small "jobs" were perpetrated without pub-
lic notice; but when it was proposed in October, 1831,
11 SenateDocuments, 1834, No. 47, and Ibid., No. 94. Walter

Bowne was the bank's president. 12 Ibid., No. 94. is Ibid., No. 47.
i* Journal
of the Senate, 1833, p. 396.
IB Documents
of the Senate, 1834, No. 108.
1834. 1837 99
to give the Harlem Railroad Company the franchise for

the perpetual and exclusive use of Fourth avenue, free
of all payment to the city, Alderman George Sharp,
one of the few public-spirited members, drew general
attention to the matter by an energetic denunciation.
After every other means had been resorted to without
success to influence his vote, he was told that he would
be excluded from the party by certain persons at Tam-
many Hall. Alderman Stevens, who declared that he
had seen stock given to members of the board and to the
" " to secure their
corps editorial influence, was also
threatened. The words of these two men proved con-
clusively the truth of what for a long time was common
report: that the group of Tammany leaders not only
controlled the party nominations but threatened public
officials with their displeasure, with all which that im-
plied exile from public life, loss of political influence,
perhaps ruin of fortune in case they did not vote
for certain measures whose " merits " were recommended
to them.
The laborer had other grievances. For seventeen
years the Council had refused to grant any additional
ferries between New York City and Brooklyn. During
that period the population of New York had increased
150,000 and that of Brooklyn 15,000. This growth
involved a vast amount of marketing and increased the
business intercourse between the two places more than
fourfold. The lessees of the Fulton Ferry the sole
ferry had made an agreement in 1811, it was alleged,
with the New York City Corporation, by which the lat-
ter undertook to bind itself not to establish any ad-
ditional ferries from south of Catherine street to the
Village of Brooklyn for twenty-five years. The large
landholders influenced the Common Council to continue
this monopoly, their aim being to force the
people to
stay in New York, where rents were 35 per cent, higher
than in any other city in the Union. The exactions of
the water, gas and steamboat monopolies likewise had a
share in causing the formation of the Equal Rights
party.
Besides the dispensing to favored knots of citizens of
trading privileges and immunities which were withheld
from the great body of the community, the laboring
element believed that there was a gross inequality of
taxation in the interests of the rich. Taxes rose from
$550,000 in 1832 to $850,000 in 1833, but the increase
fell upon the poor. The Merchants' Bank was assessed
at $6,000; the lot and building had cost that sum
twenty years before, and were now worth at least twice
as much. The Merchants' Exchange was assessed at
$115,000, yet it was known that the land and building
had cost $300,000. Dozens of like instances were cited
by the reformers and they now determined upon a con-
certed effort looking to better government.
A powerful influence came to the aid of the Equal
Rights men when William Cullen Bryant and William
Leggett assumed the editorship of the Evening Post.
This journal now advocated industrial and political re-
forms with singular independence and ability. It re-
vived the original conception of the nominating com-
mittee's functions. It urged the electors to remember
that the nomination by a nominating committee was but
a recommendation to the people of certain candidates
whose merits and qualifications were as fair a matter
of discussion as any under Heaven; and that it was for
this very purpose that nominations were made so long
before the great popular meeting was convened. Be-
sides his editorial support of the movement, Leggett par-
ticipated in the practical work of its organization and

management. The clear thought and definite expression
shown in most of the Equal Rights manifestoes and reso-
lutions are perhaps directly due to him.
The Equal Rights faction became especially active in
the Fall of 1834. Its orators raised such a stir that both
1834 1837 101
Tammany Hall and the Whigs suddenly developed an

astonishing care for the workingmen. To conciliate
them, the Tammany Nominating Committee exacted a
written pledge from every one of its candidates requir-
ing an expression of his sentiments on the monopoly ques-
tion. To counteract the Wigwam, the Whigs gathered
" at Masonic
a meeting of " Whig Mechanics Hall,
October 14, at which opposition to monopolies, especially
banking monopolies, was declared. Not to be outdone,
the Wigwam got together a meeting of
" Democratic
Mechanics," who resolved to oppose monopolies and to
restore the constitutional currency. Tammany also be-
gan to recognize, even more liberally than before, the
naturalized citizens. As a consequence, it won the Fall
(1834) election by over 2,300 majority, most of the
Equal Rights men voting with it. One-third of its
18,000 voters were estimated at this time to be of foreign
birth.
Nearly all the Tammany Assemblymen proceeded to
forget their pledges, only four of the delegation voting
in the February following against the bill giving ex-
clusive privileges to the Peaconic Company.
The first clash between the Equal Rights faction and
the Tammany monopolists occurred at a meeting at the
Wigwam on March 31, 1835. Certain that the Alder-
men would never grant additional ferries, the Equal
Rights men favored a measure, then pending in the Leg-
islature, for the establishment of a State Board of
Commissioners clothed with that power. Gideon Lee, 10
a Wall Street banker, called the meeting to order and
nominated Preserved Fish for chairman. Many objec-
tions were uttered, and Fish retired. The radicals
howled down the Tammany speakers and ran the meet-
ing themselves, adopting resolutions prepared by Joel
P. Seaver, declaring for the creation of the State board.
ie Lee was the last Mayor elected by the Common Council (1833-34).
I
A for a new ferry
bill the present South Ferry was
passed the same year.
The Equal Rights men hoped to gain their ends
still
inside the organization. When

Cornelius W. Lawrence 17
Mayor in April, 1835, there was
stood for reelection as
scarcely any opposition to him from any quarter, he
receiving 17,696 votes out of a total of 20,196.
In the Fall of 1835, however, the Tammany Nominat-
ing Committee recommenSed for State offices candidates
of a character most obnoxious to the Equal Rights
men, and called a meeting for the evening of October 29,
to ratify its nominations. Barely were the doors opened
when the Equal Rights men rushed in and frustrated an
attempt to place Isaac L. Varian in the chair. In the
melee, the Bank Democrats, finding themselves unable
to control the meeting, withdrew, but in doing so turned
off the gas, leaving the Equal Rights men in total dark-
ness. The trick must have been anticipated ; for each
man drew forth a candle and a lucifer, or " loco foco "
match, and in a twinkling the hall was resplendent with
dancing lights. The Equal Rights men adopted resolu-
tions and a suitable ticket of their own. 18
Three sets of candidates stood for election. The
Native Americans, who opposed the election of foreign-
ers to officeand urged the repeal of the naturalization
laws, took the place of the Whigs. In the face of this
strong sentiment, Tammany Hall acted with its usual
diplomacy. The general committee boasted that the
regular Tammany ticket was composed of only native
Americans, which was true, the naturalized citizens hav-
ing been cajoled on the promise of receiving the usual
IT Lawrence had a curious habit of
strolling the streets carrying his
spectacles in his hand behind his back, and ogling all the pretty girls
he met, a habit which was broken later when one winsome lass tangled
him in a plot, much to his financial and mental distress.
"
is The next
day the Equal Rights men were dubbed Locofocos," a
name afterward applied by the Whigs to the entire Democratic party.
1834 1837 103
quota among nominations the next year. Of the nearly

23,000 votes cast at the election, Tammany Hall ob-
tained an average majority of about 800. The Native
Americans polled 9,000 votes, and the Equal Rights
men, or Anti-Monopolists, over 3,500. It was estimated
that 2,000 Whigs voted the Tammany ticket to defeat
the Anti-Monopolists, and that about 5,500 Whig votes
were divided between Tammany Hall and the Native
Americans.
The news of its slight plurality was hailed with any-
thing but pleasure at the Wigwam, where the Anti-
Monopolists were denounced as political swindlers and
adventurers. Instead, however, of making a show of
outward fairness, the organization leaders blindly took
the course most adapted to fan the flame of opposition to
themselves. After the great fire of 1835, which destroyed
$20,000,000 worth of property, and the extent of which
was due to the refusal of the corrupt Aldermen to give
the city a proper water supply, the Common Council
agreed to loan $6,000,000 at 5 per cent, interest for the
relief of insurance companies and banks which had suf-
fered from the fire. 19 Nothing was said or done for the
relief of the poor sufferers whom the Wigwam claimed to
have under its especial protection. The Council allowed
pawnbrokers 25 per cent, interest
and prohibited them
from loaning more than $25 on a single pledge. 20 The
21
city institutions were in a melancholy state. Most
serious of all on the public mind were the disclosures
concerning the Commercial Bank, from which funds were
embezzled in the scheme of cornering the stock of the
Harlem Railroad. As a step towards this end, Samuel
Swartwout and Garrit Gilbert (a sometime Sachem) lob-
bied for the passage of a bill to increase the capital stock
of this road, which in turn, it was thought, would in-
19 Documents Board of Aldermen, and
of the 1836, Nos. 65 100.
20 No. 48. 21 No. 32.
Ibid., 1837, ibid., 1837,
crease the price of all the stock two Senators agree-
" so as to blind
ing to raise objections temporarily the
22
eyes of the New Yorkers."
The leaders made no effort to stop the granting of
charters, or to curtail the monopolist privileges already
granted. It was admitted generally that no legislation
even remotely affecting the interests of the banks could
pass without the consent of those institutions. Trades-
men also had their combinations. But combinations,
legal enough when organized by capital, were declared
illegal when formed by workingmen. At this time the
Supreme Court of the State of New York decided that
combinations to raise the wages of any class of laborers
amounted to a misdemeanor, on the ground that they
were injurious to trade. Later, in June, 1836, twenty
tailors were found guilty of conspiracy under that deci-
sion and fined by Judge Edwards $1,150 in the aggregate
for engaging in a strike for higher wages.
The mechanics prepared to hold an indignation meet-
ing and applied for permission to use Tammany Hall.
This was refused by the Sachems. 23 In defiance of the
Wigwam, the meeting, a gathering of 20,000 persons,
was held in the park fronting Tammany Hall. " Are
workingmen," read the address of the committee of this
meeting,
"free in reality when they dare not obey the first instinct of all
animated beings; when our courts pronounce it criminal to exercise
22 Documents of the Senate, 1836, Vol. II, No. 94.
23 Ashort time before, at an Anti-Monopolist meeting, Chairman
Job Haskell had represented that the Tammany Society the secret
body, responsible to no one and enforcing its demands through the
Tammany Hall political organization was to blame for the political
corruption. Resolutions were then passed setting forth that whereas
the self-constituted, self-perpetuating Tammany Society had assumed
a dictatorial attitude and by usages made by itself endeavored to rule
the people as with a rod of iron; and as they (the Equal Rights men)
believed the people were capable of managing their own affairs with-
out the aid of said inquisitorial society, " that we deem the Tammany
Society an excrescence upon the body politic and dangerous to its
rights 'and liberties."
1834 1837 105
nature's paramount law of self-preservation? Trades unions and

mechanick are only self-protective against the countless
societies
combinations of aristocracy; boards of bank and other chartered
directories ; boards of brokers ; boards of trade and commerce ; com-
binations of landlords; coal and wood dealers; monopolists and all
those who grasp at everything and produce nothing. If all these
combinations are suffered to exist, why are trades unions and com-
binations of workingmen denounced? Should they not have an
equal chance in the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness? Should
they not have an equal right with the other classes of society, in" their
person, in their property or labor, and in their management?
The meeting, in strong resolutions, condemned the Su-

preme Court decision and that of Judge Edwards.
At this moment the peculiar Wigwam methods were
being displayed in another direction to an edified pub-
lic. In the first days of May, 1836, the Board of Alder-
men found itself divided equally, Tammany Hall and the
Whigs each having eight votes, precluding either from
electing a president. The Tammany members, in the
tea-room downstairs, made merry over refreshments.
The Whigs could not muster a quorum, and sent word to
the organization men to appear; the Wigwam men re-
plied that they didn't choose, and bade the Whigs come
to them. Meanwhile the public business stood still.
Finally the balloting was begun. On May 23, seventeen
votes were found to have been cast, although there were
24
only sixteen voting Aldermen. By the end of May
more than 120 ballots were had. At last, on July 1, the
Tammany men persuaded Alderman ^Ward, a Whig, to
offer a resolution electing Isaac L. Varian, a Wigwam
candidate, for the first six months, which was done.
Taking these proceedings as a cue, the Equal Rights
party, on June 6, at Military Hall, adopted a long
series of resolutions stating that the aristocracy of the
Democracy, or in other words, the monopolists, the paper-

"
currency Democrats, the partizans of the usages," had
long deceived and misguided the great body of the
Democrats. Through these " usages," the tools of the
2*
Proceedings of the Board of Aldermen, Vol XI, p. 16.
banks and other incorporated and speculative interests
were enabled to take advantage of the unsuspicious self-
security of the people, both before and at primary meet-
ings. By the aristocracy and through secret caucuses,
candidates were chosen, proceedings were cut and dried,
and committees were packed. When committees could
not be packed without opposition, the resolutions further
read, two sets of committeemen were usually elected,
and that set whose political complexion best suited the
packed majority of the general committee was always
accepted without any regard to the majorities of the
people. The Union did not furnish a more dangerous
usurpation upon the sovereignty of the people than the
fact of the Tammany Hall Nominating Committee send-
ing recently a petition to the Legislature in favor of
chartering more banks and banking paper capital and
designating themselves, not as citizens, but as members
of the nominating committee, notwithstanding the very
nominees of such a committee had given their written
pledge to oppose new banks and monopolies.
The " usages," the Equal Rights party next resolved,
so productive of secret caucuses, intrigues and abuses,
furnished the avenue through which one portion of the
Democracy had been corrupted, and the other portion
the great mass led astray. The latter was taught to
believe that
" " alone made men Democrats, and
usages
that to keep Federalists and Whigs out of office was the
25
very essence of Democracy.
The Equal Rights party then nominated Isaac L.
Smith, of Buffalo, for Governor, and Moses L. Jacques,
of New York City, for Lieutenant-Governor.
To draw from new party, some of
the strength of the
Tammany's Samuel
leaders Swartwout, Jesse Hoyt,
Stephen Allen, Saul Alley and a few others pro-
fessed to favor the repeal of the Restraining law, which
25 These resolutions were published officially in the New York Even-
ing Post, June 8, 1836.
1834 1837 107
in effect prohibited private banking and gave the incor-
porated institutions a monopoly. The Anti-Monopolists

were not to be deluded. On September 21 they declared
that in the recent professions of the Tammany corrup-
tionists in advocating this repeal and in favoring some
other few minor democratic measures, they beheld the
stale expedient of luring the bone and sinew of the coun-
try to the support of their monopoly and banking men
and measures and that they had no faith in Tammany
"
usages," policy or its incorrigible Sachems.
The characters of most of the Wigwam nominations
were so tainted that it seemed as if the candidates were
put forward in defiance of the best public sentiment. It
is not so certain that outside the Equal Rights party the
voters were repelled by the current methods of buying

legislation and dictating nominations. low tone of A
public morals was manifested. Men were bent on money-
making. He who could get rich by grace of the Legis-
" smart " and
lature was thought worthy of emulation.
The successful in politics were likewise to be envied, and,
if possible, imitated. A large part of the community
bowed in respect to the person of wealth, no matter
whence came his riches and the bank lobbyists were the
;
recipients of a due share of this reverence.

From these men the Tammany leaders selected candi-
dates. One of the Assembly nominees was Prosper M.
Wetmore, who had lobbied for the notorious State Bank
charter. This bank, according to the charter, was to
have $10,000,000 capital, although its organizers did not
have more than a mere fraction of that sum. This was
going too far, even for Albany, though upon modifying
26
their application, the charter was granted. Reuben
Withers and James C. Stoneall, bank lobbyists; Benja-
min Ringgold, a bank and legislative " go-between," and
Morgan L. Smith, preeminent among lobbyists, were
26 Cornelius W. Lawrence, the Tammany Mayor, became the bank's
first president.
other Tammany nominees. Notwithstanding the low
standards of public morals, these men were so unpopu-
lar, that when the form of submitting their names for
ratification to the great popular meeting at the Wig-
wam on November 1, was carried out, a hostile demon-
stration followed. The names of Wetmore, Smith and
Ringgold especially were hooted. But the leaders had
" "
groups of whippers-in brought in hurriedly to vote
affirmatively, and the presiding officer declared all the
nominees duly accepted by the people.
Only six of the organization's thirteen Assembly nomi-
nees survived the popular wrath, and the nominees for
nearly all the other offices were beaten, notwithstanding
the expectation that the Presidential election would carry
them in on the party ticket. A
number of Tammany
men The Whigs, the Native
of principle refused to vote.
Americans and some " Locofocos " joined forces. They
were aided by the panic, which, breaking out shortly be-
fore election, reacted against the Democrats. The Equal
Rights men as a rule voted for Van Buren. Tammany
Hall and the Whigs both committed frauds. Van Buren
received 1,124 majority in New York City, which in 1832
had given Jackson nearly 6,000 majority.
Made wiser defeat, the organization leaders realized
by
the importance of the Equal Rights movement, and
caused, as a sop, the passage, in February, 1837, of the
bill repealing the Restraining act. The Common Coun-
cil likewise modified the Pawnbrokers' act by cutting down
the interest to a more reasonable percentage. 27

Their providence stopped at this point, however, 28 and
during the panic Winter following neither Legislature
nor Common Council did anything to alleviate the mis-
eries of the poor. On the contrary, the poor complained
that the tendency more and more was to use the power
of the law to make the rich richer. While the suffering
27 Documents of the Board of Aldermen, 1837, No. 48.
28
Excepting some instances of private charity by Tammany leaders.
1834 1837 109
was greatest, Alderman Aaron Clark, a Whig, who had

made his fortune from lotteries, proposed that the city
spend several millions of dollars to surround its water
front with a line of still-water ponds for shipping pur-
poses, his justification for this expenditure being that the
North River piers would " raise the price of every lot
29
25 x 100 feet west of Broadway $5,000 at a jump."
" Millions to benefit landowners and
shippers, but not
" exclaimed the
a dollar for the unemployed hungry !
Anti-Monopolists. Alderman Bruen, another Whig, at

a time when the fall in the value of real estate in New
York City alone exceeded $50,000,000, suggested the
underwriting by the city to the speculators for the sum
of $5,000,000, to take in pledge the lands they had
bought and to give them the bonds of the city for two-
thirds their value. To the Equal Rights men there was
not much difference between the Tammany Hall and the
Whig leaders. Both, it was plain, sweated the people
for their own private interests, although the Whigs,
inheriting the Federalist idea that property was the sole
test of merit, did not flaunt their undying concern for
the laborer so persistently as did the Wigwam.
The city in 1837 was filled with the homeless and un-
employed. Rent was high, and provisions were dear.
Cattle speculators had possession of nearly all the stock,
and a barrel of flour cost $12. On February 12 a crowd
met in the City Hall Park, after which over 200 of them
sped to the flour warehouse of Eli Hart & Co., on Wash-
ington street. This firm and that of S. B. Herrick &
Son, it was known, held a monopoly in the scarce supply
of flour and wheat. The doors of Hart's place were
battered down, and nearly 500 barrels of flour and 1,000
bushels of wheat were taken out and strewed in the street.
Herrick's place likewise was mobbed. 30 On May 10,
when the banks suspended specie payments, a vast and
2 Documents of the Board of Aldermen, 1836, No. 80.
so Documents of the Board of Alderman, 1839, No. 29.
excited crowd gathered in Wall Street, and a riot was
31
narrowly averted.
The Equal Rights party could not be bought out or
snuffed out. To deprive it of its best leaders Tammany
Hall resorted to petty persecution. Jacques and Slamm
had headed a petition to the Legislature protesting
against the appointment of a certain suspicious bank
investigating committee. The Wigwam men in the Legis-
lature immediately secured the passage of a resolution
for the appointment of a committee to investigate this
petition, and this committee instantly haled Jacques and
Slamm to appear at Albany and give testimony. 32 The
purpose was plain. The Tammany men sought to have
the Equal Rights leaders at Albany, which was not as
accessible from the city as now, and there keep them
under various pretexts while the Spring campaign for
Mayor was going on. Jacques and Slamm did not ap-
pear and were adjudged guilty of contempt. When they
were most needed in New York City they were arrested
and arraigned before the Legislature. William Leggett
also was threatened, but escaped arrest.
The Equal Rights party, however, was soon to demon-
strate its capacity to do harm to Tammany. The or-
ganization nominated John J. Morgan for Mayor; the
Whigs named Aaron Clark, and the Equal Rights party
opposed them with Jacques. The 3,911 votes Jacques
received were enough to defeat Morgan, with his 12,974
votes, against Clark's 16,140. Worst blow of all, Tam-
many Hall lost the Common Council. When the new body
came in it removed all of the Wigwam's office-holders that
it could. The spoils in the form of annual salaries paid
by the amounting to $468,000; the perquisites and

city,
contracts such as that for the Croton Aqueduct, in
favor of which the people had voted some years before
and other improvements, all went to the Whigs.
31 Ibid.
sz Documents of the Assembly, 1837, Nos. 198 and 327.
1834 1837 111
The Tammany men, regarding the Equal Rights men

responsible for this loss of power, were now disposed to
treat with them and willing enough to throw over the
banker-corporation element.
CHAPTER XIII
TAMMANY " PURIFIED "
1837-1838
of the important changes in the composition
ONE of Tammany HaU came in 1837. The United

States Bank dependents, lobbyists and support-
ers had left the Wigwam, as has been noted, in 1832, but
the State Bank men, well satisfied with the destruction of
the great rival corporation, had remained. Finding the
organization no longer subservient to them they, in turn,
quit Tammany during Van Buren's administration.
This happened in the Fall of 1837. The Tammany
General Committee, whose membership had recently been
increased from thirty-six to fifty-one members, held a
meeting on September 7, thirty-six members being present.
Resolutions were offered upholding Van Buren's scheme
of placing the United States funds in sub-treasuries.
This was a bitter dose to the State Bank men who, want-
ing to retain Government deposits, opposed the sub-
treasury plan. The
"
bank conservatives " vainly tried
to put off a vote on the resolutions, but being repeatedly
outvoted, all but one of them left the room before the
main question was put. Nineteen members remained.
As seventeen formed a quorum, the question was put and
the resolutions were adopted by a vote of 18 to 1. The
bank men pretended that the resolutions were passed
clandestinely, and they so deviously managed things that
in a few days they regained control of the general com-
mittee, which at their behest refused to call a public meet-
ing to act on the resolutions.
112
1837 1838 113
But the Democratic-Republican Young Men's Commit-

teewas saturated with Equal Rights ideas and rebelled
at the policy which allowed the acts of the bankers to
antagonize Democrats of principle and bring defeat to
Tammany Hall. This committee met in the Wigwam on
September 11 and passed a series of resolutions with
which the Anti-Monopolists were as pleased as the bank-
ers were angry. The resolution declared the public sat-
isfaction in anticipating the separation of bank and state,
and welcomed the approach of an era when legislation
should not be perverted to the enrichment of a few and
the depression of the many. The Young Men resolved
that the crisis was sufficient reason for their committee
assuming to recommend a public meeting of those who
approved Van Buren's recent message, to be held in Tam-
many Hall, on September 21.
The bank men were angry that the Young Men's com-
mittee should dare to act independently of the elder, the
general committee. The latter, meeting on September
14, disapproved of the manner in which the Young Men's
meeting had been called, declined cooperation with it,
and by a vote of 21 to 16 ordered the Young Men's Gen-
eral Committee to withdraw the recommendation for that
meeting. The Young Men ignored the order and held
their meeting. Van Buren and his prospective sub-
treasuries were indorsed and fiery resolutions adopted
denouncing the incorporated banks.
Coming, as this denunciation did, from Tammany
Hall, which had a far-reaching influence over the Union,
" bank conservatives "
the grew even more exasperated,
for they had come to look upon the organization as al-
most their private property. As two-thirds of the Sa-
chems belonged to their clique, they held a meeting in
the Wigwam, on September 25, to disapprove of the sub-
treasury scheme. In rushed the progressive Democrats
in overwhelming force, and for an hour the place was a
fighting arena. The bank men were forced to leave, and

the progressives organized and carried out the meeting.
Regarding Tammany as having ceased to be the tool of
the exploiting interests, the Anti-Monopolists were dis-
posed to a union with the advanced organization party.
When the Equal Rights men met at Military Hall on
October 27, Col. Alexander Ming, Jr., one of the party's
organizers, said that one of the chief purposes of the
Equal Rights party was to effect reform in Tammany
Hall; this having been accomplished, it was the duty of
"
every Democrat to unite on one ticket against the high-
toned Federalists, Whigs and aristocrats." A fusion
Assembly ticket was made up, composed of both Tam-
many and Equal Rights men, each Tammanyite sub-
scribing in writing to the Equal Rights principles. A
small contingent of the Equal Rights party, however,
accused their comrades of selling out to the Wigwam, and
nominated their own candidates Job Haskell, Daniel
Gorham, William E. Skidmore and others.
The " bank conservatives " allied themselves with the
Whigs. They were credited with raising an election fund
of $60,000, a sum which at that time could do great
" "
execution.
"
By raising the cries of agrarianism and
infidelity," ascribing the effects of the panic of 1837 to
the Democrats, coercing laborers and using illegal votes,
the combined conservatives wrested nearly 3,000 major-
ity out of a total of 33,093 votes.
Stimulated by this victory, the bank men attempted
to regain control of Tammany and called a meeting for
January 2, 1838, at 7 o'clock, in the Wigwam. The
Anti-Bank Democrats then issued a call for a meeting on
the same night, but one hour earlier. The Council of
Sachems were mostly either " bank conservatives " them-
selves or sympathizers; but they feared to alienate the
dominant progressives. As the best solution, they agreed
that neither party should meet in the Wigwam. On Janu-
ary 1 they resolved that both calls were unauthorized and
that neither had been sanctioned by any act of the general
1837 1838 115
" The lease of

committee. Tammany Hall," read their
" reserves to the Council of Sachems of the
resolution,
Tammany Society the right to decide on all questions of
doubt, arising out of the rooms being occupied by or let
to a person or persons as a committee or otherwise for
" The Council sent a
political purposes !
copy of these
resolutions to Lovejoy and Howard, the lessees
l
of Tam-
them to " hire or allow
many Hall, forbidding rent, to,
either of the assemblages named on the premises." Identi-
cal with this decree,Lovejoy and Howard issued a notice
(which was published in the public prints) that their lease
" contained covenants " that
of Tammany Hall they would
" whose
not permit any persons to assemble in the hall
political opinions the Council of Sachems of Tammany
Society should declare not to be in accordance with the
political views of the general committee of said Tammany
Society," and they (Lovejoy and Howard) therefore could
not permit either meeting. 2 The conservatives then met
in the City Hall Park, where they were assaulted and mal-
3
treated.
The Anti-Bank men won over the general committee,
which gave the necessary permission for their meeting in
the Wigwam on January 9. The policy of Jackson and of
Van Buren was upheld, and it was set forth that while the
Democracy, unlike its calumniators, did not arrogate to
itself
" the of all the the the
possession decency, virtue,
morals and the wealth of the community," it felt no more
disturbed at being called " Agrarians,"
" Locofocos " or
1 It will be remembered that in 1828 the Sachems had

bought back a
lease on the building in order to shut out the Adams men. The lease
had again been let, but under restrictions which left the Sachems the
power to determine what faction should be entitled to the use of the
hall.
2 These details are of the
greatest importance as revealing the
methods by which the society asserted its absolute ascendency over
the organization. They proved the absurdity of the claim that the two
bodies were distinct and separate from each other.
The New Yorker (magazine), January 13, 1838. This journal was
edited and published by Horace Greeley.
" Radicals " than it did at being abused in the days of
Jefferson.
That foremost Equal Rights advocate, the Evening
Post,now acknowledged the purification of Tammany
4
Hall saying that the spurious Democrats who had in-
;
fested the party for their own selfish purposes had either
*
been drummed out of the ranks, had left voluntarily, or
had acquiesced sullenly in the decision of the majority.
*
January The credit for this temporary purification must
11, 1838.
in considerablemeasure be given to the Evening Post's editors, Wil-
liam Cullen Bryant and William Leggett.
CHAPTER XIV
WHIG FAILURE RESTORES TAMMANY TO POWZB,
1838-1840
course of the Whig city administration served

only to strengthen Tammany and was responsible
THE for the conviction, which later so often prevailed,
that if Tammany Hall was bad the Whigs were no better,
and were perhaps worse. At this time of general distress
complaints were numerous that the sum of $1,300,000 was
exacted from the rentpayers in a single year. In the early
part of 1838 one-third of all the persons in New York City
who subsisted by manual labor was substantially or wholly
without employment. 1 Not less than 10,000 persons were
in utter poverty and had no other means of surviving the
Winter than those afforded by the charity of neighbors.
The Almshouse and all charitable institutions were full to
overflowing; the usual agencies of charity were exhausted

or insufficient, and 10,000 sufferers were still uncared for.
The great panic of 1837 had cut down the city's trade
one-half. Notwithstanding the fall of prices, the rents for
tenements in New York were greater than were paid in any
other city or village upon the globe. 2 So exorbitant were
the demands of the landlords that the tenants found it im-
possible to meet them. The landowners were the backbone
of the Whig party ; it was not unnatural, therefore, that
1 The New Yorker, January 20, 1838.
2 Ibid.,
February 1838. James Parton, in his biography of
17,
Horace Greeley, attributes the latter's conversion and life-long devo-
tion to Socialist principles in large part to the frightful sufferings
which he witnessed in New York City, in the Winter of 1838.
117
their rapacity developed among the people at large a pro-
found distrust of Whig men and principles.
The Whig officials, so far as can be discovered, took no
adequate steps to relieve the widespread suffering. The
Tammany ward committees, on the other hand, were active
in relief work.This was another of the secrets of Tam-
many Hall's usual success in holding the body of voters.
The Whigs made fine speeches over champagne banquets,
but kept at a distance from the poor, among whom the
Wigwam workers mingled, and distributed clothing, fuel
and food and often money. The leaders set the example.
One of these was John M. Bloodgood, 3 who frequently went
among the charitable citizens, collecting, in a large basket,
cakes, pies, meat and other eatables, and distributing them
among the needy.
In the Spring of 1838 Tammany nominated Isaac L.
Varian for Mayor, and the Whigs renominated Aaron
Clark. The Whigs used the panic as an example of the
result of Democratic rule. Controlling the city, they em-
ployed all its machinery to win. It was reasonably certain
that they did not stop at fraud. In some wards can-
vassing was delayed until other wards were heard from.
In still other wards the Whigs refused to administer the
oath to naturalized citizens. With all this they obtained
a plurality of only 519 out of 39,341 votes. Had it not
been for dissensions in the tumultuous Sixth Ward, Tam-
many would have won.
In the Fall election of 1838 the Whig frauds were
enormous and indisputable. The Whigs raised large sums
of money, which were handed to ward workers for the pro-
curing of votes. About two hundred roughs were brought
from Philadelphia, in different divisions, each man receiv-
ing $22. Gen. Robert Swartwout, now a Whig, at the
3
Bloodgood was the son of Abraham Bloodgood, one of the earliest
Tammany politicians. The son likewise achieved considerable influ-
ence in the organization. He was for a long time a Police Justice.
He will be met with again toward the end of this chapter.
1838 1840 119
instance of such men as Moses H. Grinnell, Robert C.

Wetmore and Noah Cook, former Wigwam lights, who left
" obstructionist "
the Hall because the Anti-Monopolists
captured it, arranged for the trip of these fraudulent
voters. After having voted in as many wards as possible,
each was to receive the additional compensation of $5.
They were also to pass around spurious tickets purporting
to be Democratic. The aggregate Whig vote, it was
approximated, was swelled through the operations of this
band by at least five to six hundred. 4 One repeater,
Charles Swint, voted in sixteen wards. Such inmates of
the House of Detention as could be persuaded or bullied
into voting the Whig ticket were set at large. Merritt, a
police officer, was seen boldly leading a crowd of them to
the polls. Ex-convicts distributed Whig tickets and busily
electioneered. The cabins of all the vessels along the
wharves were ransacked, and every man, whether or not a
citizen or resident of New York, who could be wheedled
into voting a Whig ballot, was rushed to the polls and his
vote was smuggled in. The Whigs were successful, their
candidate for Governor, William H. Seward, receiving
0,179 votes, to 19,377 for William L. Marcy.
Departing from its custom of seeking local victory on
national issues, Tammany, in April, 1839, issued an ad-
dress expatiating on the increase of the city expenses
from a little over $1,000,000 in 1830 to above $5,000,000
in 1838. Deducting about $1,500,000 for the Croton
works, there would still remain the enormous increase of
$2,500,000. The city population had not trebled in that
time, nor had there been any extraordinary cause for ex-
penditure. Where had all this money gone ?
Tammany further pointed out that, unlike the Whigs,
it had never stooped so low as to
discharge the humble
laborers in the public service, when it (Tammany) held
*Confession of Hart Marks, one of the leaders, before Justice
Lowndes in the lower Police Court, November 6, 1838, and of Jonathan
D. Stevenson and others in the Recorder's Court, October 20, 1840.
the Common Council. Nor had it ever been so abject as
to provide them with colored tickets, as the Whigs had
done, so that the laborers might be detected if they voted
contrary to their masters. Tammany further charged
that the Whigs in the previous election had taken the Alms-
house paupers, with embossed satin voting tickets in their
hands, to the polls, and were planning to do it again.
Tammany made good use of this charge. But the prac-
tise was not exclusively a Whig industry. In those years
both Democrats and Whigs, according to which held power,
forced Almshouse paupers to vote. For a fortnight be-
fore the election the paupers were put in training. On the
morning of election they were disguised with new clothing,
so that the public might not see their gray uniforms.
"
They were given tickets to vote and tickets for grog,
silver coin and also good advice as to their conduct at the
polls." Then they were carried to the polls in stages, with

an officer on each step to see that none escaped. Many
would return to the Almshouse drunk and with torn cloth-
ing, or after having exchanged their new garments for
5
liquor. There were usually about 300 paupers. In the
Fall and Winter of 1838 a quarter of the population was
relieved at the Almshouse.
Clark and Varian were both renominated for Mayor in
the Spring of 1839. Preparations for fraud on a large
scale were made by both parties. The newspapers sup-
porting Varian admitted that Tammany thought proper to
follow the Whigs' example, and to counteract its effects,
by colonizing the doubtful wards with Democratic voters.
On bothsides repeating was general. An Albany police
named Coulson brought twenty-three persons, one of
officer
whom was only seventeen years old, to New York City,
where they voted the Whig ticket in the different wards.
For this they received $5 in advance, and $1 a day.
Of the 41,113 votes Varian 6 received 21,072, and Clark
6 Documents of the Board of Aldermen, 1844-45, XI, No. 51.
Varian was a rugged, popular, but not over-educated man. Sir
1838 1840
20,005. The Wigwam secured a majority of 12 in the

Common Council.
Fearing that Tammany in power would use the adminis-
tration machinery in elections even more than had the
Whigs, the latter now made a great outcry for a registry
7
law, proclaiming it the only fraud preventive. The sud-
den conversion of the Whig leaders to civic purity called
forth derision. But the people at large, the non-poli-
ticians, ashamed of such barefaced frauds in their city,
took up the agitation. The Registry bill was introduced
in the Legislature in May, 1839. It provided for the reg-
istration of voters in New York City, and made fraudulent
voting a felony, with severe penalties.
After the frauds of 1834 the Wigwam leaders had given
out that they would take serious steps to obtain from the
Legislature a law causing voters to be registered, but had
done nothing. They now opened a campaign against the
Whig bill. In the Spring of 1840 the ward committees de-
clared against it on the pretext that it interfered with con-
stitutional rights ; that it was an insidious attempt to take
from the poor man either his right of suffrage or to make
the exercise of that right so inconvenient as practically to
debar him from voting. The Common Council, on March
16, 1840, denounced the proposed law as inquisitorial,
Charles Lyell, the noted British geologist, once asked him questions as
to the formation of Manhattan Island. Varian said he had dug a
"
well on his farm at Murray Hill and after going through a stratagem
of sand and a stratagem of clay they struck a stratagem of red rock.'*
At another time, while reading a New York newspaper at the Stanwix
House in Albany, Varian remarked to Walter Bowne, then Mayor,
"
that they had a new Street Inspector in New York City. Indeed I
who is he?"*'
A perfect stranger," replied Varian; and he read from
the paper: "'Last evening the wind suddenly changed to the north,
and this morning, thanks to Old Boreas, our streets are in a passable
" I
condition.' Old Boreas," said Varian, reflectively, thought I knew
every Democrat in New York, but I never heard of him."
7 In 1S34 the Board of Assistant Aldermen had
passed a resolution
in favor of the registry of voters, and the Native American Associa-
tion, early in 1838, had petitioned the Legislature similarly. The
Whigs seized hold of the movement as political capital for themselves.
HISTORY OF TAMMANY HALL
tyrannical and disfranchising in its effect, as well as un-

" know
just, because they (the Aldermen) of no sin which
she (New York City) has committed to make her worthy
of the signal reproach now sought to be cast upon her." 8
A few days later the Common Council on joint ballot deliv-
ered itself of a solemn protest against the constitutionality
of the Registry bill, and on the night of March 24 an
assemblage in the Wigwam did likewise. It was in this
year that the full account of the Whig frauds of 1838 was
made public. Commenting upon this, the Tammany Nomi-
nating Committee, with characteristic naivete, said in its
address :
" It is with shame that we record these dark
transactions and proclaim them to the people. We
would,
if we could, blot out their existence, for it brings
disgrace
on our whole country and will make the enemies of civil
freedom laugh with joy."
The Registry bill became a law, but Tammany con-
tinued to protest against it. When, in 1841, the Legisla-
ture increased the penalties for its violation, Acting Mayor
9
Elijah F. Purdy commented upon it severely.
The able, sincere and high-minded William Leggett, the
guiding spirit of the Equal Rights party, died on May 29,
1839, not quite forty years old. The Tammany Young
Men's General Committee eulogized his virtues and talents,
proclaimed him amongst the purest of politicians and an-
nounced the purpose of raising a monument to his memory.
Of this committee, curious to relate, the chairman was
Fernando Wood and the secretary Richard B. Connolly
two men who became known for anything but devotion to
the virtues they here exalted.
Leggett, some years before this, had become a radical
Abolitionist. By this time the anti-slavery movement in
the city and State had grown to considerable proportions,
though as yet it had exercised but little influence on poli-
tics. Several riots had taken place in the streets of the
s
Proceedings of the Board of Aldermen, Vol. XVIII, pp. 404-5.
9
Ibid., Vol. XX, pp. 229-30.
1838 1840
city,two rather serious ones happening on July 9 and 10,

1834, and June 21, 1835, and Lewis Tappan, an anti-
slavery propagandist, had been mobbed. The local move-
ment gradually acquired new adherents, and constantly
increased its propaganda. At this period, however, it was
more in the nature of a growing moral force.
During this period another great series of disclosures
regarding Tammany chieftains was made public. Samuel
Swartwout, whom Jackson had made Collector of the Port
shortly after coming into office in 1829, fled from the city
late in 1838. He had long been a power in the organiza-
tion. His name had been mentioned unpleasantly when
10
he, with M. M. Noah and Henry Ogden, contrived by
means of their official positions to get $10,000 reward for
the recovery of the jewels stolen from the Prince of Orange,
though the recovery had been made by others. And in
1833 he had threatened, as Collector of the Port, to
remove the Custom House uptown because the merchants
would not lend him more than $7,000 on the strength of
some worthless " Jersey meadows." Three years later he
was connected with the unsavory Harlem Railroad stock
corner and the manipulation of the funds of the Com-
mercial Bank. Early in 1838 he joined forces with the
notorious politicians of the Seventh Ward Bank for the
defeat of William Leggett for the Democratic nomination
for Congress, securing the nomination of Isaac L. Varian
in his stead. A few months later the city was astounded
to learn that since 1830 he had been systematically rob-
bing the Government, through the manipulation of Custom
House receipts, and that the total of his thefts amounted
to nearly $1, 250,000. n Fleeing to Europe, he wandered
10
Ogden was a Tammany politician of considerable importance.
At the time of Swartwout's flight he was the Cashier of the Custom
House, a post which he had held for several years. He was also a
director of the Seventh Ward Bank.
11 The exact amount was $1,222,705.69. House Executive Docu-
ment, No. 13, Twenty-fifth Congress, Third Session; also House Re-
port, No. 318.
aimlessly about
12
for many years. 13 The community was
so impressed with the size of this defalcation that a verb,
" to
Swartwout," was coined, remaining in general use for
many years thereafter. A
defaulter was generally spoken
as
" Swartwouted."
of having
A
lesser figure in Tammany circles, though a person of
considerable consequence, followed Swartwout in flight.
This was William M. Price, at the time District Attorney
for the Southern District of New York. It was discovered
that he had defaulted to the Government in the sum of
$75,000. Price, like so many other Tammany politicians
of his time, had been mixed up with Seventh Ward Bank
politics. During the latter part of his career he had been
known as the personal representative in the city of Presi-
dent Van Buren.
During the following Spring, William Paxen Hallett,
a member of the " Big Four " against whom the Equal
Rights' party had so energetically protested in 1836, was
made the defendant in a civil suit involving grave fraud.
As referee in a suit for damages of one John A. Manning
against one Charles J. Morris, Hallett had wrongfully re-
ported that only trifling judgments remained outstanding
against Morris, and the court had accordingly given the
latter a year's time in which to make good a judgment for
$3,496 rendered in favor of Manning. It appeared, how-
ever, in the proceedings before the Superior Court, May
20, 1839, that Hallett knew, or should have known, of a
previous judgment against the defendant for $15,014.44
in favor of one Nathan Davis, who during the year of
12 A pathetic tale is told of an American meeting Swartwout in
Algiers, several years after this episode, and of the defaulter crying
like a child over his enforced exile from the land of his birth.
is Jesse
Hoyt, another Sachem, succeeded Swartwout as Collector of
the Port. Hoyt was charged, about this time, with having defaulted
in the sum of $30,000 in dealings with certain Wall street brokers.
The Superior Court Judgment Roll for 1839-40 records two judg-
ments against him, secured by Effingham H. Warner, one for $10,000
and one for $5,747.72. Both judgments were satisfied within a few
years after his assumption of the Collectorship of the Port.
1838 1840 125
e
all of Morris's property, thus defraud-

grace seized upon
ing Manning. The testimony was so convincing that Hal-
lett was forced to compromise the suit by paying the dam-
ages asked for. Through the influence of the organiza-

tion, however, he escaped prosecution.
The " ring " of Police Justices had for several years
been a crying scandal. Whig and Tammany magistrates
were equally involved. Public clamor fixed upon John M.
Bloodgood, despite his private charities, as the first vic-
tim. The Assistant Aldermen impeached him in January,
1839,
14
and submitted the case to the Court of Common
15
Pleas, by whom he was tried. Testimony was brought
out tending to show that the Police Justices, by means of
an understanding with policemen and jailers, extorted
money from prisoners and shielded counterfeiters, thieves,
street walkers and other malefactors from arrest or con-
viction. The charges were dismissed. 16 Stronger testi-
mony of the same kind was brought out in May, 1840, on
the trial of Police Justice Henry W. Merritt, and other
testimony involved in the same way Special Justice Oliver
M. Lowndes. The case, however, was dismissed. 17
i*See "Articles of Impeachment," Journal and Documents of the
Board of Assistant Aldermen, 1839, Vol. XIII, No. 12 and No. 25.
is Court Minutes, New York Common Pleas, record of
February 19
and 20, 1839. (These records are neither paged nor indexed.) The
Common Pleas of this time was popularly known as the Mayor's
Court; and the Judges were the Mayor, Recorder and certain Alder-
men. The later Court of Common Pleas was not established until
1856.
*6 A curious reason for the dismissal was given in the decision of the
Judges. It was that the charges had not been individually sworn to. It
appeared, therefore, that the Board of Assistant Aldermen, acting in
its official capacity in formulating impeachment proceedings, was not
a recognizable party before the Court of Common Pleas.
17 Journal and Documents
of the Board of Assistant Aldermen,
1839-40, Vol. XV, No. 71. The reason for dismissing these charges
was identical with that given in the case of Bloodgood. A statement
of the case is given in the report of District Attorney James R. Whit-
ing to the Board of Aldermen during this year. See Proceedings of
the Board of Aldermen, 1840, Vol. XIX, pp. 135-37. The Common
Pleas volume for 1840 is missing from its place in the County Court
Building.
A strong public agitation had been waged for the re-
organization of the criminal courts. The Weekly Herald
of February 1, 1840, had made the statement that the
farce of conducting the correctional machinery of the city
involved a yearly sum of $1,360,564 this sum being the
total of judges', policemen's and court attendants' salaries
(about $50,000), added to the blackmail exacted from
"
offenders, and various pickings and stealings." The
statement was an extravagant one; $700,000 would have
been nearer the mark. But whatever the sum, the acquit-
tal of the Police Justices by their fellows in judicial evil-
doing indicated that the carnival was to continue. The
" "
Tammany leaders had been out for the two years
1837-38, and were now vigorously making hay while the
sun shone, while such of their Whig contemporaries as still
held office were vying with the chiefs in systematic and
organized plundering.
The Manhattan Bank scandals were made public in
February, 1840. This was the bank whose charter Aaron
Burr had so ingeniously secured in 1799. It had been a
Tammany institution from the beginning, and Tammany
politicians had ruled its policies. It was now generally
regarded as the leading financial institution in the city,

rivaled by the Bank of America. It carried
only
$600,000 of Government funds on deposit, and, of course,
a large city and State fund.
It was now shown that for years it had loaned large
sums to Tammany leaders and to family connections of its
directors and officials, and that it had spent other large
sums for political purposes. The total of its worthless
loans and political expenditures reached the enormous sum
of $1,344,266.99. Cashier Campbell P. White, tried on
the technical charge of stealing several of the bank's books,
was freed through the disagreement of the jury, 18 but on
a second trial, charged with assaulting Jonathan Thomp-
is Session Minutes, 1840.
1838 1840
son, a director of the bank who had criticized

Tammany
his management, he was fined $250 and imprisoned for fif-
teen days. 19 In the midst of the excitement Colin G. New-
comb, the teller, disappeared with $50,000. That the
bank weathered the storm well-nigh reaches the dimensions
of a miracle. Paulding, twice a Tammany Mayor Bowne, ;
another Tammany ex-Mayor; and Robert H. Morris, at

that time Recorder, appeared as the defendant's witnesses
in the first trial. White was an influential Wigwam chief,
and in 1832 had been elected to Congress on the Tammany
ticket.
CHAPTER XV
RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE " GANGS "
1840-1846
the year 1840 the change in the personnel

and the policy of the Wigwam became distinctly
ABOUT evident. After its absorption of the Equal Rights
" " for a
party, the organization had remained purified
year or so, and then, as usual, had relapsed. But a new
power and new ideas prevailed. No longer did the bankers
and merchants who once held the Wigwam in their grasp,
venture to meet in the secret chamber of the hall and order
nominations, command policies or determine the punish-
ment of refractory individuals. Tammany from this time
forward began to be ruled from the bottom of the social
stratum, instead of from the top.
Something had to be done to offset the disclosures of
1838-40. Accordingly, the policy of encouraging the
foreigners, first rather mildly started in 1823, was now
developed into a system. The Whigs antagonized the
entrance of foreign-born citizens into politics, and the Na-
tive American party was organized expressly to bar them
almost entirely from the enjoyment of political rights.
The immigrant had no place to which to turn but Tam-
many Hall. In part to assure to itself this vote the organ-
ization opened a bureau, a modest beginning of what
became a colossal department. An office was established
in the Wigwam, to which specially paid agents or organiza-
tion runners brought the immigrant, drilled into him the
advantages of joining Tammany and furnished him with
128
1840 1846 129
the means and legal machinery needed to take out his

naturalization papers. Between January 14 and April 1,
1840, 895 of these men were taken before Tammany Marine
Court Judges and naturalized. Judges of other courts
helped to swell the total. Nearly every one of these aliens
became and remained an inveterate organization voter.
Tammany took the immigrant in charge, cared for him,
made him feel that he was a human being with distinct po-
litical rights, and converted him into a citizen. How
sagacious this was, each year revealed. Immigration soon
poured in heavily, and there came a time when the foreign
1
vote outnumbered that of the native-born citizens.
The Whigs were bewildered at this systematic gathering
in of the naturalized citizens. After the election of April,
2
1840, when Tammany reelected Varian Mayor and carried
Council, the Committee of Whig Young Men
3
the Common
issued a long address on the subject. After specifically
charging that prisoners had been marched from their cells
in the City Prison by their jailers to the polls to vote the
Tammany ticket, the address declared that during the week

previous to, and on election day, naturalization papers had
been granted at the Marine Court on tickets from Tam-
many Hall, under circumstances of great abuse.
In the campaign of 1840 the so-called best elements of
the town were for General Harrison. The Wigwam men
had much at stake in Van Buren's candidature and exerted
themselves to reelect him. Tammany now elaborated its
naturalization bureau. A
committee sat daily at the Wig-
wam, assisting in the naturalization process, free of charge
1 The statement was made at a reform
meeting in City Hall Park
on April 11, 1844, that from 1841 to 1844 not less than 11,000 for-
eigners had been naturalized at $1 a head, though the legal fee was $5.
The Judges, the speaker said on the authority of Judge Vanderpoel,
signed their names to the papers without asking questions.
2 This was the first election in the
city occupying only one day. Be-
fore 1840 three days were used. The vote stood: Varian, 21,243; J.
Phillips Phoenix (Whig), 19,622; scattering, 36; total, 40,901.
s The
Whigs had formed committees in imitation of the Tammany
organization.
to the applicant. The allegiance of foreign-born citizens
was further assured by humoring their national pride in the
holding of Irish, German and French meetings in the hall,
where each nationality was addressed in its own language.
The more influential foreigners were rewarded with places
on the Assembly or local ticket, and to the lesser workers
of foreign birth were given petty jobs in the department
offices, or contract work.
The outcome was, that in the face of especially strong
opposition Tammany harvested 982 plurality in the city
for Van Buren, though the vote of the Western counties
gave Harrison the electoral vote of the State. It was such
instances as this demonstrating its capacity of swaying
New York City even if the rest of the State voted op-
positely that continued to give Tammany Hall a pow-
erful hold on the Democratic party of the nation, notwith-
standing the discredit that so often attached to Tammany
men and measures.
Another example of the change in the personnel of
" ward
Tammany was shown "
in the rise and progress of the
" " were not con-
heeler " and his gangs." The gangs
spicuous in 1841, when the organization elected Robert H.
Morris Mayor. 4 In April, 1842, when Morris was re-
5 " " were still
elected, the gangs modestly in the back-
ground. But in the Fall of that year they came forth in
their might.
One of their leaderswas " Mike " Walsh, who became a
sort of example for the professional " ward heelers " that
followed in his wake. Walsh had no claim at all on the
ruling politicians at the Wigwam, and would have been
unnoticed by them. But he was ambitious, did not lack
ability of a certain kind, and had a retinue of devoted
" " followers. He
plug-ugly spoke with a homely elo-
* Election of 1841: Robert H. Morris (Tammany), 18,605; J. Phil-
lips Phoenix (Whig), 18,206; Samuel F. B. Morse, 77; scattering, 45;
total, 36,933.
B Election of 1842; Morris, 20,633; Phoenix, 18,755; total, 39,388.
1840 1846 131
quence, which captivated the poor of his ward. The tur-

bulent he won over with his fists. On November 1 the
Tammany Nominating Committee reported to the great
popular meeting. Walsh, with the express purpose of
forcing his own nomination for the Assembly, went there
with such a band of shouters and fighters as never before
had been seen in the hall. His " shoulder-hitters " men,
as a rule, of formidable appearance did such hearty ex-
ecution and so overawed the men assembled there, that
upon the question being put to a vote the general commit-
tee decided in his favor and placed his name on the regular
ticket. While in the ensuing election he received not quite
3,000 votes to the nearly 20,000 cast for his opponent (the
nominee first reported by the committee), he eventually was
successful in his aim. Seeing how easy it was to force
nominations at the Wigwam if backed by force, other men
" " of their
began to imitate him and get together gangs
own.
This was the kind of men who, with their " gangs,"
superseded the former Democratic ward committees, nearly
every member of which kept a shop or earned his living in
some .legitimate calling. By helping one another in intro-
" "
ducing gangs of repeaters from one ward to another at
the primary elections, the " ward heelers " became the mas-
ters of the wards and were then graduated into leaders,
whose support was sought by the most dignified and illus-
trious politicians.
In fact, the city was frequently in a state of turmoil.
Since 1834 there had been half a dozen riots. 6 There were
constant fights between rival volunteer engine companies,
to which lawless and abandoned characters attached them-
selves. Engines were stolen, clubs, pipes, wrenches and
other weapons were used, and the affrays generally closed
Documents of the Board of Aldermen, 1839, No. 29. The Weekly
Herald, February 15, 1840, stated that official documents showed, for
the previous ten months, a total of nineteen riots, twenty-three mur-
ders and nearly 150 fires, the latter involving a loss of about $7,000,000.
with stabbings and broken skulls. 7 There was no police
force to speak of ; even Mayor Morris, whom the " gangs "
" Bob " and
called tapped familiarly on the shoulder, de-
" 8
scribed it as lamentably defective." One out of every
twenty-one white persons in the city could not read and
write. 9 From so large a population of illiterates, the
" ward heelers "
easily recruited great numbers of follow-
ers. Morris allowed the " gangs " full sway, and was pop-
ular accordingly. Naturally, with this encouragement,
the " gangs
" and
grew became ever bolder.
General disgust at the low character of politics was felt
by the independents, who rightly held both Tammany and
the Whigs responsible. During the time each party held
power had gone from bad to worse. A joint
affairs
special committee of Aldermen, appointed under public
pressure, reported, in 1842, that dishonest office-holders
had recently robbed the city of little short of $100,000. 10
A street cleaning contract was awarded for $64,500 a year,
for five years, when other responsible persons offered to
take it for not quite $25,000 a year. 11 The fraudulent
selling of city land to cover up the increasing debt was con-
tinued. 12 The city office-holders sold real estate for un-
paid assessments, frequently without giving notice to the
"
owner, and bought it in themselves and so possessed them-
13
selves of estates." Heavy and oppressive assessments
for improvements never actually made were laid on the tax-
14
payers. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were ex-
1^
pended uselessly and extravagantly. Mayor Morris
complained that he had no power over expenditures that ;
he knew nothing of legislative action on public works until

7 See Documents of the Board of Aldermen, Vol. VIII, No. 35, and
No. 41, 1843-44, for extended accounts,
s
Mayor Morris's Message, July, 1842.
Documents of the Board of Aldermen, Vol. VIII, No. 22.
io/6id., 1842-43, No. 5.
12
11 Ibid., Vol. IX, No. 69. Ibid., Vol. X, part 1, No. 46.
is Senate Documents, 1842, Vol. IV, No. 100.
i* Ibid.
is
Message of Mayor Morris, 1843.
1840 1846 133
10
the warrants for payment were sent to him. In violation
of the charter, the Aldermen participated in all the profit-
able "jobs." 17
Convicts were allowed to escape from Blackwell's Island
on condition that they voted as their keepers ordered
them. 18 Prisoners whose terms had expired were kept at
the public expense until election day, to get their votes.
The inmates of the Almshouse and the Penitentiary were
forced to manufacture articles for the use and profit of the
" It is a well-known fact
officers of those departments.
to all who have been familiar with those establishments,"
" that
declared the Almshouse Commissioners, large quanti-
ties of cabinet furniture, clothing and sometimes elegant
carriages, cut-glass decanters, punch-bowls, and other
articles have been made at the expense of the city ; and this
has been carried on more or less for years." 19 It was the
custom of the officers " to expend large sums in sumptuous
and costly dinners for the entertainment of partizans."
Persons confined in the City Prison were frequently
swindled out of their money or effects by the officers, or
" "
by shyster lawyers, acting in connivance with the j ail-
ers ; and to get a mere note or message delivered to friends
20
they had to pay an exorbitant price.
Despite the disclosures, Tammany again elected Morris,
in April, 1843, by nearly 5,000 plurality, he receiving
24,395 votes to 19,516 for Robert Smith, the Whig candi-
date. The storm, however, was gathering, both in and out
of Tammany. Inside the organization, charges were com-
mon of monstrous frauds in the primaries. Frauds
against the Whigs were acceptable enough, but by Demo-
crats against Democrats were intolerable. So pronounced
was the outcry over these frauds that the Tammany Gen-
eral Committee, in the Fall of 1843, directed that in future
is IT Ibid.
Message of Mayor Morris, 1843.
is
Report of Commissioners of the Almshouse, Documents of the
Board of Aldermen, Vol. XI, No. 40. wlbid.: 400.
20
Ibid.; see also Presentment of Grand Jury, Ibid., Vol. X, part 1,
No. 53.
the ward meetings should be held on the same night and
that only those whose names appeared on the poll lists
should be allowed to vote. 21
Outside criticism materialized in an independent reform
movement. It found a rallying point in the Native Amer-
ican or American Republican party, which previously had
polled about 9,000 votes. It resented the intrusion of
foreigners into politics, large numbers of whom had secured

office. It was partially industrial in its character and fol-
lowing; numbers of American workingmen believed that

with 100,000 immigrants 22 pouring into this country every
year they would soon have to be satisfied with a shilling or
twenty cents a day for their labor, instead of $1.50 they
were receiving. The native element also complained of the
organization of the Irish into a distinct and separate ele-
ment, with a high Roman Catholic prelate at its head, in
order to get part of the public school funds. The discus-
sion of the public school question only the more accentu-
ated hatreds, bringing to the surface the most delicate
questions touching the religious feelings and prejudices of
the major part of the community.
Tammany nominated Jonathan I. Coddington for
Mayor, and placed very few naturalized citizens on its
ticket. The Native American candidate was James
Harper, and the Whig, Morris Franklin.
Mayor Morris called a meeting in Tammany Hall at
which resolutions were passed denouncing the Common
Council for its corruption and its failure to carry out
reform. The advocates of the new party declared that
they were not to be deceived. Their campaign was carried
on with vigor. Honest men generally were roused against
both Tammany and the Whigs. Religious and racial
vituperation were partially cast aside and forgotten for
21 About this time the
general committee was enlarged. Until now
the delegates had been selected from each ward. In 1843 the practise
was begun of sending them from each election district.
of New York yearly.
Sixty thousand of these entered the port
22
The total immigration rose to 154,000 in 1846 and to 427,000 in 1854.
1840 1846 135
the time when the reform men took hold of the movement ;
not wholly so, however, for we find one of the chief native
orators declaring in a campaign speech that
" the Ameri-
can Republicans will not be found with Roman Catholics
in the same ranks." This bigotry was overlooked, inas-
much as the Native Americans promised city reform, good
police, reductions in taxes, clean streets and economical
expenditure of the public money. The community was
pervaded by a profound sense of the corruption and in-
efficiency of the old parties, and ordinary political lines
were forgotten.
Tammany made desperate efforts to carry the election.
On the preceding night, convicts in batches of twenty and
thirty were taken from Blackwell's Island to New York,
where they were lodged, and the next day given Democratic
ballots, free lunch and in some instances were employed to
23
electioneer.
The Native Americans won, however, the vote standing :
Harper, 24,606 Coddington, 20,726 Franklin, 5,207.

; ;
The new administration was a distinct disappointment.

Though it had a majority in the Common Council, it
accomplished few or none of the reforms its supporters had
promised. The scramble for office continued as before;
municipal improvements progressed slowly, and though sal-
aries and appropriations were cut to some extent, taxes
and expenditures increased. A part of this increase was
doubtless justified, but the people had been promised reduc-
tion, and they refused to take into account the fiscal needs
of a rapidly growing city. The administration further
weakened its hold by passing and enforcing stringent " blue
laws." Not only were the unfortunate women of the
streets warred upon and quiet drinking places raided, but
irritating measures, such as the prohibiting of fireworks
on the Fourth of July and the driving of apple women and
other vendors from the streets, were taken. The result
was a public reaction.
23 Documents of the Board of Aldermen, 1844-45, Vol. XI, No. 40.
Major Harper was a quaint character, and his odd

rulings when presiding in Special Sessions were the talk
of the town. If a shoemaker, for instance, was arraigned
"
before him, he would say :
Well, we want shoemakers on
the island, so we'll send you up for three months, and be
smart while you last, John, be smart." Or, in the in-
stance of a man who claimed to be " a sort of carpenter " :
"
Well, we'll send you up for two months to round your
apprenticeship, and the city will take care of your lodging
and board, Matthew."
In the reaction that set in, many voters swung back to
Tammany on the general belief that it was no worse than
the other parties. This change of sentiment put the or-
ganization in good form to carry the city for James K.
Polk in November, 1844. A short time before this there
had come into distinction one of the most effective auxil-
iaries of the Wigwam. This was the Empire Club,24 of
No. 28 Park Row. Its chief was Captain Isaiah Rynders,
and its membership was made up of a choice variety of
picked worthies who could argue a mooted point to a finish
with knuckles. Rynders had a most varied career before
entering New York politics. A gambler in New Orleans,
he mixed in some bowie and pistol fights there in which he
was cut severely on the head and elsewhere, and his hat was
perforated by a bullet. On a Mississippi steamboat he
drove O'Rourke, a pugilist, out of the saloon with a red-
hot poker, after O'Rourke had lost at faro and had at-
tempted to kill the winner. These were but a few of his
many diversions. In Washington he was arrested with
Breedlove and Jewell on suspicion of being connected with
the theft of a large sum in Treasury notes, though no
proof was found against him. He was a very considerable
2*Within a few months after its organization the Empire Club had
thirty-three paradesand had been hired to go to Albany, Trenton,
Tarrytown and other cities to help the Democracy. Whenever the
Empire Club met a rival political club, a fight was sure to follow.
1840 1846 137
power in the Wigwam for over twenty years, frequently

officiating at meetings there. Chief among the club's
other members of like proclivities were such noted fighters
and " unterrified Democrats " as " Country McCleester "
" " " "
(McClusky), Bill Ford, Manny Kelly, John Ling,
"Mike" Phillips, " Bill " Miner, "Denny" McGuire,
" Ike " " Tom " " " Freeman and
Austin, McGuire, Tom
" Dave " Scandlin. After the nomination of
Henry Clay,
" " Austin a common report of the day had
Johnny
it was offered the sum of $2,000 to bring himself and
five of his associates McClusky, Kelly, Ford, Scandlin
and Phillips into the Unionist Club ( a Whig organiza-
tion) with the hope that they could secure success to the
Whigs in the city. Offices also were promised, but the
offers were refused; whether because the Wigwam held
forth greater inducements is not clear.
Aided by these worthies, and by the popular indignation
against the reform administration, the Wigwam men grew
confident. They were now heard boasting that they in-
tended electing their entire ticket. There being no longer
fear of the Registry law (which the Wigwam had recently
influenced a friendly Legislature to repeal on the ground
of its discriminative application to New York
City alone),
fraud was open and general. The
vote on its face proved
this ; since, while New York City could claim a legitimate
vote of only 45,000, the Polk electors were credited with
28,216, and the Clay electors with 26,870 votes. For
James G. Birney, the Abolition candidate, but 118 votes
were polled, or at least counted.
The Tammany General Committee, on January 13,
1845, passed resolutions favoring the annexation of Texas
and calling a public meeting. With a view of glorifying
John Tyler to whom they owed their positions and at
the same time of winning the good will of the incoming ad-
ministration, the Custom House officers tried to anticipate
the committee's action, but were not allowed to use the hall.
Resolved, at any rate, to control the meeting regularly
called,they crowded two thousand of their creatures, under
the leadership of Rynders, into the Wigwam. The meet-
ing was soon one of uproar, turbulence and some fighting.
"
Rynders had his resolutions adopted amid yells, shouts,
screams, oaths, cheers, blasphemy, hisses and an uproar
never before known in the pandemonium of politics." It
was the generally expressed opinion that the time had come
when the proceedings of a meeting at Tammany Hall were
no longer to be considered as any certain indication of the
opinions of the Democratic party ; that a class of men who
chose to organize themselves for the purpose, by being
early on the ground, acting in concert and clamoring ac-
cording to certain understood signals, could carry any set
of resolutions they pleased, in the very teeth of the large
majority of the Democratic party.
In the local campaign of 1845 Tammany acted
sagaciously. It nominated William F. Havemeyer for
"
Mayor, laying stress on the fact that he was a native
New Yorker." The Native Americans renominated Har-
per, and the Whigs, Dudley Selden. The vote stood:
Havemeyer, 24,183; Harper, 17,472; Selden, 7,082.
Tammany secured a majority of 26 on joint ballot in the
Common Council the real power.
Mayor Havemeyer sincerely tried to effect reforms. In
the beginning of his term he urged the fact that the Com-
mon Council united in itself nearly all the executive with
all the legislative power, and declared that its main busi-
ness was to collect and distribute, through the various
forms of patronage, nearly a million and a half dollars a
25
year. His attacks upon the arbitrary powers and cor-
rupt practises of theCommon Council made so little im-
pression upon that body that on May 13, the very first
day of convening, the Aldermen, immediately after the
reading of the Mayor's message, removed not less than
25 Annual Message, 1845.
1840 1846 139
seventy officials, from the heads of departments to Street

2G
Inspectors ; and on subsequent days the process was con-
tinued until every post was filled with a Tammany man.
But the effect upon the public mind was such that in
184(5 a new charter was drafted and adopted, which de-
p"rived the Common Council of the power which it hitherto
had enjoyed of appointing the heads of departments, and
gave their election direct to the people.
Mayor Havemeyer not being pliable enough for the
Wigwam leaders, they nominated and elected, in the Spring
of 1846, Andrew H. Mickle, by a vote of 21,675, the Whigs
27
receiving 15,111, and the Native Americans 8,301.
Mickle was as " one of the He
Mayor regarded people."
was born "
in ashanty in the bloody ould Sixth," in the
attic of which a dozen pigs made their habitation. Marry-
ing the daughter of the owner of a large tobacco house, he
later became its proprietor. He improved his opportuni-
ties, business and official, so well that he died worth over a
million dollars.
26
Proceedings of the Board of Aldermen, Vol. XXIX, pp. 1-55.
27
Tammany won by a minority vote both in 1845 and in 1846. That
neither Tammany nor the Native Americans had enacted any compe-
tent reforms in the matter of the taxation of property was conclusively
shown in an Aldermanic report of 1846. It appeared from this re-
port that thirty million dollars' worth of assessable property escaped
taxation every year, and that no bona fide efforts were being made by
the officials to remedy this state of affairs. Proceedings of the Board
of Assistant Aldermen, Vol. XXIX, Document No. 24.
CHAPTER XVI
" BAENBUENEES " AND " HUNKEES "
1846-1850
factions had lately arisen in Tammany Hall

the " Barnburners " and the
" Hunkers." Differ-
TWO ences in principle had at first caused the division,
but it was characterized, nevertheless, by a lively race for
office.
The " Barnburners " were the radical Democrats who
believed, among other things that slavery should not be
extended to free territory. The nickname was occasioned
by the saying of a contractor, a few years before:
" These men are incendiaries
they are mad they are like
; ;
the farmer, who, to get the rats out of his granary, sets
fire to his own barn."
The " Hunkers " were the office-holding conservatives,
very unwilling to have anything disturb their repose, and
above all, opposed to the agitation of the slavery question.
Their influence was thrown wherever possible with the
slaveholding States. The term " Hunkers " arose from
their characteristic of striving to keep their offices to the
" to
exclusion of everybody else get all they can and
1
keep all they can get."
The quarrel was as sharply defined throughout the
State as in New York
Such men as Samuel J.
City.
Tilden, C. Cambreleng, William
C. F. Havemeyer and
Minthorne Tompkins were the local leaders of the " Barn-
iThe Century Dictionary derives the word from the Dutch honk,
post, goal or home. The transition in meaning from "goal" to
" "
office is easy and natural.
140
1846 1850 141
burners " John McKeon, Lorenzo B. Shepard, 2 a bril-

;
liant young leader who was a noted orator at the early

age of 19; Edward Strahan and Emanuel B. Hart were
some of the chiefs of the " Hunkers." This factional
struggle, together with the dissatisfaction given by the
city administration, weakened Tammany, whose nominee,
in the Spring election of 1847, J. Sherman Brownell, was
defeated by the Whig candidate, William V. Brady. The
vote stood: Brady, 21,310; Brownell, 19,877; Ellis G.
Drake (Independent), 2,078. This was the first time in
nine years that the city had been carried by the Whigs
proper, though they were aided somewhat by the Native
Americans.
" Barnburners " and " Hunkers "
laid aside their dif-
ferences momentarily when President Polk visited the city
in June, 1847, one of his objects being to be initiated a
member of the Tammany Society. On June 26 he was
waited upon at the Astor House by a deputation of the
society, headed by Elijah F. Purdy. Quite worn out
after a torrid day of handshaking, Polk accompanied his
escorts to the large room in the Wigwam, where members
of the society were usually initiated. Later, the Presi-
dent emerged, looking happy at having availed himself
of membership in a political society which could sway
Presidential choices and elections and perhaps determine
his own future political fate.
This incident past, the factions resumed their quarrel
and warred so effectually that in the general election of
November, 1847, the Whigs again won, by more than
3,000 votes. But Tammany, in its darkest moments, was
fertile in expedients. It now arranged a great
meeting
for February 5, 1848, in commendation of the Mexican
War. Sam Houston and General Foote made speeches,
2
Shepard became Grand Sachem at an early age. He was one of
the very few influential men achieving prominence in the
society or
organization against whose character, public or private, no charges
were ever brought.
and one of the Tammany orators assured the audience
" erred
that though Tammany Hall sometimes," its
" ardor was never cooled." The success of this
patriotic
war brought thousands of voters back to the Democratic
ranks in the city. Besides, " Barnburners " and " Hunk-
" were Neither relished exile from
ers tiring of defeat.
office all the time. They agreed on the nomination of
former Mayor Havemeyer, who personally was popular,
though the Wigwam leaders had caused his administration
to be discredited. Havemeyer was elected by the slender
majority of 928 over the Whig candidate, Mayor Brady.
The Native American party had now about gone out of
existence.
But the factions soon disagreed again on national
questions, and sent conflicting Tammany delegations to
the national convention in Baltimore, in May, 1848.
After tedious debate and much acrimony both were al-
lowed a half vote to each delegate. When, however, it
was seen that the " Barnburners " voted with some other
States in support of the principle against the extension
of slavery to free territory, a movement was started to
reject them. The prospect of losing the all-important
electoral vote of New York State was not pleasant to the
convention. To avoid the arbitrary rejection of either
faction the committee on credentials suggested a com-
promise by which it refused to open the discussion as to
which faction ought to be accepted until both had pledged
themselves to abide by the decision of the convention.
"
Knowing that this would be pro-slavery, the Barnburn-
ers
" declared that " the Democracy of New York must be
admitted unconditionally or not at all," and withdrew.
The " Hunkers " took the required pledge.
" Barnburner "
Arriving home, the delegates issued an
address saying that a faction existed among them whose
object was the perpetuation and the extension of human
servitude. Bold, unscrupulous and active, it wielded to
a great degree the patronage of the Federal Government.
1846 1850 143
It addressed itself to the fears of some, to the cupidity of

others. By these means it had got possession of the
late national convention and had proclaimed a candidate
for the Presidency a man who obtained his nomination
only as the price of the most abject subserviency to the
slave power. The " Barnburners " then took steps to
name candidates in opposition to Lewis Cass and Gen.
W. O. Butler, the Baltimore nominees, who had been
" Hunker " element in the
promptly approved by the
Wigwam. Calling Martin Van Buren from obscurity, t-~
they nominated him for President, anticipating the ac-
tion of the Free Soil convention at Buffalo in August.
Throughout the slavery agitation up to the firing on
Fort Sumter, the South had no firmer supporter than
Tammany. In the hall Southern representatives spoke
and spread broadcast their doctrines on every available
occasion however ultra those doctrines might be, the
;
Wigwam audiences never missed applauding them en-

thusiastically.
The " Hunkers " immediately opened a series of Cass
" All the South
meetings. asks," said Gen. Stevenson
at one of them in Tammany Hall, on June 9, 1848,
" is
non-interference." He was cheered wildly. As usual,
the " regular
" Democratic nominations were
supported
by the backbone of the Democracy in New York City
those who clung to the mere name and forms of the party
as well as the active men who lived in office and luxuriated
on the spoils. The " Barnburriers," otherwise HOW styled
the Free Soilers, were quite as active as the " Hunkers,"
and their defection on election day enabled Gen. Taylor
to carry the city the supposed Democratic strong-
hold by 9,883 votes.
The dissensions in the Wigwam were as pronounced in
the Spring of 1849 at least outwardly. The two fac-
tions held separate Mayoralty conventions on the same
night. The " Barnburners " were naturally eager for
Havemeyer, one of themselves, but he would not have
"
Hunkers "
were propos-
the honor. Hearing that the
ing Myndert Van Schaick, an extremely popular man,
" resolved to steal the " Hunkers'
the " Barnburners
'
thunder by nominating him themselves. This they ac-

cordingly did, and the bewildered public was treated to
the spectacle of Van Schaick standing as the candidate
of both the recriminating factions. There were not
wanting those who professed to see in this action an
agreement between the leaders on the matter of the local

offices. The Whigs elected Caleb S. Woodhull by 4,121
plurality, and secured over two-thirds of the members of
the Common Council. The Democrats of the " Old
the unyielding
"
Hunkers "
would not vote
School,"
for a candidate the Free Soilers approved of; they either
did not vote at all or voted for Woodhull.
The " Barnburners," practically driven out of Tam-
"
many Hall Jby the Hunkers," had been meeting else-
where. Tiring of defeats, however, overtures for reunion
were made during the Fall campaign. A fusion resulted,
not only in the city but in other parts of the State, and
candidates were agreed upon. 3 But no sooner had the
reunion been declared than a number of irreconcilable
" Hunkers " and certain other
politicians including
Daniel E. Sickles, James T. Brady, " Mike " Walsh and
John M. Bloodgood formed a self-constituted " Demo-
" to
cratic-Republican Executive Committee oppose the
deal. On the day before election they sent out a circular
denouncing the fusion, and declaring that though it
promised much it was really only a means of engrafting
upon Democratic time-honored principles a set of aboli-
s New York
Weekly Herald, November 3," 1849. James Gordon
Bennett, editor and owner of this newspaper, was a recognized mem-
ber of the Tammany party." ("Memoirs of James Gordon Bennett
and His Times," 1855, p. 80.) When Bennett first contemplated start-
ing a newspaper, it was to the Young Men's General Committee that
he applied for funds. Though professing to be independent, the
Herald nearly always supported Tammany Hall. In 1837-39, how-
ever, it had supported Aaron Clark.
1846 1850 145
" hostile to the

tion doctrines, peace and welfare of the
Republic and repugnant to the sympathies and intelli-
4
gence of the Democratic party."
This circular was misleading. Neither the " Barn-
burners " nor the " Hunkers " had imposed any sacrifice
of principle upon the other. They merely agreed for
the time being to suspend their differences in order to
get a controlling influence over the disbursement of mu-
nicipal finances. The opinion of each voter on the slav-
ery question was left untouched.
The election was hotly contested, for by the new State
constitution the selection of minor State offices had been
taken from the Governor and Legislature and given to
the people. 5 Owing to this defection of a strong Tam-
many group the Whigs carried the city. The excitement
in the Wigwam, when the result became known, was in-
tense. Four thousand Tammany men, looking either for
office or party triumph, were in a frenzy. W. D. Wal-
lach, a politician of some note, mounted the rostrum,
and under the stimulus of disappointment, held forth in
a long and remarkable harangue, to which his auditors
listened in comparative silence, though the same utter-
ances at another time might have provoked a riot in the
Wigwam. Men of downright dishonesty, Wallach said,
had crept into the organization by the aid of bullies and
loafers. These men of late years had managed to wield
great power at Tammany primary elections, where, as
"
everybody knew, matters long had been arranged upon
the assumption that by a free application of money,
violence and roguery, the people could and should be
controlled." What wonder was it, he asked, that thou-
sands of quiet and respectable Democrats had ceased to
bow to the authority of regular nominations, however
* The committee advertised the stand it had taken in the Democratic
journals of the city on 2ôvell?er 5.
s The
city charter of^!846 had likewise increased the number of
elective offices in the municipality.
worthy the candidates, when they found more or less of

the Tammany nominating committees returned in part
notoriously by violence, if not by fraud?
The breach between the " Barnburners " and the ex-
treme " Hunkers " was reopened and widened by this
self-constituted committee's action. It led to the for-
mation of two bodies, each claiming to be the genuine
general committee of Tammany Hall. One was led by
Fernando Wood, who was suspected of being a
"
Hunker," but was too much of a politician to be active
" Barnburners." This
against the general committee
was of a compromising disposition. In brief, it was
"
composed mainly of what were known as political trim-
mers " men willing to make any sacrifices of principle
for individual or party success. The other committee,
of which Henry M. Western was the head, was composed
of " Hunkers
" and took
up the interests of the self-
formed " Democratic-Republican Executive Committee."
It was the first body in the North to call a meeting to
denounce the Wilmot proviso. To all intents standing
for principle, each committee sought the tremendous
advantages of the possession of Tammany Hall and its
"
political machinery.
"
By being recognized as the " regu-
lar general committee, its nominations would be regu-
lar
" and as such would command the votes of the
great
mass of Democrats. To obtain that recognition both
committees realized the necessity of obtaining a majority
of the Council of Sachems, which, in critical moments,
had so thoroughly demonstrated its legal right to eject
from the Wigwam any man or body of men it pleased.
The opening struggle between the factions for mastery
took place at the annual election of the society on April
15, 1850. Each body made desperate efforts to elect its
list of Sachems. The ticket in favor of a union of the
factions and of reorganizing the
" Wood committee "
was headed by Elijah F. Purdy, then Grand Sachem,
and contained the names of Isaac V. Fowler, John A.
1846 1850 147
Bogert, John J. Manning and others. Former Mayor

Mickle, Charles O'Conor, Francis B. Cutting and M. M.
Noah led the rival ticket.
The " Hunkers " brought to the polls many men, who,
though still members of the society, long since had gone
over to the Whigs and had lost the habit of attending
the society's meetings. These men claimed the right to
vote, and it was unquestionably theirs. In law the Tam-
many Society was merely a charitable and benevolent
corporation. No member in good standing could be de-
barred from voting. With cheerful alacrity these Whig
members lent their aid in distracting the Democratic
party into keeping up a double organization. Office-
holders and other men openly attached to the Whig
6
party voted. When it seemed that most of the Purdy
ticket was elected, the two
" Hunker "
inspectors sud-
" Hunker " tickets in the ballot
denly found three more
box. Previously this box had been examined, emptied
and exposed publicly. These three ballots, if counted,
would have elected one more Sachem of the " Hunker "
stripe, giving that faction six of the thirteen Sachems
one short of a majority. The two "Barnburner"
inspectors refused to count them. The result of the
election being disputed, Purdy promptly took possession
of the books and papers of the society.
As the best solution of the troubles, the Sachems, on
April 26, determined to forbid both committees admit-
tance to the Wigwam. The Sachems did not acknowl-
edge accountability to any one for their actions, not
even to the society which elected them. 7 Representing-
themselves as the supreme judges of which was the real
Democratic General Committee or whether there was
8
any, the Sachems let it be understood that they would
9 "
act as mediators. By a vote of 10 to I, they recom-
6 New York Evening Post (Democratic), April 16, 1850.
7 New York Weekly Herald, May 4, 1860. 8 Ibid.
e
Evening Post, May 2, 1850.
mended " an action equivalent to an arbitrary order
Wood committee " provide for the election
that the "
of delegates to a convention in Tammany Hall " to re-
organize the New York City Democracy." From the
substance of the invitation sent out by the society to
various conspicuous personages it was evident that,
though the
"
Wood committee " had been favored, some-
how a majority of the "Hunker," or pro-slavery Sa-
10
chems was installed.
The plan of a convention was accepted by both fac-
tions. But by manipulating the primary elections for
delegates Fernando Wood succeeded in filling the con-
vention with his own creatures, allowing, for form's sake,
a sprinkling of opponents. Wood, whose aim was to get
"
the nomination for Mayor, was the chief trimmer,"
though each side made concessions. Various equivocal
resolutions touching the slavery question were adopted,
and a new Tammany" General " Committee, comprising
" Hunkers and ultra-" Hunkers,"
Barnburners," mild
was formed.
The "Barnburners" and "Hunkers" then agreed
upon a coalition in State and city, uniting on Horatio
Seymour for Governor. Despite the diplomacy of Wood,
who had arranged this pact, an explosion was narrowly
averted a few weeks later. Finding themselves in a ma-
jority at a slimly attended meeting of the general
committee in the latter part of September, 1850, the
" Hunkers " with
uncompromising denounced parleying-
Free Soilers, and by a vote of 16 to 11 refused to sustain
Seymour. As soon as their action became known there
10 Seven Sachems
"
signed the letter of invitation, which read in part:
Brothers of this society look with deep concern at the present criti-
cal state of the country and are not unmindful of the services of those
who are laboring to thwart the designs of the fanatics and demagogues
who are waging an unholy crusade against a union of independent
sovereignties, which union has done much to advance and perpetuate
the principles of American liberty throughout the world. . . We.
have no sympathy with those who war upon the South and its institu-
tions."
1846 1850 149
was a burst of indignation. The threat was made that

if the committee did not rescind it, the Council of Sa-
chems, most of whom, it seems, Wood had won over to
his plans, would turn it out of Tammany Hall. The
members of the committee hastened to meet, the ultra-
" Hunkers " were routed, and the State candidates
strongly indorsed.
CHAPTER XVII
'
DEFEAT AND VICTORY
1850-1852
a new charter the Mayor's term was ex-

tended to two years, and the time of election,
UNDER with that of the other city officers, was changed
to November. The latter change gave great satisfaction
to the leaders, for it enabled them to trade votes. Trad-
ing grew to such an extent that charges become common
of this or that nominee for President, Governor, State
Senator and so on being " sold out " by the leaders to
insure their own election.
too, had made a change.
The Tammany organization,
It had adopted the convention system of nominating.
This new method was much more satisfactory to the
leaders, because the election of delegates to the conven-
tions could easily be controlled, and the risk of having
prearranged nominations overruled by an influx of
" " into the
gangs great popular meeting was eliminated.
A show of opposition to the proposed program was,
however, still
necessary. The first general convention
was held inOctober, 1850. Fernando Wood was the
leading candidate for Mayor, and it was certain that he
would be nominated. But the first ballot showed a half-
dozen competitors. The second ballot, however, dis-
closed the real situation, and Wood was chosen by 29
votes, to 22 for John J. Cisco.
Wood was a remarkable man. As a tactician and
organizer he was the superior both of his distant prede-
150
1850 1852 151
cessor Burr and Tweed and Sweeny.

of his successors
He was born June, 1812, of Quaker
in Philadelphia, in
parents. At the age of thirteen, he was earning $2 a

week as a clerk. Later, he became a cigarmaker and
tobacco dealer, and still later, a grocer. As a lad he
was pugnacious in a Harrisburg bar-room he once
;
floored with a chair a State Senator who had attacked

him. But he seems to have been amenable to good
advice; for once when a Quaker reprimanded him for
his excessive use of tobacco with the observation,
"Friend, thee smokes a good deal," he at once threw
away his cigar, and gave up the habit.
Coming to New York, he engaged in several business
enterprises, all the while taking a considerable interest
in politics. He waselected to Congress in 1840, serving
one term. Gradually he came to make politics his voca-
tion. Political manipulation before his day was, at the
best, clumsy and crude. Under his facile genius and
painstaking care, it developed to the rank of an exact
science. He devoted himself for years to ingratiating
1
himself with the factors needed in carrying elections.
He curried favor with the petty criminals of the Five
Points, the boisterous roughs of the river edge, and the
swarms of immigrants, as well as with the peaceable and
industrious mechanics and laborers; and he won a fol-
lowing even among the business men. All these he mar-
shaled systematically in the Tammany organization.
Politics was and the " fixing " of primaries
his science,
was perhaps without a peer.
his specialty; in this he
His unscrupulousness was not confined to politics.
During this brief campaign he was repeatedly charged
with commercial frauds as well as with bribery and dis-
honest practises at the primaries. A year later he was
shown to have been guilty before this time of having
i Wood's was an attractive personality. He was a handsome man,
six feet high, slender and straight, with keen blue eyes, and regular
features. His manner was kindly and engaging.
defrauded a partner of $8,000, and he escaped convic-
2
tion by the merest technicality.
Political standards in the fifties were not high. But
the rowdy character of a great part of Tammany's mem-
bership, and the personal character of many of its nom-
inees, particularly that of Wood, proved too much to
bear, even for those days, and a strong revulsion fol-
lowed. Former Mayors Havemeyer and Mickle; John
McKeon, a leader of note, and other prominent Demo-
crats revolted. The election resulted in a Whig victory,
Ambrose C. Kingsland securing 22,546 votes to 17,973
for Wood. A
great Democratic defection was shown by
the fact that Horatio Seymour carried the city by only
705 plurality.
So general were the expressions of contempt for the
character of the Wigwam that the Sachems resolved to
invoke again the spirit of patriotism, and consequently
fixed upon a revival of the old custom of Independence
Day celebrations. In 1851 the ruling Council of" Sa-
chems was a mixture of compromise " Barnburners and
"
Hunkers." The committee of arrangements Eli-
jah F. Purdy, Daniel E. Delavan, Richard B. Connolly,
Stephen C. Duryea and three others sent invitations,
filled with lofty and patriotic sentiments, to various
national politicians. " Barnburners " also were
invited,
the conciliatory Sachems being sincerely tired of a war-
fare which threatened to exile them all from the sine-
cures of city and State offices.
The Society of Tammany, or Columbian Order, the
2 Wood wascharged with having obtained about $8,000 on false rep-
resentations fromhis partner, Edward E. Marvine, in a transaction.
Marvine brought suit against Wood in the Superior Court, and three
referees gave a unanimous decision in the plaintiff's favor. The
Grand Jury, on November 7, 1851, indicted Wood for obtaining money
under false pretenses, but he pleaded the Statute of Limitations. A
friendly Recorder decided that as his offense had been committed
three years previously (on November 7, 1848), the period required by
the statute had been fully covered. The indictment, therefore, was
quashed, and Wood escaped by one day.
1850 1852 153
circular said, had originated " in a fraternity of pa-

triots, solemnly consecrated to the independence, the
popular liberty and the federal union of the country."
"
Tammany's councils were ever vigilant for the preser-
vation of those great national treasures from the grasp
alike of the treacherous and the open spoiler." It had
" enrolled in brotherhood of the most illus-
its many
trious statesmen, patriots and heroes that had constel-
lated the historic banners of the past and present age.
. . . And it remained to the present hour," the glowing
lines read on, " instinct with its primitive spirit and true
to the same sacred trust."
The rhetoric delivered at the celebration was quite as
pretentious and high-flown. But the phrases made no
impression on the public mind. No impartial observer
denied that the Wigwam's moral prestige with the State
and national party was for the time gone. Through-
out the country the belief prevailed that the politicians
of the metropolis deserved no respect, merit or consid-
eration; and that they were purchasable and transfer-
able like any stock in Wall street.
If before 1846 nominations were sold it was not an
open transaction. Since then the practise of selling them
had gradually grown, and now the bargaining was uncon-
cealed. Upon the highest bidder the honors generally
fell. Whigs and Tammany men were alike guilty. If
one aspirant offered $1,000, another offered $2,000. But
these sums were merely a beginning; committees would
impress upon the candidate the fact that a campaign
costs money more of the " boys " would have to be
;
" seen " such and such a " ward heeler "
; needed " pacify-
" a band was a
ing ; proper embellishment, with a parade
to boot, and voters needed " persuading." And at the
last moment a dummy candidate would be
brought for-
ward as a man who had offered much more for the nomi-
nation. Then the bidder at $2,000 would have to pay
the difference, and if the office sought was a profitable
one, the candidate would be a lucky man if he did not
have to disgorge as much as $15,000 before securing the
nomination. Some candidates were bled for as much as
$20,000, and even this was a moderate sum compared to
the prices which obtained a few years later.
The primaries were attended by " gangs " more rowdy
and corrupt than ever ; Whig ward committees often sold
3
over to Tammany, and Whig votes, bought or traded,
swelled the ballot boxes at the Wigwam primaries.
" "
Nearly every saloon was the headquarters of a gang
whose energies and votes could be bought. In Tammany
Hall an independent Democrat dared not speak unless he
had previously made terms with the controlling factions,
according to a relatively fixed tariff of rates. The pri-
maries of both parties had become so scandalously cor-
rupt as to command no respect.
The discoveries of gold in California and Australia
created in all classes a feverish desire for wealth. Vessel
after vessel was arriving in the harbor with millions of
dollars' worth of gold dust. Newspapers and magazines
were filled with glowing accounts of how poor men became
rich in a dazzlingly short period. The desire for wealth
became a mania, and seized upon all callings. The effect
was a still further lowering of the public tone standards
;
were generally lost sight of, and all means of " getting
ahead " came to be considered legitimate. Politicians,
trafficking in nominations and political influence, found it
a most auspicious time.
This condition was intensified by the influx of the
hordes of immigrants driven by famine and oppression
from Ireland, Germany and other European countries.
From over 129,000 arriving at the port of New York in
1847, the number increased to 189,000 in 184*8, 220,000
in 1849, 212,000 in 1850, 289,000 in 1851 and 300,000
in 1852. Some of these sought homes in other States,
3 New York
Tribune, May 5, 1852. (This admission on the part of
a Whig journal caused a great stir.)
1850 1852 155
but a large portion remained in the city. Though many

of these were thrifty and honest, numbers were ignorant
and vicious, and the pauper and criminal classes of the
metropolis grew larger than ever. The sharper-witted

among them soon mended their poverty by making a live-
lihood of politics. To them political rights meant the
obtaining of money or the receiving of jobs under the
city, State or national government, in return for the
marshaling of voters at the polls. Regarding issues they
bothered little, and knew less.
The effects of the Whig and Native American denun-
ciation of the alien vote were now
seen. The naturalized
citizens almost invariably sided with Tammany Hall, al-
though there were times when, by outbidding the Wig-
wam, the Whigs were enabled to use them in considerable
numbers.
Despite an unusual degree of public condemnation,
Tammany managed, by a temporary pacification of the
factions and a general use of illegal votes, to carry the
city in the Fall of 18'51 by nearly 2,000 majority. But
it could not hold the regular Democratic strength, for
Wright, the candidate for Governor, received over 3,000
majority. Frauds were notorious. In one of the poll-
ing places of the Nineteenth Ward, the Wigwam's candi-
dates for Alderman and Assistant Alderman were counted
in after a mob invaded it and forced the Whig inspectors
to flee for their lives. When the votes for the Assembly
ticket were counted 532 were announced, although there
were only 503 names on the poll list. This was but an
instance of the widespread repeating and violence.
With its large majority in the Common Council Tam-
many at first made a feint at curtailing city expenses.
The taxpayers complained that the taxes were upwards
of $3,500,000, for which there was little apparent bene-
fit. The new Common Council made professions of giv-
ing a spotless administration; but before its term was
over it had generally earned the expressive title of " the
4
Forty Thieves." This was the body that with lavish
promises of reform replaced the Whig Common Council.
William M. Tweed, an Alderman in the " Forty Thieves "
Common Council, was busy in the Fall of this year in-
dignantly defending, in speeches and public writings, the
Aldermen from the numerous charges of corruption ; but,
as will be seen, these charges were by no means ground-
less.
Since the passings of the Equal Rights party, the
mechanics and laborers had taken no concerted part in
politics, not even as a faction. But at this period they
were far from being lethargic. The recent discoveries of
gold and silver had given a quickened pulse to business,
enormously increasing the number of transactions and
the aggregate of profits. The workers were determined
to have their share of this prosperity, and acted accord-
ingly. Old trade-unions were rapidly strengthened and
new ones formed. More pay and shorter hours of work
were demanded. Between the Spring of 1850 and the
Spring of 1853 nearly every trade in the city engaged
in one or more strikes, with almost invariable success.
Having now no sincere leaders to prompt them to con-
certed political action, the workers oscillated listlessly
between the two parties. They had lost the tremendous
influence secured in the thirties, and the business element
had again become dominant. Legislature and Common
Council vied with each other in granting exploitative
charters, and the persons who secured these, generally
by bribery, were considered the leaders of public opinion.
Every company demanding special privileges of the State
maintained its lobby at Albany. The City Council was
more easily reached, and was generally dealt with per-
sonally. Fortunes were made by plundering the city
and State, and while the conduct of the agents and actual
performers in this wholesale brigandage the lobbyists,
* There was another " "
Forty Thieves Council five or six years later,
which must not be confounded with the earlier and more notorious one.
1850 1852 157
Legislators and Aldermen was looked upon somewhat

doubtfully, their employers stood before the world as the
representatives of virtue and respectability. The one
force which might have stood as a bulwark against this
system of pillage had been so completely demoralized by
its political experiences that it could now only look on
and let matters drift as they would.
In the Baltimore Democratic convention the Wigwam
was represented by so boisterous a delegation that its
speakers were denied a hearing. Among the delegates
were Capt. Rynders, " Mike " Walsh and a number of
the same kind. Cass was their favorite, and they shouted
for him lustily; but on attempting to speak for him they
were invariably howled down, despite the fact that Cass
had a majority of the convention almost to the end of
the balloting.
The Wigwam, however, lost no time in indorsing the
nomination of Franklin Pierce. In this ratification the
"Barnburners" joined, ardently urging the election of
candidates on a platform which held that Congress had
no power under the Constitution " to interfere with the
"
domestic institutions of the States ; which advocated
compromise measures, the execution of the Fugitive Slave
law, and which opposed all attempts to agitate the slav-
ery question.
The election of November, 1852, was not only for
President and Congressmen, but for a long list of officials,
city and State. Each of the Wigwam factions began
playing for advantage. On July 16 a portion of the
general committee met, apparently to accept an invita-
tion to attend the funeral of Henry Clay. The " Barn-
burners," finding themselves in a majority, sprang a
trick upon the " Hunkers
"
by adopting a plan of pri-
mary elections favorable to their side. Later the general
committee, in full meeting, substituted another plan, and
a great hubbub followed. " committee of concilia-
A
tion," composed of members of both factions, was ap-
pointed. When it met, on August 20, the halls, lobbies

and entrances of Tammany Hall were filled with a vicious
assortment of persons, chiefly inimical to the general
" The " was
committee. bar-room," wrote a chronicler,
the scene of several encounters and knockdowns. It was
only necessary for a man to express himself strongly
on any point, when down he went, by the hammer-fist
of one of the fighting men." Even members of the com-
mittee, while passing in and out of the room, were in-
timidated. Daniel E. Sickles was threatened with per-
sonal violence, and it might have gone hard with him
had he not taken the precaution of arming himself with
a bowie and revolver. Members' lives were constantly
threatened; the scenes of uproar and confusion were
indescribable.Mr. Sickles, for his own safety, had to
jump from a window to Frankfort street, and other
members were forced to retreat through secret byways. 5
It was near day-break when the factions consented to
leave the Wigwam.
The anxiety of each was explained by the proceedings
at the primaries. The faction having a majority of the
inspectors secured by far the greater number of votes,
and consequently the delegates who had the power of
making nominations. At the primaries of August, 1852,
fraud and violence occurred at nearly every voting place.
In some instances one faction took possession of the
polls and prevented the other from voting; in others,
both factions had control by turns, and fighting was
desperate. One party ran away with a ballot box and
carried it off to the police station. Many ballot boxes,
it was alleged, were half filled with votes before the elec-
tion was opened. Wards containing less than 1,000
legal Democratic voters yielded 2,000 votes, and a ticket
which not a hundred voters of the ward had seen was
elected by 600 or 700 majority. Whigs, boys and pau-
s The
Herald, which, as usual, supported Tammany this year, de-
scribed (August 24, 1852) these violences in detail.
1850 1852 159
pers voted; the purchasable, who flocked to either party

according to the price, came out in force, and ruffianism
dominated the whole.
The police dared not interfere. Their appointment
was made by the Aldermen and Assistant Aldermen, with
the nominal consent of the Mayor, exclusively on po-
litical grounds and for one year. The policeman's live-
lihood depended upon the whims of those most concerned
in the ward turmoils. A
hard lot was the policeman's.
On the one hand, public opinion demanded that he arrest
offenders. On the other, most of the Aldermen had
" " of lawbreakers at the
their gangs polls, and to arrest
one of these might mean his dismissal. 6 But this was
not all. The politics of the Common Council changed
frequently; and to insure himself his position the guard-
ian of the peace must conduct himself according to the
difficult mean of aiding his own party to victory and yet
of giving no offense to the politicians of the other party.
Hence, whenever a political disturbance took place the
" deaf and
policeman instantly, it was a saying, became
7
blind, and generally invisible."
The necessity of uniting to displace the Whigs from
the millions of city patronage and profit brought the
factions to an understanding. Jacob A. Westervelt, a
moderate " Hunker," and a shipbuilder of wealth, who
was considered the very essence of " respectability," and
a contrast to Wood, was nominated for Mayor. Tam-
many planned to have its candidates swept in on the
Presidential current. National issues were made dom-
inant, and the city responded by giving the Pierce
political lawbreaker had a final immunity from punishment in

6 The
the fact that Aldermen sat as Justices in the Mayor's Court, which
tried such culprits, if ever they happened to be arrested.
7 See
Report of Chief of Police Matsell, Documents of the Board of
Aldermen, Vol. XXX, part 1, No. 17. The extreme turbulence of the
city at this time may be judged from the fact that, despite the com-
parative immunity of political lawbreakers, during the eight years
1846-54, 200,083 arrests were made, an average of 25,010 a year.
electors 11,159 plurality, and electing the whole organ-
ization ticket. 8 Fraud was common. No registry law
was in force to hinder men from voting, as it was charged
some did, as often as twenty times. On the other hand,
80,000 tickets purporting to be Democratic, intended
for distribution by the Whigs, but not containing the
name of a single Democrat, were seized at the post-office
and carried in triumph to the Wigwam.
Tammany once more had full control of the city.
8 The vote on Mayor stood: Westervelt, 33,251; Morgan Morgans,
23,719; Henry M. Western, 861; blank and scattering, 227; total,
58,058.
CHAPTER XVIII
" HAEDSHELLS " AND " SOFTSHELLS "
1852-1853
Barnburner "-" Hunker " factional fight was

" Hardshells " and
THE succeeded by
" Softshells."
thatof the
How the ludicrous nicknames or-
iginated it is not possible to say. The " Softshells "
were composed of a remnant of the " Barnburners " l
and that part of the " Hunkers " who believed in a full
union with the " Barnburners," especially in the highly
" Hard-
important matter of distributing offices. The
" were the " Old Hunkers " who disavowed all
shells con-
nection with the " Barnburners," or Free Soilers, except
so far as to get their votes. This division also extended
to other parts of the State, where perhaps real differ-
ences of political principle were responsible for it ; but in
the city the fundamental point of contention was the
booty of office.
The " Hardshells " boasted in 1852 of a majority of
the Tammany General Committee which met on Decem-
ber 2 to choose inspectors for the ward elections of dele-
gates to the general committee for 1853. The control
of these inspectors was the keynote of the
situation, for
they would return such
delegates as they pleased.
" "
Angered at the appointment of Hardshell inspectors,
the " Softshells " broke in the door of the committee
room, assaulted the members of the committee with chairs,
i of the " Barnburners " had finally broken with the Demo-
Many
craticparty, and were now acting independently as Free Soilers.
Afterward, in great part, these independents gravitated to the new
Republican party.
161
fractured some heads and forced the " Hards " to flee
for refuge to the Astor House. 2
"
Agreeable to usages," the departing general com-
mittee instructed the delegates of its successor to assem-
ble in Tammany Hall on January 13, 1853, to be in-
stalled as the general committee for the ensuing year.
Until this installation, the committee of the last year re-
mained in power. In the interval the Sachems, who, in
the peculiar mix of politics, were for the most part
"
Softshells," decided to take a hand in the game of get-
ting control of the organization, and therefore called a
meeting for the same night and at the same time.
The object of the old general committee was to allow
only delegates whose seats were uncontested to vote on
the organization, or the contest of seats, which would
return a " Hardshell " committee. The Sachems, on the
contrary, favored voting by those who had the indorse-
ment of two of the three inspectors.
The " Hardshells " insisted that the Sachems had un-
warrantably interfered ; that this was the first time in
the history of the society of any interference as to the
manner of organizing the general committee; that the
only power the Sachems had was to decide between con-
tending parties for the use of the hall for political meet-
ings, and that even then their power was doubtful.
The Grand Sachem ordered the doors of the meeting
room locked till 7:30 o'clock, at which hour both fac-
tions streamed in. Soon there were two meetings in the
same room, each with a chairman, and each vociferously
trying to shout down the other. Neither accomplished
anything, and both adjourned, and kept adjourning from
day to day, awaiting positive action by the society.
" "
The Softshell section of the general committee
it was prohibited
called a meeting for January 20, but
by the Sachems. When doubt of their authority was
2 This affair was exploited in the General Courts later. Seven riot-
ers were arrested.
1852 1853 163
expressed, the Sachems produced a lease executed in

to Howard, the lessee of the property, by the Tammany
Society, in which he agreed that he would not lease,
either directly or indirectly, the hall, or any part of the
building, to any other political party (or parties) what-
ever, calling themselves committees, whose general po-
litical principles did not appear to him or the Sachems
to be in accordance with the general political principles
of the Democratic-Republican General Committee of New
York City, of which Elijah F. Purdy was then chairman.
Howard had also agreed that
" if
there should be at any time a doubt arising in his mind or that
of his assigns, or in the mind of the Grand Sachem of the Tammany
Society for the time being, in ascertaining the political character of
any political party that should be desirous of obtaining admission to
Tammany Hall for the purpose of holding a political meeting, then
either might give notice in writing to the Father of the Council of
the Tammany Society, in which event it was the duty of the Father
of the Council to assemble the Grand Council, who would determine
in the matter and whose decision should be final, conclusive and
binding."
Of the thirteen Sachems, eleven were " Softshells "

a predominance due to the activity of the " Barnburn-
ers." The " Hardshells," without doubt, were in a ma-
jority in the Tammany Society and in Tammany Hall,
but they had taken no such pains as had their oppo-
nents to elect their men. The Sachems' meeting on Jan-
uary 20, professedly to decide the merits of the contest,
called for the ward representatives in turn. The " Hard-
" refused to answer or to
shells acknowledge the Sachems'
authority to interfere with the primary elections of the
people. The Sachems then named by resolution the gen-
eral committee they favored, thus deciding in favor of
the " Softshell " committee. There was no little sup-
pressed excitement, since the members of the Tammany
Society, it was naively told, though allowed to be pres-
ent, were not allowed to speak.
Alderman Thomas J. Barr, a member of the Tammany
" Hardshell "
Society and chairman of the committee,
handled to the Sachems, on behalf of his associates, an
energetic protest. Summarized, it read as follows:
" a private association, incorporated for char-
Tammany Society is
itable purposes. There
is nothing in its charter, constitution or
by-laws making it a political organization in any sense of the term.

The Democrats of New York City have never, in any manner or
by any act, vested in the society the right to prescribe the rules for
their government in matters of political organization.
" The
society comprises among its members men belonging to all
the different political parties of the day. The only political test of
admission to membership is to be ' a Republican in favor of the
Constitution of the United States.' It is, besides, a secret society,
whose transactions are known only to its own officers and members,
except so far as might be the pleasure of the Council to make the
proceedings public. It can never be tolerated that a body which,
in the language of its charter, was created 'to carry into effect
the benevolent purpose of affording relief to the indigent and dis-
tressed,' and which is wholly independent of the great body of the
Democracy shall be permitted to sit in judgment upon the primary
organization of the Democratic-Republican party of the city of New
York; and such a state of things, if its absurdity be not too great
for serious consideration, would amount to a despotism of the most
repugnant character and render the Democratic party of the city an
object of contempt and ridicule everywhere. Tammany Society
. . .
owns a portion of the premises known as Tammany Hall, which is let

to Mr. Howard and forms the plant of his hotel. This fact is all
that gives to the Tammany Society any, even the least political
significance.
"The general committee derives its powers from the people, who
alone can take them away. The committee in its objects, its organ-
ization and its responsibilities to a popular constituency is wholly
distinct from and independent of the Tammany Society, its council
or its officers, and to be efficient for any good purpose must always
so remain, leaving to the Tammany Society its legitimate duty of
excluding from Tammany Hall those who are hostile to the De-
mocracy and its principles." 3
In the bar-room many leaders of the excluded faction

were assembled, surrounded by their fighting men. When
the Sachems' adverse decision was announced, their anger
found vent in a sputter of oaths and threats, and vthe
sum of $15,000 was subscribed on the spot for the build-
3 The statements of both sides were published officially in the New
York Herald, February 10, 1853, the bare facts covering 'more than an
entire page of solid print.
1852 1853 165
It is almost needless to
ing of a rival Tammany Hall.
say that the rival hall was never built.
The Sachems later replied to the protest with the de-
fense that their lease to Howard obliged them to act
as they did. By that lease the succession of Elijah F.
Purdy's committee alone was at liberty to meet as a
general committee in Tammany Hall; they (the Sachems)
had not recognized Barr's committee as such, and more-
" Hardshell " commit-
over did not admit the claim the
tee made of their right to hire a room separate from the
majority in a building in which they had no property
whatever. The Council of Sachems insisted that it had
exercised the right of excluding so-called general com-
mittees before; that Tammany was a benevolent society,
and that benevolent societies had the same right as others
to determine who should occupy their property.
The " Hardshells " attempted to rout the " Softshells "
at the regular meeting of the Tammany Society on Feb-
ruary 12, but the Sachems' action was confirmed by a
vote of two hundred to less than a dozen. Each faction
then strained to elect a majority of the Sachems at the
annual election on April 18. Private circulars were dis-
" Softshells "
tributed, that of the being signed by Isaac
V. Fowler, Fernando Wood, Nelson J. Waterbury, John
Cochrane and others. It breathed allegiance to the na-
tional and State administrations, the regular organiza-
tion and to the Baltimore platform. The " Hardshell "
circular had the signatures of Richard B. Connolly, Cor-
nelius Bogardus, Jacob Brush and others styling them-
t6
selves the Old Line Democrats."
The " Softshells " elected their ticket, and Isaac V.
Fowler, afterward postmaster, was chosen Grand Sachem.
This vote of a few score of private individuals decided
the control of Tammany Hall and the lot of those who
would share in the division of plunder for the next year.
" With
the exception of sonic few quarrels," one
" which
friendly account had it, fortunately did not result
in any personal damage to the disputants, the affair
passed off very quietly. While the votes were counted
upstairs some interesting- scenes were presented in the
bar-room, which was crowded with anxious expectants.
Language of a rather exceptional character, such as
* '
political swindlers,' etc., was employed un-
thieves,'
sparingly, but as the majority was peaceably inclined,
there were no heads fractured."
CHAPTER XIX
A CHAPTER OF DISCLOSURES
1853-1854
came an appalling series of disclosures

regard-
NOW ing public Acting on the affidavit of

officials.
James E. Coulter, a lobbyist, charging that there

was a private organization x in the Board of Aldermen
formed to receive and distribute bribes, the Grand Jury,
after investigation, handed down a presentment, on Feb-
ruary 26, 1853, together with a vast mass of testimony.
" It was " that
clearly shown," stated the presentment,
enormous sums of money have been expended for and
towards the procurement of railroad grants in the city,
and that towards the decision and procurement of the
Eighth Avenue Railroad grant a sum so large that would
startle the most credulous was expended; but in conse-
quence of the voluntary absence of important witnesses,
the Grand Jury was left without direct testimony of the
2
particular recipients of the different amounts."
Solomon Kipp, one of the grantees of the Eighth and
Ninth Avenue Railroad franchises, admitted frequently
to a member of the Grand Jury that he had expended,
in 1851, upwards of $50,000 in getting them. Five
grantees of the Third Avenue Railroad franchise swore
that upwards of $30,000 was paid for it in 1852 in bribes
to both boards. 3 Of this sum Alderman Tweed received
1 William H. Cornell, a sometime Sachem, was, according to the
affidavitof Coulter, the head of this organization.
2 Documents
of the Board of Aldermen, Vol. XXI, part 2, No. 55.
s Documents
of the Board of Aldermen, Vol. XXI, part 2, No. 55,
pp. 1333-35, and p. 1573. See also The History of Public Franchises
167
$3,000. Chief who bribed the Aldermen
among those
line of Grand Sachems)
were Elijah P. Purdy (one of the
and Myndert Van Schaick, who only a few years before
had been the Tammany candidate for Mayor. A fran-
chise for a surface railroad on Broadway, with scarcely
any provision for compensation and with permission to
charge a five-cent fare, was given to Jacob Sharp, over
five profitable bids from responsible persons. One ap-
plicant, Thomas E. Davies, had offered to give the city
one cent for every fare charged. In another application,
Davies, D. H. Haight and others had offered $100,000 a
year and the payment of a license fee of $1,000 on each
car (the prevailing fee being $20) for a ten-years' grant,
on the agreement to charge a five-cent fare. There were
two other offers equally favorable. 4 When Mayor
5
Kingsland had vetoed the bill the Aldermen had re-
passed it, notwithstanding an injunction forbidding them
to do so. 6
Dr. William Cockroft had to pay, among other sums,
$500 to Assistant Alderman Wesley Smith to get favor-
able action on his application for a lease of the Cath-
erine Street Ferry. After the passage of the grant,
Smith demanded $3,000 more, which Cockroft refused
to pay. 7 Burtis Skidmore, a coal dealer, testified that
in the Fall of 1851 James B. Taylor informed him that
he had been an applicant for a ferry across the East
River to Greenpoint, and that " he bribed members of
the Common Council for the purpose of obtaining said
grant, and that other applicants for the same ferry gave
in New York City by Gustavus Myers in which full details are given
of the briberies attending the grants of the Eighth, Ninth and Third
Avenue Railroad franchises, and other franchises.
*
Proceedings of the Board of Aldermen, Vol. XLVIII, pp. 530-37.
B
Ibid., p. 532.
For violating this injunction one Alderman
s Oscar W. Sturte-
vant (a Whig) -was sentenced to a nominal fifteen days in prison
and to pay a fine of $350, and the other offending Aldermen were
merely fined. The courts afterward annulled the Sharp franchise.
i Document No. 55, p. 1219.
1853 1854 169
a larger bribe than he did, and obtained the grant, and

that all members of the Common Council whom he had
bribed returned to him the money he had paid them, with
the exception of Alderman Wood, who kept the money
8
from both parties."
John Morrell swore that one of the applicants for the
lease of the ferry to Williamsburg applied to some of the
Aldermen and was told that it would cost about $5,000
" to
get the grant through." But a Mr. Hicks, another
" " that he
applicant, was so eager to get it through
9
gave more than $20,000.
The lease of the Wall Street Ferry was similarly dis-
posed of. Silas C. Herring testified that he with others
was told he could secure it by paying a certain Alder-
man $5,000. Herring declined. James B. Taylor was
another applicant, in 1852. He was informed that it
would cost him $15,000. He offered $10,000, but on
the same night
" Jake "
Sharp offered $20,000 and got
the grant. Taylor also testified that he additionally
applied for the Grand Street Ferry lease. Other parties,
however, paid more bribe money and obtained it, whereat
one Alderman said that " it was the damnedest fight that
was ever had in the Common Council it cost them [Tay-
;
from $20,000 to $25,000." 10

lor's rivals]
The Aldermen extorted money in every possible way.
In defiance of the Mayor's veto they gave a $600,000
contract for the " Russ " street pavement, afterward
found to be worthless, and which had to be replaced at
additional cost. Russ had offered one Assistant Alder-
man $1,000 to help carry his election the next Fall if he
.voted favorably. 11 Exorbitant prices were paid for land
on Ward's Island, several Aldermen and officials receiv-
ing for their influence and votes bribes of $10,000, and
others even larger sums. 12 The Common Council sold to
Reuben Love joy the Gansevoort Market property for
8 Ibid. o 10 Ibid.
p. 1310. Ibid. p. 1403. pp. 1426-28.
11 Document No. 55, pp. 1575-76. 12 Ibid.,
p.
$160,000 in the face of other bids of $225,000 and $300,-

000. Lovejoy, who, it was disclosed, was merely a
"
dummy for James B. Taylor and others, testified that
it would cost from $40,000 to $75,000 to get this opera-
tion the purchase of the Gansevoort property
13
through the city government."
A coal merchant had to pay money for a favorable
vote on his application for a lease of the Jefferson Mar-
ket property, and another merchant testified to having
paid one Assistant Alderman about $1,700 to get a pier
14
lease. The Aldermen demanded and received bribes not
only for passing measures but for suppressing them, and
even invented many " strikes," as instanced by the case
of Alderman Smith, who agreed for $250 to silence a
resolution to reduce the Coroners' fees. 15 They de-
manded a share of every contract made by any city
official, threatening, if it were not given, to stop his sup-
16
plies and have his accounts investigated." If a con-
tractor or lessee refused to meet a
"
request," the Alder-
men retaliated by imposing burdens upon him and report-
17
ing hostile resolutions.
Applicants for the police force paid the Police Cap-
tains $40, and more to the Aldermen who appointed them.
One man was reappointed Police Captain by Alderman
Thomas J. Barr for $200, and another, assistant Captain
for $100. 18
Every city department was corrupt. It was found
that one hundred and sixty-three conveyances were deeded
13 Ibid.
p. 1445. In 1862 the Council resolved to buy back this same
property for $533,437.50 and repassed the resolution over Mayor Op-
dyke's veto on January 3, 1863, thus, as the Mayor pointed out, en-
tailing a new loss to the city of over $499,000, though the property had
not increased in value. Proceedings of the Board of Councilmen, Vol.
LXXXVIII, pp. 723-25.
i* Document No. 55, p. 1572.
is Document No. 55, p. 1219.
16 IT Ibid.,
Ibid., pp. 1395-96. pp. 1397-98.
is Documents the Board of Aldermen, Vol. XXII, No.
of 20, pp.
52-54.
1853 1854 171
to the Chief of Police, George W. Matsell, and his part-

19
ner, Capt. Norris, in about a year. Matsell was men-
tioned also as receiving money from about one hundred
men who patronized the odious Madame Restell's estab-
20
lishment in Greenwich Both the police and
street.
Aldermen collected money from saloons, though the Al-
dermen obtained the larger share, as they had the power
of granting licenses.
Within three or four years William B. Reynolds re-
ceived over $200,000 from the city, under a five-years'
contract for removing dead animals, offal and bones,
though at the time the contract was made other persons
had offered to remove them free of expense, and one had
even offered to pay the city $50,000 a year for the ex-
21
clusive privilege. It was owing to Controller Flagg's
action that a contract to index certain city records at a
cost of between $200,000 and $300,000, despite the offer
of a well-known publisher to do it for $59,000, was can-
22
celed. Flimsy tenement houses, causing later much
fatality and disaster, were built in haste, there being no
23
supervisory authority over their erection. The light-
ing of the city was insufficient, thousands of oil lamps
still being used, and these, to an old custom,
according
not being lighted on moonlit nights. 24
Both Tammany and Whig Aldermen and officials were
implicated in these disclosures. Such was the system of
city government that, though twenty-nine Aldermen were
at one time under judgment of contempt of court, and a
part of the same number under indictment for bribery,
yet under the law they continued acting as Judges in the
criminal courts. According to Judge Vanderpoel, brib-
ery was considered a joke.
A new reform movement sprang up, which quickly de-
is Ibid., No. 43, 20 Ibid.
p. 79.
21 Documents the Board
of of Aldermen, Vol. XX, No. 32, and VoL
XXII, No. 41. 22
ibid., Vol. XXX, part 1, No. 16.
23
Ibid., Vol. XX, No. 5. 2*
ibid., No. 6.
veloped into the City Reform party. The reformers

proposed, as a first step, to amend the charter. The
granting of leases for more than ten years was to be
prohibited, and the highest bidder was to get them. A
two-thirds vote was to be required to pass a bill over
the Mayor's veto. Work to be done and supplies fur-
nished costing more than $250 were to be arranged for
on contract to the lowest bidder. Any person guilty of
bribery, directly or indirectly, was to be sentenced, upon
conviction, to not above ten years in prison and fined
not over $5,000, or both. The right to sit as Judges
of the criminal courts was to be taken away from the
Aldermen, as was also the power of appointing police-
men. The Board of Assistant Aldermen was to be abol-
ished, and a Board of Councilmen, consisting of sixty
members, was to be instituted in its place, the collective
title of the two boards to be
" the Common Council."
The Aldermen were to be elected for two years (as deter-
mined in the charter of 1849) and the Councilmen for
one year. An efficient auditing* of accounts and claims
against the city was called for, and only the more popu-
lar branch of the Common Council was to originate ap-
propriations of money.
Tammany had grown suddenly virtuous again, and
responding to the public clamor over the disclosures, had
declared its devotion to pure government. At a " re-
form " meeting of the Young Men's Union Club, John
Cochrane, one of Wood's lieutenants, who later announced
that he would vote " for the devil incarnate if nominated
by Tammany Hall," declared: "Reform is at home in
Tammany Hall. Its birthplace is Tammany Hall."
The purification movement advanced so unmistakably
that Tammany approved the amendments, and the legis-
lative bill embodying some of them was supported by the
Tammany delegation in the Senate and Assembly.
The bill passed, and upon being submitted to the people
1853 1854 173
of the city, in June, 1853, was adopted by the significant

vote of 36,000 to 3,000.
One of the benefits due to the City Reform party was
the reorganization (1853) of the police under a separate
department. The police were compelled to wear a uni-
25
form against which there had been bitter prejudice,
and the term of appointment was made dependent upon
good behavior.
Fortunately for the City Reform party, the division
" Hardshells " and " Softshells "
between the extending
throughout the State caused the nomination of separate
Democratic tickets in the Fall of 1853. There seemed
less than ever any vital difference between the professed
principles of the two. Under the name of " National

Democrats the Hardshells " met in City Hall Park on
" "
September 26, and resolved:

"We regret that the Democracy of the city are prevented from
holding this meeting in their accustomed hall. . . The Democracy
.
of the city waged in time past a successful war against a corpora-

tion which sought to control by money the political destinies of the
country. We now from this time forward commence a campaign
against another corporation known as the Tammany Society a
secret, self-elected and irresponsible body of men who have dared
to usurp the right of determining who shall and who shall not meet
in Tammany Hall. . . The accidental ownership of a small equity
.
of redemption of a small part of the ground upon which Tammany

Hall stands may continue to enable the Sachems to prevent the
Democracy from meeting within the hall, but we can meet in the
park or in the open air or elsewhere."
The City Reform party nominated acceptable Whigs

and Democrats pledged to reform, and obtained a decisive
majority in the next Common Council.
25 The
general extent of this prejudice may be judged from the fact
that at this time a number of suits were pending in the courts, seeking
to restrain the city from enforcing an earlier order compelling uni-
forms to be worn.
CHAPTER XX
FERNANDO WOOD'S FIRST ADMINISTRATION
1854-1856
the City Reform party brought about

some beneficial changes in the system of city
THOUGH
government, its Common Council did not meet
public expectations. The Tribune, the chief supporter
of the party, admitted this (May 3, 1854), declaring that
much feeling was manifested over the failure of the re-
formers to realize the public hopes, and attributing the
" to the
failure power of those representing the great
political parties in the two boards to league together and
sell out to each other the interests of the city as partizan
or personal considerations might dictate."
Accordingly, preparations were made to overthrow the
new party. Fernando Wood now secured the " Soft-
"
shell nomination for Mayor, by packing the convention
" held a
with his henchmen. The " Hardshells separate
convention, which ended in a row, a part nominating
Wood, and the rest Augustus Schell.
Wood successfully intrigued to cause the Whigs to
separate from the City Reformers and to further divide
;
the opposition, Tammany nominated sham reformers for

the lesser city and State offices. The Whigs nominated
for Mayor, John J. Herrick ; the City Reformers, Wilson
" Know-Noth-
G. Hunt, and the Native Americans, or
ings," springing to life again, put forward James W.
Barker. Schell, Wood's Tammany opponent, withdrew
in favor of Hunt.
The disreputable classes, believing that his success
174
1854 1856 175
meant increased prosperity to themselves, energetically

supported Wood, and the liquor-dealers formally com-
mended him. In the city at this time were about 10,000
shiftless, unprincipled persons who lived by their wits
and the labor of others. The trade of a part of these
was turning primary elections, packing nominating con-
ventions, repeating and breaking up meetings. Most of
these were Wood's active allies.
He needed them all on election day. With every re-
source strained to the utmost, he won by a close margin.
He was credited with 19,993 votes; Barker with 18,553;
Hunt, 15,386, and Herrick, 5,712. Tammany, therefore,
succeeded, though in a minority of over 17,000 votes.
Upon assuming office, Wood surprised his followers by
announcing that he would purge all offices of corruption
and give good government. His messages were filled with
flattering promises and lofty sentiments. At the outset
he seemed disposed for good. He closed the saloons on
Sunday, suppressed brothels, gambling houses and rowdy-
ism, had the streets cleaned, and opened a complaint book.
The religious part of the community for a time believed
in him. He assumed personal charge of the police, and
when a bill was introduced in the Legislature to strip him
of this power, the foremost citizens called a mass
meeting
to support him.
The troubles between the " Hardshells " and "Soft-
" continued
shells throughout the year 1855. When the
latter held their county ratification
meeting in the Wig-
wam and the name of their nominee for Street Commis-
sioner was announced, the " Hardshells," who had come
thither with a nominee of their own, raised an
" the uproar,
whereupon factions on both sides went to work and
pummeled each other pretty soundly and highly satisfac-
torily to the lookers, for at least ten minutes."
The election of 1855 was of little consequence.All
eyes were now turned to the coming contest of 1856.
Before the end of a year Wood had begun to reveal his
real nature. Many of the decent element that had for a
time believed in him began to turn against him. He had
also made himself unpopular with certain powerful
Sachems by not giving them either a share, or a large
enough share, in the spoils. His appointments were made
wholly from a circle of personal friends who were more
attached to him than to the Tammany organization.
Knowing the folly of expecting a renomination from Tam-
many, as it was then constituted, he set about obtaining
it by trickery.
Inducing Wilson Small, a Custom House officer holding
a seat in the general committee, to resign, Wood had
himself substituted. Then he personally assumed control
of the primary election inspectors in every ward, so as to
manipulate the election of convention delegates. He
caused the appointment of an executive committee, which
was to have the entire choice of inspectors in every in-
stance in which the general committee failed to agree.
This new committee was composed mainly of his friends,
and he named himself chairman.
His henchmen incited divisions in such of the wards as
were not under the control of his inspectors, and the con-
" executive
tests, upon being referred to the committee,"
were of course decided in Wood's favor. Thus he appro-
priated a great majority of the delegates to the nominat-
ing convention.
" It is well
known," wrote Peter B. Sweeny and J. Y.
Savage, secretaries of the Tammany General Committee,
in a long statement denouncing Wood's thimble-rigging
" that for
many years this [primary] system has been
degenerating until it has become so corrupt as to be a
mere machine in the hands of unprincipled men, by which
they foist themselves before the people as the nominees
of a party for office in defiance of public sentiment."
Sweeny and Savage charged further than when the
iThis statement was published officially in the New York news-
papers, September 27, 1856.
1854 1856 177
primary elections took place under this patent process

for cheating the people, the ballot boxes were stuffed and
detachments of police were stationed at every poll to aid
Wood's agents and bully his opponents. A sickening
mass of evidence of corruption was at hand, Sweeny and
Savage recounted.
Wood was renominated by the city convention, and at
an hour when most of his opponents on the general com-
mittee were absent, he had that body endorse his nomina-
tion by a vote of 56 to 6, nearly all of those voting being
office-holdersby his grace.
Healso arranged a reconciliation between the " Hard-
shells
" and " Softshells." With a show
of traditional
" Softs " marched in
Tammany custom, the Indian file
to the Stuyvesant Institute, the headquarters of the
"
Hards," and the reunited leaders marched back to Tam-
many Hall in pairs, arm-in-arm. The " Hardshell "-
" Softshell "
contention thus became a thing of the past.
But Wood's personal enemies in the Wigwam were not
to be appeased, and they nominated a candidate to oppose
him James S. Libby. Bitter feelings were aroused.
At the Wood ratification meeting in the Wigwam, Octo-
ber 22, both Wood and Anti-Wood men crowded in, and
then ensued another of those clashes for which Tammany
Hall had become so celebrated. When John Kelly men-
tioned Wood's name the Anti-Wood men raised a din and
smothered the speaker's voice. The Wood men, growing
"
enraged, pitched into the Anti-Woodites hot and heavy,
and for a time a scene of the wildest clamor ensued. A
general fight took place in front of the speaker's stand
and all round the room. Blows were given and exchanged
with great spirit, and not a few faces were badly disfig-
ured." After a few planks had been plucked from the
stand and wielded with telling effect, the Wood men won.
" The
great body of the Libbyites were kicked out of the
room and down the stairs with a velocity proportionate
to the expelling force behind."
The City Reform party was far from being satisfied
with Wood's administration. In fact, it is no exaggera-
tion to say that by the time of his second year in office
the blackness of his administration exceeded anything
known before. Seasoned men fancied they knew some-
thing of corruption, extravagance and malfeasance in the
City Hall, but by 1856 they better understood the growth
of these under a reckless and unprincipled Mayor.
The saloon power had grown until it controlled the pol-
itics of the city. In every groggery could be found a
crowd of loafers and bruisers who could always be relied
upon to pack a primary or insure or defeat the election
of certain nominees. In these saloons the ward poli-
ticians held their meetings, and the keepers were ready at
all times to furnish persons to parade, carrying partizan
banners they could not read, or to cheer at mass meetings
at the drop of a handkerchief. The saloon-keepers also
furnished cheap illegal voters, ballot-box stuffers and
"
thorough-bred shoulder-hitters," to intimidate peace-
able citizens, or as a last resort, to smash the ballot boxes.
Thesaloon-keepers were largely above the law. A
disingenuous bill, passed in 1855, ordered the saloons to
be closed on Sunday, but made no provision for enforce-
ment. They were accordingly kept open, likely enough
through assurances from Wood that the owners would
not be molested. Their support of the Mayor was well-
nigh unanimous.
It was the domination of politics by this element that
caused great irritation and disgust. But the opposition
to Wood was hopelessly divided. It had to contend,
moreover, with the adverse factor of the introduction into
the campaign of national issues. The fear of the new
Republican party was sure to bring out a heavy vote for
Buchanan and Breckinridge, and on the strength of this
wave Tammany reasonably expected to be again swept
into power.
The City Reformers had greatly declined in numbers,
1854 1856 179
but they again came forward for the contest, nominating

2
Judge James R. Whiting. The Native American party,
still maintaining its bitterness against the control of pol-
by foreigners, chose Isaac O. Barker, and the Whigs,
itics
Anthony J. Bleecker, making, with Wood and Libby, five

Mayoralty candidates.
Though backed by the dregs of the city on the one
Wooddid not neglect to secure some
"
hand, respect-
" on the other.
ability During the campaign he received
a testimonial signed by some of the leading bankers and
merchants, praising him and his administration and ex-
pressing the hope of his reelection. Nearly all of the
signers, it was afterwards disclosed, profited by Wood's
placing of city funds or buying of city goods.
Wood sought to force every man on the police force to
subscribe to his election fund, one policeman, who refused
to contribute, being kept on duty twenty-four hours at a
stretch. From this source alone he gathered in from
$8,500 to $10,000.
On election day the scum of the town shouted, repeated
and bruised for Wood. Candidates were traded openly,
and bribing was unconcealed. 3 The majority of the po-
licemen were off on furlough, given by the Mayor as head
of the Police Department, assisting actively for his re-
election. At the polling places, so terrific was the com-
petition for the millions of city plunder, that the Wood
2
Whiting, according to the testimony of James Perkins, before the
Senate Investigating Committee in 1833, had been the chief lobbyist in
the task of securing the notorious Seventh Ward Bank charter in 1831.
It is a striking commentary on political standards of the day that
unrebutted charges of such a nature formed no bar to the advance-
ment of a politician to such distinctions as those of Judge, District
Attorney and reform candidate for Mayor.
s Josiah
Quincy related, in a lecture in Boston, that while in New
York City on this election day, he saw $25 given for a single vote for a
member of Congress. Upon expressing his surprise, Quincy was told
that this man could afford to pay it. If reelected, it would be a
money-making operation. He had received $30,000 at the last session
for " getting a bill through," and at that rate could afford to pay a
good price.
and Anti-Wood men fought savagely. In the Sixth
Ward the Wood partizans, upon being attacked, retreated
for the while, and coming back, armed with brickbats,
clubs, axes and pistols, set upon and routed their foes.
The police meanwhile calmly looked on, until the riot was
at its height, when they made a show of concern by firing
fifteen or more shots, all of which fortunately went
astray. The Wood partizans then broke the ballot boxes

to pieces and carried off the fragments for kindling wood.
In the Seventeenth Ward the Anti-Wood men destroyed
some of the Wood boxes; and in the First, and most of
the other wards, the day was enlivened with assaults, riots
and stabbings.
The count of the vote gave Wood, 34,860; Barker,
25,209; Bleecker, 9,654; Libby, 4,764, and Whiting,
3,646. The Buchanan electors carried the city with
41,913 votes Fillmore, the American candidate, and Fre-
;
mont, Republican, were allowed respectively 19,924 and

17,771 votes. Tammany Hall obtained a serviceable ma-
jority in the Common Council.
The Republicans maintained that 10,000 fraudulent
Democratic votes were cast in New York City and Brook-
lyn, and credited Wood with having profited by the most
of those cast in this city. It was not an unreasonable
contention, in view of the enormous increase over the vote
of two years before.
A few days after the election a meeting in Tammany
Hall, called to celebrate Buchanan's triumph, resolved
that next to the success of Buchanan and Breckinridge,
" the
brightest and most signal achievement of the Demo-
cratic party, at this election, was the triumphant election
of Fernando Wood
" !
CHAPTER XXI
1856-1859
Wood's second administration city affairs

went frombad to worse. The departments
UNDER reeked with frauds. The city paid Robert W.
Lowber $196,000 for a lot officially declared to be worth
only $60,000 and to two-thirds of which, it was proved,
Lowber had no title. Controller Flagg charged that
both the Mayor and the Common Council were parties to
1
it. Fraudulent computations and illegitimate contracts
were covered by false entries. 2 Amounts on the ledger
were revised so as to steal considerable sums from the city
outright.
3
To Bartlett Smith had been awarded a con-
tract for grading certain streets. Before beginning
work, however, the Legislature created Central Park out
of that very territory. 4 Smith demanded $80,000 from
the city " for trouble in arranging to do the grading "
1 Documents
of tlie Board of Aldermen, 1859, No. 16. The courts
decided later in favor of Lowber. As Controller Flagg refused to
"
pay the claim on the ground of no funds being applicable," Lowber
caused the Sheriff to sell at auction, in October, 1858, the City Hall
with its equipment and paintings to satisfy a judgment of $228,000,
including damages, costs and interest. Mayor Tiemann bid the City
Hall in for the sum of $50,000, and turned it over to the city when
reimbursed. Documents of the Board of Alderman, 1859, Vol.
XXVI, No. 1.
Ibid., Vol. XXIII, No. 42; also Ibid., Vol. XXV, No. 10.
2
s Ibid.
* The Act was passed July 21, 1853. This was one of the very few
public-spirited measures of the time. Tammany, however, immedi-
ately began to utilize the measure, through contracts for the clearing
and improvement of the park, to the profit of its leaders and followers.
181
a claim the Common Council allowed, but Flagg refused
to pay.
It was generally charged that Wood sold the office of
Street Commissioner to the notorious Charles Devlin 5
for $50,000 cash, with certain reservations as to the
patronage and profits. Devlin recouped himself; for an
investigation revealed that he spent half a million dollars
on contracts of which he was either the real contractor
or surety, and on which he made the prices 75 per cent
8
higher than they ought to have been. Of how much the
city was plundered it was impossible to find out, since no
reliable accounts of expenditures were kept in the Finance
7
Department. Not a few officials, relinquishing offices
paying about $2,500 a year, retired loaded with riches and
surrounded by friends whom they had enriched. Wood
himself was now reputed to be worth $400,000.
Even the Judiciary was held in general contempt.
The Lowber fraud (see previous page) was promptly
excused and the defendant exonerated by the courts. In
November, 1855, a City Judge was tried for corruption
in having entered a nolle prosequi in a certain case. The
verdict was " not guilty," with this remarkable addition :
" And the

jury are unanimously of opinion that in the
entry of the nolle prosequi by the City Judge he has been
guilty of irregularity, and it is the unanimous recom-
mendation of the jury that Judge resign." He
8
resigned. In December, 1855, during a trial for murder
in the Supreme Court, counsel for the defendant ex-
claimed: "I know the jury have too much intelligence
B
Mayor Wood to succeed Joseph S. Tay-
Devlin was appointed by
lor, deceased. At the same time Daniel D. Conover was selected for
the post by the Governor, who claimed the right of appointment. The
Mayor used inflammatory language, a turbulent mob gathered, and the
militia had to be ordered out to prevent serious violence between the
partizans of each. (Assembly Documents, 1858, No. 80.) The courts
later decided in favor of Devlin.
e Devlin was removed from office
by Mayor Tiemann in April, 1858.
7
Report of Special Common Council Committee, October 22, 1857.
8
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, November, 1856.
1856 1859 183
9
to pay any regard to the assumptions of the Court."
A man was killed at a prize fight. The Coroner, after
" If the
stating the evidence at the inquest, concluded :
persons implicated are tried before our Court of Sessions

they will have reason to congratulate themselves, as it is
a difficult matter in this city to convict a person charged
10
with any other crime than theft." In January, 1856,
the seat of one of the Judges of the Supreme Court was
contested by two candidates, both claiming to have been
elected by popular vote. Both asserted the right to sit;
in opposition to the opinions of the Judges sitting, one
of thecontestants took and kept his seat by pure
" nerve." "
A
new city charter, adopted in 1857, changed the date
of municipal elections to the first Tuesday in December,
and provided for an election for Mayor and Common
Council in December, 1857. The change was aimed
partly at Wood. He had probably expected severe oppo-
sition of some kind, for he had early begun planning for
the continued control of the Tammany General Commit-
tee, so as to secure a renomination.
In the primary elections, late in 1856, for delegates to
this committee for 1857, a majority favorable to Wood
had been elected, after violence and ballot-box stuffing in
every ward. The Wood men took possession of the Wig-
wam and Wilson Small chairman. The rival
elected
party met another place and organized a general com-
in
mittee. Each put forward the claim of " regularity."
As the " usages " of the party required that the " reg-
ular " committee should have legal possession of Tam-
many Hall, it was necessary to determine which that com-
mittee was. Then the Sachems stepped in. Seven of
them a majority of one were Wood's personal ene-
mies. By a vote of seven to five the Sachems concluded
to order the election of a new general committee, which
* Ibid. 10 Ibid. " Ibid.

was to have all known Democrats enrolled into associa-
tions.
" said the " seven Sachems' "
Tammany Society,"
report,
"is the undisputed owner of Tammany Hall; and the right to con-
trol the use of that building which is inherent in its ownership has
been fully secured by the lease. The Council is determined that
their action shall vindicate fully the rights and powers of the vener-
able society of which they are officers; and also, prove a safe and
efficient barrier against the tide of corruption and fraud which is
sapping the power of the great party to which the society has ad-
hered during the whole period of its existence."
At the society's annual election, on May 20, the Isaac

V. Fowler, or " reform " ticket, had the names of some
men of note Samuel J. Tilden, Elijah F. Purdy, Peter
B. Sweeny, Edward Cooper, William H. Cornell, John
McKeon and Emanuel B. Hart while Wood's candi-
dates were inferior hack politicians and nonentities. The
" seven Sachems " had
previously managed to get into the
Wigwam unobserved by the Wood men, and had rapidly
elected nearly sixty new members, all their own partizans,
to the society. 12 These voted at the election, enabling
Wood's opponents to beat him by a majority of sixty. 13
Then the " seven Sachems " turned Wood and his men
out of the Wigwam.
In a public address, the Wood men thereupon declared
the society an irresponsible body of less than four hun-
dred members, one-third of whom held no communication
with the Democratic party, and that of its thirteen
Sachems seven were " Libby bolters." " What, then, is
the issue? " asked the address. " Shall the Sachems rule
12 Statement to the author

by Douglas Taylor, one of the "seven
Sachems."
is Of this action Talcott Williams
(Tammany Hall, G. P. Putnam's
Sons, 1898) says: "For the first time, the Tammany Society, which
is only the landlord of the political body which leases its hall, exercised
its singular power of deciding between rival organizations." This, of
course, is a decided error. Repeated instances of the activity of the
society in this direction have been given in this work.
1856 1859 185
the people ; or shall the people rule themselves ? Shall the

Sachems of this close corporation, to procure offices for
themselves and friends, be permitted, unrebuked by. the
people, to exercise this omnipotent, dictatorial, super-
visory power over the great Democratic party, its organ-
ization and interests, to rule out or rule in your general
committees whenever it suits their caprice or selfish pur-
"
poses ?
The control of the police force was considered as neces-
sary as ever to success at the election. The changes of
1853, from which much was hoped, had proved of little
benefit. The force was in a chaotic state. Political and
pecuniary reasons alone guided the appointment of police-
men. No record of merit was kept; there was no sys-
tematic instruction of policemen in their duties except as
to drill. Some Captains wore uniforms, others refused.
When an applicant appointed to the force was tested for
qualifications in reading, a large newspaper was given to
him, and he was told to read the title. Murder abounded,
and the city was full of escaped convicts. 14 One of the
most important provisions of a special act of 1857 was
the transfer of the police from city control to that of the
State. Unwilling to surrender so effective a hold, Wood
resisted the Legislature's action. For a time there were
two police departments the Metropolitan force, under
the State Commissioners, and the municipal police, under
the Mayor each contending for supremacy. One day
a part of the two forces came into collision in the City
Hall, and twelve men were wounded. It was found neces-
sary to summon the militia to quell the disturbances, and
Wood was arrested. Finding resistance useless, he sub-
mitted grudgingly to the new order. 15
The police being so disorganized, the criminal classes
i*
Assembly Documents, 1857, II, part 2, No. 127.
is
Assembly Documents, 1858, No. 80. The chaos produced during
this dispute was extreme. Members of one force would seize and lib-
erate prisoners taken by the other force, combats were
frequent, and
peaceable citizens were often unable to secure protection.
ran the town. Chief among Wood's supporters were the
" Dead Rabbits " or " Black a lawless " gang "
Birds,"
who overawed certain portions of the city and who had a
"
rival in the Bowery Boys," whose sole profession seems
to have been to pack primaries, break ballot boxes and
" Dead Rabbits." On "
fight the July 4, 1857, the Dead
Rabbits," presumably having nothing else to do, attacked
a body of police in Jackson street. A band of " Bowery
"
Boys hurried to the front, and a pitched street battle
ensued, pistols and muskets being procured from neigh-
boring places. Barricades were thrown up in the most
approved Parisian style. The result was the killing of
ten and the wounding of eighty persons, some of whom
were innocent bystanders. This was the most deadly of
the numerous collisions of these " gangs." As they had a
powerful political influence, the police did not molest
them. 16
As a member of the Metropolitan Police Commission,
Mayor Wood about this time was instrumental in giving
out a contract for 4,000 glass ballot boxes, at $15 apiece.
It was disclosed in James Horner's affidavit before Judge
Davis, in the Supreme Court, in November of this year,
that the city needed no more than 1,200 of the boxes;
that Wood's brother had secured the 4,000 boxes at a
cost of less than $5 apiece and that the Mayor was to
share in the $40,000 of expected profits.
Wood neglected no means of ingratiating himself with
the masses. The panic of 1857 suddenly deprived over
30,000 mechanics and laborers in the city of employment.
Wood proposed the employment of the idle on public
works, and the buying by the city of 50,000 barrels of
flour and an equal amount of other provisions to be dis-
posed of to the needy at cost.
17
The Common Council
failed to see the value of this plan, but did appropriate a
sum for public works in Central Park, the better share of
ifl This riot is briefly treated in Document No. 80.
i?
Proceedings of the Board of Alderman, Vol. LXVII, pp. 157-60.
1856 1859 187
which went to contractors and petty politicians. To win

the good will of the Roman Catholics, becoming more and
more a power, the Common Council gave over to the
Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum a perpetual lease of the
entire plot from Fifth to Fourth avenue, Fifty-first to
18
Fifty-second street, at a rental of $1 a year.
So resourceful was Wood and so remarkable his polit-
ical ingenuity that though he and his general committee
were driven out by the Tammany Society, he nevertheless
brought things about so that the Democratic convention
in Tammany Hall, on October 15, renominated him for
Mayor, by 75 votes to 12. The Tammany General Com-
mittee thereupon openly repudiated him, and the curious
complication was presented of a candidate who was the
" "
Tammany regular nominee, yet opposed by both the
society and the general committee.
Instantly a determined citizen's movement to defeat
him sprang up. The city taxes had nearly doubled in the
three years of Wood's administration and were now over
$8,000,000, of which over $5,000,000 had already been
signed away in contracts or spent in advance of collec-
tion. Yet the Common Council had recently resolved to
spend the exorbitant sum of $5,000,000 on a new City
Hall. The Mayor vetoed the resolution only when the
most intense public opposition was manifested.
A committee of citizens, representative of the Repub-
licans, Democrats and Native Americans, nominated
Daniel F. Tiemann, a paint dealer, and a member of Tam-
many Hall, but who was an Alderman and as Governor of
the Almshouse had made a good record.
To Wood's support there concentrated the preponder-
ance of the foreign born, the native rowdies and the usual
mass blinded into voting for the " regular " ticket. The
gamblers, brothel-keepers, immigrant runners and swin-
dlers of every kind bought and cheated for him in the be-
is
ibid., Vol. LXVIII, p. 140.
liefthat the reformers would drive them from the city.
Wood had taken the precaution to manufacture thou-
sands of voters. From the Wigwam, where the Wood
partizans backed up their right to meet with fists, drum-,
mers-up were sent to bring in prospective citizens. Upon
promising faithfully to vote the Tammany ticket, a card,
valued at fifty cents, was furnished gratuitously to each.
It was addressed to a Judge who owed his election to
Tammany, and read:
"
Common Pleas :
"Please naturalize the bearer.
"
N. Seagrist, chairman." 19
From 3,000 to 4,000 voters, it was estimated, were

turned out by this process.
The sentiment of certain politicians may be taken from
John Cochrane's 20 remark that " he would vote for the
devil incarnate if nominated by Tammany Hall." Mean-
while they took care to make out Wood to be a much-
abused man. At the ratification meeting in Tammany
Hall, on November 23, long resolutions were passed, ful-
somely flatteringWood and asking voters to remember
that if Wood was assailed, so Jefferson, Jackson and
Daniel Webster were pursued to their graves by harpies.
The voters were asked not to be deceived by the abuse
of the graceless, godless characters and disappointed
demagogues.
is This reference to
Seagrist was handed down in an Aldermanic
committee's report some years before: ". . . Thomas Munday, Nicho-
las Seagrist, Captain Norris, Mackellar and others were charged with
robbing the funeral pall of Henry Clay, when his sacred person passed
through this city." Documents of the Board of Aldermen, Vol.
XXII: No. 43.
20 Cochrane later followed Wood into Mozart Hall, but
subsequently
returned to Tammany Hall. He was elected to Congress, serving one
term. He raised a regiment at the outbreak of the Civil War, and in
June, 1862, was made a Brigadier-General. He was elected Attorney-
General of the State in 1863. In 1872 he joined the Greeley move-
ment. He held various local offices, both in 1872 and in 1883 being
elected to the Presidency of the Board of Aldermen. As late as 1889
he was a Sachem. He died in 1898, in his 85th year.
1856 1859 189
Wood and his partizans strained every nerve for suc-

cess. But it was a futile effort. The opposition won,
Tiemann receiving 43,216 votes, to 40,889 for Wood.
His large vote, however, showed the dangerous strength
of the worst classes of the city, and boded ill for the
years to come.
The opposition of the Tammany Society and the gen-
eral committee having been responsible for his defeat,
Wood made renewed efforts to regain sway over both*
On their part, elated at his supposed downfall, the Anti-
Wood members of the general committee decided to expel
Daniel E. Sickles and C. Godfrey Gunther, two of his
supporters, and met for that purpose in the Wigwam on
December 9, 1857.
Wood's followers thought proper to impress upon the
general committee a sense of their strength. Accord-
ingly, their fighting men were present in full force, await-
ing an opportunity to mingle in the proceedings. The
probability of a violent row increasing momentarily, the
Metropolitan police were summoned to Tammany Hall.
For a time they kept the hostiles within bounds ; but the
bar was well patronized, and large delegations of the
" Dead Rabbits " and " shoulder-hitters " from the wards
were flowing in constantly.
At 9 o'clock a desperate fight was begun in the center
of the bar-room, amid intense excitement. By using their
clubs unsparingly, the forty policemen succeeded in sep-
arating the combatants, though not before a young man,
Cornelius Woods, had been shot in the shoulder with a
slug. Unwilling to draw upon themselves the resentment
of the influential ward politicians, the police made no
arrests. The meeting broke up without definite action
being taken in the matter of expelling the two supporters
of Wood.
The first and
chief point in the struggle for the control
of the organization was, as usual, the control of the Tam-
many Society. Both factions were alive to this necessity.
On April 13, 1858, 150 members of the society met at the
Westchester House, Bowery and Broome streets, where
it was announced that 212 members were pledged to vote
for Anti-Wood Sachems. Some of these members were
seeking the ascendency for their own benefit, while others
were not active in politics at all, but had become dis-
gusted with Wood's methods and men. At the election, six
days later, the Anti-Wood ticket, headed by Isaac V.
Fowler and Nelson J. Waterbury, won by a majority of
nearly 100, 378 members voting. More than twenty
members who had not been at an election of the society
for twenty years or more, and a large number who had
eschewed voting for ten years, hastened, some from dis-
tances, to deposit their votes. Three came from Hudson,
a number from Albany, two from Washington, and one
from Cincinnati.
The result was Wood's forced withdrawal from the
organization. He immediately started a Democratic or-
ganization opposed to Tammany and upon the same lines.
" Mozart
It was known generally as Hall," from the name
of the assembly room in which it met. Wood denounced
Tammany, declaring that its nominees were chosen by five
members of the Tammany Society, in a parlor, and
ferociously expressed his determination to wage war upon
the society as long as he lived until (this reservation was
" it its doors."
added) opened
Each hall, asa matter of political business, made the
most virtuous and the strongest claims of being the true
Democratic organization. Each execrated the other and
announced itself as the sole, valiant, sincere upholder of
Democracy.
Wood's enemies made haste to guarantee their ascend-
ency when, on December 28, the Sachems ordered elections
for the committees to be held on December 30, thus giving
but one day's notice of the event. Moreover, they forced
upon all persons accepting membership in the committees,
a pledge that in case of their election they would support
1856 1859 191
the Tammany organization and all nominations made

under authority, and disclaim allegiance to any other
its
organization, party or clique.

The election of delegates to the, various nominating
conventions, in the Fall of 1858, was attended by the cus-
tomary disorder. Wood's partizans were everywhere
inciting trouble. At
O'Connell's Hall, on Mulberry street,
a crowd, seeing that the result was unfavorable to their
side, split the ballot boxes and threw them into the street.
The " Dead
Rabbits," scenting trouble, appeared hastily,
and a nght ensued on Hester street, in which two of them
were shot.
This municipal election was the first in which the Dem-
ocratic voters of Irish nativity or lineage insisted on a
full share of the best places on the party's ticket. Pre-
viously they had seldom been allowed any local office
above Coroner. Their dominance on the Tammany ticket
" "
again roused the Know-Nothing sentiment, and a
combination of Native Americans, Republicans and inde-
pendents resulted. The combination secured 16 of the
24 Councilmen.
The politicians were now confronted with a registry
act, which omitted the blunder of that of 1840 in apply-
ing only to New York City. This measure became a law
in 1859, despite the stubborn opposition of Tammany,
some of whose leaders, Isaac V. Fowler and others, issued
an address asking Denlocrats to arise and defeat it.
Failing to defeat it, they resolved to circumvent it by
means of the Board of Supervisors, which was required to
appoint the registry clerks. This body was by law divided
equally as to politics, the Legislature calculating that this
would insure fair dealing. But by the purchase of the vote
of one of the Republican Supervisors for $2,500, 21 the
21 Statement of William M. Tweed before a
special investigating
committee of the Board of Aldermen, 1877 (Document No. 8, Docu-
ments of the Board of Aldermen, Vol. II, pp. 15-16). Isaac V. Fow-
ler, Tweed testified, furnished the $2,500 which was paid to Peter R.
Voorhis, a Republican member. Tweed further stated, that besides
Tammany members were enabled not only to redistrict

the city to their own advantage, but to appoint trusted
tools as registrars. For appearances' sake they allowed
a Republican registry clerk here and there. Of 609 reg-
istrars appointed, the Republicans secured about 75 ; and
of the whole 609 , 68 were liquor-sellers, 92 were petty
1
office-holders, 34 were supposed gamblers, and 50 of the

names were not in the city directory. The Tammany
leaders held daily private caucuses, and made a list of
henchmen with extreme care, in order to exclude Wood
from any influence with the registry clerks. William M.
Tweed, a member of the board, generally named the men.
and Elijah F. Purdy boasted that Tammany demanded
the appointment of none but Democrats, and that they
(the Tammany Supervisors) meant to sustain their party
at any and all hazards. Having the registry clerks,
Tammany Hall could revel in false registry and repeat-
ing. Good citizens, dejected at the outlook, were sure of

a repetition of the frauds of former years.
Seeking to satisfy all parties, Mayor Tiemann failed to
satisfy any. He was accused of using the official pat-
ronage for the advantage of Tammany Hall, in the hope
of getting a renomination from it in 1859. He and his
chief office-holders appointed to the office the most notori-
ous fighting men and ruffians in the city. The Tammany
leaders did not favor him, possibly because they thought
William F. Havemeyer a man of more weight, popularity
and respectability.
Accordingly they nominated the latter. Wood had him-
self nominated by Mozart Hall, and the Republicans chose
George P. Opdyke, a millionaire. In this triangular con-

test the Tammany men felt that the force of Havemeyer's
good record would put them in power. Singularly, how-
ever, with all its manipulation of the registry lists, and
the excellent character of its nominee, Tammany lost.
himself there were in the conspiracy Elijah F. Purdy, William C. Con-
ner, Isaac Bell, Jr. (a Sachem) and John R. Briggs.
1856 1859 193
The Irish voters sided almost solidly with Wood, and the
lowest classes of the city, fearing the election of a man so
distasteful to them as Havemeyer or Opdyke, used all
their effectiveness for Wood, who received 29,940 votes,
against 26,913 for Havemeyer, and 21,417 for Opdyke.
It was conceded that much of the worst part of Tam-
many's strength had gone over to Wood. This fact was
suggestive, to a degree, of Wood's assurance, considering
the declaration in his letter of acceptance of the nomina-
"
tion that he favored excluding the bullies and rowdies
from public employment and of dealing summarily with
that class of outlaws."
Although Tammany had nominated a good man, for
the sake of sliding into power upon the strength of his
reputation, its lesser candidates were generally incompe-
tent or of bad character half a dozen of its nominees for
;
Councilmen were under indictment for various crimes.

CHAPTER XXII
THE CIVIL WAR AND AFTER
1859-1867
stirring years of the Civil War were drawing
THE near. In this crisis, Tammany, ever pro-slavery,

dealt in no equivocal phrases. On November 1,
1859, at a meeting called to order by Isaac V. Fowler,
James T. Brady, acting as president, referred to John
Brown's raid as " treason and murder."
riot, Brady and
others spoke dolefully of the dire consequences of a con-
tinuation of the abolition agitation and prophesied that
" " ever
if the irrepressible conflict came, it would result
in an extermination of the black race.
But Grand Sachem Fowler was not to officiate at any
more meetings. He had been living for several years at
a rate far beyond his means. In one year his bill at the
New York Hotel, which he made the Democratic head-
quarters, amounted to $25,000.
1
He had spent $50,000
toward the election of Buchanan. A
social favorite, he
2
gave frequent and lavish entertainments. President
Pierce had appointed him Postmaster, but the salary was
only $2,500 a year, and he had long ago exhausted his
private means and much of the property of his family.
It was therefore a source of wonder whence his money
1 Statement to the author by Douglas Taylor, then his private secre-
tary.
2 Fowler was an
exception to the average run of the leaders who
preceded him, in that he was a college graduate" and "moved in the
best social circles. With a view of bettering the tone of the Wig-
wam, he had induced a number of rich young men to join the organ-
ization.
194
1859 1867 195
came. The problem was cleared up when, on May 10,

1860, he was removed from office, and an order was is-
sued for his arrest under the accusation of having em-
3
bezzled $155,000. The filching, it appeared, had been
4
going on since 1855.
Isaiah Rynders, then United States Marshal at New
York, upon receiving orders to arrest Fowler, went to
his hotel, but tarried at the bar and by his loud an-
nouncement of his errand, allowed word to be taken to
Fowler, who forthwith escaped. He subsequently made
his way to Mexico. His brother, John Walker Fowler,
who upon recommendation of the " seven Sachems " had
been appointed clerk to Surrogate Gideon J. Tucker, sub-
sequently absconded with $31,079.65 belonging to or-
5
phans and others.
In 1860 Tammany was greatly instrumental in induc-
ing the Democrats of New York State to agree upon a
fusion Douglas-Bell-Breckinridge electoral ticket. On
the registration and
election days the frauds practised
against the Lincoln electors surpassed anything the city
had known. In the Third Ward 63 names were
fictitious
registered in a single election district. Five hundred of

the 3,500 names of the Twelfth Ward register were found
to be fraudulent. In the Seventeenth Ward 935 names
on the registry books were spurious, no persons repre-
senting them being discoverable at the places given as
their residences. An Irish widow's two boys, six and
seven years old respectively, were registered, mother and
sons, of course, knowing nothing of it and so on ad
libitum. Fictitious names, accredited to vacant lots or
s
Report of Postmaster-General Holt, Senate Documents, 1st Ses-
sion, 36th Congress, Vol.XI, No. 48. Also Postmaster-General Holt's
communication to James J. Roosevelt, United States District Attor-
ney, at New York, Ibid., XIII, No. 91, p. 11.
* Nelson J.
Waterbury, Grand Sachem (1862), was at this time,
and had been for several years, Fowler's Assistant Postmaster.
s Statement
by Mr. Tucker to the author. Confirmed by reference
to report of Charles E. Wilbour to the Board of Supervisors, May 26,
1870.
uninhabited buildings, were voted by the thousands. The
announcement of the result gave the Fusionists 62,611
votes, and Lincoln 33,311.
At the outbreak of the war, Mozart Hall, for pur-
poses of political display, took a prompt position in
favor of maintaining the Union, although Wood, its mas-
ter spirit, advocated, in a public message, the detaching
of New York City from the Union and transforming it
into a free city on the Hamburg plan. 6 Tammany, per-
force, had to follow the lead of Mozart Hall in parading
its loyalist sentiments. The society raised a regiment,
which was taken to the field in June, 1861, by Grand
Sachem William D. Kennedy. 7 Tammany long dwelt
upon this action as a crowning proof of its patriotism.
The real sentiments of the bulk of Tammany and of
Mozart Hall were to the contrary. Both did their best
to paralyze the energies of Lincoln's administration. In
a speech to his Mozart Hall followers at the Volks Gar-
den, on November 27, 1861, Wood charged the national
administration with having provoked the war, and said
that they (the administration) meant to prolong it while
there was a dollar to be stolen from the national Treas-
ury or a drop of Southern blood to be shed. At the
Tammany celebration of July 4, 1862, Grand Sachem
Nelson J. Waterbury, though expressing loyalty to the
" to set
Union, averred that it was the President's duty
his foot firmly upon abolitionism and crush it to pieces,
and then the soldiers would fight unembarrassed, and vic-
tory must soon sit upon the National banners." Dec-
larations of this kind were generally received with en-
thusiasm in both halls.
At times, however, under the sting of severe public
e
Proceedings of the Board of Aldermen, Vol. LXXXI, pp. 25-26.
7 This regiment was the Forty-second New York Infantry. Ken-
nedy died a few days after the arrival in Washington, and was suc-
ceeded by a regular army officer. The Forty-second took part in
thirty-six battles and engagements. Its record stood: killed 92;
wounded, 328; missing, 298.
1859 1867 197
criticism, Tammany Hall made haste to assert its fealty

to the Union cause. In September, 1861, Elijah F.
Purdy, chairman of its general committee, issued a state-
ment that " Tammany Hall had maintained an unswerv-
ing position upon this great question from the time the
first gun was fired to the present hour. It has been
zealously devoted to the Union, in favor of upholding it
with the utmost resources of the nation, and opposed to
any action calculated to embarrass the Government or
to prevent all loyal men from standing together in solid
column for the country." Tammany put forth the claim
that " three-fourths of the volunteer soldiers enlisted in
this city and at the seat of war, are Democrats attached
to Tammany Hall"; and on October 3, 1861, resolved
that with a deep sense of the peril in which the Union
and the Constitution were involved by the reckless war
being waged for their destruction by armed traitors, it
(Tammany Hall) held it to be the first and most sacred
duty of every man who loved his country to support the
Government.
The war, which so engaged and diverted the popular
mind, served as a cover for the continued manipulation
of primaries and conventions, and the consummation of
huge schemes of public plunder. Wood himself pointed
out that from 1850 to 1860 the expenses of the city
government had increased from over $3,200,000 to
$9,758,000, yet his tenure of office from 1860 to 1862
was characterized by even worse corruption than had
flourished so signally in his previous terms. After his
installation, in 1860, it was charged that he had sold the
office of City Inspector to Samuel Downes, a man of
wealth, for $20,000; that Downes had paid $10,000 to

certain confederates of Wood, and that he had after-
ward been cheated out of the office. Another charge,
the facts of which were related in a presentment by the
Grand Jury, accused Wood of robbing the taxpayers
of $420,000. The Common Council had awarded a five-
years' street-cleaning contract to Andrew J. Hackley,

at $279,000 a year, notwithstanding the fact that one
among other responsible persons had bid $84,000 a year
less. Afraid to submit the contract to the ordeal of pub-
lic opinion, which might give rise to injunctions, the Com-
mon Council sped it through both boards on the same
night. Waiting in his office until nearly midnight for
the express purpose of signing it, the Mayor hastily
affixed his signature the moment it reached him. The
Grand Jury found that the sum of $40,000 in bribes had
been raised and paid for the passage of the contract.
It was asserted that the equivalent Wood received for
signing the bill was one-fourth the amount of the con-
tract, or $69,750 a year, for five years, free of any other
consideration than his signature, the other beneficiaries
of the contract supplying all the money needed to protect
the fraud. Spurred on by public opinion, the police
when the work was not done in compliance with the con-
tract had reported to the Controller, who had refused
to pay the monthly bills. Then the contractors reduced
the pay of their laborers from $1.25 to 95 cents a day
8
in order to make good their payments to Wood.
Hiram Ketchum, in November, 1861, publicly ac-
cused Wood promising two men
of Woodruff and
Hoffman Mozart Hall nominations for Judgeships,
upon which they each paid $5,000 in checks to Wood's
account for " election expenses." Pocketing the money,
Wood then made an agreement with Tammany to unite
on two other men Monell and B arbour for Judges,
on condition that Tammany should not unite with the-
Republicans against him in the December Mayoralty
election.
S. B. Chittenden, a citizen of wealth and standing,
s
Hackley, in fact, "received $279,000 for only six months' work.
During the two years for which he received full pay he has not done
more than one year's actual work in cleaning the city, as the returns in
this department abundantly prove." Documents of the Board of
Aldermen, 1863, part 1, No. 4.
1859 1867 199
charged, in Cooper Institute, November 26, 1861, that

the signature of the Street Cleaning Commissioner nec-
essary for certain documents could be bought for $2,500,
and intimated that Wood was not dissociated from the
procedure.
Wood had spent an enormous amount in his political
schemes. He himself admitted, according to the testi-
mony of A. W. Craven, Chief Engineer of the Croton
Aqueduct Department, before a committee of Aldermen,
" that his
object in removing heads of departments was
to get control of the departments, so that he could put
in those who would cooperate with him and, also, could
9
pay off his obligations."
It possible to give only
is an outline of the "jobs"
stealthily put through the Common Council. News-
paper criticism was, in a measure, silenced by " appro-
priations of from $10,000 to $20,000 a year for adver-
tising," though occasional exposures were made in spite
of this. One of these related to the appropriation of
$105,000 in July, 1860, for a few days' entertainment
of the Japanese Embassy in New York. Of this sum
only a few thousand dollars were used for the purpose,
the rest being stolen. 10
Never more than now was patriotism shown to be the
last refuge of scoundrels. Taking advantage of the war
excitement, the most audacious designs on the city treas-
ury were executed under color of acts of the purest
patriotism. At a special meeting of the Common Coun-
cil, on August 21, 1861, called ostensibly to help the
families of the poor volunteers, a measure providing for
Documents of the Board of Aldermen, 1860-61, Vol. XXVII, No.

18.
10The original appropriation had been $30,000. The joint Council
committee, of which Francis I. A. Boole was the head, submitted bills
for alleged expenditures aggregating $125,000. Boole explained that
his colleagues considered this sum excessive, and would therefore
"knock off" $20,000. Documents of the Board of Aldermen, 1861,
No. 17.
the appointment of twenty-two Street Opening Commis-
sioners was hurriedly passed, upon motion of Alderman
Terence Farley, against whom several untried indict-
ments were pending. Without entering into details, it
can be said that this action represented a theft of
$250,000, in that the Commissioners were superfluous, and
their offices were created merely to make more places for
a hungry host of political workers.
If the city was a richer prize than ever to the poli-
ticians, the Legislature was no less desirable. Alien
members of both branches of that body were under the
complete domination of political managers. It was
notorious that the Democratic and the Republican lobby
lords exchanged the votes of their respective legislative
vassals, so that it mattered little to either which political
party had the ascendency in the Legislature. One cele-
brated lobbyist declared that it was cheaper to buy, than
to elect, a Legislature. The passage of five franchises
by the Legislature, on April 17, 1860, over Gov. Mor-
gan's veto, cost the projectors upwards of $250,000 in
money and stock. 11
Apparently the leaders of Tammany and of
hostile,
Mozart Hall soon saw that it was to their mutual bene-
fit to have a secret understanding as to the division of
the spoils. While Mozart had supremacy for the mo-

ment, Tammany had superior advantages. It could
point to a long record; its organization was perfect; it
had a perpetual home, and the thousands of its disap-
pointed ward-workers and voters who had transferred
their allegiance to Mozart, in the hope of better reward,
would certainly flow back in time. This changing about
was an old feature of New York politics. A successful
political party was always depleted by thousands of
office-seekers who left its ranks because disappointed in
their hopes. Most important of all, Tammany had dealt
11For this and other instances see The History of Public Franchise*
in New York City, by the author.
1859 1867 201
Mozart Hall at the Charleston con-

the decisive blow to
vention, in 1860, and at the Syracuse convention, in
September, 1861, when its delegation secured the recog-
of
"
nition regularity."
Hence Mozart Hall, to avoid losing the State offices,
willingly bargained with Tammany, and in the

Fall of
1861 the two combined on nominees for the Legislature.
They could not agree on the Mayoralty, Wood deter-
mining to stand for re-election. But true to their agree-
ment not to allythemselves with the Republicans, the
Tammany leaders nominated independently, selecting C.
Godfrey Gunther. Once more a non-partizan movement
sprang up to combat the forces of corruption. The
People's Union, composed of Republicans and Demo-
crats, succeeded, despite the usual frauds, in electing
George P. Opdyke, a Republican, by less than 1,000
plurality, he receiving 25,380 votes; Gunther, 24,767;

and Wood 24,167. In violation of the law, returns in
ten districts were held back for evident purposes of
manipulation. When the figures showed Opdyke's elec-
tion, attempts were made to deprive him of his certificate
on the pretense that the returns as published in the daily
newspapers were inaccurate. After much counting by
"
the Board of Aldermen, whose attempt at counting
out " was frustrated the of his
Opdyke by vigilance
friends, the latter was declared elected by 613 plurality.
Newspaper accounts described a lively time, quite in
keeping with a long line of Tammany
precedents, in
Hall on election night. The crowd was in unpleasant
humor because of Gunther's defeat. When " Jimmy "
Nesbit, a good-natured heeler of the Sixth Ward, was
called upon to preside, he tried to evoke cheers for Gun-
ther. Chafing at the lack of enthusiasm, he swore
fiercely at his hearers. shout was heard, " Three
A
cheers for Fernando Wood," whereupon the eminent
chairman lost his equanimity and let fly a pitcher at the
offender's head. He was on the point of heaving another
missile,a large pewter pitcher, but a bystander caught
"
his hand. Cries of Tammany is not dead yet," were
heard, and then Chauncey Shaeffer regaled the crowd
with the information that he got his first meal, with
liquor thrown in, at Tammany Hall, sixteen years before,
and he would never desert her. Shaeffer told the
Tammanyites how he had gone to the White House and
advised the President to let out the job of putting down
the rebellion to Tammany Hall. Cries broke forth of,
" You're " " You're a
drunk, Shaeffer !
disgrace to
Tammany Hall." After trying to sing "The Red,
White and Blue," Shaeffer stumbled off the platform.
Isaiah Rynders then arose, and after denouncing the
leaders for not being there, assured his hearers that
there were many respectable gentlemen present and some
d d fools. This edifying meeting ended by " the
chairman jumping from the platform and chasing a
Wood man out of the room."
Though no longer in office, Wood was still a power-
ful factor, since Mozart Hall, of which he was the head,
could poll, or pretend to poll, 25,000 votes. Further
overtures were made between him and the leaders of Tam-
many in 1862, with the result that an understanding was
reached to divide the nominations equally. The parti-
tion was conducted amicably until the office of Surro-
gate was reached. Besides this there was an odd mem-
ber of the Assembly not accounted for. The leaders
could not agree as to how these two offices should be dis-
posed of, and on the evening of October 2 the general
committee met in the Wigwam to discuss the profound
problem. Crowds were gathered inside and outside the
hall, in the lobby, bar-room and on the stairs. The ex-
citement was such that a squad of police was sent to the
scene to maintain peace.
Their services were needed. Heated discussions had
been going on all the evening. Richard B. Connolly had
" " an
his party hand, eager for the fray. Francis I.
1859 1867 203
A. Boole mustered his by the score

retainers "fine
strapping fellows, with

upturned and
sleeves
significant
red shirts that told of former battles and hard-earned
laurels." At 11 o'clock the fighting began. It had not
progressed far, however, when the police charged, and
wielding their clubs right and left, drove the combatants
in disorder into the street. The committee was in ses-
sion nearly all night, but a renewal of the scrimmage
was not attempted.
After much haggling, the factions finally agreed.
Nominations brought such great sums that the severe
contention of the leaders is easily explainable. hint A
of the enormous sums wrung from this source was given
by Judge Maynard, when addressing a meeting of the
"
Representative Democracy," in Cooper Union, on Octo-
ber 27, 1863. He stated that one man in Mozart Hall
(doubtless referring to Fernando Wood) was the chief
" strikers " in New York
of all the City, and that this
person made from $100,000 to $200,000 every year mar-
12
keting offices. Nominations and appointments went to
the highest bidders, and some of the leaders held as many
At the same meeting
as thirteen different offices each.
W. R. Ranken stated that " the manner in which these
two organizations Tammany and Mozart Hall have
packed their preliminary conventions and organizations,
has been of such a character as to bring the blush of
shame to every man of principle in the party. No man,
were he to poll 10,000 votes, under those primary elec-
tions, could be admitted within the precincts of Tammany
Hall unless he came with the indorsement of the Elec-
tion Inspectors who were under the influence of the two
or three men who held the reins of power there." 13
12 This speech was reprinted in theNew York Herald, October 28,
1863. The Herald was known as Wood's special organ.
is In a remarkable
report handed down in 1862 by a select com-
mittee of the Board of Aldermen, the admission was made that the
"
primary elections are notoriously and proverbially the scenes of the
most disgraceful fraud, chicanery and violence. They are without
The State and Congressional elections in November
showed the power of the combined halls. Seymour, for
Governor, carried the city by 31,309 plurality. Among
the Democratic Congressmen elected was Fernando Wood,
who, evidently despairing of again filling the Mayor's
chair, had determined to employ his activities in another
field.
The city election for minor officers occurred in Decem-
ber, and the twohalls again Avon. The apportionment
of the offices, however, caused a number of clashes. One
of the was that of Corporation Counsel, the
offices filled
nomination to which fell to the lot of Mozart Hall.
Wood had promised it to John K. Hackett, subsequently
Recorder, but gave it to John E. Devlin, a Sachem, sup-
posed to be one of Wood's bitterest opponents. By way
of smoothing Hackett's ire, Wood promised to have him
appointed Corporation Attorney. This promise was also
broken. Hackett went to Wood's house and was shown
" Mr.
into his parlor. Wood," said Hackett, as soon as
the man who had been thrice Mayor of the metropolis of
America appeared, " I called to say to you, personally,
that you are a scoundrel, a rascal and a perjured vil-
lain." Wood threatened to put him out and rang the
bell. As the servant was on the point of entering,
Hackett drew a revolver from his pocket and went on:
" If that man comes between
us, I shall blow out his
brains and cut off your ears. So you may as well listen.
On a certain night, in a room of the Astor House, were
four persons, Mr. D., Mr. X., Mr. Y., and yourself. One
of these four a scoundrel, a rascal, a perjured villain
is
and a hound. Mr. D., nor Mr. X., nor Mr. Y.

It is not
Who he is, I leave you to imagine."
The degraded state of politics, sinking yearly still
legal restraint or regulation, nor can such restraint or regulation be
imposed upon them. Peaceable and orderly citizens, almost without
exception, refuse to attend these meetings." Documents of the Board
of Aldermen, 1862, Vol. XXIX, No. 7.
1859 1867 205
lower, caused unspeakable disgust, but the honest element

of the citizenship seemed powerless. The occasional elec-
tion of a reform Mayor made little difference in the situa-
tion, for either through the
impotence of his position or
his personal incompetency,the spoilsmen managed to
prevail. The Common Council was the supreme power,
and this body Tammany, or Tammany and Mozart to-
gether, generally controlled. The public money was
spent as the Aldermen pleased. The Mayor's veto be-
came a legal fiction, for a bare majority 14 sufficed to Mo*- *3l
overcome it, and this could generally be secured through ^Â-C-IS
deals and the trading of votes on one another's "jobs." i^r^C 2.
The veto, in the words of a later Mayor, amounted " to

nothing more than the publication of his remonstrance in
corporation newspapers, to cause a few hours' delay and
excite the contempt of the members [of the Common
Council] who have determined to carry their measure in
15
spite of his remonstrance."
Public indignation resulted in another anti-Tammany
demonstration of strength in 1863. The Wigwam nomi-
nated for Mayor, Francis I. A. Boole, generally con-
sidered as nauseating a type of the politician as Tam-
many could bring forth. Independent Democrats and
some Republicans thereupon rallied to the support of C.
" "
Godfrey Gunther, nominee of a new reform organiza-
tion the " McKeon Democracy." The Republican or-
ganization, however, stood apart, nominating Orison
Blunt. Gunther was elected, receiving 29,121 votes, to
22,579 for Boole, and 19,383 for Blunt. At this, as in
previous elections, there were unmistakable Wigwam
frauds, such as repeating and altering election returns.
Hitherto, in Presidential conventions since Van Bu-
ren's time, the Democratic candidates had been nominated
i* The reformers of the

city had Jrfsuccess fully sought to incorpor-
ate in the charter of 1853, a clause requiring a two-thirds vote to over-
come a veto.
is Documents of Board
the of Aldermen, 1865, part 1, No. 1.
against Tammany's resistance, the organization having

had each time a candidate of its own whom it sought to
force on the convention. In 1864, however, the Wig-
wam shrewdly anticipated the action of the Chicago con-
vention by recommending McClellan as the Democratic
nominee. On the night of McClellan's nomination, Tam-
many held a ratification meeting in the City Hall Park,
denounced " the imbecility of the administration of Abra-
ham Lincoln " in the conduct of the war and " its ruinous
"
financial policy," and declared that it had forfeited
the confidence of the loyal States usurped powers not
;
granted by the Constitution; endeavored to render the

executive, aided by the military, superior to the judicial
and legislative branches of the Government, and assumed
to destroy life and confiscate property by its unconstitu-
tional proclamations." Again, on November 16, at a
meeting of the general committee, George H. Purser, a
lobbyist and organization leader, offered a resolution,
which was unanimously approved, practically declaring
the war a failure.
In this election the Republicans took precautions to
prevent repetition of the frauds of preceding years. An
investigation disclosed illegal registration on a large
scale. To hold the lawless in check, Gen. Benjamin F.
Butler was ordered to New York. He brought 6,000
of his own troops, with artillery and a regiment of regu-
lars, which he kept within call outside of the city until
after the election, and he established a civilian system
of surveillance in every election district. An unusually
orderly election was the result, though fraud was not
entirely suppressed, and it was charged that both sides
were parties to it. McClellan received a majority in the
city of 37,023, of the total vote of 110,433.
In 1865 Tammany again nominated Francis I. A. Boole
for Mayor. Boole, as City Inspector, was the head of a
department which embraced the Street Cleaning and
Health Bureaus. Daniel B. Badger testified before the
1859 1867 807
Senate Investigating Committee of 1865 that in the pre-

vious year he had put in a written bid to clean the
streets for $300,000, but when it was opened, Boole an-
nounced loudly that it was $500,000, and gave the con-
tract elsewhere, with the consequence that it cost $800,-
000 to clean the streets in 1864. 16 Many witnesses
swore that they paid various sums, ranging about $200
each, for positions under Boole, only to be suddenly dis-
missed later. 17 A surprising number of men were on
Boole's payrolls who had other business and who ap-
18
peared only to draw their salaries. The filthy condi-
tion of the city entailed a fearful sacrifice of life, the
average deaths yearly being no less than 33 in 1,000. 19
Nearly all the 220 Health Wardens and special inspect-
ors under Boole were and unfit. One of them
illiterate
" the term ' '
testified that he thought hygienic meant the
20
odor arising from stagnant water."
Boole, about this time, was engaged in other activities
than the protection of the city's health. In a suit
brought by William Elmer against Robert Milbank in the
Superior Court, in 1867, Milbank testified that he had
called upon Boole to learn how he could secure the pas-
sage of an ordinance allowing the People's Gas Light
Company to lay pipes in the streets. Boole referred him
to Charles E. Loew,21 a clerk in the Common Council,
and later County Clerk, and a noted Tammany figure.
is Senate Documents, 1865, Vol. II, No. 38, pp. 75-76.
IT Ibid., is Ibid.,
pp. 166-70, etc. pp. 252-56.
City Inspector's Report for 1863. The wretched condition of the
i
city about this time caused the Legislature to establish the Metro-
politan Board of Health, to have jurisdiction over the counties of New
York, Kings, Westchester and Richmond and certain other ter-
ritory. This board's first report declared that the hygienic condi-
tions of the city were disgusting and horrible; that epidemics were
frequent, and that one-third of the deaths occurring in New York and
Brooklyn were due to zymotic diseases. See Report of Metropolitan
Board of Health, 1866, p. 133.
20 Senate Documents, 1865, No. 38.
21 Loew was several times a Sachem, holding that rank as late as
1886.
Milbank gave Loew $20,000 cash 22 and $30,000 in stock,
whereupon the Common Council passed the ordinance on
the same night.
Public criticism was so caustic that Tammany with-
drew Boole and nominated John T. Hoffman, a man of
some popularity and considerable ability. The Mozart
faction nominated John Hecker, a religious and political
enthusiast of narrow views, but acceptable to the Mozart
" " or "
boys strikers," because of his willingness to sup-
ply an abundance of money. Smith Ely, Jr., urged
Hecker to withdraw, as his candidacy was hopeless.
" Mr. "
Ely," said Hecker, you form your opinions in
the ordinary way of a business man and politician, but
I receive my impressions directly from on High." The
Republicans nominated Marshall O. Roberts, and the
" McKeon " renominated
Gunther.
Democracy
Frauds were as common as ever. It was well estab-
lished that 15,000 persons who had registered could not
be found at the places given as their residences. In the
disreputable districts, upon which Tammany depended
for a large vote, a non-Tammany speaker was in actual
danger of his life. Hoffman received 32,820 votes; Rob-
31,657; Hecker, 10,390, and Gunther, 6,758.
erts,
There is little to say of Hoffman's administration.
Frauds and thefts of every description continued as be-
fore, though it is not possible to connect his name with
any of them. His popularity grew. The Tammany
Society elected him Grand Sachem, the Democratic State
Committee named him for Governor in 1866, 23 and toward
the end of his term as Mayor he was renominated for
that office. Fernando Wood again came forth as the
Mozart Hall nominee, and the Republicans selected Wil-
liam A. Darling. Hoffman swept everything before him
22 See Judgment Roll (1867) in the Superior Court docket and Ex-
hibit A, forming part of the bill of particulars.
23 He was defeated by Reuben E. Fenton.
1859 1867 209
to 22,837 for
(December, 1867), receiving 63,061 votes,
Wood, and 18,483 for Darling.
The total vote was 104,481, an increase of 22,779 in
two years. The reasons for this astounding augmenta-
tion were no secret to any one. Repeating was one
cause, and false registration was another; in one ward
a l one the Eighteenth in this election, 1,500 fraudu-
lent registrations were discovered. But the main cause
was illegal naturalization. In the Supreme Court and
the Court of Common Pleas, citizens were turned out at
the rate, often, of about 1,000 a day. The State cen-
sus of 1865 gave the city 51,500 native and 77,475 nat-
24
uralized voters. The figures were doubtless false, prob-
ably having been swelled to allow fraudulent totals at
the polls to come within the limits of an officially
declared total of eligible voters. Nevertheless, the fig-
ures are significant of the proportion of aliens to natives.
The predominance of the former, moreover, was daily
made greater through the connivance of corrupt Judges
with the frauds of the politicians. The bulk of these
aliens added to the hopelessness of the local situation.
With their European ideas and training, and their ig-
norance of our political problems, they became the easy
" bosses " and aided in
prey of the ward imposing upon
the city a reign of unexampled corruption.
Heretofore the Tammany organization had been held
in the control of constantly changing combinations.
Duumvirates, triumvirates and cliques of various numbers
of men had risen, prospered and passed away. The
period is now reached when the power became centralized
in one man. Fernando Wood had illustrated the feasi-
" "
bility of the boss system ; William M. Tweed now ap-
peared to develop it to its highest pitch. The " boss "
24 From
1847 to 1860, 2,671,745 immigrants landed at the Port of
New York. Documents of the Board of Aldermen, 1861, VoL
XXVIII, No. 5. In 1855 the native voters in New York City had
numbered 46,173, and the aliens, 42,704.
was the natural result of the recognized political meth-
ods. Where, as in previous times, three or four or half
a dozen leaders had put their wits together and dictated
and sold nominations, Tweed, astute, unprincipled and
thoroughly versed in the most subterranean phases of ward
politics, now gathered this power exclusively in his own
hands. How he and his followers used it was disclosed
in the operations of the extraordinary Tweed, or Tam-
"
many Ring."
CHAPTER XXIII
THE TWEED " KING "
1867-1870
Tweed "Ring" was, in a measure, the out-
THE growth of the

Supervisors.
act
The
of 1857 creating the Board of
Whigs, and their successors,
the Republicans, had up to that year held the legislative
power of the State for the greater part of ten years,
during which their chief concern had been the devising of
means for keeping down the Democratic majority in New
York City. Their legislation was directed to the trans-
ferring of as much as they could of the government of
the city to State officials, a change generally welcomed
by the honest part of the citizenship, on account of the
continuous misgovernment inflicted by city officials.
The real result of these transfers, however, was merely
to make two strongholds of corruption instead of one.
The Republican power in Albany and the Tammany
powerin New York City found it to their interests to
arrange terms for the distribution of patronage and
booty. Accordingly, as one means to that end, the
Board of Supervisors for New York County was cre-
ated. Itwas founded strictly as a State institution.
Unlike the Boards of Supervisors of other counties, it
had no power to tax. It could only ascertain and levy
the taxes decreed by the State Legislature, which was
required to pass yearly a special act declaring the amount
necessary for the maintenance of the city government.
It was to be an elective body, and each side was to have
an equal quota of the twelve members. But in the first
211
board convened, this delicate balance was upset, as has
been shown, by the buying of a Republican member, which
in effect gave Tammany a majority.
William M. Tweed was born in Cherry street in 1823.
He spent the usual life of a New York boy. His father
was a chairmaker in good circumstances and gave his
children a fair education. Fascinated, as were most New
York boys of the period, with the life of a volunteer
fireman, he became a runner with Engine 12 before he
was of age, and in 1849 he was elected foreman of an-
other fire company. Carrying a silver-mounted trum-
pet, a white fire-coat over his arm and wearing an old-
fashioned stiff hat, he led the ropes. So popular was
young Tweed that he became a powerful factor in ward
politics, and gifted with the qualities
that counted most
in those circles, he was not slow in utilizing his popular-
ity. The Americus Club, for a long time Tweed's favor-
ite quarters, and at times the place where Tammany
politics were determined, was started with him as its fore-

most luminary.
Though defeated for Assistant Alderman in 1850, he
was elected the next year and served in the " Forty
" Board. He was a
Thieves delegate, in 1852, to the
Congressional convention of the Fifth District, com-
posed of two East Side wards of New York City, and
Williamsburg. A deadlock ensued, through each of two
candidates polling forty-four votes. Finally the Wil-
" threw over " their favorite and
liamsburg delegates
voted for Tweed, who as chairman of the convention,
cast the deciding vote for himself, with the statement
that " Tweedie never goes back on Tweedie." He was
" Know-
elected, but beaten for reelection, in 1854, by the
Nothings." The latter he fought so persistently that
he became known as the champion of the foreign ele-
ment. He was made a Sachem of the Tammany Society
because of his extreme popularity, and in 1857 he was
elected to the Board of Supervisors. Selling his busi-
1867 _ 1870 213
ness of chairmaking, he thereupon devoted his entire time

to politics.
"
The first " ring " was the Supervisors' Ring,"
founded in 1859 by the Democrats in the board for the
purpose of procuring the appointment of Inspectors of
Election.
1
One member of the board, as already shown,
was bribed by a present of $2,500 to stay away from a
session when the Inspectors were appointed. Tweed was
so well pleased with the success of this scheme that he
was inspired to wider efforts. Aided by two men
Walter Roche and John R. Briggs he began a sys-
tematic course of lobbying before the Board of Alder-
men in support of excessive bills for supplies. He and
his associates collected heavy tribute on every successful
bill.
His prestige was not visibly lessened by his defeat for

Sheriff, in 1861,by James Lynch, a popular Irishman.
In the same year he was elected chairman of the Tam-
many General Committee. This instantly made him a
person of great political importance. But his grasp was
yet insecure, since a hostile body of Sachems might at
"
any time declare the general committee irregular."
Recognizing this, he planned to dominate the society by
having himself elected Grand Sachem. Holding these
two positions, he reckoned that his power would be abso-
lute. For the time, however, he thought it wise to be
satisfied with the one; but eventually he succeeded Hoff-
man as Grand Sachem, and in his dual positions gained
i Documents of the Board of Aldermen, 1877, part 2, No. 8, pp.
15-16. This document, embodying the full confession of Tweed before
a special investigating committee, will be frequently referred to in this
and the following chapter. Its value as a support to many of the
statements made in the text of this work rests upon the credibility of
Tweed's word. The best opinion is that Tweed told the approximate
truth. He was not a vengeful man; he was, at the time, old, and
broken in power and health; he had no reason for concealment or eva-
sion, and it is unlikely, considering his moral temperament, that he
would have made false statements for the purpose of involving inno-
cent men, or of adding to the sum of venality already proved against
the guilty.
complete control of the political situation and dictated
nominations at will.
The title of " boss " he earned by his despoticaction
in the general committee. When a question was to be
voted upon which he wished to have determined in his
favor, he would neglect to call for negative votes and
would decide in the affirmative, with a significantly ad-
monishing glance at the opposing side. Soon friends and
enemies alike called him " Boss " Tweed, and he did not
seem to take the title harshly.
He made short shrift of his antagonists. Once, when
chairman of a Tammany nominating convention, he de-
clared the nomination of Michael Ulshoeffer, for Judge,
unanimous, amid a storm of protests. On adjournment,
thirty delegates remained behind to make a counter-
nomination. Tweed blocked their plan by having the gas
turned off.
Meanwhile he daily increased his strong personal fol-
lowing. Nominally Deputy Street Commissioner, to
which place he was appointed in 1863, he was virtually
the head of that department, and could employ, when
so inclined, thousands of laborers, who could be used in
manipulating ward primaries when the ward leaders
showed a spirit of revolt. The Aldermen had to apply
to him for jobs for their ward supporters. As a mem-
ber of the Board of Supervisors at the same time, he was
in a position to exercise his mandatory influence respect-
ing the passage of resolutions dealing with expenditures

and the giving out of contracts. In 1868 he added a
third office to the list that of State Senator, and was
thus enabled to superintend personally the " running "
of the Legislature.
The members of the " ring " Tweed and his sub-
ordinates, Peter B. Sweeny, Richard B. Connolly and
the rest were growing rich at a rapid rate. Accord-
ing to the subsequent testimony of James H. Ingersoll, it
was in 1867 that the understanding was reached that
1867 1870
persons who supplied the public offices with materials

would be required to increase the percentages given to the
officials, and that all purveyors to the city must comply.
The previous tax had been but 10 per cent., and it had
been somewhat irregularly levied. A few tradesmen re-
fused to pay the advance, but plenty there were to take
their places. Ingersoll was one of these. He was told
"
to fix his bills so as to put up 35 per cent.," and he
obligingly complied with the command. Of the 35 per
cent collected, 25 went to Tweed and 10 to Controller
Connolly.
Tweed had become dissatisfied with the old Tammany
Hall building, and a site for a new hall the present
location on Fourteenth street was secured. The funds
in hand for the building were insufficient, however, and
had to be augmented by private subscription. It well
illustrates the liberality with which the Tammany chief-
tains were supplying themselves financially, to note that
when John Kelly, the Grand Sachem, at a meeting of
the society announced that a loan of $250,000 would be
needed, thesum of $175,000 was subscribed on the spot,
members alone subscribing $10,000 each. 2 A far
fifteen
more astonishing incident happened in the Fall of 1867,
when Peter B. Sweeny, the City Chamberlain, 3 announced
his determination to give to the city treasury, for the
benefit of the taxpayers, over $200,000 a year, interest
money, which before that had been pocketed by the City
Chamberlain.
While the " ring " was plundering the city and plot-
ting theft on a more gigantic scale, the Sachems, many
of them implicated in the frauds, laid the corner-stone of
the new Tammany Hall building. The ceremony was
marked by the characteristic pronouncement of virtuous-
2 New York Herald, September 10, 1867.
3 "
heard that Peter B. Sweeny paid $60,000 for his confirmation
I
as City Chamberlain by the Board of Aldermen " Tweed's testi-
mony, Document No. 8, p. 105.
" Brothers
sounding phrases. and friends," rhapsodized
" in the name of the
Mayor Hoffman, Tammany Society,
I proceed to lay the corner-stone of a new hall which will,
for the next half century at least, be the headquarters of
the Democracy of New York, where the great principles
of civil and religious liberty, constitutional law and na-
tional unity, which form the great corner-stones of the
republic, will always be advocated and maintained. . ."
.
The " braves " then marched to Irving Hall, where Tweed,
Sweeny and Connolly had caused such inscriptions as these
" Civil "
to be hung about :
liberty the glory of man ;
" The Democratic
party Upon its union and success de-
pends the future of the republic. He who would seek
to lower its standard of patriotism and principle, or dis-
tract its councils, isan enemy to the country." Gazing
approvingly on these inscriptions from the platform sat
Tweed, Sweeny and Connolly, A. Oakey Hall and a host
of Judges and office-holders of all sorts, while Andrew J.
Garvey (who will reappear in these chapters) conducted
the invited guests. The building of this hall an impos-
ing one for the day in a central part of the city, gave
to the Tweed combination an advantage of no inconsider-
able significance.
In the new Wigwam, on July 1868, the Democratic
4,
national convention was held. Tammany, in fact, forced
its candidate, Horatio Seymour, on the convention. The
galleries were filled with seasoned Wigwam shouters, cheer-
ing vociferously for Seymour. Only persons having
tickets were admitted, and these tickets were distributed
by an able young Wigwam politician, who saw to it that
only the right sort of persons gained entrance. Gaining
its point on the nomination, Tammany magnanimously
allowed the Southern men to dictate the declaration in the
"
platform that the reconstruction acts were unconstitu-
tional, revolutionary and void." There was a general sus-
picion that the organization, hopeless of the election of a
Democratic President, had forced Seymour's nomination
1867 1870
for the purpose of trading votes for its State and local
ticket.
The State convention again named Hoffman for Gov-
ernor, and preparations began for a lively campaign.
Tammany addressed itself to the citizenship as the
defender of the interests of the poor, and instanced the
candidacy of John A. Griswold for Governor, Edwin D.
" several other
Morgan for Governor, and millionaires,"
as a proof of the plutocratic tendencies of the Republican
party. On October 19 the general committee, with
Tweed in the chair, adopted an address urging the peo-
ple to stand by Seymour and Blair. Continuing, it said :
"We are united. We believe in our cause. It is the cause of

constitutional liberty, of personal rights, of a fraternity of States,
of an economical government, of the financial credit of the nation,
of one currency for all men, rich and poor, and of the political su-
premacy of the white race and protection of American labor. . . .
[Hoffman] is the friend of the poor, the sympathizer with the natu-
ralized citizen, and the foe to municipal oppression in the form of
odious excise and all other requisitional laws. ... Is not the pend-
ing contest preeminently one of capital against labor, of money
against popular rights, and of political power against the strug-
gling interests of the masses?'*
Public addresses and pronunciamentos, however,

formed but a small part of the Tammany program for
1868. For six weeks the naturalization mills worked with
the greatest regularity in the Supreme, Common Pleas
and Superior Courts, producing, it was estimated, from
25,000 to 30,000 citizens, of whom not less than 85 per
cent voted the Tammany Hall ticket. On October 30
Tweed announced to the general committee that "at 10
o'clock to-morrow the money for electioneering purposes
will be distributed
" and that those who came first would
be served first. The chairman of the executive commit-
tee spread forth the glad tidings that there was $1,000
ready for each election district. There being 327 elec-
tion districts, this made a fund of $327,000 from the
general committee alone, exclusive of the sums derived in
the districts themselves from the saloonkeepers and the
tradesmen, whose fear of inviting reprisals by Tammany
officials made them " easy marks " for assessments.
Tweed personally suggested to the twenty-four leaders
the stuffing of ballot boxes. 4 By fraudulent naturaliza-
tion, repeating, the buying and trading of votes, and
intimidation, Seymour secured a total of 108,316 votes,
against 47,762 for Grant. The whole vote of the city
was swelled to 156,288, of which, it was conclusively
5
demonstrated, at least 25,000 were fraudulent. Tweed
himself confessed, nine years later, that he thought the
" "
Inspectors of Elections lumped the votes and declared
them without counting, in order to overcome the result
in the rest of the State and give the electoral vote to
Seymour.
6
To prevent the Republicans from getting the
use of certain telegraph wires on election night, Tweed
sent out long, useless messages, and it was even proposed
to telegraph the whole Bible if necessary. 7
Hoffman was swept into the Governorship on the
strength of the frauds. His election left vacant the
Mayor's chair, and a special election to fill it was called
for the first Tuesday of December.
It was all essential to the
" " that its
ring candidate,
A. Oakey Hall, should be elected. The candidacy of
Frederick A. Conkling, the Republican nominee, was not
feared, but John Kelly, who controlled a considerable
part of the Irish vote, was a threatening factor. Dis-
appointed at not receiving a new post at the close of his
term as Sheriff, he had led a revolt against the " ring,"
and had himself nominated for Mayor at the Masonic
* Document No. 8, p. 225.
5 It was probably at this election that a certain amusing incident
in the swearing in of the Election Inspectors occurred. No Bible be-
ing at nand, they were sworn on a copy of Ollendorf's New Method of
Learning to Read, Write and Speak French. The courts subsequently
upheld the substitution of Ollendorf for the Bible, deciding that it was
not such an act as would vitiate the election. Documents of the Board
of Supervisors, 1870, Vol. II, No. 12.
a Document No. 8, pp. 133-34.
7 Document No. 8, p. 226.
1867 1870 219
" Influences " were soon set

Hall " reform " convention.
at work; and suddenly, after Kelly had appeared before
the nominating convention and accepted the nomination,
he withdrew from the contest, on the score of ill-health. 8
Hall won, receiving 75,109 votes, to 20,835 for Conkling.
The degree in which Tammany fraudulently increased the
vote at the November election is indicated in the fact that
at the December election, despite a repetition of frauds,
the Tammany vote declined 33,000.
The " ring " nominations, being equivalent to election,
yielded a large price. There was no Democratic oppo-
sition, Mozart Hall having practically passed out of
existence, through Wood's resignation of its leadership.
The revenues of the various city offices were constantly
rising, and a keener competition for the places arose.
In 1866, before the really extensive operations of the
" "
ring began, it was estimated that the offices of Sheriff
and County Clerk were worth $40,000 a year each.
Several years later it was found that the yearly revenue
of the Register amounted to between $60,000 and
$70,000, partly derived from illegal fees. It was well
known that one Register had received the sum of $80,000
a year. 9 The yearly aggregate of the illegal transac-
tions in the Sheriff's office could not be accurately ascer-
tained; but it was a well-authenticated fact that one
Sheriff, about 1870, drew from the office the sum of
$150,000 the first year of his term. He was a poor man
when elected; upon retiring at the end of the two-years'
term, he did not conceal the fact that he was worth
$250,000, clear of all political assessments and other
deductions.
All nominations for city, county and, too often, State
offices, and notoriously those for Judges, were dictated
Kelly left rather hastily for Europe, where he remained three

s
years.
Report of the Bar Association Committee on Extortions, March
5, 1872.
by Tweed. He not only controlled all the local depart-

ments, but swayed every court below the Court of Ap-
10
peals. Judges were nominated partly with a view to
"
the amount they could put up," and partly with a
view to their future decisions on political questions.
Fernando Wood had frankly presented the latter reason
in his speech nominating Albert Cardozo, one of Tweed's
most useful puppets, for the Supreme Court. 11 At the
Judiciary election of May, 1870, repeating was the order
of the day, and the registry was swelled to an enormous
extent. In one of the wards, about 1,100 negroes were
registered; but when they went to the ballot boxes, they
were amazed to learn that white repeaters had already
voted upon nearly 500 of their names. Later, when a
few of the negroes tried to vote, they were arrested as
repeaters. The corrupt means used in selecting the Ju-
diciary, and the hopelessness of securing just verdicts in
any of the courts, prompted one writer seriously to dis-
cuss, in the pages of a standard magazine, the formation
of a vigilance committee modeled upon that of San Fran-
12 5
CISCO/'
Tweed had for some time recognized the importance
of gaminga* seat in the State Senate. That body could
at any time create or abolish city departments or offices,
or change the laws affecting them. The Tammany
realizing its potentialities, had already made
officials,
terms with it, and the " ring," which subsisted at first
between the two factions of partizans in the Board of
" "
Supervisors, had grown into a compact ring between
loTilden: The Tweed Ring, J. Polhemus, 1873.
"
11 The Ermine in the Ring,' " Putnam's Magazine supplement
*
(about 1869). It happened that a singular suit brought by Wood

against the city came before this very Judge, when Wood obtained
by his decision a judgment for $180,000 for the rent of premises
owned by him, not worth, for any use of the city, over $35,000. The
buildings, in great part, were so unfit for use that the city, although
paying rent for them for years, established its departments elsewhere.
Wood re-leased these unused offices, collecting a double rent.
12 Ibid.
1867 1870
the Republican majority at Albany, the Board of Super-

visors and the Democratic officials of New York City.
Tweed saw the necessity of being at the center of polit-
ical bargaining and legislative manipulation, and accord-
ingly had himself elected to the upper house.
Upon taking his seat, in 1868, he at once began to
procure legislation increasing his power in New York
" "
City. His first measure was the Adjusted Claims
act, which gave the City Controller power to adjust
claims then existing against the city, and to obtain
money by the issue of bonds. Payments under this act
were first made by the Controller in July, 1868, and
were continued to January, 1869. During this time, 55
per cent, of the claims paid were divided among the
members of the " ring." In July, 1869, payments under
the act were resumed, but the percentage was increased
to 60 per cent., and after November, 1869, to 65 per
cent.
The conspiring contractors were led by Andrew J.
Garvey, Ingersoll & Co. and Keyser & Co. At first,
25 per cent of the spoils went to Tweed, 20 to Connolly
and 10 to Sweeny. When the rate was subsequently in-
creased, others were permitted to share in the harvest,
and Watson, the County Auditor; Woodward, the clerk
of the Board of Supervisors, and the recognized go-
betweens for the " ring " members, received 2% P er cent.
Five per cent was reserved for " expenses " in other
words, the sums necessary to bribe the requisite mem-
bers of the Legislature. The division of the spoils was
a matter of daily occurrence when Tweed was in town,
and took place in the Supervisors' room in the County
Court House. After Watson's warrants had been
cashed, Garvey would carry Tweed's share of the plunder
to the " Boss " at the office of Street Commissioner
George W. McLean. On one such visit Garvey found
McLean present. In trying to hand the parcel secretly
to Tweed, it fell on the floor. Tweed quickly covered
it with his foot, and later, with apparent carelessness,
picked it up and threw it into a drawer. The too-
" do busi-
ingenious Garvey was thereafter instructed to
" with Woodward. 13
ness
Tweed soon reached aposition of general control in
the State Legislature. But it cost him hundreds of
thousands of dollars. Often he had to pay for what he
wanted quite as heavily as did the corporations who
" It was
maintained lobbies there. impossible to do
anything there without paying for it," were his own
words " money had to be raised for the passing of
;
bills."
14
A
well-known lobbyist of the time stated that
for a favorable report on a certain bill before the Senate
$5,000 apiece was paid to four members of the com-
mittee having it in charge. On the passage of the bill
a further $5,000 apiece, with contingent expenses, was
to be paid. In another instance, when but one vote
was needed to pass a bill, three Republicans put their
figures up to $25,000 each. One of them, it is needless
to say, was secured. A
band of about thirty Republi-
cans and Democrats, shortly afterwards becoming known
" Black Horse
as the Cavalry," organized themselves
under the leadership of an energetic lobbyist, with a
mutual pledge to vote as directed. 15 Naturally their
" bull " influence on the market
action exercised a strong
for votes and the sums paid by Tweed and other
"
; pro-
"
moters grew to an enormous aggregate.
Honesty among legislators was at a discount. There
were some honest men in both houses who voted for sev-
eral of the bills alluded to, on their merits. The lobby-
ists entered these men in their memoranda to their cor-
"
porations as having been fixed," put the money in their
own pockets and allowed the honest members to suffer
is
Garvey's testimony, Tweed Case, etc., Supreme Court, 1876, Vol.
I: pp. 814^-16.
i* Document No. 8, p. 29.
is Document No. 8, pp. 212-13.
1867 1870 223
under the imputation of having been bribed. Any cor-

poration, however extensive and comprehensive the privi-
leges it asked, and however much oppression
it sought
to impose upon the people in the line of unjust grants,

extortionate rates or monopoly, could convince the Leg-
islature of the righteousness of its requests upon
"
pro-
" the 16
The
ducing proper sum. testimony before the
Select Committee of the New York Senate, appointed
April 10, 1868, showed that at least $500,000 was ex-
pended to get legislation legalizing fraudulent Erie Rail-
way stock issues.
In 1869 the " ring " opened operations in the Legis-
lature and in the municipal bodies on a greater scale
than ever. Tweed began to concern himself in Erie
and other railroads, and to compel different corporations
to give tribute for laws passed in their interest or for pro-
viding against hostile measures. He ordered the passage
of the Erie Classification bill, at the suggestion of
"
Jim "
Fisk, Jr., and Jay Gould, who for that service made him
a director of the Erie railroad. 17 At this juncture Fisk
and Gould were engaged in great stock frauds and in
breeding a disastrous panic, which caused widespread
ruin and suffering. Tweed abetted their schemes. One
of his most servile tools, Judge George G. Barnard, of
the Supreme Court, did whatever Tweed directed him,
especially in favor of Gould and Fisk. One biographer
of Fisk wrote quite innocently " Gould and Fisk
Jay :
took William M. Tweed into their [Erie] board, and

the State Legislature, Tammany Hall and the Erie
' '
Ring were fused in interest and have contrived to
serve each other faithfully." 18 Once Tweed complained
is New York Sun, February 6, 1871.
" Did (
i?
Q. you ever receive any money from either Fisk or Gould
to be used in bribing the Legislature?"
A. " I did, sir They were of frequent occurrence. Not only did
!
I receive money, but I find by an examination of the papers that

everybody else who received money from the Erie Railroad charged it
to me.'* Tweed: Document No. 8, p. 149.
is A Life of James Fisk, Jr., New York, 1871,
that a friend " had gone back on him," and when asked
in return how it was that he could stand such drains on
his check-book, he laughed and showed a slip of paper
on which he had calculated his Erie profits for the fore-
going three monthsthey amounted to $650,000.
;
During the campaign of 1869, for the election of

members of the Common Council and certain State of-
ficers,a legal question arose as to whether Mayor Hall
had been elected for two years or merely for the unex-
pired year of Hoffman's term. Hall claimed a two-years'
term, and the best lawyers supported the claim. But to
make sure of the matter, Tammany, in the late days of
the campaign, instructed its members and followers to
cast ballots for him, and the Police Commissioners dis-
tributed special ballot boxes for the Mayoralty vote.
As no proclamation on the subject had been issued, the
Republicans and other opponents of Tammany Hall had
no opportunity to make nominations. Mayor Hall con-
sequently received nearly the entire number of votes cast
65,568, out of a total of 66,619.
After entering the Board of Supervisors, Tweed had
boasted that he would soon be among the largest real-
estate owners in the city. He made good the boast.
A comparatively poor man in 1864, he was reputed five
years later to be worth $12,000,000. This was an ex-
aggeration, for he was not worth anything like that sum
at any one time; but he was, nevertheless, an enormously
rich man. He had investments in real estate and iron
mines; he was interested in every street opening and
widening scheme; he had a hand in all city, and in some
State, contracts, and he held directorships in many rail-
road and gas companies and other corporations. Con-
nolly, who some years before had left a position as a
book-keeper, at a moderate salary, to engage in politics
" as a financial "
speculation ; Sweeny, and the rest of
"
the ring," suddenly became millionaires. Many other
politicians shared in the sacking of the city.
CHAPTER XXIV
TWEED IN HIS GLORY
1870-1871
by various motives, a number of Tammany

leaders combined against Tweed. Some sought
URGED
more plunder, others felt that their political as-
pirations had not been sufficiently recognized, and a num-
ber were incensed against Sweeny. They were led by
Henry W. Genet, John Fox, John Morrissey, James
" Mike " Norton and
O'Brien, others, and called them-
"
selves the Young Democracy." Tweed had used these
men in building his power; now, combined, they believed
they could retire him. The dangerous classes j oined them.
Heretofore, these had stood by Tweed under a reciprocal
" Boss "
agreement valuable to both sides. But the had
recently yielded to the public indignation over the leni-
ency shown to an influential murderer, and had given
orders to the Judges to deal more severely with flagrant
criminal cases. This act constituted a virtual breaking
of the compact, and the lawbreakers with one accord
turned against him. There were at this time in the city,
it was charged, about 30,000 professional thieves, 2,000
1
gambling establishments and 3,000 saloons.
The plan of the Young Democracy leaders was to
induce the Legislature to pass a measure known as the
Huckleberry charter, the object of which was to abolish
the State commissions governing the city and to obtain a
i Statement of Rev. Dr. H. W. Billings, in Cooper Union, April
6, 1871.
225
relegation of their powers to the Board of Aldermen.

The disclosure was made, many years later, that Richard
Croker and seven other members of the Board of Alder-
men had signed an agreement before a notary public,
on March 20, 1870, pledging themselves to take no official
action on any proposition affecting the city government
without first obtaining the consent of Senator Genet and
four other Young Democracy leaders. 2 These latter
boasted that they would " put the charter through " if it
took $200,000 to do it. To save himself, Tweed opened
a half-way understanding with the Young Democracy
chiefs, by which he was to join them and abandon Sweeny.
Tweed even offered though vainly one of the most
formidable young leaders $200,000 outright if he would
swerve the Young Democracy to his interest.
The Young Democracy succeeded in winning over a
majority of the general committee, and influenced that
majority to call a meeting to be held in the Wigwam,
on March 28. But the plotters had overlooked the
society, whose Sachems, being either in, or subservient to,
the " ring," now exercised the oft-used expedient of shut-
ting out of the hall such persons as happened to be ob-
noxious to them. When the members of the general
committee appeared before Tammany Hall, on the night
of March 28, they found to their surprise that the
" " had caused to be
ring placed a guard of 600 police-
men about the building, to prevent their ingress. The
gathering convened in Irving Hall, nearby, where by roll
call it was found that 187 members of the committee,
later increased by about a dozen a clear majority of
the whole number were present. Fiery speeches were
made, and the set purpose of dethroning and repudiating
the
" " Sachems was
ring emphatically declared.
But the Young Democracy failed to distribute among
the members of the Legislature the sum promised, and
the country members, by way of revenge, voted down
2
Testimony Senate Committee on Cities, 1890, Vol. II, pp. 1711-12.
1870 1871
the Huckleberry charter. Greatly encouraged by his

" Boss " went to
enemies' defeat, the Albany with a vast
sum of money and the draft of a new charter. This
charter, supplemented by a number of amendments which
Tweed subsequently caused the Legislature to pass, vir-
" of"
tually relieved the ring accountability to anybody.
The State commissions were abolished, and practically
the whole municipal power was placed in the hands of a
Board of Special Audit, composed of himself, Connolly
and Mayor Hall. No money could be drawn from the
city without the permission of this board. The powers
of the Board of Aldermen, moreover, were virtually abol-
ished. 3
The charter, which immediately became known as the
"
Tweed charter," was passed on April 5. The victory
cost every dollar of the sum Tweed took with him.
Samuel J. Tilden testified that it was popularly supposed
that about $1,000,000 was the amount used. 4 Tweed
stated that he gave to one man $600,000 with which to
buy votes, this being merely a part of the fund. For his
services this lobbyist received a position requiring little
or no work and worth from $10,000 to $15,000 a year. 6
Tweed further testified that he bought the votes of five
Republican Senators for $40,000 apiece, giving one of
them $200,000 in cash to distribute. 6 The vote in the
two houses was practically unanimous: in the Senate, 30
to 2, and in the Assembly, 116 to 5. The state of the
public conscience in New York City may be judged from
the fact that the charter received the support of nearly
"
all classes,large numbers," according to the Annual
The amendments to the charter of 1857 had abolished the Board
3
of Councilmen and reinstituted the Board of Aldermen and the Board

of Assistant Aldermen, the two constituting the Common Council. The
"Tweed charter" continued these two boards, legislating the then
incumbents out of office, and ordering a new election in May. The
"ring," of course, secured a large majority in this new Council.
* The Tweed
Case,' etc., Supreme Court, 1876, Vol. II, p. 1212.
5 Document No.
8, p. 73.
e
Ibid., pp. 84r-92.
" of the wealthiest citizens
Cyclopedia for 1871, signing
the petition" [for its passage].
Tweed's enemies were now crushed. At the election
(April 18) of the Sachems of the society the opposition
could poll only a paltry 23 votes, against the 242 secured
by Tweed's candidates ; and even this minority was a fac-
titious one, Tilden declaring that Tweed had arranged
for it, to furnish the appearance of a contest.
Tweed's organization was wonderfully effective. The
society stood ready at a moment's notice to expel from
the Wigwam any person or group obnoxious to him.
The general committee was now likewise subservient. In
every ward he had a reliable representative a leader,
whose duty was to see that his particular district should
return its expected majority. Under the leaders there
were sub-leaders, ward clubs and associations, and cap-
tains of every election district. The organization cov-
ered every block in town with unceasing vigilance, ac-
quainting itself with the politics of every voter. The
moment a leader lost his popularity, or hesitated at scru-
ples of any sort, Tweed dismissed him only vote-getters
;
and henchmen were wanted. So large was his personal

following, that he not only caused thousands to be ap-
pointed to superfluous offices, but had a number of re-
tainers, to whom he paid in the aggregate probably
"
$60,000 a year, letting them think they were being paid
7
by the city." Opposition he had no difficulty in buying
off, as in the case of one " Citizen's Association," whose
principal men he caused to be appointed to various lucra-
8
tive positions in the citygovernment.
The Registry law having been virtually repealed at
Tweed's order, election frauds were made easier, and as
a result of the abolition by the " Tweed charter " of the
December city election, and the merging into one day's
" "
polling of national, State and city elections, the ring
T Document No. 8, p. 212.
., pp. 223-25.
1870 1871 229
was in a position to resume the old practise of trading

candidates, if all other resources failed.
With the passage of the "Tweed charter" and the
9
City and County Tax Levy bill of 1870, the stealing
expanded to a colossal degree. At a single sitting on
May 5, 1870 the Board of Special Audit made out an
order for the payment of $6,312,500 on account in build-
ing the new County Court House. Of this sum barely
a tenth part was realized by the city. 10 From the 65
per cent levied on supplies, at the end of 1869, the rate
was swelled to 85 per cent. " Jobs " significant of untold
millions lurked in every possible form. Great projects
of public improvements were exploited to the last dollar
that could be drawn from them. A frequent practise of
Tweed was to create on paper a fictitious institution, jot
down three or four of his friends as officers, put a large
amount for that institution in the tax levy and pocket
the money. Asylums, hospitals and dispensaries that
were never heard of, and never existed except on paper,
were put down as beneficiaries of State and city. The
thefts were concealed in the main by means of issues of
stocks and bonds and the creation of a floating debt,
which the Controller never let appear in his statements.
A new reform movement appeared during the Sum-
mer and Fall of 1870. Republicans, independents and
disaffected Democrats combined forces and nominated
Thomas A. Ledwith for Mayor. The reform ticket was
apparently received with great public approval, and hopes
began to be entertained of its success at the polls.
Tweed, however, had already secured, by ways known
"
9 For the
passage of this bill Tweed paid in the neighborhood of
$50,000 or $100,000." Document No. 8, p. 154.
10 While this was
going on Tweed maintained the most benevolent
attitude in public. At the Fourth of July celebration in the Wig-
wam he "called the vast assemblage to order, and with coolness, but
delighting (sic) modesty, welcomed brothers and guests." Celebra-
tion at Tammany Hall of the 94th Anniversary, etc., by the Tammany
Society or Columbian Order. Published by order of the Tammany
Society, 1870.
best to himself, assurance of Republican assistance; he
had large numbers of Republican officials, Election In-
spectors, and the like, in his pay, and therefore knew
that he had nothing to fear. Besides this, Tammany
was united and enthusiastic. Its candidates, Hall, for
Mayor, and Hoffman, for Governor, had seemingly lost
none of their popularity with the rank and file. A few
days before the election a popular demonstration, per-
haps the largest in Tammany's history, was held in and
about the Wigwam. August Belmont presided, and ad-
dresses were made by Seymour, Hoffman, Tweed and Fisk
(who had now become a Democrat). All the speakers
were received with boisterous enthusiasm.
Tweed won, Hall receiving 71,037 votes, to 46,392 for
Ledwith. But the indications were plain that a reaction
" " had
against the ring begun, for Hoffman's vote ex-
ceeded that of Hall by 15,631, while Ledwith's vote ex-
ceeded that of Stewart L. Woodford, the Republican
candidate for Governor, by nearly 12,000.
Partly to quiet his conscience, it was suspected, and
in part to make himself appear in the light of a gener-
ously impulsive man, Tweed gave, in the Winter of 1870-
71, $1,000 to each of the Aldermen of the various wards
to buy coal for the poor. To the needy of his native
ward he gave $50,000. By these acts he succeeded in
deluding the needier part of the population to the enor-
mity of his crimes. Abstractly, these beneficiaries of his
bounty knew he had not amassed his millions by honest
means. But when, in the midst of a severe Winter, they
were gladdened by presents of coal and provisions, they
did not stop to moralize, but blessed the man who could
be so good to them. Even persons beyond the range of
his bounty have hailed him as a great philanthropist;
and the expression, " Well, if Tweed stole, he was at least
good to the poor," is still repeated, and furnished, in its
tacit exoneration, the prompting for like conduct, both
thieving and giving, on the part of his successors.
1870 1871
One of Tweed's schemes was the Viaduct Railroad bill,

which virtually allowed a company created by himself to
place a railroad on or above the ground, on any city
street. The Legislature passed, and Governor Hoffman
signed, the early in 1871.
bill, One of its provisions
authorized and compelled the city to take* $5,000,000
11
of stock; another exempted the company's property
from taxes or assessments, while other bills allowed for
the benefit of the railroad the widening and the grad-
ing of streets, which meant a "job" costing the city
from $50,000,000 to $65,000.000. 12 Associated with
Tweed and others of the " ring " as directors were some
of the foremost financial and business men of the day.
The complete consummation of this almost unparalleled
steal was prevented only by the general exposure of
Tweedism a few months later.
In the Assembly of 1871 party divisions were so even
that Tweed, though holding a majority of two votes, had
only the exact number (65) required by the constitution
as a majority. In April " Jimmy " Irving, one of the
city Assemblymen, resigned, to avoid being expelled for
having assaulted Smith Weed. But Tweed was equal to
the occasion, for the very next day he obtained the vote
and services of Orange S. Winans, a Republican creature
of the Erie Railroad Company. It was charged publicly
that Tweed gave Winans $75,000 in cash, and that the
Erie Railroad Company gave him a five-years' tenure of
office at $5,000 a year. 13
Tweed neglected no means whatever to avert popular
criticism. A committee composed of six of the leading
and richest citizens Moses Taylor, Marshall O. Rob-
11 Senate Journal, 1871, pp. 482-83.
12 See A History of Public Franchises in New York City, by Gus-
tavus Myers.
is Winans was unfortunate in his
bargain, for after rendering the
service agreed upon, his employers failed to keep their promises.
Tweed gave him only one-tenth of the sum promised, and the Erie
Railroad Company gave him no office, nor, so far as can be learned,
any compensation whatever.
erts,E. D. Brown, J. J. Astor, George K. Sistare and
Edward Schell were induced to make an examination
of the Controller's books, and hand in a most eulogistic
report,commending Connolly for his honesty and faith-
fulness to duty.So highly useful a document naturally
14
was used for all
it was worth.
But it was in his tender providence over the news-

papers that his greatest successin averting public clamor
was shown. Both in
Albany and in this city he showered
largess upon the press. One paper at the Capital re-

ceived, through his efforts, a legislative appropriation
of $207,900 for one year's printing, whereas $10,000
would have overpaid it for the service rendered. 15 The
proprietor of an Albany journal which was for many
years the Republican organ of the State, made it a prac-
tice to submit to Tweed's personal censorship the most
violently abusive articles. On the payment of large sums,

sometimes as much as $5,000, Tweed was permitted to
make such alterations as he chose. 16 Here, in the city,
the owner of one subservient newspaper received $80,000
a year for " city advertising," and to some other news-
papers large subsidies were paid in the same guise.
Under the head of " city contingencies," reporters for
the city newspapers, Democratic and Republican, re-
ceived Christmas presents of $200 each. This particular
17
practice had begun before Tweed's time, but in line
with the expansive manner of the "
ring," the plan was
elaborated by subsidizing six or eight men on nearly all
i* John
Foley stated to the author that the six members of this
committee were intimidated into making this report under the threat
that the city officials would raise enormously the assessments on their
very considerable holdings of real estate.
is Document No.
8, pp. 215-18.
10 Ibid.
IT It was
city money which the reporters frequenting the City Hall
and court buildings received. The Aldermen passed in 1862 a resolu-
tion giving them (sixteen in all) $200 apiece, for "services." Mayor
Opdyke vetoed the resolution, but it was passed over his veto. (Pro-
ceedings of the Board of Aldermen, 1862, Vol. LXXXVIII, p. 708.)
The grant was made yearly thereafter.
1870 1871
the city newspapers, crediting each of them with $2,000

" services." 18
or $2,500 a year for
The proprietor of the Sun, a newspaper that, from
supporting the Young Democracy, veered suddenly to an
"
enthusiastic devotion to the Boss," proposed, in March,
" "
1871, the erection of a statue to Tweed. The Boss's
adherents jumped at the idea; and an association for
the purpose was formed by Edward J. Shandley, a Police
Justice, and a host of other men of local note, in pro-
fessional, political and social circles, among whom were
not only ardent friends of Tweed, but also those who,
having opposed him, sought this opportunity of ingrati-
ating themselves into his favor. The statue was to be
" in commemoration of his
[Tweed's] services to the com-
monwealth of New York " so ran the circular letter.
In a few days the association had obtained nearly
$8,000, some politicians giving $1,000 apiece. Other
men pledged themselves to pay any amount from $1,000
to $10,000, and were on the point of making good their
word when a letter from Tweed appeared, discountenanc-
ing the project. It was printed in the Sun of March 14,
1871, under the heading:
" A GREAT MAN'S MODESTY.
" THE HON. WILLIAM M. TWEED DECLINES THE SUN*S STATUE
CHARAC-
TERISTIC LETTER FROM THE GREAT NEW YORK PHILANTHROPIST HE
THINKS THAT VIRTUE SHOULD BE ITS OWN REWARD THE MOST RE-
MARKABLE LETTER EVER WRITTEN BY THE NOBLE BENEFACTOR OF THE
PEOPLE."
" " are not erected to

Statues," wrote Tweed in part,
living men, but to those who have ended their careers,
and where no interest exists to question the partial trib-
utes of friends." Tweed hinted that he was not so defi-
cient in common sense as not to know the bad effect the
toleration of the scheme would have, and, ever open to
suspicion, he broadly asserted that the original statue
is Statement of Mr. Foley.
proposition was made either as a joke or with an un-

friendly motive.
One of the signers of the circular has assured the
author that it was a serious proposal. The attitude of
the Sun confirms this. On March 15 that newspaper
stated editorially that it thought " Mr. Tweed had acted
" to real-
hastily," and inquired whether it was too late
ize so worthy and so excellent an idea." In the same
issue appears an interview with Justice Shandley, who
says:
"We had contemplated eventually making a public proposition
that the testimonial finally take the form of the establishment of a
grand charitable institution, bearing Mr. Tweed's honored name,
and so overcome the prejudices that the statue proposition have
engendered, and passing the fame of that statesman, philanthropist
and patriot down to future generations. Mr. Tweed has willed
otherwise, and we must submit."
A Chicago clergyman, reading of the suggestion, pub-

" more
licly declared that Tweed was dangerous than
were the ancient robber kings." Copying this expres-
sion, the Sun urged editorially on May 13 :
" let the friends of Mr. Tweed combine together and answer
Now,
this clergyman by erecting and endowing the Tweed Hospital in the
Seventh Ward of this city. A great monument of public charity is
the best response that can be made to such accusations."
Tweed aimed at a high social place. He had removed

from modest house on Henry street to a pretentious
his
establishment on Fifth Avenue. His daughter's wedding
was among the marvels of the day; from her father's
personal and political friends she received nearly $100,000
worth of gifts. Among the wedding presents were forty
complete sets of silver and fifteen diamond sets, one of
which was worth $45,000. Her wedding dress cost
$4,000, and the trimmings were worth $1,000.
All of his expenditures showed a like disregard of cost.
In the construction of the stables adjoining his Summer
place at Greenwich, Conn., money*, "was absolutely
1870 1871 235
thrown away." The stalls were built of the finest ma-

hogany. All told, these stables were said to have cost
$100,000.
The Americus Club was his favorite retreat, and there
his satellites followed him. Scores of them were only
too glad to pay the $1,000 initiation fee required, in ad-
dition to the $2,000 or so charged for sumptuously fit-
ting the room to which each was entitled. The grandeur
of their club badges well illustrated their extravagance.
One style of the badges was a solid gold tiger's 19 head in
a belt of blue enamel; the tiger's eyes were rubies, and
above his head sparkled three diamonds of enormous size.
Another style of badge was of solid gold with the tiger's
head in papier-mache under rock crystal. It was sur-
rounded by diamonds set in the Americus belt. Above
was a pin with a huge diamond, with two smaller dia-
monds on either side. This badge was estimated to be
worth $2,000. A third style showed the tiger's head in
frosted gold, with diamond eyes.
Everywhere the prodigal dissipation of the plunder was
visible. Sums of a few thousand dollars Tweed pro-
fessed to hold in utter contempt. A
city creditor once
appealed to him to use his influence with Controller Con-
nolly to have a bill paid. Twenty times he had asked
for it, the creditor said, and could get it only by paying
the 20 per cent, demanded. (This 20 per cent., it should
be explained, was the sum extorted from all city cred-
itors by the officials in the Controller's office as their
" " had taken the
portion after the chiefs of the ring
lion's share.) Tweed looked at the man a moment and
then wrote hastily to Connolly:
19 The
tiger as the symbolic representation of Tammany Hall doubt-
less dates from this time. This animal was the emblem of the Ameri-
cus Club, and in Mr. Nast's cartoons it frequently appears, with the
word AMERICUS on its collar. In all probability Mr. Nast was re-
sponsible for the transference of the symbol from the club to the or-
ganization. The author has been unable to find any earlier reference
to the Tammany tiger.
"Dear Dick: For God's sake pay 's bill. He tells me your
people ask 20 per cent. The whole d d thing isn't but $1,100.
If you don't pay it, I will. Thine. William M. Tweed."
The " Boss's " note being virtually a command, the

bill was paid in full.
CHAPTER XXV
" EING "
COLLAPSE AND DISPERSION OF THE
1871-1872
downfall of the
" " was inevitable. No
ring
THE such stupendous series of frauds could reasonably

be expected to continue, once the proper machin-
ery for their exposure and for the awakening of the dor-
mant public conscience was put in motion. Protests and
complaints and even concerted opposition might for the
time prove futile, as indeed they did; but the wind had
been sown for the reaping of the whirlwind, and it could
not be averted. One conspicuous instance of apparently
futile criticism of the
" " was the action of the New
ring
York City Council of Political Reform. This body, but
recently organized, held a mass-meeting in Cooper Union,
" the
April 6, 1871, to consider alarming aspects of pub-
lic affairsgenerally," and to agree upon means for arous-
ing the public to some remedial action. Speeches were
made by Henry Ward Beecher, Judge George C. Bar-
rett, William F. Havemeyer, William Walter Phelps and
William M. Evarts. It was pointed out that the city
debt had increased from about $36,000,000 in 1868 to
over $136,000,000 at the close of 1870. But amazing
as were the facts, the meeting produced no direct effect.
The immediate causes of the exposure were fortuitous
and accidental. In December, 1870, Watson, who had
become one of the chiefs in the Finance Department, was
fatally injured while sleigh-riding, and died a week later.
In the resultant change, Stephen C. Lyons, Jr., succeeded
Watson, and Matthew J. O'Rourke succeeded Lyons as
237
County Book-Keeper. Mr. O'Rourke gradually came

upon the evidence of the enormous robberies. In the
meantime some of the evidence had also come into the
possession of James O'Brien, one of the Young Democ-
racy leaders. Controller Connolly was on the point of
paying out the $5,000,000 called for by the Viaduct
Railroad act, as well as other sums, but learning of
O'Brien's knowledge of the situation, resolved to defer
the payments. In the Summer of 1871 Mr. O'Rourke
presented his evidence to the New York Times.
This newspaper published the figures in detail, pro-
ducing fresh disclosures day after day, and showing in-
disputably that the city had been plundered on a stu-
pendous scale. In two instances alone in the printing
bills and the bills for the erection and repairing of the
County Court House the Times averred that over

$10,000,000 had been illegally squandered. Tweed had
bought an obscure sheet, the Transcript, and had made it
the official organ for city and county advertising. He had
also formed the New York Printing Company, which not
only did the city printing, but claimed the custom of many
persons and corporations whom he was in a position either
to aid or injure. These two properties served as the
highly useful media with which to extort millions from the
city treasury. The Times gave the incontestible figures,
disclosing that the sum of nearly $3,000,000 was squan-
dered for county printing, stationery and advertising dur-
ing the years 1869, 1870 and 1871.
But the new County Court House, the Times demon-
strated, was the chief means of directly robbing the city.
All told, so far as could be learned, the sum of $3,500,000
had been spent for " repairs " in thirty-one months
enough, the Times said, to have built and furnished five
new buildings such as the County Court House. Merely
the furnishing, repairing and decorating of this building, it
was shown, cost $7,000,000. One firm alone Ingersoll
& Co. received, in two years, the gigantic sum of
1871 1872 239
" for
$5,600,000 supplying the County Court House with
furniture and carpets." In brief, the County Court
House, it was set forth specifically, instead of costing
between $3,000,000 and $5,000,000, as the "ring" all
along had led the public to believe, had actually cost over
$12,000,000, the bulk of which was stolen.
The members of the " ring " affected an air of uncon-
cern regarding the disclosures. When Tweed was ques-
tioned as to the charges, he made his famous reply:
"What are you going to do about it?" He professed
not to care for newspaper attacks. Yet Thomas Nast's
" If
terribly effective cartoons pierced him to the heart.
those picture papers would only leave me alone," he
" I wouldn't care for all the rest. The
lamented, people
get used to seeing me in stripes, and by and by grow to
think I ought to be in prison." Mayor Hall put on an
air of jocose indifference, occasionally replying to the
charges by references to the alleged frauds in the Fed-
1
eral Government, but oftener by wondrously facetious
jests such as: "Counts at Newport are at a discount";
" the light-ship off Savannah has gone
shocking levity
" "
astray ; these warm, yet occasionally breezy days, with
charmingly cool mornings and evenings, are an indication
that we are likely to have what befell Adam an early
2
Fall."
The public, however, was at last aroused, and the impu-
dent flippancy of Tweed, Hall and others only added to
the public indignation. Though the Times was but im-
perfectly armed with proofs, each day's revelations
brought the citizens to a keener realization of the unprec-
edented enormity of the thefts, and the resolve was made
by leading members of both parties in the city to unite
and crush the " ring." A call for a mass-meeting, to be
held in Cooper Union, September 4, was met
by a tremen-
dous outpouring of citizens. William F. Havemeyer, the
iNew York Times, August 29, 1871.
2 1
bid., August 30, 1871.
former Mayor, presided, and 227 vice-presidents and 15
secretaries were chosen from amongthe foremost names
in the community. Among the speakers were Robert B.
Roosevelt and Judge Edwards Pierrepont. Now, for the
first time, the public obtained a really definite idea of the
" " and its
magnitude of the sum stolen by the ring fol-
lowers. Resolutions were reported by Joseph H. Choate,
stating that the acknowledged funded and bonded debt of
the city and county was upward of $113,000,000 over
$63,000,000 more than it was when Mayor Hall took
office and that there was reason to believe that there
were floating, contingent or pretended debts and claims
against the city and county which would amount to many
more millions of dollars, and which would be paid out of
the city treasury unless the fiscal officers were removed
and their proceedings arrested. The resolutions con-
cluded by directing the appointment of an Executive Com-
mittee of Seventy, to overthrow the " ring," abolish
abuses, secure better laws, and by united effort, without
reference to party, obtain a good government and honest
officers to administer it.
The first move decided upon by the Committee of Sev-
enty was to make a thorough examination of the city's
accounts. A sub-committee was on the point of doing
this when, on the morning of September 11, it was re-
ported that the Controller's office, in the City Hall, had
been broken into on the previous night and the vouchers,
more than 3,500 in all, stolen. The "
ring
" confed-
erates pretended that the vouchers had been abstracted
from a glass case an absurd explanation considering
that after spending $400,000 for safes the city officials
should have chosen such a flimsy receptacle. Later, the
charred remains of these vouchers were discovered in an
ash-heap in the City Hall attic.
As if to yield to public opinion, Mayor Hall at once
asked Connolly to resign as Controller. Connolly re-
fused, on the ground that such a step without impeach-
1871 1872
.nent and conviction on trial would be equal to a confes-

sion of guilt. Secretly, however, fearing that the other
members of the " ring " intended to make a scape-goat of
him, he was disposed to make terms with the Committee of
Seventy to save himself. Upon the advice of Have-
meyer, he appointed Andrew H. Green, Deputy Control-
ler. With Mr. Green in that post, the Committee of Sev-
" "
enty could expect a tangible computation of the ring's
thefts. Alive to their danger, the other members of the
" " in terror tried to force
ring Connolly to resign, so as
to end the powers he had delegated to the new Deputy
Controller. Mayor Hall insisted that in making Mr.
Green Acting Controller, Connolly's action was equivalent
to a resignation, and with much bluster said he would
treat it as such.
In October the sub-committee made a hasty examina-
tion of such of the city accounts as were available, and
were enabled to report that the debt of the city was
doubling every two years that $3,200,000 had been paid
;
for repairs on armories and drill rooms, the actual cost

of which was less than $250,000; that over $11,000,000
had been charged for outlays on the unfinished County
Court House, 3 the entire cost of building which, on an
honest estimate, would be less than $3,000,000 that safes,
;
carpets, furniture, cabinet-work, painting, plumbing, gas

and plastering, had cost $7,289,466, the real value of
which was found to be only $624,180; that $460,000 had
been paid for $48,000 worth of lumber that the printing,
;
advertising, stationery, etc., of the city and county had

cost in two years and eight months, $7,168,212; that a
large number of persons were on the payrolls of the city
whose services were neither rendered nor needed and that ;
figures upon warrants and vouchers had been altered

fraudulently and payments made repeatedly on forged
endorsements.
3 Later estimates put the expenditures on the Court House at $13,-
000,000. The generally accepted figures were over $12,000,000.
These figures, though presenting nothing more than an
outline of the immensity of corruption, gave the Commit-
tee of Seventy a foundation upon which to proceed
legally.
It at once obtained an injunction from Judge Barnard,
restraining for the time the payment of all moneys out of
the city treasury. 4 The order was modified subsequently
to permit the necessary payments. The city treasury
had been sacked so completely that it was found necessary
to borrow nearly a million dollars from the banks to sat-
isfy the more pressing claims.
The Committee of Seventy next presented Mayor Hall
before the Grand Jury for indictment. Anticipating
this, the "ring" had "packed" the Grand Jury; but
such was the public outcry on this fact becoming known,
that Judge Barnard was forced to dismiss the jury and
order a new panel. The second jury, however, did not
indict the Mayor, giving, as a reason, the lack of con-
clusive evidence. Later, Hall was tried, but the jury
disagreed. The Committee of Seventy next procured the
appointment of Charles O'Conor as assistant to the
Attorney-General, and then engaged, as O'Conor's assist-
ants, William M. Evarts, Wheeler H. Peckham and Judge
" "
men
Emrnott, with the express view of driving the ring
into prison. Through their energy, Tweed was arrested,
on the affidavit of Samuel J. Tilden, on October 26, and
held to bail in the sum of $1,000,000.
But Tweed was not yet crushed. In a few days on
November 7 an election for members of the Legisla-
ture, State officers, Judges of the Supreme Court, and
Aldermen and Assistant Aldermen, was to be held. Most
* It was John
Foley who procured the injunction. Mr. Foley later
informed the author that upon the original injunction being obtained,
" "
the ring made a great clamor about the thousands of laborers who
would be deprived of their wages, and ordered their hired newspaper
writers so to incite the workingmen that the chief movers against the
" "
would be mobbed. In fact, were it not for public protection,
ring
grudgingly given on demand, it is doubtful whether some of the op-
" "
ponents of the ring would have survived the excitement.
1871 1872
of the " ring

"
men, in the very face of the revelations of
their stupendous thefts, forgery, bribing and election
frauds, came forward as candidates for renomination and
election. Once reckoned " vindi-their
elected, they upon
cation." The Committeeof Seventy naturally aimed at
the defeat of the Tammany candidates, both for political
and moral effect, and placed candidates in the field for all
local, legislative and judicial offices.
As Grand Sachem and chairman of the Tammany
General Committee, Tweed was still " boss." He ar-
ranged to win by his oft-used weapons of bribery and
intimidation, if not by violence. The two Republican
Police Commissioners were his hirelings, owing their offices
to him. They could be depended upon to aid their Tam-
many colleagues into making the police a power for his
How " "
was fortified,
benefit. well, otherwise, the ring
5
was shown when the Times charged that sixty-nine mem-
bers of the Republican General Committee, which assumed
to direct the counsels of the Republican party in the city,
were stipendiaries of Tweed and Sweeny. One of them
was quoted as saying, " I go up to headquarters the first
of every month and get a hundred dollars, but I don't hold
no office and don't do no work."
Tammany feigned to regard Tweed as a great benefac-
tor being hounded. Tweed carried out the comedy to his
best. On September 22 a " great Tweed mass-meeting "
assembled in " Tweed Plaza." Resolutions were vocifer-
ously adopted, that,
"
pleased with his past record and having faith in his future, recog-
nizing his ability and proud of his leadership, believing in his in-
tegrity and outraged by the assaults upon it, knowing of his stead-
fastness and commending his courage, admiring his magnanimity
and grateful for his philanthropy, the Democracy of the Fourth
Senatorial District of the State of New York, constituents of the
Hon. William M. Tweed, in mass-meeting assembled, place him in
nomination for re-election, and pledge him their earnest, untiring
and enthusiastic support."
5
August 19, 1871.
New York Times, November 2, 1871.
Despite the public agitation over the frauds, the Tam-
many nominations were of the worst possible character.
Nominees for the State Senate included such " ring " men
as Genet, " Mike " Norton, John J. Bradley and Walton ;
and for the Assembly, " Jim " Hayes, an unscrupulous

" Tom "
tool ; Fields, reputed to be probably the most
corrupt man that ever sat in the Legislature; Alexander
" " bills and
Frear, who for years had engineered ring ;
" "
Jimmy Irving, who had been forced to resign his seat
in the Assembly the previous Winter to avoid being ex-
pelled for a personal assault on a fellow-member. The
innumerable Tammany ward clubs, all bent on securing
a share of the " swag," paraded and bellowed for these
characters.
The election proved that the people had really awak-
ened. The victory of the Committee of Seventy was
sweeping. Of the anti-Tammany candidates, all of the
Judges, four of the five Senators, 15 of the 21 Assembly-
men, and all but two of the Aldermen were elected, and
a majority of the Assistant Aldermen had given pledges
for reforms.
The one Tammany candidate for Senator elected was
the " Boss " himself, and he won by over 9,000 majority.
The frauds in his district were represented by careful
observers as enormous. In many precincts it was unsafe
to vote against him. Opposing voters were beaten and
driven away from the polls, the police helping in the
assaults. The reelection of Tweed, good citizens thought,
was the crowning disgrace, and measures were soon taken
which effectually prevented him from taking his seat.
On November 20 Connolly resigned as Controller, and
Andrew H. Green was appointed in his place. On No-
vember 25 Connolly was arrested and held in $1,000,000
bail. Unable to furnish it, he was committed to jail. On
December 16 Tweed was indicted for felony. While be-
ing taken to the Tombs he was snatched away on a writ
of habeas corpus and haled before Judge Barnard, who
1871 1872 245
released him on the paltry bail of $5,000. A fortnight

later, forced by public opinion, Tweed resigned as Com-
missioner of Public Works, thus giving up his last hold on
power.
" " men after 1871 form a
The careers of the ring
striking contrast to their former splendor. Tweed ceased
to be Grand Sachem. Almost every man's hand seemed
raised against him. The newspapers which had profited
most by his thefts grew rabid in denouncing him and his
followers, and urged the fullest punishment for them.
He was tried on January 30, 1873. The jury dis-
agreed. During the next Summer he fled to California.
Voluntarily returning to New York City, against the
advice of his friends, he was tried a second time, on crim-
inal indictments, on November 19. Found guilty on
three-fourths of the 120 counts, Judge Noah Davis sen-
tenced him to twelve years' imprisonment and to pay a
fine of $12,000. Upon being taken to Blackwell's Island,
the Warden of the Penitentiary asked him the usual ques-
tions
" What ?
" " Statesman " he re-
:
occupation !
" What " " None."

plied. religion?
After one year's imprisonment, Tweed was released by
a decision of the Court of Appeals, on January 15, 1875,
on the ground that owing to a legal technicality the one
year was all he was required to serve. Anticipating this
decision, Tilden and his associates had secured the pas-
sage of an act by the Legislature, expressly authorizing
the People to institute a civil suit such as they could not
otherwise maintain. New civil suits were then brought
against Tweed, and as soon as he was discharged from
the Penitentiary he was rearrested and held in $3,000,000
bail.
This bail he could not get, and he lay in prison until
December 4?, when, while visiting his home, in the custody
of two keepers, he escaped. For two days he hid in New
Jersey, and later was taken to a farm-house near the Pal-
isades. He disguised himself by shaving his beard and
clipping his hair, and wearing a wig and gold spectacles.

Fleeing again, he spent a while in a fisherman's hut near
the Narrows, visiting Brooklyn and assuming the name of
" John Secor."
Leaving on a schooner, he landed on the
coast of Florida, whence he went to Cuba in a fishing
smack, landing near Santiago de Cuba. The fallen
"
Boss " and a companion were at once arrested as sus-
picious characters the Ten Years' War being then in
progress and Tweed was recognized. He, however,
smuggled himself on board the Spanish bark Carmen,
which conveyed him to Vigo, Spain. Upon the request
of Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State, he was arrested and
turned over to the commander of the United States man;
of-war Franklin, which brought him back to New York
on November 23, 1876.
In one of the civil suits judgment had been given against
him for over $6,000,000. Confessing to this, he was put
in jail, to be kept there until he satisfied it, a requirement
he said he was unable to meet. The city found no per-
sonal property upon which to levy. Tweed testified in
1877 that he held about $2,500,000 worth of real estate
in 1871, and that at no time in his life was he worth more
than from that amount to $3,000,000. 7 He had reck-
lessly parted with a great deal of his money, he stated.
He testified also to having lost $600,000 in two years in
8
fitting up the Metropolitan Hotel for one of his sons,
and to having paid his lawyers $400,000 between 1872
and 1875. His escape from Ludlow Street Jail had cost
him $60,000. It is reasonably certain that he had been
blackmailed on all sides, and besides this, as has already
been shown, he had been compelled to disgorge a vast
share of the plunder to members of the Legislature and
others. When his troubles began he transferred his real
estate and, it is supposed, his money to his son,
Richard M. Tweed.
1871 1872 247
In Ludlow Street Jail he occupied the Warden's parlor,

at a cost of $75 a week. As he lay dying, on April 12,
"
1878, he said to the matron's daughter Mary, I have
:
tried to do good to everybody, and if I have not, it is not

my fault. I am ready to die, and I know God will receive
" Doc-
me." To his physician, Dr. Carnochan, he said :
tor, I've tried to do some good, if I haven't had good luck.

I am not afraid to die. I believe the guardian angels will
protect me." The matron said he never missed reading
his Bible. According to S. Foster
Dewey, his private sec-
words were " I have tried to
retary, Tweed's last :
right
some great wrongs. I have been forbearing with those
who did not deserve it. I forgive all those who have ever
done evil to me, and I want all those whom I have harmed
to forgive me." Then throwing out his hand to catch
that of Luke, his black attendant, he breathed his last.
Only eight carriages followed the plain hearse carrying
his remains, and the cortege attracted no attention. " If
Tweed had died in 1870," said the cynical Coroner Wolt-
"
man, one of his former partizans, Broadway would have
been festooned with black, and every military and civic
organization in the city would have followed him to Green-
wood."
Sweeny settled with the prosecutor for a few hundred
thousand dollars and found a haven in Paris, until years
later he reappeared in New York. He lived to an old age.
The case of the People against him was settled as the
Aldermanic committee appointed in 1877 to investigate
the " ring
" frauds
reported to the Common Council
" in a 9
very curious and somewhat incomprehensible way."
The suits were discontinued on Sweeny agreeing to pay
the city the sum of $400,000 " from the estate of his de-
ceased brother, James M. Sweeny." What the motive
was in adopting this form the committee did not know.
The committee styled Sweeny " the most despicable and
Document No. 8, p. 29.
"
dangerous [of the ring "] because the best educated and
most cunning of the entire gang." 10
Connolly fled abroad with $6,000,000, and died there.
Various lesser officials also fled, while a few contractors
and officials who remained were tried and sent to prison,
chiefly upon the testimony of Garvey, who turned State's
evidence, and then went to London. Under the name of
" A. Jeffries
Garvie," he lived there until his death in
1897.
Of the three Judges most involved Barnard, Cardozo
and McCunn n the first and the last were impeached,
while Cardozo resigned in time to save himself from im-
peachment.
The question remains How much did the " ring "
:
steal? Henry P. Taintor, the auditor employed in the

Finance Department by Andrew H. Green to investigate
the controller's books, testified before the special Alder-
manic committee, in 1877, that he had estimated the
frauds to which the city and county of New York had been
subjected, during the three and a half years from 1868
to 1871, at from $45,000,000 to $50,000,000. 12 The
special Aldermanic committee, however, evidently thought
the thefts amounted to $60,000,000 ; for it asked Tweed
whether they did not approximate that sum, upon which
he gave no definite reply. But Mr. Taintor's estimate,
as he himself admitted, was far from complete, even for
the three and a half years. It is the generally accepted
opinion among those who have had the best opportunity
" "
for knowing, that the sums distributed among the ring
and its allies and dependents amounted to over $100,000,-
000. Matthew J. O'Rourke, who, since his disclosures,
made a further remarkable study of this special period,
informed the author that, from 1869 to 1871, the " ring "
10 ibid.,
p. 30.
11 Barnard and Cardozo were both Sachems. Mr. Foley is the au-
thor's authority for the statement that when Barnard died, $1,000,000
in bonds and cash was found among his effects.
12 Document No. 8.
1871 1872
stole about $75,000,000, and that he thought the total

stealings from about 1865 to 1871, counting vast issues
of fraudulent bonds, amounted to $200,000,000. Of the
entire sum stolen from the city only $876,000 was recov-
ered.
The next question is: Where did all this money go?
We have referred to the share that remained to Tweed
and Connolly, but the other members of the great " ring "
and its subordinate " rings " kept their loot, a few of
them returning to the city a small part by way of restitu-
tion. When Garvey died in London, his estate was valued
at $600,000.
CHAPTER XXVI
TAMMANY RISES FROM THE ASHES
1872-1874
the disclosures of 1871, the name of Tam-

many Hall became a by-word throughout the
AFTER civilized world, and the enemies of corruption
assured themselves that the organization was shorn of
political power for a long time to come. But the won-
derful instinct of self-preservation which had always char-
acterized Tammany, joined with the remarkable sagacity
which its chiefs almost invariably displayed in critical
times, now conspired to keep the organization alive
despite every antagonistic influence. The Tammany So-
ciety still charter, and while that charter remained
had its
intact, Tammany retained strong potentialities for re-

gaining power. The reformers neglected to ask for its
annulment though it is doubtful if they could have
obtained it, since the Governor, John T. Hoffman, was a
creation of the Tammany organization.
The urgent need of the Wigwam was a leader. In
response to the demand, two men, John Kelly and John
Morrissey, stepped to the front. Both of them were the
product of local politics, and having made a science of
their experience, they knew that the Tammany Hall that
now lay prostrate and reviled could be raised and again
made a political factor, and eventually the ruler of the
city. The few men of fair character in the organization
were undesirous of appearing too prominently in its coun-
cils
; but despite the general odium attached to it, Kelly
and Morrissey found that a large part of the thoughtless
250
1872 1874 251
mass of the Democratic voters were still willing to follow

its leadership.
Kelly had been in Europe from 1868 to late in 1871,
and had not been directly implicated in the Tweed frauds.
He had a strong personality, and was popular among the
largest and most energetic part of the voting population
the Irish. He was called " Honest John Kelly," and
he took care to strengthen the belief implied in that name,
surrounding himself at all times with a glamour of polit-
ical probity. Born April 20, 1822, in New York City,
of poor parents, his early life was divided between hard
work and fighting, though he never appeared in the prize-
ring. His trade was that of a grate-setter and mason.
His early education was defective, but he later improved
his natural talents by study at the parochial and evening
schools.
Thedistrict in which he lived was the roughest in the
city. Being a man of aggressive ways and popular
enough to control the turbulent elements, the politicians
in 1853 had him elected an Alderman, a post which he
retained during 1854 and 1855. In this body he was
known as a " bench-warmer " that is, a member who
kept his seat and followed the orders of his political mas-
ters without question. Giving satisfaction, he was se-
lected to run for Congress in the district then represented
" Mike " Walsh who was regarded in Washington
by
as the leader of the rowdy element of New York City.
Walsh ran independently, but Kelly beat him by 18 votes
in a total vote of 7,593. It was generally charged then
and long after that Kelly was " counted in." Later he
was reelected. During his terms in Congress, Kelly con-
trolled most of the Federal patronage in New York City,
and it was through his influence especially that Isaac V.
Fowler who, as we have mentioned, was afterward
found to have embezzled over $155,000 from the Govern-
ment was reappointed Postmaster by Buchanan.
In 1863 Kelly, disgruntled at not being appointed a
Police Commissioner, led a portion of the Irish vote from
the Wigwam over to the Germans, helping in the election
of Gunther as Mayor. Having proved his influence,
Tweed, in order to gain him over, gave him the nomina-
tion for Sheriff, to which office he was elected. His nomi-
nation for Mayor and his sudden withdrawal we have
already related.
At the time of his flight to Europe he was a rich man.
Mayor Havemeyer charged, in 1874, as we shall see, that
some, at least, of Kelly's wealth was obtained by anything
but proper methods.
This was the successor of Tweed as the " boss " of
Tammany Hall. His coadjutor for a time, John Mor-
rissey, was a professional prize-fighter and gambler, whose
boast was that he " had never fought foul nor turned a
card." l When these men assumed control of the Wig-
" "
wam, few persons believed it could outlive the ring
revelations and regain power.
Then occurred an extraordinary happening, though
quite in keeping with Tammany shrewdness. At the so-
ciety's annual election, in April, 1872, Kelly and Augus-
tus Schell(who had been elected Grand Sachem after
Tweed was forced to resign) caused to be selected as
Sachems some of the identical men who had been most con-
spicuous in the reform movement, such as Samuel J.
Tilden, Charles O'Conor, Horatio Seymour, Sanford E.
Church and August Belmont. The best proof that the
non-partizan movement of 1871 was already dissolving
was the readiness with which these men accepted these
elections. Their acceptance may have been due to a
mixed desire to make of the organization a real reform
body as well as to advance their political fortunes.
The Tammany Society now stood before the public as
i In Tweed's confession
(1877) Morrissey is mentioned as having
introduced a system of repeating from Philadelphia, and also as hav-
ing acted as paymaster of the fund of $65,000 distributed among the
Aldermen to secure the confirmation of Sweeny as Chamberlain.
1872 1874 253
a reform body, with the boast that all the thieves had
been cast out. Next it appointed a reorganization com-
mittee to reconstruct the Tammany Hall political organ-
ization. Under its direction the general committee was
enlarged to nearly five hundred members, and a new gen-
eral committee, of unquestionably better quality than its
predecessor, was elected. In the case of disputing dis-
trict delegations, the Tammany Society's committee de-
2
cided by selecting the best men for both. Out of chaos,
within a few months of the
" "
ring's overthrow, Kelly
created a strong organization, so deftly composed as to
place itself before the people as an entirely distinct set
of men from the
" " as a really Democratic
ring thieves
body, quite as heartily in favor of good government as
the most exacting reformer.
Kelly acted with great shrewdness, executive force,
knowledge of men, and apparent regard for the public
and proprieties. He affected extreme modesty,
interests
and made it appear that the delegates chose nominees by
their own uninfluenced will. At the Judiciary convention
in Tammany Hall, in October, 1872, he insisted that each
delegate vote; in his speech he said that Tammany should
have no more of the times when tickets were made up out-
side of conventions. Some delegates shouting for the
nomination of a man of dubious character, he declared,
with the air of a man exerting himself for the good of his
party only, that it was time that Tammany Hall should
put such a ticket in the field that no man could hold up
the finger of scorn at any individual on it. He further-
more caused the appointment of a committee to cooperate
in the work of reform with the Bar Association, the Com-
mittee of Seventy, the Municipal Taxpayers' Association
and the Liberal Republicans.
At Kelly's suggestion the Wigwam, in the Fall of 1872,
The reorganization committee reached the understanding that

2
the society should thereafter keep in the background and that it

should not prominently interfere in the organization's affairs.
254? HISTORY OF TAMMANY HALL
nominated for Mayor, Abraham R. Lawrence, a member
of the Committee of Seventy and its counsel, and for
Judges of the Supreme and Superior Courts, men of abil-
ity and unimpeachable name. Altogether, Tammany
took on such a new guise that thousands of voters re-
turned to its support. But the anti-Tammany movement
had not yet dissipated its strength, even though it pre-
sented a divided front. One wing of this opposition was
" reform " "
the new organization, the Apollo Hall De-
mocracy," founded by James O'Brien, who now stood
forth as its candidate for Mayor. The other wing, com-
posed of the individuals and associations centering about
the Committee of Seventy, nominated William F. Have-
meyer.
Tammany had the advantage of a Presidential year,
when the obligation of " regularity " could be imposed
upon a goodly share of the Democratic voters, and the
further advantage of a high order of personal character
in its nominees. Nevertheless, Havemeyer won, the vote
standing approximately: Havemeyer, 53,806; Lawrence,
45,398; O'Brien, 31,121. The results from several elec-
tion districts were missing and were never canvassed by
the Board of Canvassers. For Horace Greeley, the Dem-
ocratic Presidential candidate, Tammany Hall carried
the city by 23,000 majority.
Mayor Havemeyer's administration differed greatly
from most of the " reform " administrations that had
preceded it. Never since the year 1800 had the city
revenue been distributed with such great care. The ut-
most regard was paid to the ordinances dealing with
public health and security, and the streets were kept
cleaner than ever before. The rowdy and criminal
classes were deprived of the free sway they had so long
enjoyed. The public school system was improved, and
the standard of official character was of a higher type
than had been known in many a decade. The city ex-
penditures in 1873 were about $32,000,000, as compared
1872 1874 255
with $36,262,589.41 in 1871, and notwithstanding the

tremendous legacy of debt left by the Tweed " ring " to
be shouldered by later administrations, Mayor Have-
meyer's administration reduced the city expenses about
$8,000,000 in reality, though the bare figures on their face
did not show that result.
Mayor Havemeyer complained, as so many of his pred-
ecessors had done, of the perverse interference of the
Legislature in city affairs an interference which con-
stantly embarrassed his plans and set back the cause of
reform.
The Mayor was not destined to serve his full term. In
September, 1874, a bitter quarrel sprang up between
him on the one hand and John Kelly and John Morrissey
on the other, apparently over the appointment, at Kel-
"
ly's request, of Richard Croker to be a Marshal. When
Croker's appointment was announced," wrote the Mayor,
" I was overwhelmed with a torrent of
indignation." In
a public letter addressed to Kelly, Mayor Havemeyer
charged that the former, while Sheriff, had obtained
$84,482 by fraudulent and illegal receipts, adding this
further characterization :
" I think
that you were worse than Tweed, except that he was a
larger operator. The public knew that Tweed was a bold, reckless
man, making no pretensions to purity. You, on the contrary, were
always avowing your honesty and wrapped yourself in the mantle
of piety. Men who go about with the prefix of 'honest' to their
names are often rogues."
Kelly replied that he had acted in the Sheriff's office as

had his predecessors, and brought a libel suit against the
Mayor, in the answer to which the latter embodied his
charges in full. But on the day the suit was to come to
trial Havemeyer fell dead of apoplexy in his office.
During the two years (1872-74) various forces com-

bined to restore Tammany to the old power. The two
great parties were struggling for partizan advantage for
future State and national elections. This brought about
the old party alignment, the reform Democrats, as a rule,
acting with the Wigwam, and the reform Republicans
drifting to the Republican side. The disreputable classes
issued forth in greater force than ever to help replace in
power the Tammany that meant to them free sway. The
" hard
panic of 1873, with the consequent times," turned
great bodies of voters against the dominant party. The
" " had so
ring thoroughly looted the city that Have-
meyer's administration was forced to practise economy
in the public works. The working classes either did not
ûnderstand the motive of this retrenchment, or did not
appreciate it. Out of the 24,500 mechanics in the city
during the Winter of 1873-74, 15,000, it was estimated,
were unemployed. Tammany now adroitly declared itself
in favor of giving public employment to the workers.
The Wigwam agents scoured the poorer districts during
the campaign of 1874, giving aid to the needy, and gained
their support. The agitation against a third term for
President Grant; the demand for a low tariff and the
"
denunciation of the Washington ring," all had their
effect, while the impression which naturally might have
been expected from Havemeyer's charges against Kelly
was entirely lost by the former's slurring allusions to
Kelly's humble birth and early occupation allusions

which threw the sympathy and support of the masses
strongly to Kelly and his ticket.
The astonishing consequence was that in November,
1874, Tammany Hall which, in 1871, seemed buried be-
neath obloquy, elected its candidate for Mayor, William
"
H. Wickham (a diamond merchant and an anti-" ring
Democrat and a member of the Committee of Seventy) by
nearly 9,000 majority over all, his vote being 70,071,
against 24,226 for Oswald Ottendorfer, the Independent
Democratic candidate, and 36,953 for Salem H. Wales,
the Republican. At the same election, Tilden, who had
"
also contributed to the downfall of the ring," received
1872 1874 257
the solid support of Tammany, and was elected to the
Governorship.
Tammany Hall under the surface was rapidly becoming
" Jim "
its old self. Its candidate for Register, Hayes,
had made, it was charged, $500,000 during the Tweed
regime. Fully three-fourths of the office-seekers in this
election were connected with the liquor interests; and as
many of these were keepers of low groggeries, they were
in constant conflict with the law. Nine of the fifteen Tam-
many candidates for Aldermen were former creatures or
"
beneficiaries of the ring," one of them being under two
indictments for fraud. Yet the partizan currents at work
again swept almost all of them into office.
Well realizing the value of appearances, Kelly lectured
the new members of the Common Council, 3 telling them
that " there must be no bad measures, no rings,' no get-
'
ting together of a few men for the purpose of making

money and controlling patronage." Yet Kelly himself
at this time absolutely controlled the strongest and prob-
ably the most corrupt political organization in the Union.
He dictated State, Judicial, Congressional, Legislative
and municipal nominations at will, and continued to be
the absolute
" boss " until his death in 1886.
3 Amendments to the
charter, passed in 1873, vested local powers in
a Board of Aldermen and a Board of Assistant Aldermen the latter
to be abolished on and after January 1, 1875, and the Board of Alder-
men to form thenceforth the Common Council. The Common Council
was not to pass any measure over the Mayor's veto without the vote
of two-thirds of all its members. A part of the former Aldermanic
powers was restored to this board by the amendments of 1873 and
later years.
CHAPTER XXVII
THE DICTATORSHIP OF JOHN KELLY
1874-1886
history of the Tammany Society and of Tam-

THE many Hall during the period from 1874 onward
embraces a vast and intricate web of influences,
activities and consequences. To present this period in
the detail proportionate to that employed in the pre-
ceding chapters would require an amount of space in-
consistent with the projected volume of this work. It
will, therefore, be presented in the manner of a COM-
PREHENSIVE SUMMARY, in which the main movement will
be outlined, and particular treatment given only to the
more important features and events.
Toward the end of 1874 Kelly's rule had become
" " he assessed
supreme. Under the form of requests
every office-holder, even calling upon men receiving only
$1,000 a year to pay as much as $250. To systematize
these assessments, he established a regular collectorship,
in charge of the society's Wiskinskie, a city employee
drawing $1,500 a year for apparent services. Abundant

charges, some of which were proved, were made as to
corruption in many of the city departments.
During the next year (1875) a number of disaffected
" "
Wigwam men formed the Irving Hall Democracy and
issued an address denouncing the Tammany General Com-
mittee as the creature of the society. The effect of this
defection and of the charges of public corruption were
such that in the local elections Tammany lost many of
the minor offices.
258
1874 1886 259
The friendship between Kelly and Tilden had already

been broken. Kelly organized a bitter opposition to
Tilden at the St. Louis national convention, in 1876, but
pledged himself to support the nominations, and kept
his word.
The Presidential campaign of this year held the mu-
nicipal struggle within strict party lines. The various
Democratic factions united on Smith Ely, electing him
Mayor by a majority of 53,517 over John A. Dix, the
Republican candidate.
From December, 1876, to December, 1880, Kelly filled
the position of City Controller, and was credited with
reducing the city debt. Politics, however, rather than
fiscal administration for the benefit of the city, continued
to be his main business. One of the numerous examples
of his superior sagacity in bowing to the general public
sentiment was his support, in 1878, of Edward Cooper, an
anti-Tammany nominee for Mayor, a man of recognized
independence of character, who was elected. Tammany at
this time was still largely influenced by the old Tweed
conspirators, the assertion being made in 1877 that at

least fifty former office-holders under Tweed were to be
found in the general committee. 1
In 1879 occurred the well-known fight of Tammany
against the Democrats of the rest of the State. The
Democratic State convention had assembled at Syracuse.
The roll-call had barely begun when Augustus Schell,
spokesman for the Tammany organization, stated that
as there was every prospect that Gov. Lucius Robinson
would be renominated, the delegates from New York
City would withdraw, although they stood ready to sup-
"
port any other name. This suggestion," as Schell
afterwards called it, was unheeded, whereupon the entire
Tammany delegation retired. The delegation meeting
elsewhere, Kelly, with the specific object of defeating Rob-
i Document No. 8, p. 102.
inson, caused himself to be nominated for Governor. The
quarrel between Robinson and the Tammany chief was
personal, arising from the fact that the Governor had
removed Henry A. Gumbleton, a prominent Wigwam man,
from the office of County Clerk. Such was the discipline
to which Kelly had reduced the organization that it
obeyed his word without a single protest.
He succeeded in his ulterior object. His 77,566 votes
caused the defeat of Robinson, who received 375,790
votes, to 418,567 for Alonzo B. Cornell, the Republican
candidate. The significant lesson furnished by Kelly's
making good his threat, was one generally heeded there-
after by State and national politicians and candidates,
who declined to invite the hostility of so great a power.
But for this secession, and the consequent demoralization
of the Democratic party in the State, New York's elec-
toral vote, it is generally thought, would have gone to
Gen. Hancock in 1880. Mayor Cooper refused to re-
appoint Kelly to the office of Controller at the expiration
of his term, in December, 1880, because of his supposed
agency in the defeat of Hancock.
In 1880 the Democrats of the city were divided into
the factions of Tammany Hall and Irving Hall, but lay-
ing aside differences till after the election, they agreed
upon an apportionment of the local offices. The Demo-
cratic candidate for Mayor, William R. Grace, was
selected by the Tammany committee from a list of names
submitted by Irving Hall. Many of the members of the
latter organization, however, were prejudiced against Mr.
Grace because of his Roman Catholic faith, fearing that
in case of his election the public school appropriations
would be diverted to sectarian uses. They joined with
the Republicans in support of William Dowd. The vote
stood: Grace, 101,760; Dowd, 98,715.
Mayor Grace's official power was considerably limited
by the action of the Legislature, which had made the
tenure of office of executives of departments longer than
1874 1886 261
his own a law which in effect put the department heads

in a position independent of the Mayor. In frequent
messages, Mayor Grace expressed himself, as had Mayor
Havemeyer, pointedly, though vainly, on the evils of
legislative interference with the local government.
In December, 1880, a new organization, called the
" New York
County Democracy," was formed by Abram
S. Hewitt and others, to oppose both Tammany Hall
and Irving Hall. This body soon had a large enrolled
membership, and was joined later by a number of Demo-
crats who had unsuccessfully attempted to bring about
reform in Tammany. To that end they had made an
effort, at the society's annual election in April, 1881, to
elect their candidates for Sachems, when the ticket headed
by Kelly won by an average majority of 50 in about 775

votes. The fact, or belief, that the result was secured
through repeating and other unfair means, caused a con-
siderable defection from Tammany.
In the State convention of October, 1881, the Tam-
many delegation was ruled out, and the County Democ-
" At an earlier period this
racy was declared regular."
adverse decision might have entailed serious, if not fatal,
consequences to the Wigwam. But now that the organ-
ization was in a state of absolute discipline, ruled by
one hard-headed, tireless " boss," with each member un-
"
derstanding that his self-interest required his standing
" the in times of as well as in
by organization trouble,
times of triumph, the blow had no lasting effect.
Holding the balance of power in the Legislature of
"
1882, the Tammany members resolved to force the regu-
lar " Democracy to make terms with them. To that end
they attended no party caucuses, and refused to support
men nominated by the " regular " Democrats. At Kel-
ly's order they demanded, as the price of their coopera-
tion, certain chairmanships of important committees.
Not getting them, they continued for weeks their stub-
born opposition. Finally the two houses were organized,
the Tammany men voting for the Republican candidate
for clerk. 'Charges were freely made of a political bar-
gain between Kelly and Gov. Cornell.
There were three Democratic factions in the city in
1882 Tammany Hall, Irving Hall and the County
Democracy. A movement to obtain non-partizan gov-
ernment caused the independent nomination of Allan
Campbell for Mayor. The Republicans indorsed him,
but their support was greatly weakened by their nomina-
tion of a spoils politician, John J. O'Brien, for County
Clerk. The three Democratic factions agreed on Frank-
lin Edson, who was elected by a majority of 21,417, the
vote being: Edson, 97,802; Campbell, 76,385.
In the Chicago national convention of 1884 the Tam-
many delegation bitterly oposed the nomination of
Grover Cleveland, its orators virulently assailing his pri-
vate and public character. Though profesing afterward
to support him as the Democratic candidate, the Wigwam
refused to unite with other Democratic organizations in
any political demonstration. The reason seems to have
been Mr. Cleveland's publicly expressed independence of
Kelly and his machine. After the ensuing election, Tam-
many was generally charged with treachery. The Wig-
wam nominated a separate city and county ticket, nam-
ing Hugh J. Grant for Mayor. The County Democracy
and Irving Hall agreed upon the nomination of former
Mayor William R. Grace, and elected him with the rest
of the fusion ticket,the vote being:
Grace, 96,288 ;
Grant, 86,361; Frederick S. Gibbs (Republican),
45,386.
In these years the control of the city offices was fre-
quently divided among the various parties and factions.
In the Board of Aldermen, as in the departments, were
Tammany and County Democracy men and Republicans,
so that no one faction or party completely swayed the
city. Much of their former power had been restored to
1874 1886 363
the Aldermen by the charter amendments of 1873, by

the State constitution of 1874 and various legislative
acts. Reports arose from time to time that money was
used to secure confirmation of appointments by the Alder-
men, but the nearest approach to detail was the testi-
"
mony of Patrick H. McCann before the Fassett Com-
" in
mittee 1890.
Mr. McCann testified that Richard Croker, a brother-
in-law, came to his store in 1884, with a bag containing
$180,000, which, he said, was to be used in obtaining
Aldermanic votes to secure the confirmation, in case of
his appointment, of Hugh J. Grant as Public Works
Commissioner, and that he (Mr. Croker) was to get ten
2
cents a barrel on all cement used by that department.
Mr. McCann further testified that Mr. Croker had told
him that $80,000 of this sum was furnished by Mr. Grant,
and the remainder by the organization. Mr. Croker,
according to the same testimony, opened negotiations
through Thomas D. Adams for the purchase of two Re-
publican Aldermen, whose votes were needed. The al-
"
leged deal," however, was not consummated, and the
money was returned. Mr. Croker and Mr. Grant both
swore that these statements were untrue. 3
But the extraordinary corruption of the Board of
Aldermen of 1884 is a matter of public record. Twenty-
one members the exceptions among those present and
voting being Aldermen Grant and O'Connor voted to
give the franchise for a surface railway on Broadway to
4
the Broadway Surface Railroad Company. The rival
road, the Broadway Railroad Company, sought to bribe
the Aldermen with $750,000, half cash and half bonds,
but the Aldermen thought the bonds might be traced, and
considered it wiser to accept the $500,000 cash offered
2
Testimony, Senate Committee on Cities, 1890, Vol. I, pp. 682-98.
s
Ibid., 733, and Ibid., Vol. II, p. 1693.
*
Proceedings of the Board of Aldermen, Vol. CLXXV, pp. 237-39.
5 6
by the former, each Alderman receiving $22,000.
7
Mayor Edson vetoed the resolution, but it was repassed.
Other street railway franchises were passed by the
same board. Mr. McCann testified in 1890 that Mr.
Grant had told him that Mr. Croker strongly advised
him [Grant] not to have anything to do with " that
"
Broadway matter," they [the other Aldermen]
as
8
would be caught." Mr. Grant denied having said so. 9
The fact remains that Mr. Grant was the only Tarn-
many Alderman free of suspicion. Many of the accused
Tammany city fathers were members of the organiza-
tion's executive committee, which was composed almost
exclusively of leaders, and which was supposed to direct

10
the Wigwam's affairs.
One Alderman, Henry W. Jaehne, was sentenced to
penal servitude at hard labor for the term of nine years
and ten months ; and another, " Honest " John O'Neill,
to four years and a half, and to pay a fine of $2,000 ; a
third, Arthur J. McQuade, was sentenced to seven years
and ordered to return $5,000 of the bribe money to the
city, but on July 20, 1889, at a new trial at Ballston, he
was acquitted. Six other Aldermen fled to Canada, and
three turned State's evidence. Ten others were indicted,
but were never brought to trial. As Col. John R. Fel-
lows, the District Attorney who tried the cases, stated
to the Fassett Committee, convictions could not then
(1890) be secured, because public sentiment had changed;
the storm had subsided; people had grown tired of the
subject, and many former opponents of the franchise
5 Alderman Arthur J. McQuade's testimony before Recorder
Smythe, November 19, 1886.
Alderman FullgrafF s additional testimony before Recorder
Smythe.
7
Proceedings of the Board of Aldermen, Vol. CLXXVI, pp. 777-84.
s
9
Ibid., Vol. I, p. 752.
id., p. 744.
1874 1886 265
11
had come to look upon it as a benefit. But there were
strong hints that political influence had saved many per-
sons from prison.
Though the facts did not come out until the trials in
1886, public indignation and suspicion were so strong
in 1884 that Kelly insisted that the Tammany Aldermen
who had voted for the franchise should not be renomi-
nated. 12
Kelly broke down with nervous and physical prostra-
tion after the Presidential campaign of 1884. Grover
Cleveland's election, which falsified his predictions, deeply
disappointed him. He kept to his house, No. 34 East
Sixty-ninth street, but still issued his orders to the Tam-
many organization. Towards the end, he could not sleep
except by the use of opiates. He died on June 1, 1886.
Thus passed away the second absolute " boss " of
Tammany Hall. For more than ten years 50,000 voters
obeyed his commands, and it was he and not the people
to whom a host of office-holders, contractors, and all who
profited directly or indirectly from politics, looked as
the source of their appointment, employment or emolu-
ment. On more than one occasion Kelly complained of
his onerous duty of providing government for New York
City. The secret of his control was the same as that of

Tweed and of the previous cliques: he knew that a large
part of the voting mass cared nothing for good govern-
ment, but looked upon politics solely as a means of liveli-
hood; that another large part were satisfied to vote the
" " ticket under
regular any and all circumstances and, ;
with a keen understanding of human nature, he knew how

to harmonize conflicting interests, to allay personal dif-
ferences, and to soothe with large promises of future re-
wards his disaffected followers. Profiting by Tweed's
11
Testimony, Senate Committee on Cities, 1890, Vol. Ill, pp. 2667-
68.
12
Testimony of Hugh J. Grant, Ibid., Vol. I, p. 739.
fate, he knew the value of moderation and he earned the
;
praise, not only of his interested followers, but also of a

tolerant and easy-going class in the community, through
the fact that under his rule the stealing, compared to that
of the Tweed regime, was kept at a comparatively respect-
able minimum. It was pointed out to his credit that the
fortune he left reputed to be $500,000 was very
reasonable for one who so long had held real control of a
great city.
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE DICTATORSHIP OF RICHARD CROKER
1886-1897
the death of Kelly, the twenty-four leaders of

the Assembly Districts, comprising the executive
UPON committee of Tammany Hall, announced individ-
"
ually that there would be no further boss," and that the
organization would be ruled thenceforth by a committee
of twenty-four. However, cliques immediately arose, and
soon four leaders Richard Croker, who had been a sort
" boss " under
of deputy Kelly ; Hugh J. Grant, Thomas
F. Gilroy and W. Bourke Cockran arranged a junta
for administering the organization's affairs. By secur-
ing the support of 17 of the 24 leaders, Mr. Croker began
concentrating power in his own hands, and for about
fourteen years remained the absolute boss ' of both soci-
'
ety and organization.

Mr. Croker was born near Cork, Ireland, November 24,
184$. His father was a blacksmith, who emigrated to
America in 1846, and settled in a squatter's shanty in
what is now the upper portion of Central Park. From
his thirteenth to his nineteenth year young Croker worked
as a machinist. At a very early age he distinguished
himself in the semi-social fist-fights which were a part of
the life of the " gang " to which he belonged. He be-
" Fourth Avenue
came, tradition has it, the leader of the
Tunnel Gang," and fought a number of formal prize-
fights, in which he came out victor.
At the beginning of the Tweed regime, according to his
testimony before the Fassett Committee, he was an at-
267
tendant under Judge Barnard and other Judges in the
Supreme Court. Upon leaving that place, for some rea-
son not known, he served as an engineer on a Fire
1
Department steamer. In 1868 and 1869 he was elected
an Alderman. With a majority of his fellow-members,
he sided with the Young Democracy against Tweed, and
was accordingly, with the rest of the board, legislated
out of office (April, 1870). But he must have made his
" Boss " soon
peace with the after, for Controller Con-
nolly appointed him Superintendent of Market Fees and
Rents. In 1873 he was elected Coroner. On election
day, November 3, 1874, during a street row growing out
of a political quarrel between Mr. Croker and James
O'Brien, John McKenna was shot dead. Bystanders
maintained that Mr. Croker fired the shot, and the Grand
Jury indicted him for the crime. The trial jury, after
being out for seventeen hours, failed to agree. Public
opinion at the time was divided, but it is the preponder-
ance of opinion among those who are in a position to
know, that Mr. Croker did not fire the fatal shot.
In 1876 he was reelected Coroner. In 1883 he ran for
Alderman, with the understanding that if elected, thus
establishing the fact of his constituents' approval, Mayor
Edson would appoint him a Fire Commissioner. During
the canvass, a Police Captain, one of Croker's proteges,
was responsible for a brutal clubbing, the feeling over
which had the effect of reducing his plurality to about
200. Mayor Edson, however, gave him the appointment,
and he was reappointed by Mayor Hewitt. His alleged
connection with the fund of $180,000 to be used in behalf
of Hugh J. Grant, in 1884, has already been mentioned.
In 1885 he caused the nomination of the latter for Sheriff.
Mr. Grant, while in that office, according to Mr. McCann's
testimony, gave $25,000, in five presents of $5,000 each,
to Mr. Croker's two-year-old daughter Flossie. 2
1
Testimony, Senate Committee on Cities, 1890, Vol. II, pp. 1708-12.
2
1886 1897 269
Neither Mr. Croker nor Mr. Grant denied this trans-

action, though both declared the sum was $10,000 and
not $25,000. 3 Mr. Grant furthermore declared that he
gave it in consideration of Flossie being his god-child.
Mr. Croker showed the sagacity common to a long line
of Tammany chiefs in the municipal campaign of 1886.
It was a time of great excitement. The labor unions,
including the Knights of Labor, had reached the highest
point in organization and in solidarity of feeling ever
attained by them in the history of the city. Knowing
their strength, they were ripe for independent political
action, and they were rendered all the more ready for it
by the earnest social propaganda carried on at the time
by Single-Taxers, Socialists and social reformers gen-
erally.
The conviction of certain members of a union for carry-
ing on a boycott against the Thiess establishment, on
Fourteenth street, proved the one impulse needed for the
massing together of all the various clubs and unions into
one mighty movement. The convictions were believed to
be illegal, and moreover to have been fraudulently ob-
tained and Tammany was held responsible. Before
long the nucleus of an independent political party was
formed. Henry George, then at the height of his popu-
larity, was looked upon as the logical leader, and he was
asked to become the new party's candidate for Mayor.
To this request he gave an affirmative answer, contingent
upon the securing of 25,000 signatures to his nominating
petition.
Mr. Croker saw the danger, and he took immediate
steps to avert it. According to the open letter of Henry
George to Abram S. Hewitt, October 17, 1897, Mr.
Croker, in behalf of Tammany Hall and the County
Democracy, tried to buy off George by offering him a
nomination regarded as equivalent to an election.
s
Ibid, pp. 745-50, and Ibid., Vol. II, p. 1701.
George, of course, refused; the 25,000 names, or a great
part of them, were secured; a nominating convention
was held; George was formally nominated, and the
United Labor party was launched. A spirited campaign
in George's behalf was at once begun, and was responded
to by the masses with remarkable enthusiasm.
Mr. Croker was equal to the crisis. The agitation
among the masses must be met by the nomination of a
representative of the conservative interests, and a gen-
eral appeal be made for the
"
saving of society," Ac-
cordingly he chose as the
Tammany candidate the
County
Democracy's choice, Abram S. Hewitt.
The Republicans nominated Theodore Roosevelt. His
candidacy, however, was not regarded so seriously as
otherwise it might have been, for the contest narrowed
down at once to a class struggle between George and Mr.
Hewitt. Anarchy and every other social ill were prophe-
sied by the conservatives as the certain results of the
former's election, and Republicans were openly urged to
support the latter.
The result proved the keenness of Mr. Croker's fore-
sight. The vote stood: Hewitt, 90,552; George, 68,110;
Roosevelt, 60,435. Yet it would be difficult to name a
time in recent years, if the reiterated statements of repu-
table eye-witnesses are to be believed, when frauds so glar-
ing and so tremendous in the aggregate have been em-
ployed in behalf of any candidate as were committed in
behalf of Mr. Hewitt in 1886. There are few living men
among the earnest band who supported George's interests
at the polls on that election day who do not believe that
their candidate was grossly
" counted out."
Mayor Hewitt revealed an independence of character

that astonished the Wigwam. Before many months he
had antagonized its powerful leaders. By 1888 the
United Labor party had dwindled into a faction, and
there being no such compelling reason, as in 1886, for
choosing a candidate outside of the organization, the
1886 1897 271
chiefs selected one of their own number, Hugh J. Grant.

Mr. Hewitt was nominated by the County Democracy,
Joel B. Erhardt by the Republicans, and James J.
Coogan by the remnant of the United Labor party. The
vote was as follows: Grant, 114,111; Erhardt, 73,037;
Hewitt, 71,979; Coogan, 9,809. For Grover Cleveland,
whom Tammany had this time supported at the nominat-
ing convention, the city gave a plurality of 55,831, out of
a total vote of about 270,000.
One of the Tammany men elected was James A. Flack,
Grand Sachem of the society (1888-1889), who assumed
the duties of Sheriff the following January. During the
same year Flack surreptitiously and fraudulently ob-
tained a divorce in order to remarry. His wife was the
ostensible plaintiff, but it was shown that she knew noth-
ing of the suit. Flack and his accomplices were indicted
by the Grand Jury, whereupon he was tried and sentenced
to two months in the Tombs prison, and to pay a fine of
$500. The Supreme Court later affirmed the sentence.
Some others implicated also went to prison. The scandal
was such that Flack was removed from the Sheriff's office,
and was forced to resign as Grand Sachem of the soci-
ety.
Tammany was now in practically complete control,
and carried things with a high hand. Most of the de-
partments had again become inefficient and corrupt. On
March 21, 1890, the Grand Jury handed down a present-
ment stating that the Sheriff's office, which for twenty
years had been a hotbed of corruption, had recently been
"
brought into public scandal and infamy," through the
growth of notorious abuses; that in 1889 the Sheriff's net
profits had been at least $50,000, not including certain
" extra
compensations that could not be ascertained."
Many other abuses, the Grand Jury further recited, were
found to be connected with the management of this office,
and also with the conduct of the Ludlow Street Jail.
At about the same time the State Senate Committee
on Cities, headed by J. Sloat Fassett, a Republican, under-
took an investigation. Though subjected to the charges
of lukewarmness and bargaining, this body, popularly
known as the " Fassett Committee," brought out much
valuable information. Part of its testimony has already
been referred to. It is impossible even to summarize the
vast total embodied in the 3,650 printed pages of its re-
port, but some of the more interesting particulars may be
briefly touched upon.
Henry S. Ives and George H. Stayner testified that,
while prisoners at Ludlow Street Jail, they had paid, for
various favors, $10,000 to Warden James P. Keating,
then and later a prominent Tammany leader, and that
previously they had paid other large amounts to certain
4
Deputy Sheriffs.
John F. B. Smyth testified that when Sheriff Grant
had appointed him Sheriff's auctioneer the most valu-
able gift at the Sheriff's disposal the latter suggested
his having as a partner ex-Alderman Kirk (one of the
Aldermen of 1884* indicted in connection with the Broad-
5
way Surface Railroad franchise), saying that the organ-
"
ization insisted on having one-half of it [the loot] go to
somebody else." In less than a year the gross proceeds
amounted to about $20,000. Of this, $10,000 went to
various Deputy Sheriffs, one of whom was Bernard F.
Martin, frequently Sachem and another noted Tammany
6
leader.
A copious amount of similar testimony was brought
out implicating many other Tammany leaders, and show-
ing that the Sheriff's known income from the office ranged
*
Testimony, Senate Committee on Cities, 1890, Vol. I, pp. 235-52,
and Ibid., p. 300.
s Kirk had been dropped from the Council of Sachems in 1886 owing
to the disclosures.
6
"
Bernard, or Barney," Martin and two others had been indicted on
the ground of having been bribed, but the indictments were dismissed
in March, 1890, on a technicality which allowed the defendants to fall
back upon the Statute of Limitations.
1886 1897 273
from $60,000 to $75,000 a year. 7 Thomas P. Taylor, a

lawyer, swore that one of his clients in 1888 had had a
claim of about $4,000 in the Sheriff's hands, and that
William H. Clark, a Sachem and a powerful Tammany
leader, the partner of W. Bourke Cockran, and sometime
Corporation Counsel, had asked him (Taylor), "what he
would give to get it." Mr. Taylor further testified that
he had given nothing, and that he had secured only a few
hundred dollars of the amount, after much trouble. 8
Clark denied the charge. 9
Corruption, favoritism and blackmail were charged
against all the other departments controlled by Tam-
many, though in the Police and Excise departments, Re-
publican and Tammany commissioners alike were shown
to have winked at the abuses. Gambling houses had to
10
pay at least $25 a week for protection, and revenue was
likewise derived from every place or person capable of
being blackmailed. The testimony strongly pointed to
the probability that as much as $10,000 had been paid to
get a certain saloon license, though there was no absolute
verification of the statement.
One interesting fact officially brought out a fact long
generally known, however, and stated heretofore in this
work was that the Wiskinskie of the Tammany Society,
nominally a city employee, was the official agent of the
organization in collecting assessments, said to vary from
5 to 10 per cent., on the salaries of every Tammany office-
holder. In fact, Mr. Croker unhesitatingly admitted be-
fore the Fassett Committee, that at that time it cost
from $50,000 to $75,000 to run the organization success-
'
11
fully. Considerable sums were likewise derived from
assessments on candidates. Mr. Hewitt, it was said, con-
tributed $12,000 in 1886, but Mr. Croker developed a very
7
Testimony. Senate Committee on Cities, 1890, Vol. I, p. 344.
*Ibid., pp. 502-11.
9
Ibid., p. 513.
10
Ibid., Vol. II, p. 1244.
11
Testimony, Senate Committee on Cities, Vol. II, p. 1756.
poor memory when questioned about this and contribu-

tions from many Judges and other office-holders. 12
The revelations, as usual, caused the formation of a
citizens' movement, and a strong combination of Republi-
cans, Democrats and independents was formed, under the
name of the
"
People's Municipal League," for the pur-
pose of ousting Tammany. Francis M. Scott, a Demo-
crat, was nominated for Mayor, and a vigorous campaign
was waged. Tammany minimized the disclosures, and re-
nominated Mr. Grant. A Democratic tidal wave swept
the nation in the Fall of 1890, and on this wave the Tam-
many ticket was carried to victory, the local majority
being 23,199.
The effect on the society and the organization of this
victory, following so closely upon the Fassett revelations,
was to impress the Tammany men with an added sense
of security. Accordingly, by tacit understanding,
smirches made upon reputations before the Fassett Com-
mittee were to constitute no bar to political advancement,
and the old condition of things in the departments was to
continue. Many of those who had suffered most at the
hands of the Senatorial inquisitors were elected during the
next four years to places in the society and to public
offices. Irving Hall and the County Democracy passed
out of existence, and Tammany had full sway. Adminis-
trative corruption continued, and frauds at the polls,
despite certain improvements in the ballot laws instituted
in 1890, developed to a science, reaching their climax in
1893.
In 1892 Tammany fought the nomination of Mr. Cleve-
land for President, though it supported him after his
election. Thomas F. Gilroy, Grand Sachem (1892-94)
was nominated for Mayor, the Republicans presenting
Edwin Einstein. A Democratic landslide marked the
election, and the Tammany candidates won by practically
i2/&tU, pp. 1757-62.

1886 1897 275
the same majority as that given to Mr. Cleveland, Mr.

Gilroy receiving 173,510, and Mr. Einstein, 97,923 votes.
Frauds were numerous, as usual. The opposition vote in
a number of election districts was practically nothing. A
certain Tammany politician, later State Senator from 1
the lower end of town, stood in the envious wonder of his

fellows for a whole year following, for having secured for
the ticket all the votes but four in his election district.
The fame of this enterprising worker aroused a deter-
mination in the breasts of others to exceed his record.
During the next campaign (1893) the general indigna-
tion against the corrupt conduct of Judge Maynard,
brought out a strong opposition to his elevation to the
bench of the Court of Appeals. Senator Hill caused
his nomination, Tammany supported him, and the word
was passed around that he must be elected at all hazards.
As a consequence, frauds of the gravest character were
committed throughout the city. The Tammany leader
of the Second Assembly District, zealous to outdo the
record of the previous year, offered prizes to his election
district captains for the best results. The election over-
turned all known records. The successful competitor
brought in a poll of 369 to 0. In two other precincts
no opposition votes of any kind were counted, despite
the presence of Republican inspectors, and the fact that
Republicans, Socialists, Populists and Prohibitionists aft-
erward swore under oath that they had voted for their
respective candidates. The vote in this assembly district,
nominally 8,000, rose to nearly 13,000.
A committee from the Populist County Committee, the
local branch of the National People's party, immediately
took steps to secure evidence through which to effect the
13
punishment of the lawbreakers. The evidence secured,
is The
credit for instituting this prosecution has been variously, and
sometimes impudently, claimed. There is no doubt, however, that not
only the first, but the most important evidence, was furnished by this
committee, whose practical head was William A. Ellis, of the Second
Assembly District.
with that afterwards obtained by the Republican County
Committee, the City Club, the Good Government clubs,
and the Bar Association, was submitted to the Grand
Jury, upon which some sixty indictments were handed
down. A number of convictions were obtained, and sev-
eral Tammany and Tammany election
assistant officers
were sent to prison. The Tammany leader of the
Second
Assembly District went to California immediately after
the agitation began, and remained there until the affair
blew over. In the election the following year the vote of
this district fell to the old figures of
approximately 8,000.
The city had again become scandalously corrupt. The
bi-partizan boards, which originally had been established
in the hope of applying some check to the general rascal-
ity, had merely furnished greater opportunities for deals
and political bargaining. Charges of blackmail, extor-
tion, of immunity given to crime, and most other forms
of administrative venality, grew so common that again the
State Senate sent (April, 1894), a committee to the city
to investigate. This was the body commonly known as
" Lexow
the Committee," from its chairman, Clarence
Lexow. Its counsel, John W. Goff, vigorously conducted
the investigation, and the result was a mass of information
regarding Tammany methods of government such as the
public had not known since the exposures of Tweed's time.
We can but touch upon the testimony.
It was shown that during each of the years 1891, 1892
and 1893, many thousands of fraudulent ballots had been
cast by the active cooperation and connivance of the
police; Police Captains were appointed from those mem-
bers of the force who especially connived at these frauds,
the appointments being made by the President of the
Board of Police (who was one of the most conspicuous
Wigwam leaders) at the instance of the organization.
Tammany influences permeated the Police Department to
such a degree that the district leaders dictated appoint-
ments, and from Captain down almost the entire force
1886 1897 277
joined the Tammany district associations. Forced con-

tributions were levied upon the members for the benefit of
Wigwam district organizations.
Capt. Creedon confessed to paying $15,000 to secure

a promotion to a Captaincy, and Capt. Schmittberger, to
having secured the appointment of another man as Cap-
tain, in consideration of the payment of $12,000. The
average cost of obtaining an appointment as policeman
was $300. The police functionaries recouped themselves
in various ways. Vice and crime were protected openly.
One woman who kept a number of houses of ill-repute
testified that she had paid continuously for protection an
aggregate of $30,000 or more. The system reached such

a perfection in detail that a ratable charge was placed
upon each house according to the number of inmates, the
protection prices ranging from $25 to $50 monthly.
Women of the streets paid patrolmen for permission to
solicit, and divided proceeds. Visitors were robbed sys-
tematically, and the plunder was divided with the police.
More than 600 policy shops paid at the monthly rate of
$15, while pool rooms paid $300 a month. It was noted
by the committee, as a remarkable fact, that when public
agitation grew very strong, a private citizen, Richard
Croker, secured the closing of these places practically in a
single day. Every form of gambling had to pay high
prices for immunity. Green goods swindlers were required
to make monthly payments, to subdivide the city into
"
districts, and additionally, in case the victim squealed,"
to give one-half of the plunder to either ward or head-
quarters detectives. Saloons paid $20 monthly, accord-
" to the established custom." The
ing police also acted
in collusion with thieves and dishonest pawnbrokers. Al-
most every branch of trade and commerce was forced to
make monthly payments, and from every possible source
tribute was wrung.
The committee incorporated in its testimony the esti-
mate of Foreman Tabor, of the. Grand Jury, in March,
1892, that the annual income derived from blackmailing
and different sources of extortion was $7,000,000. 14 In
this estimate there were probably not included the large
sums paid by corporations of every kind, and all who
sought the favor or feared the power of Tammany Hall.
The two Democratic members of the Police Board at
this time were James J. Martin, one of the powerful dis-
trict leaders,and John C. Sheehan, who became deputy
"
boss " during Mr. Croker's absence. No direct evidence
was given to establish their complicity in the general ex-
tortion, but John McClave, the Republican Commissioner,
resigned after a searching and pointed examination.
Mr. Croker did not testify before the Lexow Committee,
urgent business demanding his presence in England
throughout the investigation.
The public was aroused as it had not been since 1871.
An earnest agitation for reform, largely due to the cru-
sade of Rev. Charles H. Parkhurst, and to the work of
the City Club and the Good Government clubs, was begun.
A Committee of Seventy, composed of representatives of
all classes, was formed to carry on a political contest, and
an enthusiastic support was given to it by the great mass
of the public throughout the campaign. William L.
Strong, a Republican and a prominent dry goods mer-
chant, was nominated by the Seventy for Mayor, and the
Republicans indorsed him. Tammany, after floundering
about for several weeks in the vain hope of securing a
candidate strong enough to stem the opposing tide, selected
at first Nathan Straus, who withdrew, and then Hugh J.
Grant, making its campaign largely on the ground that
Mr. Grant was the only unsmirched Tammany member of
the " Boodle " Board of Aldermen of 1884. The contest
was bitter and determined on both sides, Tammany putting
forth its utmost efforts to avert the inevitable disaster.
According to a statement of John C. Sheehan, the organ-
ic 1894, Vol.
Investigation of the Police Department, etc., V, p. 5734.
1886 1897 279
ization expended more money in this election than in any

election in recent years.
The convictions of the previous year had served to
cool the zeal of the Tammany workers for records at
the polls. In consequence of this, and of further changes
in the manner of ballpting, New YorK enjoyed probably
the most fairly conducted election of any since the first
organized effort of Tammany men at the polls in 1800.
Strong was elected by a majority of 45,187. With his
election went nearly the whole of the city patronage,
changes in the new constitution (1894) having greatly
centralized the city'sadministrative functions in the
Mayor's hands. Tammany was thus thrust out again.
Mayor Strong's administration on the whole was bene-
ficial. The city budget went up to nearly $44,000,000,
but for the first time since Mayor Havemeyer's time the
streets were kept clean a result due to the systematic
energy of Col. George E. Waring, Jr. Moreover, new
schools were built, new parks laid out, streets asphalted,
improvements planned and carried out, while administra-
tive corruption was almost unheard of. Not the least of
the benefits of this administration was the partial reform
of the Police Department, through the efforts of Police
Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt, and his fellow Com-
missioners, Avery D. Andrews, Andrew D. Parker and
Frank Moss.
In the mean time Richard Croker spent most of his
time in England. From being a comparatively poor
man, as he testified in 1890, he became suddenly rich.
From April, 1889, to February, 1890, he was City Cham-
berlain, at a salary of $25,000 a year, but thereafter he
held no public office. Within two years, however, he was
able, according to common report, to buy an interest in
the Belle Meade stock farm for $250,000, paying addi-
tionally $109,000 for Longstreet and other race horses.
Later, he built a new house, said to cost over $200,000,
and lavishly spent money, and displayed the evidences of
wealth in other ways.
When in the city he was, for a considerable number of
years, in the real estate business. He is popularly
credited with having been interested in the passage and
development of certain extremely valuable franchises
which were obtained from the Legislature and Board of
Aldermen for almost nothing. In 1892 he was reputed
to dominate the Legislature, as he did the city, and the
lobby disappeared. It was related at the time that all
applicants for favors or for relief from hostile measures
were advised " to see headquarters."
One of the franchises granted during that year was the
"
Huckleberry franchise," for a street railway in the
Annexed District a grant which was worth at the time
fully $2,000,000, and yet was practically given away
under circumstances of great scandal. 15 When testifying
before the Mazet Committee in 1899, he was asked whether
he had owned, in 1892, 800 shares of the stock of this
16
road, but declined to state. Another illustration of
Mr. Croker's alleged diversified interests was furnished by
a statement said to have been inspired by John C. Sheehan
and published on December 23, 1900. Mr. Sheehan as-
serted that in 1894 he and Mr. Croker were interested in
a company formed with a capital of $5,000,000 for the
construction of the rapid transit tunnel. Mr. Sheehan,
the statement read, forced through the Board of Aldermen
a resolution approving the tunnel route which he and Mr.
Croker had selected as the most feasible. The statement
further set forth that Mr. Croker had $500,000 worth of
this company's stock, which came to him gratuitously, and
that he and Mr. Sheehan had been also mutually inter-
ested in a proposed surety company.
As chairman of the finance committee of Tammany
is See A History of Public Franchises in New York City, by the
author,
is
Stenographic minutes, p. 699.
1886 1897
Hall (a post Tweed and Kelly had held, and which carried
with it the titular leadership of the organization), all the
vast funds contributed for Tammany's many campaigns
passed through his hands. As he himself testified, the
17
finance committee kept no books.
Whether Mr. Croker was at home or far abroad, his
control of the Wigwam was absolute. Long since, he
had inaugurated the system of " turning down any man
"
that disobeyed orders.
At the time of Mr. Bryan's nomination, in 1896, Mr.
Croker was in England. His three years' racing ex-
perience there cost him, it was reported, between $600,-
000 and $700,000. He remained abroad, leaving the
organization, as we have mentioned, in charge of John
C. Sheehan as a kind of vicegerent. Mr. Sheehan's pub-
lic record in Buffalo had been severely criticized, and
many organization men had protested against his being

put in charge. This protest, however, was generally un-
derstood at the time to be founded not so much on the
matter of Mr. Sheehan's record as on that of his being an
interloper from another section of the State. Tammany
that year ignored the national Democratic platform.
Though ratifying Mr. Bryan's nomination, a general
apathy prevailed at the Wigwam throughout the cam-
paign, and the more radical Democrats repeatedly charged
the leaders with treachery to the ticket. The result of
this apathy and of other influences was that Mr. Mc-
Kinley carried the city by over 20,000 plurality.
Mr. Croker finally returned home in September, 1897,
shortly before the meeting of the Democratic city con-
vention. It was commonly believed that Mr. Sheehan,
the deputy " boss," had made preparations to assume the
" "
boss-ship himself, but Mr. Sheehan emphatically
IT
Testimony, Senate Committee on Cities, 1890, Vol. II, p. 1755.
Mr. Sheehan in the statement cited stated that when, in 1894, Mr.
Croker sent an order to the district leaders requiring that district as-
sessments amounting to $35,000 should be paid before March 1, the
payments were promptly made.
denied this. Whatever the circumstances were Mr.
Croker promptly deprived the former of power, and later
succeeded in practically excluding him from the organi-
zation.
The " Boss's " supreme control of city politics was
illustrated by the nomination for Mayor of Greater New
York of Robert C. Van Wyck, who was in no sense the
organization's candidate, represented merely Mr.
but
Croker's choice and dictation. The Citizens' Union
nominated Seth Low, who probably would have been
elected had the Republicans indorsed him. But the latter
nominated Benjamin F. Tracy, thus dividing the opposi-
tion, which was still further disintegrated by the action
of the Jeffersonian Democrats in nominating Henry
George, and later Henry George, Jr., upon the noted
economist dying in the heat of the campaign. The can-
vass was carried on with the greatest vigor, for under the
Greater New York charter all the territory now embraced
in the city limits was to vote for one Mayor, with a four-
years' term, and almost dictatorial power in the matter of

appointments and removals. In his statement, heretofore
referred to, Mr. Sheehan asserted that during this cam-
paign he personally collected and turned over to John
18
McQuade, the treasurer of Tammany Hall, the sum of
$260,000, irrespective of contributions collected by others,
and that at the end of the canvass Mr. McQuade had
19
$50,000 in the treasury.
The- vote stood: Van Wyck, 233,997; Low, 151,540;
Tracy, 101,863; George, 21,693; scattering, 17,464.
The Wigwam was beside itself with joy; the victory
is Mr.
McQuade was associated with Tweed, as a commissioner, in
the building of the Harlem Court House. The testimony brought out
in the case of Henry A. Smalley vs. The Mayor, etc., before Judge
Donohue, in the Supreme Court, January 28, 1878, showed that the
value of all the material used in the building was $66,386, but that
the Finance Department had paid out for this material $268,580.
19
Early in 1898 Tammany Hall, with considerable display, disposed
of most of thisr fund, by giving $20,000 for the poor of the city arid a
like sum for the Cuban cause.
1886 1897 283
meant absolute control of the greater city's annual budget

of over $90,000,000, not to speak of the tens of millions
more derived from rents, fees, fines, interest, assessments
for street improvements, bond sales and premiums, and
from those vast and varied sources of contract juggling,
"
selling of legislative goods," and all the other avenues,
too numerous to enumerate, of which Tammany from early
times has availed itself. It also meant the control of an
army of employees, now estimated at 60,000. The dis-
reputable classes vociferously celebrated the occasion, as-
" wide
sured that the town was once more to be open."
CHAPTER XXIX
THE DICTATORSHIP OF RICHARD CROKER (Concluded)
1897-1901
that Tammany was reinstalled in almost abso-
NOW lute power, Mr. Croker

set about choosing the im-
portant city officials to be appointed by the
Mayor. He frankly admitted before the Mazet Commit-
tee, in 1899, that practically all of them were selected by
him or his immediate associates. Requiring a routine
assistant in the work of
"
bossing," Mr. Croker selected
John F. Carroll, who thereupon resigned the office of
Clerk of the Court of General Sessions, which yielded, it
was estimated, about $12,000 a year, to take a post with
no apparent salary. Mr. Croker then returned to horse-
racing in England.
The public pronouncements of the organization con-
tinued to voice the old-time characteristic pretensions of
that body's frugality, honesty and submission to the popu-
lar will. In October, 1898, the county convention in the
"
Wigwam passed resolutions commending the wise, hon-
est and economical "
Tammany administration of Greater
New York, and denouncing the " corruption, extrava-
"
gance and waste of the infamous mismanagement by the
previous reform administration. Yet at this very mo-
ment the Bar Association was protesting against Mr.
Croker's refusal to renominate Judge Joseph F. Daly, 1
i Tweed 1877 that Joseph F. Daly, with two others, con-
testified in
stituted the solemembership of the "Citizens' Association" of 1870,
and that he had placated the three men by giving them offices, Mr.
Daly securing a Judgeship of the Court of Common Pleas.
284
1897 1901 285
on the ground of his refusing to hand over the patronage

of his court. The convention despite its fine words,
itself,
acted merely as the register of the will of one man, with
scarcely the formality of a contest; and the public had
again become agitated over the certainty of grave scandals
in the public service.
Tammany's election fund this year was generally re-

puted to be in the neighborhood of $100,000. As much
as $500 was spent in each of several hotly contested elec-
tion districts. Tammany won, but by a margin less than
had been expected and, in fact, arranged for. The State
Superintendent of Elections, John McCullough, in his an-
nual report (January, 1899) to Gov. Roosevelt, gave
good grounds for believing that Tammany had been de-
prived of a large support on which it had counted. Of
13,104* persons registered from specified lodging houses
in certain strong Tammany districts, only 4,034 voted.
It was evident that colonization frauds on a large scale
had been attempted, and had been frustrated only by the
vigilance of Superintendent McCullough.
The state of administrative affairs in the city grew
worse and worse, nearly approximating that of 189394.
The Legislature again determined to investigate, and
accordingly sent to the city the special committee of the
" Mazet Committee."
Assembly, popularly known as the
This body's prestige suffered from the charge that its in-
vestigation was unduly partizan. Moreover, it was gen-
erally felt by the public that its work was inefficiently car-
ried on. Nevertheless, it produced a considerable array
of facts showing the existence of gross maladministration.
It was disclosed that every member of the Tammany
Society or of the organization's executive committee, held
office, or was a favored contractor. Over $700,000 of
city orders went to favored contractors without bidding.
Various city departments were " characterized by un-
paralleled ignorance and unfairness." The payrolls in
some of the most important departments had increased
$1,500,000 between July 1, 1898, and September 1, 1899,
and the employees had increased over 1,000, excluding
policemen, firemen and teachers. The testimony proved
the increasing inefficiency and demoralization of the Police
and Fire Departments. It further proved the existence
of a ramified system of corruption similar to that revealed
by the Lexow Committee.
The disclosures attracting the greatest public attention
were those relating to the Ice Trust, the Ramapo project,
and Mr. Croker's relations to the city government. On
April 14 the committee exposed a conspiracy between the
Ice Trust and the Dock and other departments of the city
government, to create and maintain a monopoly of New
York's ice supply. Six days after the exposure, Mayor
Van Wyck, as he subsequently admitted in his testimony
before Judge Gaynor, acquired 5,000 shares, worth $500,-
000, of the Ice Trust stock, alleging that he paid $57,000
in cash for them; but although urged to substantiate his
statement, did not produce proof that he actually paid
anything. It was shown conclusively before the commit-
tee that the arrangement between the Ice Trust and the
city officials was such as to compel the people to pay 60
cents a hundred pounds, and that the trust had stopped
the sale of five-cent pieces of ice, practically cutting off
the supply of the very poor. Many other Tammany offi-
cials were equally involved. Proceedings were begun some
time after, looking to an official investigation of the Ice
Trust's affairs, and charges against Mayor Van Wyck
were filed with Gov. Roosevelt. The latter were finally
dismissed by the Governor in November, 1900.
In August, the committee uncovered the Ramapo
scheme. The Ramapo Water Company, with assets " of
at least the value of $5,000," sought to foist upon the
city a contract calling for payment from the city treas-
ury of an enormous amount in annual installments of
about $5,110,000, in return for at least 200,000,000 gal-
lons of water a day, at $70 per million gallons. This was
1897 1901 287
proved to be an attempt toward a most gigantic swindle.

Had not Controller Coler exposed and frustrated the
scheme, the Tammany members of the Board of Public
Improvements would have rushed the contract to pas-
sage.
Mr. Croker's testimony threw a flood of light upon his
and standards as well as his powers and
political views
emoluments as " boss." He acknowledged that he had a
powerful influence over the Tammany legislators at Al-
bany, whose actions he advised, and that he exercised the
same influence upon local officials. He readily conceded
that he was the most powerful man he knew of. 2 " We
try to have a pretty effective organization," he said;
" that is what we are there for." 3
Mr. Croker also admitted that judicial candidates were
assessed in their districts. 4 In fact, some of the Judges
themselves named the respective sums to the committee.
Judge Pryor testified that he had been asked for $10,000
for his nomination for a vacant half-term in the Supreme
Court. 5 Other judicial candidates, it was understood,
6
paid from $10,000 to $25,000 for nominations. Mr.
Croker maintained that the organization was entitled to
all the judicial, executive, administrative in brief, all
offices because " that is what the people voted our ticket
for." 7 Mr. Croker refused to answer many questions
tending to show that he profited by a silent partnership
in many companies which benefited directly or indirectly
" The man who is virtual
by his power. ruler of the
city," said Frank Moss and Francis E. Laimbeer, counsel
to the committee, in their report, " can insure peace and
advantage and business to any concern that takes him and
his friends in, and can secure capital here or abroad to
float any enterprise, when he guarantees that the city offi-
cials will not interfere with it." Mr. Croker was asked
2
s
Ibid., p. 465. 4 5
ibid., p. 6806. Ibid., p. 523,
T
Ibid., pp. 6891, etc. Ibid., p. 464.
many other questions touching this subject, but gave little

information. He declined to answer the question whether
$140,000 of the stock of the Auto-Truck Company had
been given to him without the payment of a dollar ; it was
" 8
his private affair."
" Weare giving the people pure organization govern-
ment," he said. He referred to the thoroughness of dis-
cipline in the Wigwam, and stated that the only way to
succeed was to keep the whip in hand over his henchmen.
" a lot of " had to work
It took time," and he very hard
at it." Tammany was built up, he said, not only upon
the political principles it held, but upon the way its mem-
bers sustained one another in business. "
We want the
whole business, if we can get it ; " " to the party belong
"
the spoils ; " we win, and we expect every one to stand
us " " I am
by ; working for my pocket all the time," were
some of Mr. Croker's answers, most of them told in any-
thing but grammatical English.
The general opinion obtained that the committee's work
would have been far more effective and free from charges
of partizan bias if Thomas C. Platt, the Republican
"
boss," had been summoned concerning his alleged politi-
cal connection with the great corporations and financial
interests, as Mr. Croker had been.
Apparently the disclosures made no deep impression on
the city administration, for matters went along pretty
much as before. On March 9, 1900, the New York Times
published a detailed statement, which it later reiterated,
that the sum of $3,095,000 a year was being paid by the
"
gambling-house keepers of the city to the gambling-
house commission," which, it said, was composed of two
State Senators, a representative of the pool-room pro-
.
prietors, and the head of one of the city departments.

This commission, the account stated, received and passed
upon applications, established the tariff to be paid by the
8
1897 1901 289
applicants, and supervised the collections. Later, in the

same month, the Grand Jury handed down a presentment
arraigning the city officials for the sway enjoyed by the
criminal and vicious classes. 9
Neither the Grand Jury's presentment nor the Times 's
detailed statements had the slightest effect on the con-
duct of the city administration. In November, however,
a marked change occurred. For several years certain
reform societies and ecclesiastical bodies, particularly the
Episcopal Church, had sought to mitigate the open flaunt-
ing of immorality in the tenement houses of a particular
police district on the East Side. The attempts had been
resisted, not only by those living upon the proceeds of this
immorality, but by the police themselves and two minis-
;
ters who had complained to certain police officials had been

grossly insulted.
Immediately after the Presidential election, Bishop
Henry C. Potter, of the Episcopal Church, in a stinging
letter of complaint, brought the matter to the attention
of Mayor Van Wyck. It was the psychologic moment
for such an action, and it produced immediate results.
Mr. Croker paused in his preparations for his usual trip
to England long enough to give orders to put down the
immorality complained of, and he appointed a committee
of five to carry his mandate into effect, or at least to make
some satisfactory show of doing so. He went further
than this, for his orders included a general ukase to the
lawbreakers of the city to " go slow," or in other words,
to observe, until further advices from
headquarters, a
certain degree of moderation in their infractions of law
and their outrages upon decency.
On December 22, 1900, Gov. Roosevelt removed Asa Bird Gardi-

ner, the Tammany District Attorney, who was popularly credited with
having originated the phrase, "To hell with reform," for having en-
couraged the turbulent element to open resistance of the law at the
election. Eugene A. Philbin, an independent Democrat, was ap-
pointed his successor. The latter promptly demanded the resignations
of many of Mr. Gardiner's assistants. Before his election Gardiner
had long been chairman of the Tammany Hall Legal Committee.
CHAPTER XXX
TAMMANY UNDER ABSENTEE DIRECTION
1901-1902
the municipal campaign of 1901 the anti-Tammany

forces combinedupon the nomination of Seth Low, a
IN Mayor, and upon the nominations of
Republican, for
various other candidates for city offices. Tammany's
candidate for Mayor was Edward M. Shepard. Both
Mr. Low and Mr. Shepard were acclaimed by their re-
spective supporters as men of standing, prestige and pub-
lic character. Mr. Low was a man of wealth who had
become president of Columbia University. Mr. Shepard
was a lawyer of note, although some critics pointed out
that his practise was that of a corporation attorney,
serving the great vested interests. It may be remarked
that Mr. Shepard was a son of the brilliant Lorenzo B.
Shepard, who, as stated in Chapter XVI of this work,
became a leader of Tammany Hall at so early an age and
was chosen Grand Sachem of the Tammany Society.
The scandals of Mayor Van Wyck's
administration were
conspicuous issues of the campaign of 1901. But there
were two particularly noteworthy features pressed by the
reformers in their indictment of Tammany. One of these
issues, which made so deep an impression upon the public
mind, especially in the densely populous East Side of New
York City, was the flagrant immorality under which young
girls of the tenderest age were often decoyed into lives of
shame. The question thus presented was neither that of
" " nor that of how
the suppression of vice people could
be made virtuous by mandate of law. The question, as
290
1901 1902 291
put to voters, was whether a system under which a cor-

rupt, money-making combination of vicious lawbreakers
with police and other officials should be allowed to continue
an abhorrent traffic.
A widely-circulated pamphlet published by the City
Club for the Women's Municipal League presented a
series of facts as attested by court records, the statements
of City Magistrates, the Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Children and others, and as reported by the
Committee of Fifteen, composed of reformers, probing
into the question. The pamphlet declared that the facts
justified the conclusion that the business of ruining young
girls and forcing them into a life of shame, for the money
there was in it for the dealers, had recently grown to
considerable proportions ; that its existence was known to
the police ; that the police made little or no effort to stop
it; that the police, or those for whom they acted, probably
derived profit from the traffic; and that a reasonably
active and efficient Police Department could stop the traffic
of a deliberate merchandizing of the virtue of women,
usually young girls. Details were given of numerous
cases which had been passed upon in the courts, and a
long description of the traffic was included from a state-
ment made on October 21, 1901, by District Attorney
Eugene A. Philbin of New York County.
1
Justice William Travers Jerome, of the Court of Spe-

cial Sessions, had already made a similar statement. He
was quoted in the New York Times, of June 27, 1901, as
saying:
"
People are simply ignorant of conditions on the East Side [of
New York City]. If those conditions existed in some other com-
munities there would be a Vigilance Committee speedily organized,
and somebody would get lynched. The continued greed and extor-
tion of the Police Captains who charge five hundred dollars for a
disorderly resort to open in their precinct, and then collect fifty to a
hundred [dollars] per month, has, however, made even vice unprofit-
for New York Parents, etc., Published for the Women's

i Facts
Municipal League by the City Club of New York, October, 1901.

able. Details, I know, are revolting and not nice to read, but yet
the people ought to know about them. Just yesterday I sentenced
to six months in the penitentiary the keepers of one of the most de-
praved houses of the East Side. I firmly believe that they were
merely the agents of the man who owns not one but many of such
places. He is well known as a politician in a certain notorious dis-
trict.
"
That house is but one of hundreds within a radius of one mile of
this building [the Criminal Court House] where criminals are some-
times brought to justice. I will stake my reputation that there are
scores within less than that distance trorn here in which there are an
average of ten or twelve children from thirteen to eighteen years
old." 2
Nominated for District Attorney of New York County

by the anti-Tammany forces, Mr. Jerome's speeches on
these existing conditions made a keen impression and ex-
cited the deepest feeling, especially among the people of
the East Side. Intricate questions of taxation and arrays
of figures proving an exorbitant budget and the waste of
public funds could not make the same appeal to their in-
dignation as the portrayal of conditions menacing their
home life and polluting their environment. The facts
thus spread forth caused the most intense resentment
against Tammany.
In reply Tammany Hall sought to represent that the
traffic thus described was largely mythical and that at
all events it was greatly exaggerated. It was no fiction,
however, nor was police connivance and corruption a fic-
tion, either. So far as the open flaunting of vicious con-
ditions was concerned, Tammany Hall had itself been
forced to 'recognize them; as a concession to public opinion
Mr. Croker had, in November, 1900, appointed an Anti-
Vice Committee with orders to investigate vice conditions
and " clean up " the " Red Light " district. To impart a
tone of good faith to the work of this committee, he had
appointed Lewis Nixon, a naval academy graduate and a
ship builder, its chairman. It was generally understood
that this committee had been created as a clever campaign
move to offset in the public mind the growing indignation
2 Ibid.
1901 1902 293
against Tammany, many of the leaders of which, it was

notorious, had profited richly from the system of police
" " of vice.
protection
" "
In respect to the white slave traffic, however, it must
be said, in justice to Tammany, that the factors attributed
were not the only ones responsible, and such a traffic was
far from being confined to New York City it went on in
;
other cities under Republican and Reform as well as

Democratic rule. This was conclusively shown later by
the necessity of the passage of a law passed by Congress
aimed at the traffic (a law subsequently diverted some-
what from its original purpose), and by official investiga-
tions and court proceedings. The large number of prose-
cutions in the Federal courts under that law showed the
widespread character of the traffic.
Another important issue of the municipal campaign of
1901 was the scandal growing out of the charges that
William C. Whitney, Thomas F. Ryan, W. L. Elkins,
P. A. B. Widener, Thomas Dolan and associates had
looted the stockholders of the Metropolitan Street Rail-
way Company of New York City of tens of millions of
dollars. Whitney and Ryan were credited with being
the chief financial powers long controlling
" Boss "
among
Croker ; and by means of his control of Tammany Hall,
and in turn New York City, securing franchises, privi-
leges and rights of enormous value. This control was
often equally true of the New York State legislature;
subsequent developments, in fact, revealed that in years
when the Legislature was dominantly Republican and
therefore could not be ordered by Mr. Croker, both Re-
publican and Democratic legislators were corrupted by
the Metropolitan Street Railway Company, or by agents
acting for it.
According to Mr. W. N. Amory, who was thoroughly
3
familiar with the affairs of the Metropolitan Street Rail-

3 From 1895 to 1900 Mr.
Amory was connected in an official capacity
with the Third Avenue Railway Company.
way Company, "and who exposed its looting, Mr. Jerome

knew, in
1901, that the conduct of Metropolitan affairs
was corrupt. We had on numerous occasions discussed
that point."
Mr. Jerome made profuse public promises that if he
were elected District Attorney he would press investiga-
" Let me tell
tion. you," he said at the conclusion of a
" that if I am elected I shall
speech on October 26, 1901,
make it my business to follow the trail of wrongdoing and
corruption not only when they lead into tenement houses,
but I shall follow them even if they lead into the office of
the Metropolitan Street Railway Company." Mr. Jerome
added :
" No one knows better than I do that when I am
attacking the Metropolitan Street Railway Company, I

am arraying myself against the most dangerous, the most
vindictive and the most powerful influences at work in this
4
community."
Mr. Jerome's denunciations and promises aroused great
enthusiasm and large expectations they had much effect
;
in contributing to the result of the campaign, for it was
popularly realized that while Tammany leaders accumu-

lated their millions of dollars, yet back of these leaders,
and secretly operating through them, were magnates of
great financial power with their tens or hundreds of mil-
lions of dollars acquired largely by means of financial and
industrial power conferred by legislation, permissory or
statute, of various kinds. The electorate well knew that
comparatively small grafters were numerous, but now it
had the promise that the large spoliators, hitherto im-
mune, would be exposed and prosecuted, if possible.
The result of the* election was that Mr. Low was elected
1
Mayor by a plurality of 31,636. Nearly all of the

other anti-Tammany candidates for the large offices were
also elected, although Tammany's candidate for the Bor-
ough of the Bronx Louis F. Haffen was successful.
*
Report of speech in the New York Herald, October 27, 1901.
1901 1902 295
The total vote stood :

Low, 296,813 Shepard, 265,177.
;
For other political parties a small vote was cast: Benja-

min Hanford, candidate for Mayor of the Social Demo-
cratic party, received 9,834? votes ; Keinard, Socialist
Labor candidate for Mayor, polled 6,213 votes, and
Manierre, Prohibition candidate for Mayor, 1,264 votes.
That of a total vote of 561,990 votes cast for the two
chief opposing candidates, Tammany and its allied or-
ganizations should have polled 265,177 votes, showed
Tammany Hall's enormous strength, even in the face of
a combination of opponents, with all the strength of
definite issues obviously putting Tammany on the de-
fensive.
Realizing that the attacks upon him personally as the

" boss " of
Tammany Hall and of the city had been suc-
cessful in a political sense, Mr. Croker wisely concluded,
immediately after this defeat, to obscure himself and give
an appearance of retiring from active participation in
the affairs of Tammany Hall. Conscious, too, of the
public discredit attaching to Tammany methods and Tam-
many leaders, he saw that the time had come to inject
some show of an element of respectability and reform into
Tammany Hall. He now underwent the formalities of
an " abdication."
On January 13, 1902, the astonishing news was made
public that he had selected Lewis Nixon as his successor
as the leader of Tammany Hall. Mr. Nixon, at this time,
was forty-one years old hailing from Leesburg, Virginia,
;
he had been graduated from the United States Naval

Academy, and had become a naval constructor, later own-
ing his own naval ship plant at Elizabeth, New Jersey.
He was also connected with a number of private corpora-
tions. In 1898 he had been appointed by Mayor Van
Wyck East River Bridge
to the office of President of the
Commission, and in 1900-1901 had acted, as we have seen,
as Chairman of Mr. Croker's Anti-Vice Committee.
When the educated Mr. Nixon assumed what he styled
the leadership of Tammany Hall, not only seasoned poli-
ticians of all grades but also the sophisticated smiled
skeptically. Tammany district leaders maintained in pub-
lic an air ofprofound gravity and obedient acquiescence
which caused general amusement. And when Mr. Nixon
solemnly discussed his plans for the improvement of Tam-
many Hall, he was popularly regarded as an innocent.
Even when Mr. Croker, as an apparent token of good
faith,made Mr. Nixon chairman of the Tammany Finance
Committee, few considered his appointment seriously ; he
was dubbed " the
generally phantom leader." Having
attended to Mr. Nixon's installation, Mr. Croker sailed
abroad to his estate at Wantage; to all nominal appear-
ances he had severed himself from Tammany politics.
This comedy lasted but a few months. On May 14,
1902, Mr. Nixon sent his resignation as leader to the
Tammany Hall Executive Committee. He accompanied
his resignation with a speech in which he declared that
since he had become chairman of the Tammany Hall Fi-
nance Committee, he had found himself so hampered by a
"kitchen cabinet" headed by Andrew Freedman (Mr.
Croker's business partner) and by the continued inter-
ference of the absent Mr. Croker, that he could no longer
lead Tammany Hall and retain his self-respect in the cir-
cumstances.
"
Every important act of mine," Mr. Nixon announced,
" has been cabled to
England before it became effective.
Mr. Freedman and his party interfered with me at every
turn, and at last sought to dictate to me whom I ought to
place on the Board of Sachems.
" Then a
cablegram came from Wantage [Mr. Croker's
estate] direct to me to place certain men on the Board of
Sachems, and when I rebelled I found that at every turn
I would be opposed by this coterie of interferers.
" I found that
nearly all my important acts had to be
vised before they became effective. Many of the district
1901 1902
leaders would accept my orders, but before carrying them

5
out, they would get advice from Mr. Croker."
With this announcement Mr. Nixon vanished from the
scene of Tammany politics.
As a matter
of fact, certain Tammany district leaders
were already planning to bring about a change of actual
leadership.
On May 22, 1902, the Executive Committee of Tam-
many Hall took steps which tended to sever the relation
that Mr. Crocker retained with the organization. It voted
to recommend the abolition of the Sub-Committee on Fi-
nance which had always been presided over by the various
" bosses " of
Tammany Hall, thus eliminating from the
chairmanship of that committee Andrew Freedman, who
was the representative and mouthpiece of the absentee
Mr. Croker.
At the same time the Executive Committee chose a
triumvirate of leaders to guide the organization. The
regency of three thus selected were Charles F. Murphy,
Daniel F. McMahon and Louis F. Haffen. All three,
of course, were Tammany district leaders. Mr. Murphy's
career is described hereafter. Mr. McMahon was chair-
man Tammany's Executive Committee and head of the
of
contracting firm of Naughton & Company. It was this
company that made a fortune from the contract for

changing the motive power of the Third Avenue Railway,
regarding which there was so much scandal. With noth-
"
ing more than powerful political pull," this concern
obtained large contracts. It was charged by John C*
Sheehan that Richard Croker secured 50 per cent of the
profits of this company, and that he pocketed $1,500,000
from this source ; this assertion, however, depended merely
upon Mr. Sheehan's word; it was not established in any
official investigation. The third member of the trium-
5This speech was published in the New York Sun and other news-
papers on the following day.
virate, Mr. Haffen, was now president of the Borough of
the Bronx.
But not last long. On September
this triumvirate did
19, 1902, it was
effaced, and Charles F. Murphy became
the boss of Tammany. This action was taken at a meet-
ing of the Executive Committee. At this meeting former
Chief of Police Devery, holding that he had been elected
at the primaries, tried to have himself recognized as a dis-
trict leader, but his claims were speedily disposed of and
he was shut out. Mr. Haffen handed in this resolution:
"Whereas, the experiment of the Committee of Three having

proved the desirability of individual responsibility in leadership,
"
Resolved, That the powers and duties heretofore exercised and
performed by the Committee of Three be hereafter exercised and
performed by Charles F. Murphy."
Nine Tammany district leaders, headed by John F.

Carroll, who evidently aimed at power himself, opposed
the resolution, but twenty-seven other district leaders
voted it through. One of the leaders immediately sent a
cablegram to Mr. Croker announcing the result. Now
that Mr. Murphy was chosen leader, he also became the
treasurer of Tammany Hall.
CHAPTER XXXI
1902-190S
FRANCIS MURPHY, supreme leader of

the Tammany organization from 1902 to this pres-
CHARLES ent writing, was born in New York City on June
20, 1858. He was a son of Dennis Murphy, an Irishman
whose eight children all were born in the same district in
New York City, and all of whom obtained the rudiments
at least of a public school education. Dennis Murphy,
it may be here said, lived to the remarkably hale age of
eighty-eight years, dying in 1902.

As a youth, " Charlie " Murphy worked in an East
Side shipyard, by no means a genteel schooling for a
boy, although affording a forceful kind of experience of
much value in his later career. Having to fight his way
among rough youths, he developed both physical prowess
and a sort of domineering ascendency which gave him
marked leadership qualities among the virile youths over-
running what was then a district noted for its gangs. It
was a section of the city filled with vacant lots and was
" Gas House District " here it was
long called the ; that
the notorious " Gas House Gang " achieved local reputa-
tion.
Tradition has that when a very young man " Charlie "
it
Murphy organized the Sylvan Social Club, a species of

Tammany Hall juvenile auxiliary, composed of boys and
youths ranging from fifteen to twenty years of age of
whom he became the recognized leader. Later, through
political influence, he obtained a job as driver on a cross-
299
town horse car line. In his later career his enemies in-
vidiously related how jobs of that kind were much cov-
eted at the time because of the fact that as there were
no bell punches or car fare registers, the conductors could
easily help themselves to a proportion of the fares and
divide with the drivers. Tru'e, this practise was preva-
lent, but the implication thus cast upon Mr. Murphy has
been simply a gratuitous one, lacking even the elements
of proof; it can therefore be dismissed from considera-
tion.
He was a manly youth noted for his filial care, a
solicitousson, turning in most of his earnings to his
mother; he was, in fact, the main support of the family.
At the same time he put by enough money said to have
been $500 to establish himself in the saloon business.
In 1879 he became owner of a diminutive saloon on
Nineteenth street, east 'of Avenue A. Four years later,
he opened another saloon, larger and better equipped than
the first, at the corner of Twenty-third street and Avenue
A. He was already a pushful, resourceful Tammany
worker in his district, in which he was a district captain.
Of the underground methods and diversified influences of
district politics he had a good knowledge, and no less so
the application of campaign funds in the most effective
ways for producing votes. Shortly before 1886, Mr.
Murphy opened another saloon, this time at Nineteenth
street and First avenue. Subsequently he opened still
another saloon at Twentieth street and Second avenue,
which was the headquarters of the Anawanda Club, the
Tammany district organization. Selling out the original
saloon in which he had started business, he now opened a
saloon at the northwest corner of First avenue and
Twenty-third street. By 1890 he was the owner of four
prosperous saloons. It was said of him that he never tol-
erated a woman in his saloons, although all of his saloons
were situated in a district where the admission of women
was a commonplace.
1902 1903 301
In 1892, at the age of thirty-two years, he was chosen

"
Tammany leader of the Gas-House " district. He was
popular with the generality of people there; however re-
served was his talk, he was always credited with being
generous with his cash no poor person was turned away
;
empty-handed. It was narrated of him that during the

blizzard of 1888 the Tammany General Committee, at his
prompting, voted $4,000 for the relief of the poor, and
that a large part of it came from Mr. Murphy's own
pocket. Of the $4,000, the sum of $1,500 was given to
the Rev. Dr. Rainsford's mission for distribution. Such
personal acts of human warmth (irrespective of motive)
counted more with masses of voters than tons of formal
polemics on civic virtue, nor did the recipients care as
to what source the funds came from. Even Dr. Rains-
ford was so impressed that he was moved to say from the
pulpit of St. George's Church that if all the Tammany
leaders were like the leader of the Eighteenth Assembly
District (Mr. Murphy), Tammany would be an admirable
organization.
As a district leader, Mr. Murphy carried on politics
and saloons systematically as a combined business. One
of his brothers had long been on the police force another
;
brother was an Alderman; still another brother became

an Alderman and Councilman.
When Mr. Van Wyck was elected Mayor, Charles F.
Murphy was appointed a Dock Commissioner. Report
had it that when he went into the Dock Board Mr. Murphy
" was worth "
perhaps $400,000, accumulated in the sa-
loon business and politics in eighteen years. He had long
been known as " Silent Charlie." Within a few years
after his appointment as Dock Commissioner, his fortune,
it was said, reached at least $1,000,000. When he be-
came Dock Commissioner, Mr. Murphy nominally assigned
a brother and three old friends.
his four saloons to
Before leaving the office of Dock Commissioner, John
J. Murphy (Charles F. Murphy's brother), James E.
Gaffney and Richard J. Crouch (one of Charles F. Mur-
phy's political district lieutenants) had incorporated the
*New York Contracting and Trucking Company. Gaffney
was an Alderman. These three men were credited with
holding only five shares each of the hundred shares of the
company; just who held the remaining eighty-five shares
has never been definitely explained. When quizzed later
by a legislative committee, Charles F. Murphy denied that
he had any ownership or financial interest in the New
York Contracting and Trucking Company, and no rec-
ords could be found proving that he did have any in-
terest.
One of the transactions of this company was as follows:
In July, 1901, the company leased a dock at West Ninety-
sixth Street, and it leased another dock at East Seventy-
ninth Street, paying the city a total rent of $4,800 a year
for the two properties. It would appear from a report
subsequently made by Commissioner of Accounts William
Hepburn Russell to Mayor Low that the average profit
from the two dock properties was $200 a day, making a
rate of 5,000 per cent, on the investment. This par-
ticular transaction of the New York Contracting and
Trucking Company, lucrative as it was, nevertheless was
modest compared to the company's subsequent transac-
tions which we shall duly describe.
Certainly by the year 1902, Mr. Murphy showed the
most visible evidences of some sizable degree of wealth;
he acquired a suburban estate at Good Ground, Long
Island, owning, too, in time, among other possessions de-
noting wealth, a string of automobiles.
This millionaire leader of Tammany Hall was by no
means an unpleasant man to meet. He had a certain
diffidence and he was not a good talker; his old. habit
was too strongly fixed. Phys-
of attentively listening
deep voice and direct, concise manner
ically strong, his
when he did speak were impressive and always concen-
trated on the business at hand. He had none of the
1902 1903 303
ordinary vices ; he drank liquor occasionally, it was true,

but his drinks were sparse and the times far separated.
In smoking he did not indulge, neither did he swear, nor
gamble at cards, although he was not a stranger to stock
market speculations. A communicant of the Epiphany
Roman Catholic Church, he attended mass every Sunday,
and gave liberal donations to the church. Unlike Mr.
Croker, Mr. Murphy never cared to make the Democratic
Club his headquarters every night, when a district leader,
;
Mr. Murphy could be found, from 7 :30 to 10 o'clock, lean-

ing against a lamp post at the northwest corner of Twen-
tieth Street and Second Avenue. Everybody in the dis-
trict knew that he would be there, accessible to anybody
who wanted to talk to him. Such were the career and
characteristics of the new leader of Tammany Hall a
dictator in fact, yet preserving all of the tokens of demo-
cratic accessibility.
Mayor Low's administration failed to make an im-
pression calculated to influence a majority of voters to
reelect him. Quite true, most of his appointees to head
the various departments were men of character, adminis-
trative capacity and sincerity of purpose radically
different types, indeed, from the Tammany district lead-
ers who were usually appointed to those offices under
Tammany administrations.
But in appointing Colonel John N. Partridge as com-
missioner of police, Mayor Low chose a weak and ineffi-
cient man. The demoralized condition of the police ad-
ministration under Tammany had long been the special
target of the reformers' attacks, and people had expected
a wholesome overhauling of that department under Mayor
Low. Colonel Partridge's administration, however, was
so disappointing that the City Club was moved to demand
his resignation. It criticized Commissioner Partridge
for taking no adequate measures to break up the alliance
between the police and crime, or to get a proper under-
standing of the underlying conditions in the police de-
partment, and further criticized him for surrounding him-
self at headquarters with notoriously corrupt officers, one
of whom, in fact, was made his principal uniformed ad-
viser.
The City Club's criticism did not charge that Par-
tridge was personally corrupt, but that he was weak and
"
gullible and was ignorant of real conditions. Commis-
sioner Partridge and his deputies adopted the idea of
ruling the police force according to military ideas. The
word of a superior officer was accepted absolutely as
against that of a subordinate. In a force where the su-
perior officers had, for the most part, secured their pro-
motions by bribery; where the superior officers were the
beneficiaries of blackmailing; and where the honest men,
as a rule, remained subordinates the attempt to instil
a spirit of respect among the men for their superiors ex-
cited only ridicule, and added to the prevalent demoraliza-
x
tion. . . ."
True as such a general statement was, it has been
equally true, as experience has shown, that various other
reform police commissioners have vainly tried " to break
the system " ; temporary figures, commissioners come and
" The "
go, but System has remained more or less intact.
Even General Francis V. Greene, appointed by Mayor Low
January 1, 1903, to succeed Colonel Partridge (who re-
signed the day before the trustees of the City Club's de-
mand for his resignation was handed in), found this to
be a fact, notwithstanding his earnest, conscientious ef-
forts to correct conditions in the police department.
The vote of the body of the police force themselves
showed, in 1902, their complete dissatisfaction with con-
ditions. At least 75 per cent, of the police force voted
for Low in 1901 a year later fully 90 per cent, voted
;
for Bird S. Coler, Tammany's candidate for Governor. 2
i The Police
Department of the City of New York A Statement
of Facts, published by the City Club of New York, October, 1903, pp.
2
52-55, etc. Ibid., p. 58,
1902 1903 305
This was only one of many indications of a forthcom-

ingTammany victory. Even some reformers criticized
Mayor Low as times ready to denounce the Tam-
at all
many leader from whom he could expect nothing, while

refraining from saying anything against Senator Thomas
" boss "
C. Platt, the Republican who represented and
headed a political machine element not materially differ-
ent from that of Tammany. Mayor Low, it was also
critically pointed out, was not of a type to hold the
goodwill of a large body of the proletarian voters; his
views, manner and leanings were of an aristocratic or-
der; and in a city where class distinctions were so notori-
ously and effectively exploited by Tammany Hall, nothing
could be more destructive to the endurance of an admin-
istration than the popular belief that its head, however
honest personally, embodied the interests and smug views
of the people of wealth that he was, in the expressive
" a
phrase of politics, silk-stocking." Various acts of
Mayor Low's were cited against him and deepened this
3
impression in the popular mind. Mayor Low's support-
ers pointed out energetically that he had reduced the
city's debt by $7,000,000 ; that he had reformed the sys-
tem of tax collection; that he had secured for the city
adequate payments for public franchise grants ; that he
had defeated corrupt "jobs"; that he had reformed the
public school system that in every way he had been a
thorough reform Mayor. These representations, the elec-
tion result showed, were in vain.
With conditions favorable to its return to power, Tam-
many Hall took measures to make its ticket in the munici-
pal campaign of 1903 headed by a candidate whose name
stood for prestige and respectability.
Tammany's candidate for Mayor was George B. Mc-
Clellan, whose father of the same name, after serving as
Commanding General in the Union Army during part of
s See a long letter from a leading reformer published in the New
York Herald, April 12, 1903.
the Civil War, had been the Democratic candidate for
President of the United States in 1864. A political pro-
tege of Charles F. Murphy, George B. McClellan had seen
service in Congress and had been selected by Mr. Murphy
as Tammany's candidate for Mayor a considerable time
before the campaign opened. Jealousy antagonistic to
Tammany's domination and assertion of supreme power,
the Brooklyn Democratic organization, then under control
of " Boss " Hugh McLaughlin, opposed McClellan's nomi-
nation, but Mr. Murphy carried his point.
To the amazement and chagrin of the Republicans and
Fusionists, Tammany Hall then consummated a bold and
astute political stroke by appropriating two of the three
principal nominees of its opponents' ticket, and nomi-
nating them as Tammany candidates. These two men
were Edward M. Grout and Charles V. Fornes, respec-
tively occupying the offices of Controller and President
of the Board of Aldermen under Mayor Low's adminis-
tration. With Mayor Low they had been renominated.
Thus did Tammany shrewdly weaken the other side and
present itself as having two chief candidates of the same
identity and capacity as those of the reformers. Mayor
Low and his supporters did not accept this unhumorous
situation complacently; they indignantly forced Grout
and Fornes off their ticket. But the effect sought by
Tammany had been produced.
Mr. McClellan was elected Mayor by a plurality of 62,-
696. The vote resulted: McClellan, 314,782; Low,
252,086. Furman, candidate for Mayor of the Social
Democratic party, received 16,596 votes; Hunter, the
Socialist Labor party's candidate for Mayor, 5,205 votes.
For the Prohibition ticket 869 votes were cast. In this
election Tammany also elected its candidates, including
Grout and Fornes, to all of the other important city of-
fices, except the Presidency of the Borough of Richmond.

The results of the election practically gave Tammany
Hall full control of the city.
CHAPTER XXXII
THE SWAY OF BRIBEEY AND " HONEST GRAFT "
1903-1905
of all kinds was rampant, as later official

investigation showed, in Tammany-controlled de-
GRAFT partments, but in the public mind the question of
this form of graft was vastly overshadowed by the revela-
tions of the New York legislative committee investigating
the great life insurance companies.
The disclosures showed that Republican legislators as
well as Democratic were bought; that enormous corrup-
tion funds had been contributed to both political parties,
and that one political machine was no better than the
other.
Bribery expenditures, the committee reported, were
classifiedon the various insurance companies' books as
" The committee described the amounts
legal expenses."
as extraordinarily large. In the year 1904 alone, the
Mutual Life Insurance Company thus disbursed $364,-
254.95; the Equitable Life Assurance Society, $172,-
698.42, and the New York' Life Insurance Company,
1
$204,019.25.
Andrew C. Fields, long engaged by the Mutual Life In-
surance Companyto manipulate legislation at Albany,
lived there in a sumptuously furnished house jocosely
" House of Mirth." The
styled the expenditures were
to " The Mutual thus expended
charged legal expenses."
" from 1898 to
more than $2,000,000 in " legal expenses
i
Report of the New York Legislative Insurance Committee, 1906,
Vol. X, p. 16.
307
1904. 2 And from 1895 to 1904, the total payments
made by the New York Life Insurance Company to An-
drew Hamilton, its chief lobbyist at Albany, amounted
to $1,312,197.16, all of which sum was soberly entered
as " legal expenses." 3 A
present of nearly $50,000 was
contributed in 1894 by the New York Life Insurance
Company to the campaign fund of the Republican National
Committee, and similar amounts in 1896 and 1900 to
the same recipient. 4 All of the large insurance companies
regularly contributed funds not only for national political
campaigns, but for those in the States ; the Equitable,
for example, gave $50,000 in 1904 to the Republican
National Committee, and had also, for many years, been
giving $30,000 annually to the New York State Repub-
lican Committee. 5 The legislative investigating commit-
tee found it impossible to trace all of the directions of this
continuous great corruption. " Enormous sums," the
committee stated, " have been expended in a surreptitious
manner."
Under the pressure of public opinion, District Attor-
ney Jerome finally caused the Grand Jury to proceed
against a few of the figureheads involved; the great mag-
nates who had profited so enormously from the huge
frauds, were, so events proved, left untouched. Although
it had been clearly proved by the testimony that the
frauds and corruptions consummated were gigantic, not
a single one of those of great wealth implicated was ever
sent to jail or even incommoded by the formality of a trial.
In the face of such disclosures, the opponents of Tam-
many could not well point to Tammany corruption as
an exclusive product. It was a time, too, when what was
termed " muckraking " was almost at its height maga- ;
zines and newspapers were filled with articles exposing

in detail the corruptions and colossal manipulations and
spoliation done by great corporations and other vested
4J6tU, pp. 62 and 398.

, p. 50. Plbid., p. 10.
1903 1905 309
interests,and the close connection between these and the

" bosses " and machines of both old
political parties.
Public attention was concentrated more upon these nation-
wide scandals than upon local graft petty, indeed, in
some respects, compared to the great extortions of trusts
and other industrial, transportation and financial cor-
porations.
These factors had their influence in developing in New
York City a powerful movement called the Municipal
Ownership League, later passing under the name of the ^
Independence League. The head of this organization was
William R. Hearst. He had inherited a large fortune
from his father, United States Senator George Hearst.
The estate comprised a San Francisco newspaper and ;
William R. Hearst had come to New York, where he

now had a morning and an evening newspaper. Of a sen- $ }
sational order, yet written in popular style, these news-
papers had an extensive circulation, and their agitational
matter were in reality the mainstay of his movement.
Two of the local objectives of this agitation were the
scandalous overcrowding of the street car system and
the methods by which the subway system in New York
City, built by the city's credit, had been turned over to
the profit of private interests. At the same time, no
means was neglected to awaken popular resentment against
the " plunderbund " fattening on the people, and to arouse
indignation against the bossism of Tammany Hall. Day
after day effective articles, editorials and cartoons were
published written in a simple style, understandable by the
;
crudest intelligence, they produced a great effect among

the voters. Nothing quite like this original kind of po-
litical journalism had ever been known in New York City.
The operations of the New York Contracting and
Trucking Company, in particular, supplied facts which
were used effectually by newspapers and civic organiza-
tions to show the new methods by which Tammany leaders
were gathering in millions from contracts. This com-
pany, as we have seen, was headed by John J. Murphy,

brother of the Tammany Hall chief, and by Alderman
James E. Gaffney.
Its transactions revealed the great difference between
Tweed's methods and those of the later leaders of Tam-
many Hall. Under the Tweed regime tens of millions
of dollars were stolen outright. The lesson of the over-
throw of the Tweed " ring " was not lost on his suc-
cessors. Mr. Croker refused to countenance such out-
worn, discarded and dangerous methods of theft. They
had resulted disastrously to Tammany in Tweed's day.
In place of direct thieving methods of getting rich, indi-
rect methods, surrounded with secrecy and every possible
precaution against detection, were developed. Some
Tammany district leaders became opulent on blackmail and
extortion, the circuitous route of which it was most diffi-
cult to trace (in a legal sense) to its final destination. As
for Mr. Croker himself, the question was frequently put
to him, " Where did you get it ?
" 6 He
could reply that
his operations in amassing his wealth were entirely legiti-
mate; "inside" real estate speculations, connections with
trust companies and other corporations and stock trans-
actions. Knowing him to be the source of much legis-
lation and administrative favors worth tens, if not hun-
dreds, of millions of dollars to corporations, his
opponents were by no means wholly satisfied with such

an explanation, but whatever their suspicions they could
never prove that he had personally profited from selling
legislation. Essentially, however, Mr. Croker never posed
as a business man ; he was a politician.
But by the period when Charles F. Murphy became
" " business-man "
chief," the type of leader had evolved.
Under this plan a plan that afforded the most plausi-
ble opportunities for explaining the sudden acquisition of
wealth Tammany men became open or secret partners
e Mr. Croker, in 1900, had admitted his
Dability to an English tax on
a yearly income of $100,000.
1903 1905 811
in contracting firms, using the pressure of political power

to have large contracts awarded to their concerns. It
was not necessary for these leaders to know anything of
contracting ; they could be ignorant of every detail ; their
one aim was to get the contracts ; the actual skilled work
could be done by hired professional men. No law penal-
ized such methods, respectable in every appearance. At
the same time, inasmuch as speculating in the stock mar-
ket was legitimate in law, fortunes could be made in acting
upon advance information of legislative or other official
means concerning certain corporations.
The first large contract obtained by the New York Con-
tracting and Trucking Company was a $2,000,000 con-
tract for excavating the site for the new Pennsylvania
Railroad Station in New York City.
For a long time, notwithstanding reiterated protests
from the press and public organizations, the Board of
Aldermen, controlled by Tammany, had obstinately re-
fused to vote for the franchise giving the Pennsylvania
Railroad power to use streets for its tunnel approaches
and terminal in Manhattan, New York City. Reports
were circulated that the sum of $300,000 had been de-
manded by the Aldermen, and that until that sum was
produced they would not vote for the franchise. It was
noted that it was " Big Jim " Gaffney, " outside man "
for the New York Contracting and Trucking Company
and Alderman from Leader Charles F. Murphy's district,
" Little Tim "
who, together with Sullivan, Tammany
leader in the Board of Aldermen, took a leading part in
persuading the Aldermen to hold out against giving the
franchise for the Pennsylvania tunnel. The newspapers
unanimously described the Aldermanic action as a " hold-
up." Likewise, it was also noted that when from some
mysterious quarter orders reached Tammany Aldermen
to vote for the franchise, it was Alderman Gaffney who
took the lead in rallying the Aldermen to vote it through.
This sudden change of front after a protracted " hold-
up," puzzled the public exceedingly, and sinister impu-
tations were made. Not until months later did the pub-
lic begin to see illumination it was then announced that
;
although the New York Contracting and Trucking Com-

pany had not been the lowest bidder (its bid, according to
report, was $400,000 more than that of a competitor),
nevertheless it had been awarded the $2,000,000 contract
for digging the Pennsylvania Railroad site.
In the case of the awarding of a contract covering sev-
eral million dollars in February, 1905, to the New York
Contracting and Trucking Company for the six-track
local improvement of the New York, New Haven and
Hartford Railroad, the circumstances were much the
same.
A franchise had been asked for a project called the
New York, Westchester and Boston Railroad Company.
At the same time, another company calling itself the New
York and Port Chester Railroad Company, made a sim-
and opposed the other company. Both
ilar application
companies, as subsequent developments showed, were in

fact owned by the New York, New Haven and Hartford
Railroad ; the opposition of one to the other was evidently
for mere effect.

For three years the Board of Aldermen refused to give
the franchises, either one of which would give the New
York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad its own inde-
pendent entrance into New York City. Somehow and
from somewhere the announcement was now made that
unless the Board of Aldermen acted, a law would be passed
by the Legislature stripping it of all power of granting
franchises. This threat was executed; the Legislature
passed an act vesting franchise-granting power in the
Board of Estimate and Apportionment. It may here be
parenthetically noted that with the great powers increas-
ingly vested in it the Board of Estimate became the most
compact and powerful instrument of government that had
ever been developed in the government of New York City.
1903 1905 313
This body is composed of eight officials. Of these, three

officials, the Mayor, the Controller and the President
of the Board of Aldermen, have, by reason of a greater
vested plurality of votes, the dominance of power. The
other five members are the Borough Presidents.
The first point passed upon by this Board was the
question of whether or not the New York, Westchester
and Boston Railroad Company was or was not a defunct
corporation. On March 30, 1904, Corporation Council
Delany (elected by Tammany Hall) reported to the
Board of Estimate and Apportionment that the Board
had no jurisdiction to examine the legal capacity or inca-
7
pacity of the company.
On June 24, 1904, thecompany received its franchise.
The company was really an adjunct of the New York,
New Haven and Hartford Railroad, and its franchise gave
it the right to operate more than sixteen miles of four-
track line within New York City; the company secured
practically all the available routes for entrance and exit
to and from New York City by way of the Bronx. It was
the $6,000,000 contract for constructing this railroad im-
provement that the New York Contracting and Trucking
Company secured.
The declaration was made that no other contractor
had ventured to compete for this work; and the explana-
tion was offered in some quarters that inasmuch as a large
part of the work was located inside the city limits and
as an unfriendly city administration might do much to
hamper the carrying out of the contract, the New York,
New Haven and Hartford officials, with a cautious eye
to the railroad's interests, were willing to award the con-
tract to the Tammany firm and pay higher prices. Mr.
Gaffney asserted that politics had nothing to do with the
" had
obtaining of the contract and that his company
7 The
company had filed articles of incorporation in 1872, but was
charged with being an abortive corporation in that it had never com-
pleted the necessary formalities required by law.
bid with other contractors and won out," but politicians
did not take this statement seriously. In February, 1907,
the New York Contracting and Trucking Company sur-
rendered its contract for a consideration of $500,000 to
another company, the Holbrook, Cabot & Daly Com-
pany, which had previously done much of the New York,
New Haven and Hartford Railroad's construction work.
It was not until seven years later that the fact, originally
suspected, as to why the contract had been given with-
out competition to the Gaffney-Murphy company, was
authoritatively stated. On May 20, 1914, Charles S.
Mellen, long president of the New York, New Haven and
Hartford Railroad, testified before the Interstate Com-
merce Commission that the contract had been turned over
to that Tammany concern " to avoid friction with the
city," meaning that by giving the contract to the Tam-
"
many company, city officials would attempt no hold-up,"
such as placing obstacles in the way of carrying the con-
struction work through.
Further disclosures strongly indicated that during the
time when the Westchester franchise was acquired by the
New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, certain
"
powers in Tammany Hall had to be taken care of," and
that they benefited financially.
After being looted of large sums in financial jugglery,
the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad had
been thrown on the verge of insolvency. It was revealed
in 1913 that a certain $12,000,000 of New York, New
Haven and Hartford Railroad money put into the West-
Chester project had mysteriously vanished in unexplained
directions. The Interstate Commerce Commission, in
1914, conducted an investigation to find out specifically, if
possible, what became of those missing millions.
On April 24, 1914, Oakley Thorne, a New York banker,
who had been the agent of J. P. Morgan & Company in
handling the $12,000,000 for the purpose of secretly pur-
chasing the Westchester and the Portchester franchises
1903 1905 315
for the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad,

gave certain testimony before the Interstate Commerce
Commission. He averred that he had burned the books
containing the particulars as to how he had spent at
least $8,000,000 ; he explained that he therefore could not
give names, amounts and dates. A letter written by Mr.
Thorne in October, 1906, to C. S. Mellen, president of
the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, was
" there are
produced. In this letter Thorne wrote that
people in Fourteenth Street who are very strongly in
favor of Westchester and others in favor of Portchester,"
and suggested that " both sides will have to be taken care
of." Asked what the reference to " Fourteenth Street "
"
meant, Thorne replied, Why, I believe, Tammany Hall."
Mr. Thorne testified that he could not possibly remember
" Fourteenth Street " who
the names of any individuals in
" had to be taken care
of," but he admitted that he knew
that " Big Tim
" Sullivan was " " to the West-
friendly
" " and owned stock in it at the time
Chester enterprise ;
this testimony was given Sullivan was dead.

Mr. Thorne asserted that he could not recall definite
particulars, but he could vaguely remember that there
were persons in " Fourteenth Street " who had, at the time,
been " interested in the Westchester City and Contract
Company, the New York Development Company and other
concerns that subsequently formed a part of the West-
chester combination turned over to the New Haven [the
New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Com-
"
pany] through Morgan & Company." Certain per-
sons in Fourteenth Street," Mr. Thorne further testified,
had to be bought off because of their " nuisance value,"
" nuisance
but precisely what was the nature of that
value " was not explained. In the disposition of the many
millions of dollars placed in his hands, Mr. Thorne was
not required to make any accounting or give any vouchers.
Further details of later developments were given in the
testimony of Charles S. Mellen, president of the New York,
New Haven and Hartford Railroad during the years when
the above franchises were acquired.
On May 14, 1914, Mr. Mellen testified, at a hearing be-
fore the Interstate Commerce Commission, that the direc-
tors of that railroad set aside a fund of $1,200,000, the
value of 8,000 shares of New York, New Haven and Hart-
fort Railroad stock, which sum was distributed among
" " in the
people of influence politics of New York City
for the procuring of certain much-desired changes in the
charter of the New York, Westchester and Boston Rail-
road Company. Mr. Mellen further testified that In-
spector Thomas F. Byrnes, who, for many years, had been
head of the New York Police Department (and who was
deceased at the time of this hearing) had acted as the
go-between in this transaction ; that Byrnes agreed to ob-
"
tain thirteen different modifications or " amendments
to the New York, Westchester and Boston Railroad char-
ter from New York city's officials; and that to bring
about these results stock, or its equivalent in cash, to the
sum of $1,200,000, was given to Byrnes for distribution
among Tammany politicians whose identity Mr. Mellen
declared that he did not know. Mr. Mellen's testimony
revealed that some of these persons accepted stock made
out in the names of dummies, but that the majority de-
manded and received cash for their " services." All but
$50,000 of the $1,200,000 was distributed.
The records of the Board of Estimate in 1908 and 1909
bear out Mr. Mellen's testimony; they show that nearly
every request for alterations of the charter or extensions
of time made by the New York, New Haven and Hart-
ford Railroad was granted. The Board of Estimate dur-
ing the years in question consisted of Mayor McClellan ;
Controller Herman A. Metz; Patrick F. McGowan,

President of the Board of Aldermen; John F. Ahearn,
President of the Borough of Manhattan; Bird S. Coler,
President of the Borough of Brooklyn Louis F. Haffen,
;
President of the Borough of the Bronx ; Lawrence Gresser,

1903 1905 317
President of the Borough of Queens, and George Crom-

well,President of the Borough of Richmond. 8
Continuing his testimony, Mr. Mellen stated, on May
20, 1914, that upon further recollection he found that the
amount distributed to politicians in connection with se-
curing the Westchester franchise and alterations to the
charter, really totaled $1,500,000 or $1,600,000. Much
of this amount was presented in the form of due bills sent
in by Tammany politicians by means of messengers Mr. ;
Mellen personally handed over cash for the due bills, but
the names of the recipients he said he could not remem-
" Do "
ber. you know," Mr. Mellen was asked, what all
this Westchester and Portchester stock was doing in Tam-
" "I "
many Hall ? know," he replied, what it was doing
to me when I took it on. It was costing me lots of
" Do
money." you know how all this stock reached Tam-
" " I have not the
many Hall? slightest idea. I could
suppose a lot of things, but I do not know anything
about it."
Submitting, on July 11, 1914?, the results of its investi-
gation to the United States Senate, the Interstate Com-
merce Commission reported that the facts as to the New
York, Westchester and Boston Railway transaction con-
" a
stituted story of the profligate waste of corporate
funds." The fullest details are set forth in that report
of the magnitude of the corruption used. Commenting
" The
upon Mr. Mellen's testimony, the report declared :
testimony is somewhat occult, but the character of the

transaction is no less certain. This money was used for
corrupt purposes, and the improper expenditures cov-
s As we shall see
later, the political composition of the Board of
Estimate was at this time considerably mixed; during his second term
Mayor McClellan was fighting Mr. Murphy, leader of Tammany Hall,
and had the backing of Senator McCarren and of McCarren's lieuten-
ant, Controller Metz. Mr. McGowan, president of the Board of
Aldermen, was supposed to be a Tammany man, but was not on good
terms with the " Organization " and was credited with being aligned
with McClellan and Metz.
ered up by the transfer to the New Haven [New York,
New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company] of these
worthless securities. ... It seems very strange that Mr.
Mellen was not able to identify with any particularity
any one with whom he had these transactions except the
late ThomasF. Byrnes. No comment is necessary to
make mind the corrupt and unlawful nature
clear to the
of this transaction, and it would seem that the amount
illegally expended could be recovered from Mr. Mellen and
9
the directors who authorized it. ." . .
There now pending (1917) a suit in the United

is
States District Court brought by the stockholders against

the former directors of the New York, New Haven and
Hartford Railroad Company and against the company
for the return of $165,000,000 alleged to have been lost to
the treasury of that railroad in various ways.
To return, however, to the operations of the New York
Contracting and Trucking Company: Another contract
secured by that concern was a contract from the Consoli-
dated Gas Company for grading the site for the Astoria
" Gas Grab " had
gas plant the franchise for the Astoria
;
been supported by Tammany.

By 1905 it was estimated that the New York Contract-
ing and Trucking Company or its offshoots had received
contracts aggregating $15,000,000 all contracts from
corporations and interests benefiting from the city gov-

ernment or depending upon favors from it. Yet two
years previously this very company was a nonentity as
far as securing large contracts were concerned, and none
of its heads had any experience in the contracting busi-
ness. Now in a certain well-understood field, it was vir-
tually free from competition.
None could now fail to note the great transition from
* Commerce Commission Report No. 6569, In re Finan-
Interstate
cial Transactions of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Rail-
road Co., July 11, 1914, pp. 35, 38, etc. The above are but a few
extracts from this comprehensive report.
1903 1905 319
the Tweed period when Tammany leaders used only the

vulgar and criminal methods of stealing money out of the
city treasury. Under Murphy's leadership the obvious
methods used were those of " honest graft " the making
of millions from contracts with public service corpora-
tions, and this was represented as legitimate business.
Fully six Tammany district leaders were members of or
" interested " in
large contracting firms, although the
heads of these, often of a nominal character, were not
known as Tammany leaders. These concerns employed
a total of many thousands of men, all of whom were ex-
pected to be useful at the primaries and elections.
At this time there was discernible the beginnings of a
growing feeling that reform officials, while prosecuting
gamblers and comparatively petty offenders of all stripes,
somehow were singularly ineffective in bringing about the
prosecution of corporation magnates charged with loot-
ing on a large scale. This feeling had not crystallized as
yet, but it was felt in some quarters.
Some of District Attorney Jerome's former supporters
were impressed by the fact that despite his campaign
promises, he had not caused the indictment or other prose-
cution of the men who had looted the Metropolitan Street
Railway Company. James W. Osborne, a noted attor-
" in-
ney, had declared in open court in 1903, that the
"
siders had, by means of duplicating of construction ac-
counts, manipulation and in other ways, stolen $30,000,-
000. Mr. Amory declared and specified that an addi-
tional $60,000,000 had, by various processes of devious
" " a total of
manipulation, gone to enrich the insiders
$90,000,000.
On April 25, 1903, Mr. Osborne gave out this state-
"
ment : We have produced evidence before Magistrate
Barlow which shows a crime has been committed, and now
it is up to the District Attorney to say whether he will
avail himself of that evidence and proceed against those

who have committed the crime. We have charged in open
court that $30,000,000 has been stolen, and that [state-
ment] never has been disproved by the Metropolitan Com-
pany or its counsel. I told Mr. Nicoll, counsel for Mr.
Vreeland [president of the Metropolitan Street Railway
Company] openly he would not be able to disprove my
charges."
Mr. Amory openly declared that Mr. Jerome's investi-
gation of the matter in 1903 was not undertaken in good
" It " a
faith. was," he wrote, deliberate whitewash. I
have documentary evidence to prove it." Mr. Amory
charged that of the twenty-seven distinct written charges
filed with Mr. Jerome against the Metropolitan
manage-
ment, Mr. Jerome's accountant reported on only seven,
and these latter were of minor importance, involving
chiefly technicalities of accounts and not serious crimes.
Yet Mr. Jerome, was Mr. Amory's indignant comment,
"
represented that the accountant's report was very clear
"
and full and takes up every charge and that Mr. Jerome
had reported that " the specific charges so far as they in-
volve criminal wrong-doing are entirely without founda-
10
tion."
While thus declaring that he could find nothing on
which to base prosecution of the Metropolitan Street Rail-
way Company magnates, District Attorney Jerome showed
by other acts, it was complained, that petty criminals
would be prosecuted to the limit of the law. He was
charged with discriminating between rich and powerful
business offenders, on the one side, and on the other, poor
and relatively uninfluential violators of the law.
On one occasion Mr. Jerome appeared before labor
unions, delivered homilies on the virtues, and warned them
that he would make short shrift of labor grafters. This
lecture had reference to the case of Sam Parks, a labor
leader, charged with grafting on employers and receiv-
" " strikes.
ing money for prompting or calling off Dis-
10 The Truth About Metropolitan, by W. N. Amory, pp. 60-64.

1903 1905
trict Attorney Jerome waited for no elaborate formal in-

vestigation; he immediately started the machinery of his
office against Parks and caused him to be convicted. Al-
ready a dying consumptive, Parks was sentenced to
prison, where he died shortly after. But no action, it
was pointed out, was taken against powerful construc-
tion companies that had bribed Parks and other labor
leaders to declare strikes on buildings for which com-
11
petitors had the contracts. Another much-discussed
incident was the result of a collision of railroad trains in
the Park Avenue tunnel a collision maiming and killing
many persons. The obsolete and dangerous condition
of this tunnel had long been known. It was commented
that District Attorney Jerome did not make the slightest
move against the railroad directors ; he hurriedly caused
the indictment and arrest of Wisker, a railroad engineer,
as the sole culprit and proceeded with despatch to his
trial. The jury, however, refused to convict the engi-
neer.
Considering that Mr. Jerome was a leading reformer,
such contrasts were gradually calculated to make the
very mention of reform odious to the observing of the
working people. The complaint was generally heard that
the big grafters were safe and immune, while petty of-
fenders were dealt with rigorously. Nevertheless, a large
number of voters, influenced by a stream of praise from
the press, still believed in Mr. Jerome's promises and mo-
tives, and his action in 1905 in not securing a renomina-
tion from political bosses but procuring it independently
by means of a petition circulated among electors, strength-
ened the old belief that he was sincere and was independ-
ent of political and other domination. Much was made
11 In an effective article in McClure's
Magazine, Mr. Ray Stannard
Baker showed how one of these big companies bribed walking dele-
gates to declare strikes on buildings being put up by rival contractors
in order that it the briber might be able to get a reputation for
building within contract time, and thus exclude competitors from get-
ting further contracts.
of the fact of his independent renomination. The Re-
publicans withdrew their candidate for District Attorney
and nominated Mr. Jerome, and the press in general en-
thusiastically supported him. He was reelected. It was
not until some years later when the full effects of his
administration could be popularly realized in per-
spective, that Jerome fell into general disfavor with the
voters.
As an instance of the methods of contractors under the
Tammany regime during this time, it is only necessary
to mention the facts, later disclosed in an investigation
by John Purroy Mitchel, Commissioner of Accounts, as
to how in 1904 defective hose was sold to the Fire De-
partment. The Windsor Fire Appliance Company (of
which the president and chief stockholder was Michael
F. Loughman, later appointed Deputy Commissioner of
Water Supply) sold 25,000 feet of hose to New York City
for $23,410.25. Althought this hose did not answer the
specifications of the contract, it was accepted. The con-
sequence was that it burst many times at fires, some of
them serious. The same was true of equally worthless
hose supplied by other contractors.
The municipal election in 1905 was a triangular con-
test. Tammany Hall did not fear the Republican ticket
headed by William M. Ivins for Mayor. But it did have
intense uneasiness over the possibility of Mr. Hearst tri-
umphing; his movement was too plainly making inroads
among large numbers of voters that ordinarily would have
voted the Tammany ticket. Tammany was particularly
bent upon winning inasmuch as by the provisions of the
revised charter the term of the incoming Mayor and other
officials had been changed to a four-year incumbency.
Hearst was |he Municipal Ownership League's candidate
for Mayor, and Tammany renominated Mayor McClellan.
So effective were Hearst's onslaughts on " Boss " Murphy
and the elements represented by him that during the cam-
paign Mayor McClellan repeatedly made promises that
1903 1905 323
he would thereafter pursue an independent course, should

he be reelected.
Mr. Hearst's vote returns came in so heavily after the
polls were closed that it looked as though he were certainly
elected. That very night there was a strange interrup-
tion, lastingabout an hour, in the public giving-out of the
returns. Then as the returns were resumed, it appeared
that although the vote between McClellan and Hearst was
extremely close, McClellan had a little the better of it.
The next day it was announced that Mayor McClellan
was reelected by a close margin. Mr. Hearst and his fol-
lowers declared that manifest fraud had been committed,
and took steps to have a recount. Meantime while this
process was dragging along, Mayor McClellan was widely
criticized for his action in immediately claiming his reelec-
tion, opposing a recount, and not showing faith in the
legitimacy of his claims by waiting with dignity until there
had been a careful official recount.
The final official recount gave this result: McClellan,
228,407 votes; Hearst, 224,929 votes; Ivins, 137,184
votes. It may be added here that in the very next year
in 1906 Hearst accepted a Tammany indorsement
when he ran for Governor, but he was defeated by Charles
E. Hughes, who, as counsel for the Legislative Insurance
Committee, had achieved wide popularity for his exposure
of the insurance company iniquities.
With the reelection of Mr. McClellan, Tammany Hall
confidently looked forward to four more years of unques-
tioned control of the immense budget and enormous oppor-
tunities embodied in the rule of New York City.
CHAPTER XXXIII
TAMMANY'S CONTROL UNDER LEADER MURPHY
1906-1909
McClellan, in the campaign of 1905

Mayor
WHEN promised
many
an
leaders
independent administration, Tam-
did not take his words seriously;
they considered his promises mere campaign vapor. In
this estimate they were mistaken. Mayor McClellan
broke relations with Charles F. Murphy in January, 1906,
and announced that he would keep every promise made
" on the
by him stump." His appointment of anti-Mur-
phy men to office had a nettling effect on the leader of
Tammany Hall, against whom he began a systematic cam-
paign. Results, still more serious to Tammany leaders,
were forthcoming.
The President of the Borough of Manhattan was John
A. Ahearn, a noted Tammany district leader. He had
been a State Senator from 1889 to 1902, and had been
elected president of the Borough of Manhattan in 1903,
and reelected in 1905 for a term of four years. It may
be explained that the presidency of a borough was a pow-
erful office, having direct appointive and supervisory
power over six departments with expenditures of many
1
millions of dollars annually.
i When Ahearn was
elected president of the Borough of Manhattan,
" "
it was Boss " Murphy, with the advice and consent of the Tam-
"
many Executive Committee, who really chose his appointees to head

the Department of Public Work, the Bureau of Highways, the Bureau
of Sewers, the Bureau of Buildings, etc. Of course, Tammany -dis-
trict leaders were appointed they were really responsible to the Tam-
;
many Executive Committee.

324
1906 1909 325
Charges of misconduct were brought against Mr.

Ahearn, in 1906, by the Bureau of City Betterment (later
called the Bureau of Municipal Research). When Mr.
Ahearn requested an investigation by the Commissioners
of Accounts, Mayor McClellan accommodated his desire.
The report of these commissioners, handed in to the
Mayor, July 16, 1907, severely arraigned Ahearn's ad-
ministration, and after specifying particulars, the report
denounced " the inefficiency, neglect, waste and corruption
disclosed in the course of this inquiry." 2
The investigation showed that in the three years that
Mr. Ahearn had occupied the office of borough president,
he had control of an expenditure totaling $21,994,477.
Of this amount it was shown that $1,608,762 was spent
in the purchase of supplies without public tender being
asked, as required by law. It was proved that many of
the payrolls (amounting to an aggregate of $5,942,187)
were padded with the names of men who never did a day's
work for the department. Even in the expenditures made
under contract expenditures totaling $14,447,473 in
the three years it was proved that little effort was
made to compel contractors to observe their obligations.
Fully a third of the total expenditure the third amount-
ing to $5,400,000 was lost to the city, it was asserted,
by the manner in which the department was administered.
There were still further losses to the city; and although,
also, there was plenty of money at Mr. Ahearn's disposal
for the repairs of street pavements, that work, it was
held, was considerably neglected. The evidence in the
commissioners' investigation and the evidence presented
by the City Club in subsequent hearings ordered by Gov-
2 See A
Report on a Special Examination of the Accounts and
Methods of the Office of the President of the Borough of Manhattan,
Directed by Hon. George B. McClellan, Mayor, Commissioners of
Accounts of the City of New York, July 16, 1907. This report gives
the full findings of the Commissioners of Accounts. The full testi-
mony is embodied in Vols. 1 to 111 of Testimony, Ahearn Investi-
gationt 1907t Commissioners of Accounts.
ernor Hughes showed that supply contractors often made
profits ranging from 100 to 200 per cent, (and in at
least one case 300 to 500 per cent.) more than the regular
prices prevailing in the open market.
Among other disclosures the testimony revealed that
" fire
$144,500 had been paid out for asphalt burns,"
which in reality were not " fire burns
" at all they were
;
defects that the asphalt companies were obliged to re-

pair without charge. The favorite contractors were such
Tammany district leaders as Bartholomew Dunn, Thomas
J. Dunn and others.
On December 9, 1907, Governor Hughes removed Mr.
Ahearn from office. In his notice of ejection, Governor
Hughes said that justice to Mr. Ahearn required that at-
tention should be called to the fact that "it is not shown,
and has not been claimed, that he has converted public
it
money or property to his own use, or has personally

profited in an unlawful manner by his official conduct."
But Governor Hughes said that he did find that the
charges of maladministration, remissness and grave abuses
existing under Ahearn's administration had been proved.
Mr. Ahearn was, in reality, a victim of the Tammany sys-
tem. A few days later, the Manhattan Aldermen re-
elected him a move that was contested by taking the
case to the Court of Appeals, which in November, 1909,
sustained his removal and disapproved of his reelection.
Meanwhile, he had continued in office.
Another conspicuous Tammany leader removed from
was Louis F. Haffen, president of the Borough of
office
the Bronx. He had held that office since January 1,
1898, and had been last reelected in 1905. Mr. Haffen
was, as we have seen, one of the regency of three cdn-
trolling Tammany Hall immediately previous to Charles
F. Murphy's assumption of sole leadership. He was a
Sachem of the Tammany Society.
In November, 1908, twenty-two charges were presented
to Governor Hughes by John Purroy Mitchel and Ernest
1906 1909 327
Gallagher, Commissioners of Accounts of New York City,

at the instance of Mayor McClellan. 3 The City Club
and the Citizens' Union jointly filed charges against Mr.
Haffen and prosecuted them. Governor Hughes, basing
his findings and action on the report of Wallace Macfar-
lane, his Commissioner who heard the evidence, found that
the following charges had been established:
That Mr. Haffen had greatly abused his discretionary
power in failing to enforce more stringently the time
clauses of contracts for public improvements, and that
the time statements in his certificates to the Finance De-
partment were in many cases untrue; that the public
funds were wasted by loading the payrolls of his depart-
ment with a large number of superfluous employees that ;
there was political jobbery in the building of the Bronx

Borough Court House the appointed architect was essen-
;
tially a politician without professional qualifications who

had hired others to do the architectural work. The gran-
ite contract for this building was awarded to the Buck's
Harbor Granite Company, represented in New York by
a Bronx Tammany district leader.
Among an array of further charges against Mr. Haffen
that were found true was the charge that he was financially
interested in the Sound View Land and Improvement Com-
" and that his official action in connection
pany, with the
Clason's Point Road was induced by his desire to increase
the value of his own and his associates' holdings in this
company, which had acquired a tract of forty-one acres
with a frontage of 2,500 feet on the proposed road, with
a view to that improvement."
Another charge established against Mr. Haffen was that
3 See A
Report on a Special Examination of the Accounts and
Methods of the President of the Borough of the Bronx, etc., Commis-
sioners of Accounts of New York City, June 16, 1908. The complete
testimony in the Haffen Investigation is set forth in Vols. I to IV,
Testimony, Borough of the Bronx Investigation, 1908, Commissioners
of Accounts. See also Memorandum submitted to Governor Hughes,
by the Commissioners of Accounts, 1909.
as borough president and chairman of the local board of
Morrisania, Mr. Haffen had recommended the acquisition
by New York City of certain property at Hunt's Point on
the East River Shore, for use as a public bathing place.
This property, Governor Hughes declared, was utterly un-
suitable for the purpose because of its proximity to a
trunk sewer.
Governor Hughes set forth that the Hunt's Point trans-
action was " a highly discreditable affair. This shore
property was about five acres in extent, and the assessed
valuation was about $4,300. During the condemnation
proceedings the attorney for the company which owned
4
it purchased it from his client for about $86,000. It
was then transferred to another company, and was ac-
quired by the city at a cost of about $247,000, the value
fixed by the condemnation commissioners." Thus the
award for the Hunt's Point property was fifty-eight times
the assessed value, and many times the actual value.
Other charges against Mr. Haffen were sustained.
Overtime charges on contracts had been liquidated arbi-
trarily ; on one occasion $70,000 was improperly remitted
" Bart " Dunn who
to previously had contributed $1 ,000
5
to the Haffen campaign fund. Payments were made to
contractors on absolutely false statements certified from
*The attorney here referred to was Joseph A. Flannery. Upon

charges preferred by the Bar Association, and after a three years'
investigation, he was disbarred, May 17, 1912, by the Appellate Di-
vision of the Supreme Court of the State of New York. He was
found guilty on five of the six charges brought against him, one of
which charges dealt with the notorious Hunt's Point land "job." It
was on record that Flannery personally profited to the sum of $300,000
from various transactions of land sold to the city at fictitious valua-
tions. On June 11, 1914, W. D. Guthrie, representing the New York
Bar Association, reiterated the charges when he argued before the
Court of Appeals at Albany for the confirmation of Mr. Flannery's
disbarment. Flannery's attorney declared that nobody was misled
or labored under a misapprehension as a result of his client's actions;
that the company for which Flannery was attorney knew as much
about the transaction as did Flannery. On October 24, 1914, the
Court of Appeals sanctioned Flannery's disbarment.
5
Summary of Findings, A Report on a Special Examination of tht
1906 1909 329
Mr. Haffen's office. Extravagance in the Bureau of

Public Buildings and Offices resulted in an estimated
waste of $175,000 of an available $292,000 in six years
of Mr. Haffen's administration. 6 Contract juggling was
common. Worn-out Belgian blocks were sold by the bor-
ough to contractors and then repurchased by the city as
new. In cases where contractors were friends of Mr.
Haffen, contract specifications were so drawn as to ex-
clude competitors. Streets were laid in irregular routes
so as to aid land development schemes in which Tam-
many men held control. Highway contract specifications
were deliberately violated by the contractors. The la-
bors of the maintenance force in the Bureau of Highways
were wasted to such an extent that the investigators esti-
mated a loss of 50 per cent in efficiency, or $1,600,000
in money, within six years.
7
A
similar waste of $300,-
000 was attributed to the Bureau of Sewers in the same
period.
Borough President Haffen was ousted by Governor
Hughes on August 29, 1909. When removed from office,
Haffen complained, " This is a fine reward for twenty-six
and a half years of honest, faithful and efficient service
to the people. . . ."
Another high city official who went out of office during
this time was Joseph Bermel, president of the Borough of
Queens. He hastily resigned while under charges.
Mr. Bermel was not, strictly speaking, a Tammany
man; he was an auxiliary satrap. His removal from of-
fice had been asked for by Attorney-General Jackson and
Deputy Attorney-General Nathan Viadiver, of New York

State, at the conclusion of an inquiry into Bermel's office.
Bermel was charged by the Attorney General and by
the Queen's Borough Property Owners' Association with
various acts. He was accused of conspiring with others
the President of the Borough of the Bronx, etc. Commis-
Office of
sioners of Accounts, June 16, 1908, p. 1.
e 7
Ibid., p. 3. Ibid., p. 3.
to defraud New York City in the purchase or sale of
land to New York City; he was charged with accepting
money from persons interested in the sale of such lands,
and was further charged with selling and using his influ-
ence in the land purchases in question. He was accused
of failing to aid the Grand Jury in its investigations into
these transactions, and was further charged with block-
ing the procedure of that body with his influence and
money in refusing to testify in certain matters, and in
other cases testifying falsely and removing his books from
the Grand'Jury's jurisdiction. Another charge was that
he swore falsely concerning his bank deposits, which evi-
dence he sought to corroborate by the testimony of a wit-
ness who presented apparent confirmation in the shape of
a written paper, which paper upon investigation was
proved to be a false and fraudulent document.
Still further, Mr. Bermel was charged with receiving
money for granting special privileges to contractors ; with
neglecting pavements and permitting material of a lower
grade than specified to be used in contract work with ;
purchasing supplies for public buildings at exorbitant

prices and with allowing the same high prices to be
charged for repairs to public buildings. Additional
charges were that he appointed incompetent subordinates
and permitted persons who did no work to draw salaries.
Closeupon the announcement from Albany that Governor
Hughes had appointed Samuel H. Ordway as Commis-
sioner to take testimony, Bermel on April 29, 1908, re-
8
signed from office.
The Aldermen on April 30, 1908, elected Lawrence
Gresser to fill Mr. Bermel's unexpired term as President
of the Borough of Queens, and on November 2, 1909, Mr.
Gresser was elected by the people to that office for the
8 He hadbeen elected Borough President of Queens in 1905, after a
fight upon "Joe" Cassidy, long Democratic "boss" of Queens, in
which campaign Bermel ran as an "Independent Democrat" and had
"
violently denounced Cassidyism and public graft."
1906 1909 331
four ensuing years. In 1911 charges were preferred

by
citizens County against Gresser. A number
of Queens
of these charges were sustained by Samuel H.
Ordway,
the Commissioner appointed by the Governor to take testi-
mony and report. Commissioner Ordway, however, ex-
" Of those
plained in his report made June 16, 1911 :
[charges] that are sustained, none, in my opinion, estab-

lishes corruption or dishonesty on the part of Mr. Gres-
ser. I believe that he is an honest man and would not
be a party to any corrupt acts either for his own benefit
or that of his associates. But I am of the opinion that
he has been inefficient and incompetent, and has been
neglectful of his duty to protect the city and the Borough
of Queens against fraud and corruption on the part of
9
his subordinates." After an argument made by Robert
S. Binkerd, Secretary of the City Club, asking for Mr.
Gresser's removal, Governor Dix removed Gresser from
office.
But Tammany men were not the only officials against
whom charges were brought. It had long been a subject
of increasing general comment that District Attorney
Jerome, much noted as such a leading reformer, who had
been so conspicuously active in sending petty offenders to
prison, had failed to bring about the conviction of any
high insurance officials and had not brought about the
indictment of a single traction system manipulator.
On September 8, 1907, a voluminous petition was sent
by various New York business men and other citizens to
Governor Hughes. This petition recited in detail the
specific transactions thus complained of, made a scathing
criticism of District Attorney Jerome for having failed
to prosecute those responsible, and demanded that the
Attorney General of New York State be forthwith directed
to bring prosecution.
9In the Matter of Charges Preferred against Lawrence Gresser,

President of the Borough of Queens, City of New York, Report of
Commissioner Samuel H. Ordway, 1911, p. 91.
Evidence submitted, on December 1, 1907, to the
Grand Jury in General Sessions showed that Thomas F.
Ryan and associates had bought in 1902 from Anthony
N. Brady for $250,000 the franchise of a company called
the Wall and Cortland Street Ferries Railroad
Company,
a corporation having a dormant franchise for a road
that had never been built. 10 They had then sold this
franchise to a dummy corporation, called the Metropol-
itan Securities Company, for $965,607.19. Part of this
sum went to the syndicate's brokers the precise amount
;
of funds divided among Ryan, Widener, Dolan and the es-

tates of William C. Whitney and William L. Elkins was
$692,292.82.
n
The surviving members of this group
subsequently settled the transaction by making restitution
of this sum soon after the facts had been made public and
after charges had been made against Jerome. On the
very day that Mr. Ryan and associates had bought the
non-existent Wall and Cortlandt Street Ferries Railroad,
they had also bought, for $1,600,000, the People's Trac-
tion Company, owning a paper road never built, and the
New York, Westchester and Connecticut Traction Com-
pany, a small railway, which a short time previously had
12
been sold in bankruptcy proceedings for $1 5,000. It
was charged that in this transaction also, there was an-
other grand division of funds.
These particular transactions, however, were in reality
compared to the disappearance of $16,000,-
insignificant
000 from the treasury of the Third avenue Railway, 13
1 In a signed statement in the New York Evening Call, February
27, 1909, Col. Amory declared that when this matter was originally
exposed in the hearing before the Public Service Commission, the full
facts were not brought out; that one of the ten original owners had
recently informed him (Amory) that the price paid by Ryan and
Brady was in reality only $25,000.
n See Investigation of the Interborough Metropolitan Company,
etc., 1907, Public Service Commission, First District, Vol. IV, pp.
1613-1618, etc.
12 Ibid.
13 After this
company had been forced into bankruptcy in 1908, the
1906 1909 333
and vaster total transactions charged, aggregating, as

we have previously noted, about $90,000,000. The fact
was brought out in the investigation by the Public Service
Commission that all the books of the Metropolitan Street
Railway Company which its affairs from 1891 onward
in
to 1902 were recorded, had been sold to a purchaser who
14
promised to destroy them. Street car lines bought for
a few hundred thousand dollars were, it was charged, cap-
italized at ten or twenty times that sum, and then followed
a process by which vast amounts were charged in duplica-
tion of construction accounts.
Lemuel Ely Quigg (who for had been a mem-
six years
ber of Congress) admitted that in the four years preced-
ing 1907 he had received $217,000 from the Metropolitan
Street Railway Company. 15 This was charged to a con-
struction fund, part of which was another sum of $798,-
000 paid to different persons whose names were con-
cealed. Further facts in a legislative investigation in
1910 (to which we shall hereafter refer) supplied certain
other missing links.
No criminal proceedings, however, were brought against
Mr. Ryan. In a statement published on May 26, 1909,
Col. Amory averred that when a Grand Jury was called
in 1907 to investigate the acts of Ryan and associates
of the Metropolitan Street Railway Company, the fore-
man of the Grand Jury was a director in Mr. Ryan's
above sum was the estimate as stated by Receiver Whitridge. See
also Col. Amory's remarks, June 29, 1910, Third Avenue Company
Plan of Reorganization, Public Service Commission, First District,
Stenographic Minutes, p. 2417.
i*
Investigation of Interborough Metropolitan Company, etc., 1907,
Public Service Commission, First District, Vol. II, pp. 774-775. D. C.
Moorehead, Secretary and Treasurer of the Metropolitan Street Rail-
way Company, further testified that District Attorney Jerome had
investigated these books in 1903, and that they were disposed of in
1905 for $117 or so; they were sold, Mr. Moorehead testified, "because
of lack of store room." No litigation, he said, was in progress at the
time they were sold.
is
Investigation of Interborough Metropolitan Company, etc., 1907,
Vol. Ill, p. 1395, etc.
Equitable Life Assurance Society. Col. Amory also
made the accusation that in April, 1903, Daniel Mason,
Mr. Jerome's former law partner, and William H.
Page, Jr., another of the Metropolitan's lawyers, had at-
tempted to bribe him (Amory) while a State's witness,
with $200,000, to withdraw the charges that Amory had
filed with Jerome against the Metropolitan Street Rail-
way Company. On January 27, 1908, Judge Rosalsky,

in the Court of General Sessions, severely arraigned Dis-
trict Attorney Jerome, declaring that Jerome had so con-
ducted the examination of Thomas F. Ryan before the
Grand Jury as probably to invalidate any indictments
which that body might have found against Ryan. Paul
D. Cravath, Governor Hughes's former law partner, was
now Ryan's astute attorney.
Governor Hughes appointed a Commissioner to hear
the evidence upon which the charges against Mr. Jerome
were made. Jerome admitted that when Ryan, Brady and
Vreeland were before the Grand Jury he had put leading
questions to them. Further he testified that he had not
asked the Grand Jury to indict Ryan in the matter of
the Wall Street and Cortlandt Street Ferries Railway
transactions. Interrogated as to a certain contribution
made to his campaign fund by Samuel Untermeyer, coun-
sel for Mr. Hyde of the Equitable Life Assurance Society,
Mr. Jerome denied that any ulterior purpose was behind
it. Mr. Ryan admitted on the witness stand that he
(Ryan) had contributed heavily to the national fund of
the Democratic party in 1900.
The Commissioner's report exonerated Jerome, and
Governor Hughes dismissed the charges, saying, " Noth-
ing has been presented which furnishes any just ground
for impeaching the good faith of the District Attorney in
connection with any of the transactions set forth, nor has
anything been shown which would justify his removal from
office." The outcome was severely criticized by some of
the very newspapers which had once enthusiastically sup-
1906 1909 335
ported Mr. Jerome. Col. Amory wrote that there were

other bribes than money bribes, and that he did not be-
lieve Mr. Jerome capable of doing a corrupt act for
16
money. Whatever the fundamental facts, the conse-
quences were clear: great sums of money had undeniably
vanished, a group of magnates had become additionally
enriched, the street railway system was wrecked and
thrown into bankruptcy, the statute of limitations had
meanwhile been interposed, and nobody had been prose-
cuted.
These were the essential facts, and they were facts that,
after all
explanations, could not be evaded. Mr. Jerome
himself was forced to recognize them in his own defense;
in his public speeches he took great pains to assure his
hearers that acts might be wrong and yet not criminal,
but it was an explanation not favorably received in gen-
eral. The great change in public opinion was forcibly
shown, when, at a meeting in Cooper Union, on May 26,
1909, Mr. Jerome was badly heckled and asked the most
pointed questions as to why he had not prosecuted the
traction magnates.
The city finances during these years were in a bewilder-
ingly deplorable state. On December 31, 1907, the total
amount remaining uncollected from the tax levies cover-
ing the years 1899 to 1907, inclusive, was $90,545,000.
In addition, a sum of $12,289,000 remained uncollected
from the tax levies prior to the year 1899. 17 Notwith-
standing these actual enormous deficiencies, the amounts
placed in the tax levies, from the years 1899 to 1905 in-
clusive, to provide for possible deficiencies in tax collec-
tions, was only $11,719,000. During that very period
the amounts in discounts, remissions and cancelations
amounted to $12,477,000, which was more than $758,000
IB Truth About Metropolitan, p. 2.
i?
Report of the Joint Committee of the Senate and Assembly of
the State of New York, Appointed to
Investigate the Finances of the
State of New York. March 1, 1909, p. 10.
in excess of the amount placed in the tax levies to provide
" In other
for deficiencies in collections. words," reported
" the amounts
a Select Legislative Committee, placed in
the tax levies during those years to provide for deficiencies
in collections, did not even equal the discounts, cancela-
tions and remissions, and made no provision whatever for
failure or inability to collect taxes levied." 18
By October 31, 1908, uncollected taxes due the city
(including $9,324,000 personal taxes for years previous
J to 1898, which had been written off as uncollectable),
amounted to $84,506,000. Despite the fact that this
huge sum had not been collected, the city officials spent
the greater part of it as though it had been collected;
of the $84,506,000 uncollected, the sum of $76,266,000
had, by October 31, 1908, been expended by the city in
appropriations included in budgets which^ in reality,
ought to have been defrayed by these uncollected
taxes. 19
Basing their action on these uncollected taxes, the city
had issued, from time to time, large amounts in
officials
revenue bonds with which to get money to pay the ap-
propriations in the yearly budgets. On October 31,
1908, there was outstanding against these arrears of taxes
$40,606,000 of revenue bonds. This left a balance of
$35,660,000 which had been expended by the city for cur-
rent expenses, but which had neither been collected nor
20
procured by revenue bonds. The Select Legislative
Committee commented upon the fact that although the
evidence proved conclusively that not more than 65 per
cent of personal taxes were collectable, yet the city budget
had nearly equaled the entire levy in each year. 21 Fur-
thermore, the sum of $24,521,000 in special franchise
taxes had not been collected by December 31, 1907.
The sources of a certain $33,000,000 which had been
spent by the city puzzled the Select Legislative Commit-
20 ibid.
i8/6icL, p. 11.
i Ibid. 21 ibid.
1906 1909 337
tee. Just how this money was obtained the Committee

was not able to ascertain.
But, the Committee added, it was shown that the as-
sessment account for local improvements was depleted
to the amount of $1,900,000. There should have been
a sum of, $600,000 comprising trust funds, various be-
quests, intestate estates, etc., but it could not be found.
Also, there should have been in the city treasury $3,800,-
000 more as a special account including deposits made with
the city against contractors' liability for restoring and re-
paving streets and the unliquidated balance of the Brook-
"
lyn fund. But this $3,800,000 did not exist." The ac-
counts of the various boroughs revealed a shortage of
$1,500,000; excise funds were short $5,100,000; the ac-
count of unexpended proceeds of the bond account dis-
closed a shortage of $7,200,000, and the account of that
part of the unexpended bond accounts which had not been
22
allotted was short $8,250,000.
" The Controller's
office," the Select Legislative Com-
" was unable within
mittee reported, any reasonable time
to determine from what funds the remaining $4,000,000
had been taken, making up the total shortage of $33,-
000,000. But the net result is certain, that for the pay-
ment of running expenses over a long period of years,
the City has taken the total amount of $29,000,000 from
specific funds set apart for other purposes, shifting
the
resulting deficits from one fund to another as occasion re-
23
quired."
Large issues of corporate stock were also made for
24
other than permanent improvements.
The city budget appropriations had grown enormously.
In 1898 the amount was $70,175,896. By 1909 it had
mounted to $156,545,148, an increase of more than $86,-
000,000, or approximately 123 per cent. Yet the in-
25
crease in population had been only about 39.4 per cent.
2 * Ibid.,
22
Ibid., p. 13. pp. 14-15.
23J6,U, p. 13. Klbid., p. 16.
Vast sums were squandered in the purchasing of city
supplies and in a multitude of other ways. Condemna-
tion proceedings were a source of great scandal. There
was the Catskill reservoir and aqueduct to supply New
York with water, the estimated cost of which undertaking
was $162,000,000. " " of
Rings politicians bought land
which they sold to the city at high prices. For the one
item of advertising " public notices " of condemnation pro-
28
ceedings, the cost already had approximated $800,000.
In three years the fees paid to certain Catskill reservoir
and aqueduct commissioners appointed to condemn land,
aggregated $169,490, and this amount did not include the
27
fees of commissioners who had not yet reported. Dur-
ing the same period the fees paid to commissioners in New
York City street and park opening proceedings totalled
more than $384,000, while fees paid in other condemna-
tion proceedings (exclusive of the Dock Department) ag-
28
gregated more than $300,000.
Large as these sums were, they were but a fraction of
the total amounts pocketed by all of the beneficiaries.
The city payroll was padded with an extraordinarily
large number of superfluous employees. In a separate
memorandum to the Legislative Committee report, Mr.
William M. Bennet, a member of that committee, quoted
Controller Metz's statement in 1909 that from 25 to 50
per cent of New York City's payroll, then totalling $80,-
" 29
At this time (in 1909)
000,000 a year, was useless."
New York City's actual debt reached $800,000,000. 30 In
" "
many directions Organization men were faring richly.
Even though Mayor McClellan was fighting Leader
Murphy, Tammany held sway in many administrative and
court departments, not included in the Mayor's jurisdic-
tion, and he had certain reasons for placating some Tam-
many district leaders.
29 ibid.,
p. 26. p. 115.
27 Ibid., aoJ&tU, pp. 112-113.
p. 28.
28 Ibid.
1906 1909 339
After declaring his independence of " Boss " Murphy,

Mayor McClellan, supported by Senator McCarren, of
Brooklyn, had begun a contest futile enough, as it
turned out to get control of Tammany Hall. Accord-
31
ing to a magazine article written by General Theodore
A. Bingham, Police Commissioner during Mayor McClel-
lan's second administration, Mayor McClellan
" knew
full well that the most effective
weapon was the power and
patronage at by virtue of his office. When
his disposal,
he tried to use the police I objected." Dismissed by
Mayor McClellan from the office of Police Commissioner,
Mr. Bingham soon after set forth his experiences in the
published article in question.
" In all election
contests," wrote General Bingham fur-
ther,
" whether it be a
primary election, a municipal election, or a State
or a National election, the police are a factor. The district leader
who can control the majority of the uniformed men on duty in his
bailiwick is not apt to have much trouble in fighting off rival candi-
dates. He has a most influential body of men working for him 365
days in the year.
"
The baneful influence of the ordinary Tammany district leader
in a single precinct station house is far-reaching. When he can do
favors, or persuade the men that he can do them, his influence is
something beyond belief. Some leaders have had more authority
in some police stations than the executive head of the department.
They have been looked upon as the men from whom to take orders.
They have often visited the station not only to give bail for unlucky
constituents, but to give orders to the captains and lieutenants.
"
Policemen as a whole are the most gullible persons in the entire
City Government when it comes to the question of the power of the
political
'
boss.' This is not surprising. Experience has taught
them that if they displease the local powers they are apt to be trans-
ferred to a distant precinct. Therefore, they fear to take a chance.
The wily leader takes advantage of this weakness. He uses his power
at every opportunity, and when he meets with opposition he is
prompt with his threats. Suppose, in the course of time, the offend-
ing policeman is shifted as a matter of routine. Then the leader
struts about telling this offender's fellow officers that he, the leader,
had the man transferred." And if a policeman showed independ-
ence, Mr. Bingham asserted, a word from the leader to the superior
si
Why I Was Removed, by Theodore A. Bingham, Van Nordtn's
Magazine, September, 1909.
officers caused "complaints to be made, extra hours of duty, un-
pleasant details and the like, until the man's life is made miserable."
General Bingham declared that he had labored to stamp

out these abuses, but unavailingly. " So bad did this po-
litical influence become in some precincts in Manhattan
after Mayor McClellan began
his contests at the primaries
for the leadership of Tammany Hall, that I had to make
radical changes in the personnel of those districts."
It was absurdly easy for Mr. Murphy and his Tam-
many machine leaders to squelch Mayor McClellan's plans
for leadership. No auspicious time was it, however, to
nominate a " regular Organization man " for Mayor ;
respectability had to be invoked and a hack politician ob-

viously would not serve the purpose. Besides, there was
resistance from Senator McCarren's Brooklyn organiza-
tion against the nomination of a distinctively Tammany
" " creature.
Organization
The candidate of Hall and its allies was
Tammany
William J. Gaynor. A
Brooklyn lawyer, he had signal-
ized his early career by causing John Y. McKane, then
Democratic " boss " of Coney Island, to be convicted and
imprisoned for ballot box frauds and for defying a court
injunction. Elected to the State Supreme Court, Gaynor
was a member of that body when nominated for Mayor;
and by his constant exposures of the tyrannies and abuses
committed by the police force he had become widely and
" The
favorably known as a man opposed to System."
Thus, Tammany could depict its candidate as a genuine
and proved reformer. But apart from these representa-
tions, Gaynor was, in fact, a man of intellect, force and
independence of character, deep understanding of public
questions and of progressive, even advanced, views. A far
different type he was from the usual run of ignorant graft-
ing politicians.
By his strong denunciations of the looting done by
surface-railway manipulators and by his emphatic declara-
tions in favor of the building by the city itself of further
1906 1909 341
subways, Gaynor won a large following. He seemed un-

commonly sincere when he caustically arraigned the combi-
nation of railway promoters and financiers who, he said,
were busy at the " old game " of seeking to enrich them-
selves manifold more by getting additional traction fran-
"
chises. My friends," he asserted" in a speech in Tam-
many Hall, on October 19, 1909, we are going to build
the subways. We do not intend that a single subway or
a franchise for it shall be passed over to any of these men."
He made other pronouncements to the same effect.
The pushful, insistent Mr. Hearst was still backed by
a political organization, now passing under the name of
the Civic Alliance, but his course in accepting Mr. Mur-
phy's and Tammany's support during his candidacy for
Governor after having bitterly assailed them in previous
campaigns when he was an independent candidate, had
effectually alienated many of his former followers. By
reason of the influence of his newspapers, he still, however,
had considerable strength. He was the nominee of the
Civic Alliance for Mayor. The Republican and Fusion
candidate was Otto Bannard, a banker. Edward F. Cas-
sidy was the Socialist Party's candidate. One of the
issues put forward by the Fusion campaigners was the
" white slave "
continuing abominations of the traffic,
operated, it was asserted, with the connivance of the
police.
Gaynor was elected. The vote resulted: Gaynor,
250,378; Bannard, 177,304; Hearst, 154,187; Cassidy,
11,768; Hunter (Socialist Labor) 1,256; Manierre (Pro-
hibition) 866. Although, however, Gaynor won, yet by
the election of many of the Fusion candidates (to the
offices of Controller, President of the Board of Alder-
men and presidents of boroughs) Tammany lost control of
nearly all of the borough presidencies, and in turn of many
of the departments and of the powerful Board of Estimate.
In this Board Tammany now had only three votes.
CHAPTER XXXIV
ANOTHKE ERA OF LEGISLATIVE CORRUPTION
1910-1911
was only a few months after this election that the

investigations of William H. Hotchkiss, State Super-
IT intendent of Insurance, followed by that of a New
York Legislative committee into the matter of legislative
graft, revealed the extensive and variegated corruption of
both political parties.
An examination by Mr. Hotchkiss, in October, 1909,
of the affairs of the Phoenix Insurance Company of
Brooklyn had brought to light a mass of correspondence
apparently disclosing an intimate connection between the
president of that company and legislative measures, intro-
duced from 1900 to 1910, affecting fire insurance com-
panies. The materials thus unearthed caused Superin-
tendent Hotchkiss to order a full examination of the books
and records of other fire insurance companies, which ex-
amination was begun in January, 1910.
On January 18, 1910, the New York Evening Post pub-
lished certain facts the purport of which tended to show
that State Senator Jotham P. Allds, when Republican
leader of the Assembly, in 1901, had been bribed to assist
in killing certain legislation to which bridge construction
companies objected. The Senate was forced to investi-

gate, and Allds hastily resigned, but the Senate on March
29, 1910, sustained the charge of bribery by a vote of
40 to 9.
It was well understood that this virtuous action was
" a sacrifice " and an ostentatious
sop to public opinion ;
342
1910 1911 343
many more legislators than he were implicated in charges

of corruption. Meanwhile, Mr. Hotchkiss was persist-
ing in his investigation. In the course of Mr. Hotchkiss'
inquiry, on March 22, 1910, testimony developed the fact
" "
that for twenty years or more, firebug funds had been
raisedby insurance companies and lavishly distributed
among legislators at Albany and that those companies
had employed one William H. Buckley to act as
" watcher " on " strike bills " introduced in the
Legisla-
ture at Albany. Buckley admitted that at a time after
only three years' admission to the bar, he had received
$27,000 from insurance companies for representing them
during the sessions of the Legislature.
One of the bills introduced in the Legislature was a
measure fathered by Senator Thomas F. Grady, a noted
Tammany leader, celebrated as the chief orator of the
Tammany organization. This bill, called a re-insurance
act, was introduced and passed under such circumstances
that Vice-President Correa of the Home Insurance Com-
letter as
"
pany referred to it in a contemporary bought
legislation." Mr. Correa also stated in that
letter, which
was in evidence, that only three re-insured fire insurance
companies supported the bill, which gave those three com-
panies a distinct advantage over 209 direct insurance
com-
panies doing business in New York State. The bill dealt
with the carrying of a reserve where part of a fire risk

was re-insured. Senator Grady declared, in a public in-
terview, that this bill was introduced to protect policy
holders by compelling the re-insurance company, when a
of the
part of a policy was farmed out by the company
first instance, to keep an adequate reserve against the
insurance officers exam-
policy thus taken, but all of the
ined by Mr. Hotchkiss admitted either wholly or in part,
that Grady's interview did not represent a correct con-
1
ception of what his bill actually provided.
iAn indication of Senator Grady's large sources of income had
come to public notice in 1907 when the District Attorney's force raided
Another conspicuous Tammany leader implicated in
the disclosures before Superintendent Hotchkiss was Sen-
ator " Big Tim " Sullivan. He had long been one of the
really powerful leaders of Tammany Hall, and held di-
rect sovereignty over the teeming East Side below Four-
teenth Street.
Beginning as a bartender, " Big Tim " Sullivan
life
had been given the nick-name " Dry Dollar " Sullivan,
because of his habit of carefully wiping the bar before
placing change on it. His career in the Assembly and
Senate was notorious for the number of bad bills pro-
moted or supported by him. His power in manipulating
primaries and swaying elections on the East Side south
of Fourteenth Street was recognized as that of a master
hand he knew how to make the " gangs " his obedient
;
servants ; not a secret of colonizing voters and carrying

elections was unknown to him and his clan; at the same
time he was called " the friend of the poor " because of
his yearly practise of giving the wastrels of the Bowery
and vicinity Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners and pres-
ents. Byproved and consistent ability to sway poli-
his
tics in thegreat and thickly-populated East Side, he had
to be recognized as an independent Tammany power; no
one could become " boss " of Tammany Hall without his
support. His power in Tammany was exceeded only by
Mr. Murphy's. In fact, he was one of the actual rulers,
not only of Tammany Hall, but of New York City.
George F. Seward, president of the Fidelity and Cas-
ualty Company, testified on March 21, 1910, before Su-
perintendent Hotchkiss, that a man representing himself
the poolroom "clearing house" at 112 Fulton street, New York City.
Canceled checks and other records found there revealed that a mys-
terious person designated variously in the syndicate's account books
as "Tommy," "T. G.," "T. Grady," and "Sen.," had "raked off"
more than $43,000 on the poolroom business in the first two years of
the syndicate's existence and had continued to profit from that source
up to the very time of the raid. No doubt, however, Grady had his
losses, too.
1910 1911 345
" "
to be an agent of Senator Big Tim Sullivan, in 1891
or 1892, offered, in return for a $10,000 bribe, to have
a bill inimical to that company's interests killed. Mr.
Seward, in response, dictated this telegram to Sullivan:
" Mr. Seward
says you can go to hell." In reply to a
question as to whether this happened when the Republican
party or the Democratic party was in power, Mr. Seward
"
replied, So far as either party is concerned, I don't
think would make very much difference, and I really do
it
not recall." Both parties, Mr. Seward said, were repre-
" Black Horse " at
sented in the Cavalry Albany. In a
public interview Sullivan denounced Mr. Seward's charge
as a lie. Recalled as a witness, on March 22, 1910,
Seward adhered to the story he had told. It may be
remarked here that when Sullivan died in 1913, he left a
considerable fortune, originally estimated at two millions
of dollars his friends represented that he had made it
;
from a chain of showhouses in which he was interested;

but the inventory showed that he owned large quantities
of stock in mining companies, realty companies and other
concerns. Many of these shares, however, were listed by
the executors of his estate as valueless. The definite
value of Sullivan's estate was placed at $1,021,277.33.
On March 24, 1910, certain definite facts were brought
out showing how Buckley, lobbyist at Albany for the fire
insurance companies, had succeeded in killing, in 1903,
various proposed enactments which those companies did
not want enacted.
Correspondence produced showed that Buckley had
written to George P. Sheldon, president of the Phoenix
" it was not difficult to tie the
Insurance Company, that
matter [insurance bills] up in the committee," and later
correspondence held out the assurance that the matter
" had been
arranged." According to the testimony, Jus-
tice Edward E. McCall of the New York State Supreme
Court had indorsed a $35,000 check from Sheldon to
Buckley. On March 29, 1910, Darwin P. Kingsley, presi-
dent of the New York Life Insurance Company, testified
that Buckley had offered to buy him the votes of six mem-
bers of the New York State Senate for a certain amount,
and that when he (Kingsley) declined to pay, a certain
insurance measure which Kingsley had favored was with-
drawn.
These are but a few of the specific details brought out
in the hearings before Mr. Hotchkiss it appeared that at
;
least tenprominent Republican legislators who had ruled

important Senate and Assembly Committees for years had
speculative accounts in the brokerage firm of Ellingwood
& Cunningham of New York City, in which firm G.
" Yellow "
Tracy Rogers, keeper of the traction Dog
fund during that period, was a special partner.
On April 8, 1910, State Superintendent of Insurance
Hotchkiss made a full report to Governor Hughes of the
investigation that he had made. Mr. Hotchkiss reported
that the aggregate of disbursements by fire insurance com-
panies in connection with legislation affecting those com-
panies, from 1901 to 1909, probably exceeded $150,000.
" The "
moneys so paid," Mr. Hotchkiss reported, were
disbursed for traveling expenses of individuals and dele-
gations annual and special retainers of regular counsels
; ;
so-called retainers of legislative lawyers;contributions

to political committees ; gifts or payments to men of
political prominence and influence, and entertaining legis-
lators and others, at times in a somewhat lavish manner."
Mr. Hotchkiss further set forth in his report that the
of " strike " bills in and out of committees was
log rolling
a regular business, that the books of the stock brokerage
house of Ellingwood & Cunningham, New York City,
" warrant a
strong suspicion that such books, to an ex-
tent at least, had been a clearing house for financial trans-
actions connected with legislation during the period men-
tioned," and that G. Tracy Rogers, a special partner in
the firm and long president of the Street Railways Associa-
tion of the State of New York, seemed up to the time of
1910 1911 347
"
to have been the legislative repre-
the failure of that firm
sentative at Albany of the traction interests." Mr.
"
Hotchkiss reported that Certain of the accounts in
:
these ledgers show a close connection between G. Tracy

Rogers and the Metropolitan traction interests in New
York City. The character of the securities dealt in [by
legislators] frequently recalls legislation urged or re-
tarded at about the same time." Mr. Hotchkiss urged
further inquiry, and in a special message to the Legisla-
ture, on April 11, 1910, Governor Hughes called on that
body to follow, by means of a general investigation, the
trails of legislative corruption laid bare by the Allds brib-
ery trial and the investigation conducted by Superintend-

ent Hotchkiss.
In the face of the exposures already made and the in-
sistent demands for further investigation, the legislative
committee appointed for the purpose could not evade
pressing the inquiry.
The testimony on September 15, 1910, showed that
during a single month in the summer of 1903, the sum of
$40,000 was sent by an agent of the New York City
street railway interests to the firm of Ellingwood &
Cunningham, and that no vouchers or receipts were asked
or given to account for the distribution of the money.
At previous hearings, the fact had been established that
this brokerage house was the firm which served as a
" " for the
clearing-house money supplied to members of
the Legislature by G. Tracy Rogers. At the hearing on
September 16, 1910, the evidence showed that Senator
Louis F. Goodsell and Assemblyman Louis Bedell, promi-
nent Republican leaders in the Legislature, had received
large amounts of money from the Metropolitan Street
Railway Company and G. Tracy Rogers from 1900 to
1904; Goodsell had received $24,800, and Bedell $21,750.
" " stock without
Goodsell admitted that he had bought
putting up any margin.
At the same hearing, H. H. Vreeland, president of the
Metropolitan Street Railway Company, testified that the
Metropolitan Street Railway Company contributed cam-
paign funds, and that it did so to practically every one
that ran for office; he remembered $20,000 or $25,000
given to the Republican organization and $17,000 or
$18,000 to the Democratic organization; this was in about
the year 1902 or 1903. Another method of subsidizing
politicians individually, Mr. Vreeland testified, was by
carrying stocks on the books of various brokerage houses
for them; these individual stock transactions ran from
$20,000 to more than $30,000.
Much further testimony was brought out showing the
enormous and continuous subsidizing of both old political
parties and politicians by corporations wanting certain
legislation enacted or smothered. On September 21, 1910,
Mr. Vreeland admitted that the Metropolitan Street Rail-
way" Company had, prior to 1903, paid out fully $250,000
"
in taking up stocks that legislators and other poli-
ticians had been carrying with brokerage houses and which
they desired converted into cash this was one of the indi-
;
rect methods of influencing political or legislative action

in the interest of the company. G. Tracy Rogers testified
that he had disbursed $82,475 in three years, and that
most of it went to members of the railroad committees of
the New York Legislature. In these hearings the names
of a number of conspicuous legislators and the amounts
received by them were brought out in the testimony.
Testimony, also under oath, on October 19, 1910, pur-
ported to show that a legislative corruption fund of
$500,000 was raised at a meeting in Delmonico's to de-
feat anti-race track gambling legislation at Albany in
1908; that Charles H. Hyde, Chamberlain of New York
2
2
Hyde, on November 29, 1912, was convicted in court on a charge
of accepting a bribe, as a public officer, in consideration for depositing
public money in certain banks. He was sentenced to two years in
State's prison. But the verdict was later reversed by the Appellate
Division of the Supreme Court, and he was released from all criminal
charges.
1910 1911 349
City under Mayor Gaynor, attended this meeting, and

that State Senator Frank Gardner went to Albany with
Hyde because Hyde did not know the ways of legislators
and how to approach them " properly."
Hyde's father-in-law was William A. Engeman, owner
of the Brighton Beach race track ; according to the testi-
mony, Hyde made a subscription for Engeman (who had
failed to pay), and later put in a bill for personal ex-
penses covering the amount. The testimony further rep-

resented that there was a dispute as to who was to handle
the bribery funds, and that $125,000 was given to James
E. Gaffney " to take care of three or four members of
the Legislature Tammany men." According further
to the testimony, Senator Thomas F. Grady, Demo-
cratic leader at Albany and close friend and spokesman
of " Boss
"
Murphy, received only $4,000 of the bribery
fund. Two Republican State Senators wanted $25,000
each. The testimony also involved Senator Patrick H.
McCarren. Senator McCarren was the Democratic
" boss " of
Brooklyn ; he was an ally of Tammany Hall
(for the Democratic organization in Brooklyn retained
its autonomy separate from that of Tammany Hall, yet
allied with it), and he was the legislative agent of various
financial interests and trusts.
It appeared, according to the testimony, that Senator
McCarren was angry that the handling of the race track
fund was entrusted to others; he objected " to a strange
man going up there, expecting to get away with such a
proposition," but later he was placated and lent his aid
against the bill. When urging Senator Foelker, a Brook-
lyn Republican, 'to vote against the bill, McCarren was
represented as saying to Foelker: "You need not fear
the indignation of your constituents. If you are afraid
of possible reelection or have any doubts about election
time, I think I can fix it up for you so you can name your
own opponent at the coming election." This was the
substance of the testimony of Assistant District Attorney
Robert Elder, of Brooklyn, who narrated the facts re-
vealed to him by former State Senator Frank Gardner,
under indictment charged with attempting to bribe
Foelker. (Here the fact should be noted that when
Gardner was tried on this charge he was acquitted on
February 23, 1911.) Mr. Foelker himself testified that
he was offered $45,000 and then $50,000 to vote against
the bill, which offer he refused; the vote on the bill was
extremely close, and a single vote meant its passage or
defeat.
At further hearings of the Legislative " Graft Hunt "
Committee, Senator Eugene M. Travis, of Brooklyn,
testified that an ineffectual effort had been made, at a
time when the foes of the measure needed only one or two
votes, to bribe him with $100,000 to vote against the bill
prohibiting horse racing in New York State. Senator
Travis specified three other Senators whom they attempted
to bribe. August Belmont testified that the $500,000
fund was " mythical and absurd." It was reported that
representations made at the hearing on Novemder 30,
1910, were to the effect that one jockey club alone had
expended $33,000 while the anti-race track gambling legis-
lation was pending, and that information from reliable
sources tended to show that each of the other seven racing
associations had expended a similar sum, or perhaps more.
Further information, it was given out, was to the effect
that each of ninety-three bookmakers had subscribed $3,-
000 each. The total of the above stated contributions
would have amounted to $543,000 supposing the fund
to have been a fact.
Whatever were the basic facts, pro and con, as to the
alleged $500,000 fund for the defeat of the anti-race-track
bill, the record shows that it was defeated on April 8,
1908, by a vote of 25 to 25, and that among those voting

against it were such Tammany Senators as Grady, Fraw-
ley, McManus, Sullivan and other Tammany men and
Democrats, in all seventeen Democrats and eight Re-
1910 1911 351
publicans. Anew State Senator having been elected in

a special election in one district, the bill prohibiting
gambling at race tracks was subsequently passed.
Nearly all of those involved made vehement denials.
Senator McCarren had died on October 23, 1909 a
year before these hearings. Although cooperating with
" Boss "
Murphy in elections, there was nevertheless con-
siderable animosity between the two, arising, it was gen-
erally believed, from a suspicion that Mr. Murphy, in-
flated by his personal victory in electing McClellan in
1903, was attempting to extend his political territory to
Brooklyn. Senator McCarren had openly protested
this
" encroachment " and had threatened trouble
against
if it were pushed. It was this jealously vigilant attitude
on the part of the bosses of the other boroughs which
prevented Tammany Hall from extending its regular or-
ganization outside the former city limits.
McCarren himself was a " sporting man " and reputed
to be a
" " at that. He had his own elab-
thoroughbred
orate racing stable, and it was said of him that he once
uncomplainingly lost $30,000 on a bet, although the de-
cision of the racing judges was open to question. In
1908 the failure of the brokerage firm of Ennis & Stop-
" "
pani revealed the fact that McCarren was carrying
$250,000 worth of stock, for which he had paid nothing,
and which resulted in a loss to him of about $107,000.
No demand had been made by the brokers upon McCarren
for margins ; in view of this fact he could not have been
compelled to pay losses ; it was said of him, however, that
he gave a check to the receiver and took the stock. He
was a " heavy operator " in real estate and in the stock
market, and had personal relations with H. H. Rogers,
Anthony N. Brady, William C. Whitney, J. Pierpont
Morgan, W. K. Vanderbilt, August Belmont and other
Wall Street magnates, of whose interests he was a recog-
nized pusher in the Legislature.
To return, however, to the hearings of the Legislative
" Graft Hunt " Committee facts
:
brought out showed that
the beet sugar interests had also debauched the Legisla-
ture and that State Senator John Raines, a leading Re-
publican, received $9,000 in two years for pushing bounty
bills to aid beet sugar interests. These facts were ad-
mitted by Henry F. Zimmerlin, former vice-president and
Albany lobbyist of the Lyons Beet Sugar Refining Com-
pany.
The full testimony tended to show that insurance com-
panies, traction companies, construction companies and
other interests paid large sums to defeat legislation that
they did not want enacted, or were blackmailed into pay-
" strike bills "
ing other large sums to have suppressed.
But the report of the Legislative Investigating Commit-
tee, made on February 1, 1911, was harmless as far as
specific findings of corruption were concerned. As to the
charges of traction and race track corruption, the Com-
mittee reported that no definite and substantial charge,
verified by knowledge, had been filed with it, and that
" in
consequence it finds nothing definite in regard to the trac-

tion and race track charges that it examined." There
were one or two indictments, but no one, either bribers or
bribed, had to go prison, although in charges made in a
detached subsequent case, one solitary State Senator, Stil-
irell, was convicted of bribery charges and sentenced to
prison; he was a comparatively obscure politician.

Inasmuch as the Legislature for years had been dom-
inantly Republican, these disclosures had a much more
injurious political effect upon the Republican organiza-
tion than upon Tammany, and they were of weight in
s The Committee commented: " The
investigation shows clearly the
extreme difficulty of securing exact information which will disclose
the methods by which powerful financial interests seek to control leg-
islative action in matters coming before legislative bodies.
"
The crime of bribery is one of the most difficult of all crimes to
uncover. All the resources of ingenuity are used to conceal it, and
only in exceedingly rare instances are either of the parties to the
crime willing to come forward and disclose the facts."
1910 1911 353
bringing about the election of a Democratic Governor in

the person of John A. Dix, in 1910. This was the first
Democratic Governor of New York State elected in many
years ; the result was the enlargement of Tammany's sway,
and more offices and further fields of power and profit for
" the
Organization."
At the same time, a Legislature, the majority of which
were Tammany men and Democrats, was elected. The
election of a United States Senator coming up, the chief
aspirant pushed for the place was William F. Sheehan,
an attorney for the traction magnate, Thomas F. Ryan.
Mr. Murphy had his headquarters in Albany directing the
contest; he was said to have given his promise to Mr.
Sheehan, but when he saw that Sheehan could not be
elected, he tried to bring about the election of Daniel F.
Cohalan, his personal attorney and adviser, as United
States Senator. A few years previously, Cohalan was
an obscure lawyer, but as the friend and adviser 'of
" Boss "
Murphy, his practise had grown to large and
lucrative proportions; it was a practise principally deal-
ing with matters concerning municipal affairs. In 1908
Mr. Murphy had caused Mr. Cohalan to be chosen Grand
Sachem of the Tammany Society.
But Mr. Murphy found that it was not possible to put
" in-
Cohalan in the United States Senate. Certain
" Democratic from various
surgent legislators elected
parts of the State, wanted neither Sheehan, Ryan's at-
torney, nor Cohalan, Murphy's attorney. Finally Jus-
tice James A. O'Gorman (who years previously had been
elected to the New York State Supreme Court by Tam-
many) was compromised upon as the candidate for United
States Senator and elected.
Then Mr. Murphy decided to make Mr. Cohalan Jus-
tice O'Gorman's successor on the Supreme Court Bench.
According to published report, the appointment of Mr.

Cohalan as a Justice of the Supreme Court by Governor
" "
Dix was the result of a deal between Dix and Murphy.
Governor Dix wanted the appointment of George C. Van
Tuyl, as State Commissioner of Banks, confirmed. The
nomination of Van Tuyl was referred to the Senate
Finance Committee, of which Senator Frawley, a Tam-
many district leader, was chairman. A report was pre-
pared recommending that the nomination of Van Tuyl be
confirmed, but this report was held up week after week,
and the statement was common in the political slang cur-
rent at Albany that no action could be taken in present-
" until the Governor
ing the report comes across with
Cohalan." At last, on May 18, 1911, Senator Frawley
suddenly presented the report, moved its confirmation,
and the Senate acquiesced. Sixteen minutes later a mes-
sage appeared from Governor Dix announcing the ap-
pointment of Daniel F. Cohalan to succeed James A.
O'Gorman as Justice of the Supreme Court for the re-
mainder of O'Gorman's unexpired term.
The session of 1911 was the first time in nineteen years
that the Democratic party had control of the Legisla-
ture, and Tammany Hall was in control of the Democratic
organization in the State. It was at this session that a
strong effort was made to enact the Tammany-Gaynor
" " much
Ripper Charter, the provisions of which aroused
scandal. The majority of the Board of Estimate in New
York City were at this time Independent Democrats.
The proposed charter would have arbitrarily deprived
them of many of their most important functions of office.
Its aim was to impair the powers of the Board of Esti-
mate in many destructive ways, and to centralize power
in the hands of the Mayor. It would have given the
Mayor complete domination of the development of trans-

portation facilities in New York City. Such effective op-
position was raised that it was defeated by the votes of
Independent Democrats in the Assembly. At this ses-
sion it was, too, that an attempt was made to pass the
" " bill
Sullivan Inferior Criminal Courts Ripper which,
by making city magistrates elective instead of appointive,
1910 -
1911 355
would have restored the old pernicious, demoralizing sys-

tem of local political influence. These were but two of
a list of other proposed Tammany measures.
Mr. Murphy's habits as leader at this time were in
singular contrast with those of years previously when, as

a district leader, he had made his hailing place by a lamp
post. He now used a luxurious suite of rooms at Del-
monico's fashionable restaurant, at Fifth avenue and
Forty-fourth street, where, during campaign contests,
he held his secret consultations. Here those whom the
" Boss " desired to see on terms of
great privacy were
summoned, nor were they admitted, it was reported, before
they had been first scrutinized and received by Mr. Mur-
" Phil "
phy's factotum, Donohue, the treasurer of Tam-
many Hall, who took his stand in an anteroom. During
the campaign of 1911, when County and Assembly can-
didates were to be elected, Mr. Murphy was to be found
almost daily at Delmonico's, and, according to published
report, Justice Cohalan was there with him frequently.
It was at this election that Mr. Cohalan was elected Jus-
tice of the Supreme Court for a period of fourteen years.
Veteran politicians who had learned the wisdom of com-
bining the pocketing of millions with the art of simple
appearances, shook their heads ominously at what they
considered " Boss " Murphy's tactlessness in vaunting his
power, surrounded by ostentation and grandiose luxury.
CHAPTER XXXV
" CHIEF " MURPHY'S LEADERSHIP
FURTHER DETAILS
1912-1913
GAYNOR was by no means pliable to

purposes; he both asserted and exer-
MAYOR Tammany
cised his independence of " Chief " Murphy.
But although great powers were centralized in his office,
there were nevertheless numbers of Tammany men in the
various departments, bureaus and courts. Of the 85,000
regular employees of New York City in 1912 (including
10,118 policemen and 4,346 firemen), many were Tam-
many men, the larger number of them occupying subor-
dinate positions. The entire city payroll at this time
aggregated about $89,000,000 an average outlay of
$7,500,000 a month for salaries and wages alone. The
city budget for 1913 was $190,411,000.
Despite the appointment of successive Police Commis-
sioners there had been eight within
eleven years to
remedy matters in the Police Department, the state of
affairs in that department was still a fruitful cause of
scandal. This continuing scandal was brought to a vivid
climax by a murder the deliberate audacity of which hor-
rified and aroused the people of the city.
On April 15, 1912, Police Lieutenant Charles Becker
"
went, at the head of his raiding squad," to the gambling
house of Herman Rosenthal on West Forty-fifth street.
On July 11, 1912, Rosenthal went to the West Side Police
Court to protest against the " oppression " of the police
in stationing a uniformed man constantly on duty in his
house. Shortly thereafter, Rosenthal made an affidavit,
356
1912 1913 357
which was published in the New York World on July 14,

1912, swearing that Police Lieutenant Becker had been
his partner in the operation of the gambling house and
had made the raid for certain personal purposes here-
after explained.
If at this time a Tammany district attorney had been
in office, the results might not have been fatal to Rosen-
thai. But the district attorney, Charles S. Whitman, was
an noted for his excellent record. It was well re-
official
alized that when he agreed to listen to Rosenthal's charges
" reached " "
against Becker, he could not be by any in-
fluence
" or intimidated by any threat. The alternative
on the part of somebody vitally interested was to slay
Rosenthal on the principle that " dead men tell no tales,"
and thus prevent important disclosures being made to the
district attorney.
At 2 o'clock on the morning of July 16, 1912, Rosen-
thai was summoned out from the doorway of the Hotel
Metropole at Broadway and Forty-third street, and shot
" "
to death by four gunmen from within an automobile,
which immediately after the shooting sped away with the
murderers.
Arrests of suspects quickly followed. By July 29,
1912, District Attorney Whitman held four men, all of
whom had become informers. These four were " Bald
Jack " Rose, " Bridgie " Webber, Harry Vallon, and Sam
Schepps two of whom, Rose and Vallon, had volun-
tarily surrendered. On statements made by Rose and
Vallon, the Grand Jury returned an indictment against
Becker charging murder in the first degree. A few days
later, Becker was re-indicted, and indictments were handed
in against the four
" " Louis Rosenberg, alias
gunmen
" 23 old
Lefty Louie," years ; Harry Horowitz, alias
66
Gyp the Blood," 26 years old ; Jacob Seidenshner, alias
" 26 and
Whitey Lewis," years old, .Frank Cirofici, alias
" " "
Dago Frank," 29 years old. These gunmen were
variously arrested at different places.
Stirred by this brutal murder, a mass meeting of citi-
zens was held at Cooper Union on August 14, 1912.
Resolutions were adopted part of which approved a pro-
posal for an appropriation by the city of $25,000 for
an investigation into police conditions and a thorough
inquiry into the causes and possible remedies of systems
of blackmail and graft. A
Citizens' Committee was ap-
pointed by this mass meeting to report on these condi-
tions.
Of the police force this committee reported on Feb-
ruary 26, 1913, that:
" The
corruption is so ingrained that the man of ordinary decent
character entering the force and not possessed of extraordinary
moral fiber may easily succumb. About him are the evidences of
graft and the enjoyment of irregular incomes substantially increas-
ing the patrolman's salary. Inadequate condemnation is shown by
his associates in the force for such practises; on the contrary, there
is much indirect pressure which induces him to break his oath of
office; the families of grafting policemen live better than his own,
and the urgencies of his family and of his own social needs tempt
him to thrive as do his corrupt associates. Such a system makes for
too many of the police an organized school of crime. The improve-
ment of recent years and there is some is not great enough to
satisfy an aroused public.

" But not resting with this general knowledge of the existence of
such matters, this Committee has made an intensive examination of
the conditions in a number of police precincts. We know that the
connection between members of the police force and crime or com-
mercialized vice is continuous, profitable and so much a matter of
course that explicit bargains do not have to be made; naturally this
" honor "
amongthieves is occasionally violated, as is customary
among both the keeping and the breaking of faith being

thieves,
determined by these policemen for their own profit.
"
Well knowing this police * system,' grand juries will not on police
testimony indict violators of the law, lest they [the grand juries]
be lending themselves to police persecution of a selected criminal
'
who had refused tribute, and so be helping the police system.*
For the same reason petit juries will acquit, and judges will dis-
charge, and crime increases and goes unpunished, while honest
policemen are discredited and discouraged.
" Evil thus breeds new
maggots of evil. The sums collected by the
police excite the greed of certain politicians; they demand their
shares, and in their turn they protect the criminal breaches of the
law and the police in corruption. The presence of 'politics*
brings strength and complexity to the System' and makes it
1912 1913 359
harder to break up. The city, we believe, is convinced that it is

time for more radical efforts at improvement." 1
A Committee of the Board of Aldermen, appointed to

inquire into matters connected with the Police Depart-
ment, held eighty public sessions, took 4,800 pages of
testimony and records, handed in certain conclusions, and
made recommendations for further laws. " We have re-
ceived shocking evidence of a widespread corrupt alliance
between the police and gamblers and disorderly house keep-
2
ers," this committee reported in part. During the same
time, District Attorney Whitman was vigorously prose-
cuting public offenders. In a single year four police in-
spectors were convicted of conspiracy and were also un-
der indictment for bribery, one police captain was con-
victed of extortion, one lieutenant was convicted of ex-
tortion, one patrolman of perjury, and two patrolmen
were convicted of extortion. In addition, there were vari-
ous indictments of patrolmen for extortion. Of the con-
victed, the captain and one patrolman confessed; an at-
torney and a citizen indicted for bribery in connection
with police matters, also confessed.
To return to the trials for the murder of Rosenthal:
At Becker's trial Rose testified that his connection with
Becker had begun in 1911, after a
" raid " on a
gambling
house kept by him (Rose) on Second Avenue; that the
" unraided "
levying of tribute on gamblers was syste-
matized that Rosenthal was brought under this system
;
of " protection " ; that Rosenthal and Becker had become

partners ; and that Rosenthal, in March, 1912, had re-
fused to " give up " $500 for the defense of Becker's press
agent who was charged with the killing of a negro in a
" raid " on a
crap game. According further to Rose's
testimony, this refusal brought on strained relations be-
1
Report of the Citizens' Committee Appointed at the Cooper Union
Meeting, August 12, 1912, pp. 6-7.
2
Preliminary Legislative Report of Special Committee of Board of
Aldermen, p. 6.
tween Becker and Rosenthal ; and that after the " raid "
on Rosenthal's gambling house, on April 15, 1912, when
Rosenthal threatened " to squeal," Becker began to plan
" " of Rosenthal. In so Rose
for the fixing June, 1912
testified when "Big Jack "
Zelig, an East Side
gang
leader, was in the City Prison, the plan was determined
upon of negotiating with him that, in exchange for his
" " should " attend to " Rosen-
release, some of his gunmen
The four " "
thai. gunmen arrested, Rose swore, were
the tools that committed the murder, and he (Rose) had
acted as Becker's agent in arranging matters with them.
The testimony further showed that on the afternoon after
" "
the murder, the quartet of gunmen had received $1,000
as payment^ after which they quit the city.
On the testimony of Rose and others, Becker was con-
victed on October 24, 1913; the conviction of the four
" "
young gunmen soon followed. All five were sentenced
to death. By a decision of the Court of Appeals, on
February 24, 1914, Becker was allowed a new trial upon
the ground that by reason of hostile rulings his trial had
not been fair, but the conviction of the four " gunmen "
was affirmed. They were electrocuted at Sing Sing prison
on April 13, 1914. Subsequently, after a second trial,
Becker was again convicted, and was duly electrocuted.
Another source of quick-ripening trouble to Tammany
Hall, turning large numbers of voters against its chief,
Mr. Murphy, and against the whole system of the " Or-
ganization," was the summary manner in which it im-
peached and disposed of Governor William Sulzer.
Mr. Sulzer had been a member of Tammany Hall for
twenty-five years, and had always been pushed into office
by Tammany Hall since the time when, as a young man,
he had been one of Mr. Croker's proteges. Elected to the
New York State Assembly, he had been made its Speaker
at a youthful age. Later he had been repeatedly sent to
Congress by Tammany Hall nominations, and it was pri-
marily a Tammany backing that caused his nomination
1912 1913 361
and election as Governor, in 1912. Tammany believed

that it had every reason to feel sure that as Governor Mr.
Sulzer would continue pliable and docile to the " Organi-
" orders
zation's and interests.
" Boss "
Murphy, however, was soon disillusioned when
Governor Sulzer declined dictation.
3
According to Mr. Sulzer's detailed story, he (Sulzer),
immediately prior to going into office as Governor, spent
an afternoon with Mr. Murphy at his request in his pri-
vate room at Delmonico's.
" His " was
attitude," Mr. Sulzer related, very friendly
and confidential. He said he was my friend ; that he knew
of my financial condition and wanted to help me out. As
he went on, I was amazed at his knowledge of my intimate
personal affairs. To my astonishment, he informed me
that he knew I was heavily in debt. Then he offered me
enough money to pay my debts and have enough left to
take things easy while Governor. He said that this was
really a party matter and that the money he would give me
was party money . and that nobody would know any-
. .
thing about it; that I could pay what I owed and go to

Albany feeling easy financially. He then asked me how
much I needed, to whom I owed it, and other personal
questions.
" As I did not want to be tied hard and fast as Gov-
ernor in advance, I declined Mr. Murphy's offer, saying
that I was paying off my debts gradually that my cred-
;
itors were friends and would not press me; that I was
economical, that I would try to get along on my salary
as Governor." Mr. Sulzer asserted that Mr. Murphy
repeated the offer, and that when he (Sulzer) again re-
" If
fused, Mr. Murphy said, you need money at any time,
let me know, and you can have what you want. We
cleaned up a lot of money on your campaign. I can af-
ford to let you have what you want and never miss it."
3 An extended interview
published in the New York Evening Mail,
October 20 and 21, 1913.
Then, according further to Mr. Sulzer's story, Mr.
Murphy wanted Governor Sulzer to meet him at the hotel
in Albany where Murphy was staying; Sulzer did not go.
Subsequently, on the night of February 2, 1913, they met

at Justice Edward E. McCall's house in New York City,
where Murphy urged the appointment of his friend, John
Galvin, to succeed Mr. Willcox as a member of the Public
Service Commission in New York City. The Public
Service Commission is a body invested with enormous au-
thority in the matter of granting of public franchises and
other comprehensive powers ; it had been under anti-Tam-
many control, and it was a body the domination of which
was pressingly sought by Tammany ; there were vast sub-
way franchises to be awarded, and the powers of that
body could be used with almost autocratic effect in cer-
tain ways over the entire range of recognized public
service corporations. Governor Sulzer would not appoint
Galvin, but finally compromised upon the selection of Jus-
tice Edward E. McCall as Chairman of the Public Service
Commission.
" At meeting and subsequently," Mr. Sulzer de-
this
" Mr.
clared, Murphy demanded from me pledges regard-
ing legislation and especially concerning appointments to
the Public Service Commission, the Health Department,
the Labor Department, the State Hospital Commission,
the Department of State Prisons and the Department of
Highways." Murphy insisted that various Tammany
men whom he named should be appointed to those offices.
Mr. Murphy, however, favored the retention in office of
C. Gordon Reel, State Superintendent of Highways, say-
" a " Mr.
ing that he was good man." Murphy added,"
"
Mr. Sulzer's statement continued, that if I wished a new
'
State Superintendent of Highways, ' Jim Gaffney was
the best all-around man for the job."
" When I took office as Governor of the State last Janu-
ary," Mr. Sulzer declared in a signed published state-
ment,
1912 1913 363
" on the
very first day my attention was abruptly called to the fact
that during the year just ended there had been spent in the State
$34,000,000
"
WITHOUT A SINGLE AUDIT.
On the second day that I was in office a messenger presented to
me amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars, pointing
bills
out to me where I was to sign my name. If I had attached my sig-
nature to those bills they would have been immediately paid, and yet
the messenger thought that he was telling me nothing unusual when
he said that other Governors had signed bills that way, and that one
Governor had left a rubber stamp outside his office with the mes-
senger, so that he would not be bothered.
" *
Leave those bills there,' I said, and I'll look into them. The
'
rubber stamp period is over.'"
After Mr. Sulzer had become Governor he learned, as

his statement read, that the State Architect had expended
more than $4,300,000 in the previous year ; that this was
done practically on the certificate of that official, and
that there had been no proper audit; the vouchers had
been carried to the trustees of public buildings, composed
of the Governor, "Lieutenant-Governor and Speaker of the
Assembly by a clerk and approved by the use of a regular
office stamp. Governor Sulzer also learned, he said, that
the appropriation for 1912 had been exceeded by nearly
half a million dollars, and that there was no proper su-
pervision. Governor Sulzer appointed John A. Hennessy
as Commissioner to investigate reports of graft in these
and other departments. At the same time, he appointed
George W. Blake as Commissioner to inquire into prison
management.
Mr. Hennessy's report disclosed the most widespread
graft. In construction work on public buildings, large
bills had been submitted for inferior material; the pay-
rolls on the electrical and other contracts had been
padded; regular State employees had been displaced as

inspectors and timekeepers by political henchmen from
Tammany District Leader James J. Hagan's district in
Manhattan, from which the State Architect, his secretary,
and the foreman on the general work came. At Governor
Sulzer's request, Mr. Hennessy asked the State Architect
for his resignation, but Senator Frawley, another Tarn-
many district leader, intervened with a protest to Gov-
ernor Sulzer against any interference with Jhe work on
the State Capitol or other State buildings.
" I sent for
Hennessy," Mr. Sulzer's narrative went
" who in
on, my presence related to Senator Frawley the
main facts in the case, but Frawley still persisted that
nothing should be done with the State Architect's office,
at least until there had been further consideration of the
case. I told Hennessy to return to the State Architect
(Mr. Hoofer) and insist upon his resignation. What
happened between these two men I can only tell from
Hennessy's recital to me. Hoofer told him that he
(Hoofer) was not a free agent, that he had no control
over his deputies, that he had no control over his secre-
tary, nor did he have any control over the men who
checked up the work. He (Hoofer) said they were all
appointed through Tammany Hall. . Hoofer said he
. .
wanted to consult somebody in New York. While I held

the 'phone, I told Hennessy to ask Hoofer the name of
the man, and Hennessy responded that Hoofer wanted an
opportunity to see Charles F. Murphy and explain certain
things."
Governor Sulzer allowed a few days' delay. Shortly
before the time limit that Governor Sulzer had set for
Hoofer's resignation, " John H. Delaney came to me,"
Mr. Sulzer's story went on, " and said that he had been
* '
talking to the Chief over the 'phone, and that Murphy
wanted Hoofer's resignation to go over until such time
as he could discuss the case with me." A
little later
" Senator
Wagner, Senator Frawley and John H. De-
laney came into the Executive Chamber and informed me
that Murphy was insistent that nothing should be done
in the case of Hoofer during that week, and it was a
subject that would have to be discussed with the organi-

zation." Upon Governor Sulzer's demand that he resign
or be immediately removed, Mr. Hoofer wrote his resig-
nation.
1912 1913 365
The next official removed by Governor Sulzer was C.
Gordon Reel, State Superintendent of Highways, follow-

ing Commissioner Hennessy's investigation and the dis-
closures of extensive graft in highway contracts in a large
number of counties. The amount of this graft has been
variously estimated at from $5,000,000 to $9,000,000.
That the system of plundering the State in the building
of roads was no fiction was shown later in the large num-
ber of indictments (followed by many convictions) handed
down against politico-contractors and State employes in
New York State.
In the most important of the indictments found by the
Suffolk County Grand Jury on January 22, 1914, the
Grand Jury charged " grand larceny " and " conspir-
" in the construction of a
acy so-called " cementitious
"
Hudson River gravel road the specifications of which
designated a material absolutely controlled by Henry
Steers, of the contracting firm of Bradley, Gaffney &
" the
Steers, commonly known as Tammany Trust."
During an investigation conducted by James W. Os-
borne, in behalf of New York State, the testimony, on
February 17, 1914, indicated that State Superintendent
of Highways Reel ordered the use of a patented road for
roadways and caused the specifications to be changed
so as to favor the Gaffney-Bradley-Steers Company which
controlled this particular patented pavement. And
when Mr. Sulzer testified, on February 29, 1914, before
the Assembly " Graft Hunt " Investigating Committee,
he said that an average of 30 per cent, of the money paid
for those State roads (which had been investigated by Mr.
Hennessy) went into the contract, and that 70 per cent,
went into the pockets of politicians and contractors. Mr.
Sulzer asserted that about $9,000,000 had been stolen in
1912.
According to Mr, Sulzer, Mr. Reel's appointment as
State Commissioner of Highways had been Mr. Murphy's
"
personal selection." When Governor Sulzer's attitude
366 HISTORY OF WAMMANY HALL
indicated Reel's removal, Mr. Murphy (so Sulzer stated)
" Jim "
pressed forward the appointment of Gaffney to
succeed Reel.
" Mr. Murphy demanded the appointment
of Gaffney, and still later a prominent New Yorker came
to me in the Executive Mansion bringing the message from
Mr. Murphy that it was ' Gaffney or war.' I declined
to appoint Gaffney.
" This is the
Gaffney who, only a few months after-
wards, on September 4, 1913, in undisputed testimony be-
fore the Supreme Court of New York, was shown to have
demanded and received $30,000 in money (refusing to
take a check) from one of the aqueduct contractors,
nominally for advice.' This is the man who Mr. Murphy
'
demanded should be put in a position where he would

superintend and control the spending of sixty-five millions
of the money of the State in road contracts."
Mr. Sulzer here referred to the testimony of Harry B.
Hanger, aqueduct contractor, who swore that he paid
Mr. Gaffney $30,000 for " expert advice on the labor sit-
uation " on one contract, and $10,000 for the same serv-
ices on another contract. Mr. Gaffney later on March
20, 1914? himself testified before the Special Grand Jury
in New York City as to this transaction.
It was the same Mr. Gaffney, too, whose name was in-
volved in the award of Contract No. 22 for the Catskill
Aqueduct. This contract was awarded on March 19,
1909, over two lower bidders to Patterson & Company,
a firm of no great capital or experience. James W. Pat-
terson, Jr., head of that firm, subsequently testified be-
fore the Grand Jury, in 1914, to his making arrange-
ments to pay 5 per cent, of the contract price ($824,-
" contribution to
942.50) as a Tammany Hall." John
M. Murphy, a Bronx contractor, testified that, as agent
for James E. Gaffney, he had arranged to sell the con-
tract, and had received from Mr. Gaffney 10 per cent., or
$4,125, as his share of a certain $41,250, after threaten-
1912 1913 367
" to kick over the whole deal "

ing if
Gaffney did not give
" honorarium."
the proper
It appeared from the testimony that $41,250 in bills
had been deposited in escrow to be handed over by James
"
G. Shaw, the stakeholder," to a some one designated
as Gaffney, on the day after the award of Aqueduct Con-
tract No. 22. Questioned as to whom this $41,250 was
given, Mr. Shaw could not remember, which forgetfulness
made the fastening of legal proof impossible. The special
Grand Jury investigating this matter reported, however,
in a presentment to Justice Vernon M. Davis, in the
Supreme Court, New York City, on April 21, 1914, that

the Grand Jurors were morally satisfied that a crime had
been committed in the sale of Contract No. 22 to Pat-
terson & Company, and that this contract could not have
been sold and delivered, as it was, in the name of James
E. Gaffney, " without the collusion of a member of the
Board (of Water Supply) itself." Inasmuch as five years
had passed since the transaction, the Statute of Limita-
tions intervened to bar criminal prosecution.
In an inquiry later conducted by District Attorney
" "
Whitman, James C. Stewart swore that one Gaffney
asked him for a contribution of five per cent, upon $3,-
000,000 worth of canal work that he (Stewart) was seek-
ing. Stewart refused to make the arrangement; his bid
was much the lowest, but he did not then get the con-
" " it was who
tract. Precisely what Gaffney proposed
the handing over of this $150,000, Stewart averred that
he could not tell; he had never seen him previously.
When, on January 30, 1914, District Attorney Whitman
brought Stewart and James E. Gaffney face to face,
Stewart said that he could not identify Mr. Gaffney as the
man who demanded the $150,000.
During the course of this same inquiry Mr. Sulzer tes-
tified, on January 21, 1914, that on learning that Stewart
was to be denied the contracts, he telegraphed on Decem-
ber 18, 1912, to the Canal Board asking it to defer ac-
tion until he could consult with its members.
Whereupon
John H. came to him and "
Delaney excitedly said, My
God, Congressman, what have you done? It angered the
Chief more than anything else I have ever known. The
Chief is wild." The " Chief," otherwise Charles F.
Murphy, demanded an interview with the Governor-elect at
once.
In this interview, which was held at Delmonico's, Mr.
Sulzer quoted Mr. Murphy as saying to him, " Why did
you send that telegram to the Canal Board? You have
no right to butt in on things that don't concern you. I'm
attending to that matter, and I want you to keep your
hands off. If you are going to begin this way, I can see
now where you will end as Governor. You do what you
are told hereafter, and don't take any action on matters
that don't concern you without conferring with me."
When Mr. Sulzer said he was going to be Governor, Mr.
Murphy (so Sulzer testified) replied: "So that is the
way you understand it? Well, if you go along that line,
I can see where you will end up damned quick. You are
going to be Governor? Like hell you are!"
Mr. Sulzer further testified at this hearing that on the
evening of March 3, 1913, at a luncheon in Washington,
he told Senator O'Gorman that Mr. Murphy was put-
" screws " on him and
ting the bringing to bear all the
influence he could to have James E. Gaffney appointed
Commissioner of Highways, and that Senator O'Gorman
"
had said :
Governor,
if Jim
you appoint Com-
Gaffney
missioner of Highways it will be a disgrace to the State
of New York and it will ruin your political career as
the Governor. Don't you know that Gaffney is Murphy's
chief bagman? Don't you know he is the man Murphy
sends out to hold up the contractors? Don't you know
he is the man that held up my client, James G. Stewart,
for over a hundred thousand dollars, and he would have
got away with it if Stewart had not come to me, and if
1913 369
I had not gone to Murphy and read the Riot Act, telling
him that I would not stand for that kind of politics that ;
he had to stop Gaffney, and that if he didn't stop Gaff-

ney, so far as my client was concerned, I would expose
him."
Subsequently Mr. Sulzer met Mr. Murphy several
times, and was importuned (so he testified) to appoint
Mr. Gaffney. When Sulzer replied that it was impossible,
Mr. Murphy announced, " Well, it's Gaffney or war."
Mr. Sulzer's testimony went on " At this
: conversation,
one of the things Mr. Murphy said to me was, If you '
don't do this, I will wreck your administration.' It was

not the first time he had threatened me, and I answered,
'
I am the Governor, and I am going to be the Governor.'
He said,
'
You may be the Governor, but I have got the
Legislature, and the Legislature controls the Governor,
and if you don't do what I tell you to do, I will throw
'
you out of office.' After Governor Sulzer had removed
Reel, Mr. Murphy was still pressing Gaffney's appoint-
ment.
Of the inquiries into graft carried on by George W.
Blake and John W. Hennessy, Mr. Sulzer testified:
" Their
reports staggered me, and believe me, it takes
something to stagger me. There was graft, graft every-
where, nor any man to stop it." Mr. Sulzer testified
that Mr. Murphy had sought to hamper the graft expos-
ure by causing to be cut off for the first time in the
State's history, he said the Governor's contingent fund,
and he described how it became necessary to raise money
by private subscription to enable the graft inquiry to
be carried on.
" I have been in
office now for six months," wrote Mr.
Sulzer in a signed article later, " and in that time I have
learned enough to be able to say without fear of contra-
diction that in the past three years $50,000,000 of the
people's money has been wasted or stolen."
In a talk, on March 18, 1913, with Mr. Murphy over
appointments to the Supreme Court of New York State,

the so Mr. Sulzer related " threat-
Tammany chief
ented me with public disgrace unless I agreed to his pro-
gram on legislative matters and appointments. It was at
this conference, too, that he talked about the things he
4
had on me,' and said that I had better listen to him and
not to his enemies up the State that if I did what he told
;
me I would have things easy and no trouble, and that if

I didn't do what he wanted me to, I would have all the
trouble I wanted. . . .
" He was
very insulting. Then I asked him what he
could do to destroy me. And he said ' Never mind : ;
you will find out in good time. Stand by the organiza-

tion and you will be all right. If you go against the or-
ganization, I will make your administration the laugh-
ing stock of the State.' It was at this time that he asked
me to call off George Blake, the commissioner who was
investigating the prisons. ... I told him that Blake was
an efficient man and that I was going to let him go on with
'
his work, and he said, If you do you will be sorry for it.
Mark what I am telling you now !
'
" I told him what I had heard about the vileness of
things in the Sing Sing and Auburn prisons. I said:

'
We certainly ought not to stand for them. I want to
get at the facts, and if there is anything wrong, stop it ;
if there is any graft, eliminate it.' Mr. Murphy told

me that he didn't want anything done in connection with
Sing Sing prison by Blake or any other man that the ;
warden there, Mr. Kennedy, was a friend of his and a

good man, and he wanted him left alone. This, remem-
ber, was the warden whom I afterward removed from his
place on charges and who was since indicted by the West-
chester grand jury." It may be noted here that later
there were a number of prosecutions in prison graft cases.
The graft in the prisons reached a total of many millions
of dollars in the one item alone of the substitution of
1912 1913 371
bad food for the good food paid for by the State. Ex-
tensive grafting was found in other respects.
Mr. Sulzer added that one of the agents through whom
Mr. Murphy most frequently communicated with him
was Justice Edward E. McCall. " Judge McCall usually
'
spoke of Mr. Murphy as the Chief,' and would say to
'
me that the Chief wished such and such a thing done,
'
or demanded that I follow such and such a course of ac-

tion. Every Tammany member of either house who ap-
proached me from day to day used the same language,
' '
saying that the Chief demanded this or demanded that,
' '
or that the Chief had telephoned to put through such
a piece of legislation, or kill some other piece of legisla-
tion."
Meanwhile, on March 10, 1913, reports of trouble be-
tween Governor Sulzer and Mr. Murphy had become pub-
lic ; when on this date Sulzer removed C. Gordon Reel
as State Superintendent of Highways, it was reported
in the newspapers that Murphy had asked Governor Sul-
zer to name James E. Gaffney, his partner in the con-
tracting business, as Reel's successor. On the next day,
Mr. Murphy hotly denied that he had asked Gaffney's
appointment. From day to day further reports of es-
trangement were published. In a speech before the
Democratic editors of the State, on March 25, Sulzer as-
" No
serted : man, no party, no organization can make
me a rubber stamp. I am the Governor. Let no man
doubt that."
It appeared that Mr. Murphy had the idea that Sulzer
was at heart a Progressive; it may be explained that the
Progressive party had polled a large vote and was recog-
nized as a powerful political factor.
It was on the night of April 13, 1913, that Governor
Sulzer, according to his interview published later in the
New York Evening Mail, held his final interview with Mr.
" I asked " not to in-
Murphy. him," Mr. Sulzer said,
terfere with the trial of Stilwell in the Senate. I said,
*
What are you going to do about him ? ' ' Stand by him,
'
of course,' replied Mr. Murphy. Stilwell will be ac-
quitted. It will only be a three-day wonder. How do
you expect a Senator to live on $1,500 a year? That is
5
only chicken feed. . . Before we parted that night, I
.
warned Mr. Murphy that he would wreck the party and

accomplish his own destruction if he persisted in shielding
grafters and violating platform pledges. His angry re-
tort was that I was an ingrate, and that he would disgrace
and destroy me."
In fact, as Mr. Murphy predicted, Senator Stephen J.
Stilwell was voted not guilty of official misconduct,
by a
vote of 28 to 21 in the Senate, after an investigation by
the judiciary committee of charges of bribery made
against him by George H. Kendall, president of the New
York Bank Note Company. But subsequently Stilwell
was indicted in New York County, convicted of bribery
upon substantially the same evidence as that upon which
a majority of his colleagues in the State Senate had ac-
quitted him, and he was sentenced to a two-year term in
prison.
Replying later to Mr. Sulzer's charges, Mr. Murphy
definitely denied that he had ever recommended the ap-
pointment of James E. Gaffney as Highways Commis-
sioner that he ever mentioned Gaffney's name to Governor
;
Sulzer for any office; he emphatically denied that he ever

made the threats that Sulzer attributed to him or that he
ever sent for Mr. Sulzer to come and see him. Mr.
Murphy asserted that he never saw Sulzer alone after he
became Governor " because I knew he'd do just what he
has done perjure himself."
In April, 1913, Governor Sulzer pushed his Direct Pri-
mary Bill, and Tammany members of the Legislature de-
cided in retaliation to defeat all bills favored by him and
" hold " all of his
to up appointments. On April 24,
1913, Tammany legislators were stirred to anger by his
1912 1913 373
veto of a direct primary bill that they had concocted; a

few days later they overwhelmingly voted down his direct
primary bill. More retaliation followed on both sides.
It was during this time in May, 1913 that the
New York World published specific charges that in re-
turn for a promise made two years previously to get a
lucrative post for J. A. Connolly, a personal friend, Jus-
tice Cohalan, Murphy's legal and political adviser, had
taken a note from Connolly for $4,000. This promise,
it was charged, had not been kept. There were, it was
also charged, back of this note a series of transactions
in the years 1904 to 1906 between Connolly and Cohalan
involving the payment of various sums amounting to

$3,940.55 Connolly claimed that Cohalan had demanded
;
and obtained from him 55 per cent, of the net profits on

all city work that was given to Connolly's firm by means
of Cohalan's influence. Connolly further claimed that the
payments to Cohalan were calculated on this basis, and
that their friendship ceased when Cohalan demanded $1,-
500 more than Connolly reckoned was due him. Threat-
ened with an action at law, Cohalan surrendered the $4,-
000 note to Connolly's attorney.
These charges were investigated by the Grievance Com-
mittee of the Bar Association; the report of that com-
mittee 'confirmed every charge made. Refusing to recog-
nize the jurisdiction of the Bar Association, Justice Co-
halan requested Governor Sulzer to have the charges
passed upon by the Legislature ; this Governor Sulzer did
in a special message embodying the report of the Griev-
ance Committee of the Bar Association. The Legislature
ordered a trial before the Joint Judiciary Committee.
Justice Cohalan admitted on the witness stand that he
had made a great mistake in his dealings with Connolly,
and that the money he had paid to Connolly was black-
mail given in the hope of hushing up the affair for the
good of his party. William D. Guthrie, representing the
Bar Association, reviewed the case in detail, and demanded
Justice Cohalan's removal. The Joint Judiciary Com-
mittee's report recommended that the case against Justice
Cohalan be dismissed, which report was upheld by a ma-
jority vote of the Legislature. Opponents of Tammany
pointed out that this was a characteristic action from a
Legislature dominated by Tammany influences.
CHAPTER XXXVI
GOVERNOR SULZER'S IMPEACHMENT AND TAMMANY'S
DEFEAT
1913-1914
campaign of retaliation against Governor
THE Sulzer soon came to a climax.

On July 15, 1913, a committee called the Fraw-
ley Committee (headed by Senator Frawley) was ap-
pointed to inquire into Governor Sulzer's receipts and ex-
penditures of campaign funds. After taking testimony,
that committee submitted its report with the finding that,
following his campaign for Governor, Mr. Sulzer had
omitted declaring in his campaign statement $19,000 of
contributions to his campaign fund and had purchased, for
his personal account, stocks with part of the moneys thus
received.
The evidence, according to the committee's report,
showed that a total of $109,016 in cash or stock had been
in Mr. Sulzer's possession, and that this sum came from
campaign contributions. Mr. Sulzer had used both cash
and checks to purchase stocks and as far as could be
;
brought out by the records and testimony, his Wall Street

transactions with three brokerage firms covered a total
of $72,428.28, dating from January 1, 1912. It ap-
peared that the greater part of these payments were made
after he became a candidate for Governor and was elected
to that office. Mr. Murphy and other Tammany leaders
pointed out that while these very, transactions had been
going on, Mr. Sulzer had in his public speeches pretended
that he was a poor man.
375
Mr. Sulzer's own version was that if he had made a mis-
take in signing his campaign statement it was due to haste
and carelessness and not to intent to deceive. " But," he
added,
"this is not the only explanation of the failure to itemize certain
moneys which were received in the campaign. Some of the moneys
were not for campaign purposes at all, but were loans. They were
given to me by friends who knew I was heavily in debt, and who
loaned me the money to pay my debts or to use as I saw fit. These
friends wanted nothing, and in case of my election I knew there was
nothing they would ask me to do, or that I could do for them. Poli-
tics had nothing to do with the matter.
"
All the moneys given to me, or sent to me for the campaign, were
turned over to the committee, to which reference has been made, or
were subsequently given to Mr. Murphy. Whether the latter turned
these moneys over to the State Committee or not I cannot say, but an
investigation of the report filed by that committee negatives the as-
sumption."
On August 13, 1913, the Assembly, by a vote of 79 to

45, impeached Governor Sulzer on eight articles. Trial
by the High Court for the Trial of Impeachments, con-
sisting of the State Senate and the Judges of the Court of
Appeals, followed.
Governor Sulzer vigorously fought back, and public
opinion was greatly aroused over his charges that the af-
fair was simply a case of the Tammany
" "
Organization
summarily disciplining him for refusing to be its tool. He
was convicted on three of the eight articles of impeach-
ment: (1) that he had filed with the Secretary of State
a false sworn statement of his campaign receipts and ex-
penditures ; (2) perjury in swearing to the truth of the
campaign accounting; (3) committing a misdemeanor in
suppressing evidence and preventing or seeking to pre-
vent witnesses from appearing before the legislative com-
mittee. On October 17, 1913, Governor Sulzer was re-
moved from office by a vote of 43 to 12 by the High Court
for the Trial of Impeachments.
It should be noted that Chief Justice Edgar M. Cullen,
of the Court of Appeals, who presided at the trial, voted
1913 1914 377
" Never
to acquit Mr. Sulzer on every one of the articles.
"
before the present case," said Chief Justice Cullen, has
it been attempted to impeach a public officer for acts com-
mitted when he was not an officer of the State. . .".
Chief Justice Cullen held that Mr. Sulzer had committed

no offense in failing to state the amounts and sources
of his campaign contributions, and that there was no evi-
dence of any deceit or fraud.
Governor Sulzer's supporters set forth the following
as the main actual reasons why proceedings for his re-
moval were pushed :
First: Mr. Sulzer's persistent efforts to secure the

enactment of the Full Crew legislation to conserve human
life on the railroads.
Second: Mr. Sulzer's success in securing the enact-
ment of the laws that he recommended to compel honest
dealings on the New York Stock Exchange.
Third: Mr. Sulzer's refusal to approve the McKee
Public Schools Bills which would have given control of
public schools to a religious denomination.
Fourth: Mr. Sulzer's successful efforts in causing the
repeal of the notorious charter of the Long Sault Devel-
opment Company, by which the State of New York re-
ceived back its greatest water power and the most valuable
of its natural resources.
Fifth : Mr. Sulzer's defiance of the bosses big and
little and his fight for honest and genuine direct pri-
maries.
Sixth: Mr. Sulzer's determined refusal to be a proxy
Governor or " a rubber stamp."
Seventh. Mr. Sulzer's absolute refusal to follow
" boss " dictation
regarding legislation and appointments,
and his blunt refusal to call off Blake and Hennessy, and
stop the investigations which were being made, under his
direction, to uncover fraud and expose graft in the State
Departments.
Eighth: Mr. Sulzer's moral courage, in the perform-
ance of public duty, wherein he insisted on the trial and
punishment of Senator Stilwell for extortion.
Ninth: Mr. Sulzer's determination to set in motion
the machinery of the law, in various counties of the State,
to indict the grafters and bring them to justice.
There could be no questioning that the proceedings
against Sulzer had an effect upon the public mind the re-
" Boss "
verse of that expected by Murphy and his ad-
visers.
The attempt of Tammany Hall's leaders to pose in this
case as the conservers of political virtue met with a sar-
donic reception and quickly reacted upon them in unmis-
takable terms. Public opinion in general made no at-
tempt to mitigate Mr. Sulzer's acts, but, with a keen
perception of the fundamental facts, it saw that the real
reason why Governor Sulzer was so brutally punished was
not because of those acts but because he had finally broken
away from Tammany dictation and had sought to be
somewhat of an independent Governor. Every intelligent
person knew that this was his crime in the view of the
Tammany organization, and, according to Tammany

standards, the worst crime that could be committed.
That an organization which had been steeped in corrup-
tion and graft should so ostentatiously pretend to be the
exposer and punisher of infractions in an official who had
defied its power, excited mockery, resentment and indigna-
tion. Public sympathy turned toward the deposed Gov-
ernor, and he was nominated for the Assembly by the
Progressives in an East Side district.
As we have seen, one of the chief issues upon which
Gaynor had made his Mayoralty campaign in 1909 was
for municipally built and operated subways.
After becoming Mayor, he underwent a decided change
of mind. The subway rights were awarded to the Inter-
borough Rapid Transit Company and the Brooklyn
Rapid Transit Company. The Final Report of the Joint
Legislative Committee appointed to investigate the Pub-
1913 1914 379
lieService Commissions severely criticizes the policy and

the terms under which the contracts were made by the
Public Service Commission and the Board of Estimate.
On the other hand, defenders of the Board of Estimate's
action point out that the reasons why that Board changed
from city to company subways were that by the co-opera-
tion of the companies, the city had the benefit of $150,-
000,000 more in funds than would have been the case
without that co-operation; that the new subway lines in-
stead of being independent, disconnected routes, unrelated
to existing transportation lines, would be built in appro-
priate extenso of subway facilities already in operation;
and that by this arrangement not only would the serv-
ice be harmonized and improved but the payment of
double fares would be done away with and an aggregate
of vast sums thus saved to the traveling public. The
circular routes by which the city's transportation prob-
lems will be more effectively and constructively solved
were adopted despite Gaynor's favoring the Interborough
Rapid Transit Company's perpendicular routes plan.
One feature of the testimony later before the Joint
Legislative Committee especially attracting public atten-
tion was the imputation that in the contract for the third-
tracking of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company's
elevated railroads, of $2,000,000 was surrep-
a fund
titiously provided form
in the of a commission to John
F. Stevens. Formerly Mr. Stevens had been associated
in the construction of the Panama Canal with Mr. Shonts
who now was president of the Interborough Rapid Tran-
sit Company. This company, in the third-tracking
work, wanted exemption from supervision by the Public
Service Commission. According to a memorandum pre-
served by George W. Young, an Interborough director,
this contract with Mr. Stevens was entered into (so, it
was asserted, Mr. Shonts told Mr. Lane, another direc-
tor), because "in connection with the securing of the
contract which had been closed between the City of
Greater New York and the Interborough, Mr. Shonts had
found it necesary to make certain commitments and incur
certain obligations, and that it was by means of the
Stevens contract that he expected to meet and pay these
commitments and obligations."
The Joint Legislative Committee thus comments on the
" It is
testimony :
perfectly clear that Mr. Shonts did
tell Mr. Lane something about commitments and obliga-
tions in respect to this strange proposition; it is equally
clear that he was not under any business commitment or
honorable obligation to Mr. Stevens. He made a request
of the Public Service [Commission] Chairman for an ex-
ception from the general contract, relieving third tracking
from official supervision, and had told the reason for it in
his desire to give the contract to Mr. Stevens. He did
obtain exemption from supervision, and that applied to
to the contractor to whom finally the contract was
awarded." 2
The chairman of the Public Service Commission here
referred to was Edward E. McCall. Whatever may be the
shadowy implications conveyed in this report, no state-
ment is made that any corruption was used, nor is any
proof presented that any official was improperly influ-
enced. The salient fact was that McCall, in an era when
corporation activities were more and more rigorously
scrutinized by official bodies, should have reverted to by-
gone standards and graciously allowed a removal of that
very supervision which it was expected the Public Service
Commission would insist upon exercising.
Tammany Hall's nominee in the municipal campaign
of 1913 was this same Edward E. McCall.
When an attorney, Mr. McCall had been connected with
certain operations of the New York Life Insurance Com-
pany, of which corporation his brother, John A. McCall,
1 Final
Report of the Joint Legislative Committee Appointed to In-
vestigate the Public Service Commissions, March, 1917, p. 67.
2
Ibid., p. 68.
1913 1914 381
was president. appeared from the testimony before

It
the Legislative Insurance Investigating Committee, in
1905, that Edward E. McCall had given notes, totalling
" "
about $10,000, to Andy Hamilton, the chief legisla-
tive lobbyist at Albany of that company and distributor
" Yellow
of the Dog Fund."
Precisely why Edward E. McCall should have given
those notes was not explained. Hamilton received great
sums in all for legislative purposes in the transferring of
;
some of the sums Edward E. McCall figured. Both Ed-

ward E. McCall and " Andy " Hamilton received " exces-
sive remuneration
" from the New York Life Insurance
Company, apparently for legal services in a certain case,

which sums, according to the report of Charles E. Hughes,
there was no adequate reason for paying. At the same
time that these sums were paid to them, both Edward E.
McCall and Hamilton were under a regular retainer as
attorneys by the New York Life Insurance Company, each
of them receiving $10,000 a year.
Mr. McCall was put upon the Supreme Court Bench in
1902, by Tammany backing, and remained there until his
appointment, in 1913, by Governor Sulzer as Chairman of
the Public Service Commission, First District.
The greatest exertions were made by Tammany to
sway the electorate so as to swing the election in its favor.
Tammany realized that the Sulzer episode would be an

important issue, but it did not anticipate that the sum-
mary removal of Governor Sulzer, with all the attendant
circumstances, would make so unpleasant an impression,
driving large numbers of voters to the other side. Tam-
many thought that it had put Sulzer on the defensive; it
did not quite foresee the effect of revelations which, before
the campaign was over, placed Tammany seriously on the
defensive and its leaders under the necessity of making
explanations.
Moreover, in selecting its candidates and developing
its campaigntactics Tammany did not appreciate the
very much altered attitude of a large section of the public
toward municipal politics. There had arisen in New York
City an increased public demand for proved administrative
capacity. The old days of public toleration of choosing
" or subservient
politicians for "good fellowship qualities
had about gone. The emphasis was now placed by Tam-
many's opponents upon the fact that cities should be not
merely governed, but well governed, by men of vision,
ability and integrity.
The candidate for Mayor of the Republicans and Fu-
sionists was John Purroy Mitchel, a young
Independent
Democrat, who was credited with having made a notable
record as Commissioner of Accounts. Later he had been
President of the Board of Aldermen, and then Collector
of the Port of New York. Nominated with him were Wil-
liam A. Prendergast, for Comptroller, and George Mc-
Aneny for President of the Board of Aldermen all were
;
eulogized by their supporters with having served the city

with constructive ability and marked efficiency, and with
having opposed and exposed Tammany graft and extrav-
agance.
The Socialist Party's candidate for Mayor was Charles
Edward Russell, a writer of note and a man of high per-
sonal character.
Full of bitterness was this campaign. Perhaps the most
effective speakers against Tammany Hall were John A.
Hennessy and former Governor Sulzer. Mr. Hennessy in

a public speech on October 23, 1913, specifically charged
that he held a note for $35,000 that had been signed by a
Justice of the Supreme Court who had been Mr. Murph} 's T
alternative candidate for Mayor.

" I do not
say that the
$35,000 was ever paid to anybody. I don't suspect him of
any vices that would induce him to borrow $35,000. . . .
If he has had to pay $35,000 or more for his [Supreme

Court] nomination, why he simply followed a tradition in
the organization to which he belonged."
Mr. Hennessy charged Mr. McCall with not answer-
1913 1914 383
ing the question of where he got his campaign money, and

asked Mr. McCall whether, in 1902 (when McCall was a
candidate for the Supreme Court nomination) he, McCall,
had not met George W. Plunkett, a Tammany district
" honest "
leader the originator of the term graft
in a room in the Hoffman House, and whether Anthony
" I
N. Brady was not in another room at the same time.
want to ask Judge McCall," Mr. Hennessy continued,
" whether his
sponsor, Charlie Murphy, had not seen An-
thony Brady in respect to McCall's nomination in the
Hoffman House, and I want to ask Judge McCall if the
gentleman who brought him and Plunkett together to
discuss that nomination, did not have something to do with
Murphy and Mr. Brady in respect of that nomination."
Mr. Hennessy charged that one man that Mr. McCall
paid was Plunkett, but he (Hennessy) did not know
whether he paid Murphy, or whether he paid the amount
to somebody who paid Murphy; he (Hennessy) did not
undertake to assert that.
The Anthony N. Brady here mentioned was a traction
magnate, who, beginning as a clerk in Albany, had by
means of legislative manipulation giving richly valuable
railway and other franchises, accumulated an estate of
$90,000,000.
In several speeches Mr. Hennessy pointedly asserted
that James Stewart, a contractor, had paid $25,000 to
a former friend of Charles F. Murphy, and inquired
whether J. Sergeant Cram (a prominent Tammany light)
had not received $5,000, and Norman E. Mack another
$5,000.
At a public meeting on October 25, 1913, Mr. Sulzer
declared that he had sent to Charles F. Murphy $10,000
that Allan Ryan (Thomas F. Ryan's son), had contrib-
uted to his campaign fund, and that Mr. Murphy had
never accounted for it.
Mr. Sulzer named John H. Delaney (later State Com-
missioner of the Department of Efficiency and Economy),
as the messenger who had carried the $10,000 in bills to
Mr. Murphy. This money, Mr. Sulzer asserted, had or-
iginally been handed to him (Sulzer) in his New York of-
fice by Mr. McGlone, Allan Ryan's secretary, and that
he (Sulzer) gave the $10,000 to Delaney, who took it up-
town and gave it to Murphy. " Late that afternoon,"
Mr. Sulzer continued, " I saw Mr. Murphy at Delmonico's.
'
During our conversation, I said, Did John give you the
' '
ten from Ryan? Mr. Murphy replied: Yes, that's all
right, but it's only a drop in the bucket. You'll have to
do better than that.' So far as I know," Mr. Sulzer
" and I am
continued, pretty well advised, Mr. Murphy
never accounted for that $10,000, any more than he ac-
counted for the Brady $25,000 which I refused and which
he accepted from Judge Beardsley [Brady's legal repre-
sentative]. At all events, I think Mr. Murphy should
tell the voters what he did with the money." Mr. Sulzer
declared that he (Sulzer) was still in debt, and that
" I
am a poorer man to-day than I was when I became a can-
didate for Governor." No one acquainted with Sulzer's
career could doubt that had he been essentially corrupt,
he could have become a millionaire from huckstering of
legislation when he was Speaker of the Assembly; there
was no bribing him, however, with money he was, in fact,
;
a poor man.
Mr. Sulzer then declared that Thomas F. Ryan was
" Boss "
Murphy's master.
This, in fact, was the very point made by the Social-
" bosses " were
ists that the political
:
only the tools of the
great financial and industrial magnates and that where
;
" bosses "

the political gathered in their millions, the mag-
nates accumulated their tens or hundreds of millions of
dollars as their individual fortunes. Why, queried the
Socialists, concentrate attention on the instruments?
attack the of the whole social,
Why not, said they, power
political and industrial system of which the political
"boss" was merely one expression? This system, ac-
1913 1914 385
cording to the Socialist party, was the capitalist system

for the overthrow of which they declared and agitated.
They pointed out that behind Mr. Murphy and Tam-
many Hall, as well as behind the Republican organization
where it was in power, were traction, railroad, telephone,
electric lighting, industrial and other financial interests
all selfishly utilizing the power embodied in political
" bosses " for their own ends and
aggrandizement, and
that these were the real powers that could make and un-
" bosses."
make political
Cram and Plunkett had all denied allegations
Gaffney,
aimed at them; Murphy and McCall had remained silent.
But on October 26, 1913, McCall and Murphy both issued
statements. Mr. McCall denied the charge that he had
paid $35,000 for the nomination for the Supreme Court
in 1902. Mr. Murphy made public an affidavit in which
he (Murphy) denied that McCall had ever paid him any-
thing at any time, and branding the charge as false. On
the next day Mr. Murphy gave out a long statement mak-
ing a sweeping denial of Mr. Sulzer's statements ; he as-
serted that he had received the $25,000 from Anthony N.
Brady, but that he had returned the money the next day ;
he also denied that he had ever received $10,000 from
Ryan.
Mr. Hennessy returned to the attack. On the same
day he charged that a seat in the United States Senate
(to succeed Senator Root) had been offered to Sulzer
if he would yield to Mr. Murphy, and that it was Mr.
McCall who acted as the intermediary.

In a public speech on the following day, October 28,
1913, Mr. Hennessy demanded the tracing of Mr. Brady's
$25,000, and suggested that it might be well to examine
the executors of Brady's estate and find out whether
Brady had deposited $25,000 two days after Judge Beards-
" I knew
ley had handed that money to Mr. Murphy.
Mr. Brady very well," Mr. Hennessy went on. " I have
known Mr. Brady since he was selling groceries in Albany
twenty-five or twenty-six years ago, . . . and I know that
he never carried around $25,000 in bills every day in his
pocket ; so if he got this $25,000 in bills from Mr. Murphy,
he undoubtedly deposited it somewhere." Mr. Hennessy
chided Mr. Murphy with having been told by his district
leaders to answer him, after he (Murphy) had declared
that he would not notice the charges, and said that Mr.
"
Murphy was shoving it off on a dead man."
When, on October 29, 1913, former Judge Beards-
ley, counsel for the Brady estate, issued a statement
asserting that the $25,000 was returned to Brady, Mr.
Hennessy in a public speech demanded proof and charged
that an alibi was being proved over the body of a dead
man. Mr. Hennessy made the charge that in the cam-
paign of 1910 Mr. Murphy had collected fully $150,000
for which he had not accounted in the statement filed
with the Secretary of State. " Most of this money," Mr.
" came from contractors who were
Hennessy declared,
clubbed into giving it."
So this exciting campaign drew to a close amid sensa-
tional charges, counter charges, denials and reiterations.
Over in Queen's Borough, the Democratic " boss "
of that section, " Joe " Cassidy, was in serious difficulties ;
he had long, with some intermissions, ruled that part of
the city; and although he was not a Tammany man, nor
did Tammany rule Queens, in the strict sense of the mean-
ing, yet he was an ally of Tammany and had always
" consulted " Mr.
Murphy.
Local " Boss " Cassidy and one of his lieutenants were
under indictment for conspiring in selling a nomination
in 1911, to the Supreme Court Bench to William Willett,
Jr., and Willett was indicted for being a party to the con-
spiracy. During his trial later, Cassidy admitted that
he was " boss," but asserted his honesty. Questioned as
to why he did not deposit a certain sum in bank, he replied,
" I was used to
carrying money in my pocket. I was
1913 1914 387
lonesome without a roll in my pocket." It may be said

here that Willett was convicted, and likewise were Cassidy
and one of his lieutenants by a jury on February 2, 1914;
Cassidy and Willett were each sentenced to an indeter-
minate sentence of not less than a year in prison and a
"
fine of $1,000, and Cassidy 's lieutenant go-between,"
Louis T. Walter, received a sentence of three months and
a fine of $1,000. After serving a year in prison Cassidy
was released and later (January 19, 1917) was restored
to citizenship by Governor Whitman.
Intelligent people contemplated with wonderment the
antiquated tactics that Tammany Hall was blindly fol-
lowing. Although the discussion of pressing economic
problems was vitally concerning great masses of people,
Tammany Hall seemed unaware of their existence. The
rapid development of the trusts, the concentration of
capitalist power and wealth, the tense unrest among dif-
ferent classes of people, were reflected in various political
and industrial movements, but in Tammany Hall no atten-
tion was given to them. Oblivious to the great industrial
changes and popular agitations and thought, Tammany
still adhered to its old semi-feudalistic methods of
"
carry-
its vote " it concerned itself with matters of
ing ; only
offices, jobs, contracts and interested legislation; it de-
pended upon immense campaign funds and the personal
following of its leaders in marshaling the army of voters
all of whom by jobe or other such self interest sought to
perpetuate itspower.
New York City had also grown too vast for the Tam-
many district leaders to control as they did in the dec-
ades when it was smaller and compact. Great numbers
of people had moved from Manhattan to other boroughs ;
and this constant process of migration had much weak-
ened the power of Tammany organization leaders in keep-
ing in touch with the voters. The Jewish vote had grown
to enormous proportions, and so had the Italian, but the
Jewish vote was generally a vote racially independent of
Tammany and not particularly sympathetic to the char-
acter, racial and religious, of its leaders.
Tammany Hall was overwhelmingly defeated. Mr.
MitchePs plurality was 124,262. The vote resulted:
Mitchel, 358,181 ; McCall, 233,919 ; Russell, 32,057. All
of the anti-Tammany candidates for city offices were
elected by varying pluralities. Mr. Sulzer was trium-
phantly elected to the Assembly. However, Tammany
men could glean some slight consolation in this hour of
disaster ; Lieutenant Governor Martin Glynn, who had
succeeded Sulzer as Governor, could be generally depended
upon to appoint some Tammany men to various appoint-
ive offices ; when his list of appointments was handed
down they were not altogether disappointed. Tammany
was especially jubilant in getting control of the Public
Service Commission, not to mention a firmer hold in various
State departments.
The results of the municipal election cut Tammany off
from city, county and national patronage ; in such an ex-
tremity Mr. Murphy had little to offer famishing follow-
ers except soothing words which counted for nothing where
practical results were demanded.
The mutterings against Mr. Murphy in certain quar-
ters grew no longer was he fulsomely
to open rebellion;
praised as a sagacious political strategist he was now de-
;
risively called a stupid blunderer for his successive ac-

tions and particularly for his campaign of reprisal against
Sulzer a campaign producing so inflaming an effect
against Tammany.
A resolution introduced in the Democratic Club, on
" all
February 1914, demanded that he retire from
2, par-
ticipation in the party's affairs," to which Mr. Murphy
in an
" I am the leader of
defiantly replied interview,
Tammany Hall. You can add that I am going to remain
the leader of Tammany Hall no matter what some others
might think they have to say about it." Believing that at
1913 1914 389
least thirty-two of the thirty-four Tammany district lead-

" Boss "
ers would vote to continue him in power, Murphy
made thisannouncement with apparent confidence. In-
deed, itwas reported that the Executive Committee of
Tammany Hall had voted to retain his leadership.
A few days later some extracts from a letter written
by Richard Croker to John Fox were made public.
"
Murphy was a big handicap to McCall," Mr. Croker
" The Hall will never win under
wrote. Murphy's man-
agement. I hope some good man will get in and drive
all them grafters contractors out." On March 10, 1914,
at a meeting of the Democratic Club, Charles F. Murphy,
James E. Gaffney, Thomas F. Foley, George W. Plunkett
and Thomas Darlington were rudely read out of that club
on the nominal ground of non-payment of dues, whereupon
Thomas F. Smith, Secretary of Tammany Hall, styled
that action " a joke " and declared that " the club has
cut no figure locally since 1896."
Mr. Murphyremained " the Chief " of TammanyHall.
The various into the system of graft
official inquiries
in State contracts conducted by Special Commissioner
James W. Osborne and other officials continued after
the election. In January, 1914* Bart Dunn, an associate
Tammany leader of the Eighteenth Assembly District and
a close friend of Charles F. Murphy, was convicted of
conspiracy in highways construction graft, and sentenced
to ten months in the penitentiary and to pay a fine of
$500 ; he took an appeal and was let out on bail. Subse-
quently, however, he was compelled to serve six months in
prison.
On February had been summoned to
15, 1914, after he
testify again inan investigation by District Attorney
Whitman, State Treasurer John J. Kennedy committed
suicide. As State Treasurer, Kennedy was ex-officio a
member of the State Canal Board which had control of
contracts now under investigation; his son was, in con-
junction with others, one of whom was under indictment,
in the business ofbonding contractors on canal and other
State work. was believed that worry arising from the
It
forthcoming examination as to his son's transactions, was

the cause of Kennedy's suicide.
At a hearing conducted by the District Attorney's of-
fice, in New York City, on February 26, 1914, Mr. Sulzer
again related, this time in testimony, the story of the

$25,000 campaign contribution by Anthony N. Brady
and that of $10,000 by Allan Ryan, both of which con-
tributions were made in 1912.
"
Once," Mr. Sulzer testi-
" in a talk with he told me that Ryan had
fied, Murphy,
given a check for $25,000 in 1912. Murphy said that he
would report that, but not the $10,000. He said he
would find a dummy for that. He also found dummies for
Brady's $25,000." Mr. Sulzer explained that a certain
$25,000 that Mr. Murphy had returned to Brady was not
the $25,000 that Brady had contributed to the campaign
of 1912. Brady, so Mr. Sulzer testified, had sued Mur-
phy for $40,000 and Murphy had settled the suit for
$25,000; the records would disclose this suit, Mr. Sulzer
said.
Thus far some of the smaller grafters have been con-
victed and sentenced to jail, but the really powerful poli-
ticians involved have not suffered. After two months'
consideration of the charges of graft and official miscon-
duct brought against C. Gordon Reel, State Engineer
John A. Bensel, Duncan W. Peck, State Superintendent
of Public Works the three officials forming the high-
ways Commission under the regime of which, it was
charged, the large grafting had been going on the Al-
bany County Grand Jury, on April 28, 1914, reported
that no indictments had been found against any of these
men, nor against Charles A. Foley, Deputy Superintendent
of Highways. According to facts disclosed by Mr. Os-
borne's investigation, many of the 318 repair contracts let
by Foley and passed by Reel, Bensel and Peck, were
awarded only after contractors had contributed to the
1913 1914 391
Democratic campaign fund. Numerous of the roads cov-

ered by these contracts were so badly constructed that
they went to pieces within a year and the State, so Mr.
;
Osborne charged, thereby lost hundreds of thousands of

dollars.
CHAPTER XXXVII
1914-1917
the removal of Governor Sulzer from office,

Martin Glynn, as has already been noted, had be-
UPON come Governor of New York State. A Democrat,
he consequently appointed men of the party to which he
belonged to various offices. Tammany and its auxiliaries
now had control of the Public Service Commission, First
District.
But this control was abruptly ended by the effect of the
disclosures made in the testimony before the (Thompson)
Joint Legislative Committee probing into the affairs of
the Public Service Commissions. Mr. Glynn was suc-
ceeded as Governor by Charles S. Whitman who had done
such notable service as District Attorney of New York
County. During 1915 the Joint Legislative Committee
held many hearings at which much testimony of an up-
heaving nature was given.
One result of this inquiry was a series of grave charges
against Edward E. McCall, Chairman of the Public Service
Commission, First District, and, as we have seen, recent
candidate of Tammany Hall for Mayor. Accompanied
by a request for Mr. McCall's removal from office, these
charges were made to Governor Whitman by the Joint
Legislative Committee on December 12, 1915, and were
supplemented by a bill of particulars, specifying twenty
charges, formally filed ten days later.
The charges declared that Mr. McCall's acceptance of
his appointment to the Public Service Commission was in
392
1914 1917 393
violation of law; that he was at the time the owner of

stock in a corporation subject to the Public Service Com-
mission's supervision; that thereafter he attempted to
" which
transfer this stock to his wife attempt was a mere
subterfuge and a clumsy effort to evade the statute";
and that as Chairman of the Public Service Commission
he participated in the consideration of matters affecting
the value of this stock.
Further, the charges accused Mr. McCall of accepting
a retainer for legal services from a corporation, the chief
owner of the stock of which was commonly reputed to be
a controlling factor in the management of the Interbor-
ough Rapid Transit Company; and that in another case
he accepted a retainer in an action then pending in the
"
Supreme Court in which action the engineers in the em-
ploy of the Public Service Commission will be necessary
as material witnesses." Other charges specified that he
favored the public service corporations to the detriment
of public interests. The sixteenth charge particularized
that in the matter of the third tracking of the elevated
railroads in Manhattan he failed to reserve the power of
" and that as a result of
supervision to the Commission
such failure the lessee of the Manhattan Railway Com-
pany [the Interborough] has entered into extravagant
and improvident contracts under which its stockholders
and the people of the City of New York have suffered and
will suffer large losses." The seventeenth charge ar-
raigned McCall for having authorized the construction
of connecting lines by the Interborough Rapid Transit
"
Company at an extravagant and exorbitant price and
without competition to the disadvantage of the city of
New York and its inhabitants." The eighteenth charge
set forth that in the execution of the dual subway con-
" he
tracts permitted the inclusion of a provision under
which the New York Municipal Railway Corporation will
be permitted unwarrantedly to deduct from the earnings
of that company, before the division of the net earnings
between the company and the city can be accomplished,
a sum aggregating more than $10,000,000." In brief,
the charges declared that McCall showed misconduct in
office,favoritism, neglect of duty, and inefficiency.
After consideration of the charges, Governor Whitman,
on December 6? 1915, removed Mr. McCall from office as
the Chairman of the Public Service Commission, First Dis-
trict. The particular charge substantiated was that Mc-
Call violated that section of the Public Service Commis-
sions law forbidding a Commissioner to hold stock in a
corporation subject to the Commission's supervision.
McCall, however, was not the only Public Service Com-
missioner involved in the revelations before the Joint
Legislative Committee. At a session on December 16,
1915, Sidney G. Johnson, vice-president of the General
Railway Signal Company, testified that Robert Colgate
Wood, another Public Service Commissioner, demanded
$5,000 from the Union Switch and Signal Company for
using his influence as Commissioner to give that company
a subway signal system contract. The offer, it was testi-
fied, was refused. On January 25, 1916, the Grand Jury
in New York County indicted Mr. Wood for the alleged
solicitation of a bribe. Meanwhile, on December 27, 1915,
George V. S. Williams, another Public Service Commis-
sioner, resigned from office on the plea that for some time
he had been contemplating this step, and now that he was
no longer " under fire " he could retire in justice to him-
self.
Serious as these developments were, they did not have
the damaging effect upon Tammany that might ordinarily
be supposed. Except in certain offices here and there
Tammany was out of power, and therefore, not being
prominently on the defensive, could not be effectively as-
sailed. Moreover, in view of the results of a recently
tried libel suit, it was anything but a propitious time for
Tammany's Republican opponents to make capital from
such incidents.
1914 1917 395
This action, which conspicuously held public at-

libel
tention, was one brought by William Barnes, Jr., Re-

publican State leader, against Theodore Roosevelt. In a
published article, Colonel Roosevelt had practically
charged that there was a corrupt alliance between Mr.
Barnes and Charles F. Murphy, the Tammany leader,
and that Mr. Barnes had worked through a corrupt al-
liance between crooked business and crooked politics.
The article did not charge personal corruption in the
sense of bribery, but emphasized the nature of the po-
litical methods used. The trial of this action resulted,
on May 22, 1915, in the jury finding a verdict in favor
of Roosevelt.
The proceedings of this trial directed general notice
much more to the workings of the Republican machine
system than to Tammany methods. To the initiated it
had long been known that the Republican machine, as the
power usually controlling the Legislature, was the pre-
ferred instrument through which the powerful financial,
industrial, utility, commercial and other corporations
operated to get the legislation that they wanted. This
fact was now confirmed and disseminated by the outcome
of the libel suit. Long, too, had it been suspected that
between the apparently hostile political machines there
often existed secret understandings or alliances cloaked
over by pretended political warfare which was merely
mock opposition intended for credulous public consump-
tion. The court proceedings and the verdict showed that
the stating of this fact was not a libel.
The effect upon public opinion of this libel action was
far more injurious to the Republican State organization
than to Tammany, a reaction naturally to be expected in
judging an organization which had so long found cam-
"
paign material in strong virtuous denunciations of Tam-
many corruption." At the same time public disfavor of
the Republican organization was increased by the bad
record of the Republican Legislature in 1915 a record
that in many respects was worse than that of a Tammany
Legislature. These influences were to Tammany's advan-
tage. Always rushing to excesses when in prosperity,
Tammany in times of adversitymoderated its action by
observing prudence and deferring to public proprieties.
Its chief candidates in the 1915 election were men of ac-
credited good character and reputed ability. These con-
ditions, together with the fact that the Republicans and
the Progressives did not unite in opposition to Tammany,
helped to bring a measure of success to Tammany. For
the first time in more than fifteen years Tammany man-
aged to elect a District Attorney in the County of New
York in the person of Judge Edward Swann, and it elected
Alfred E. Smith to the office of Sheriff.
From the beginning of 1916 Tammany was thus in full
control of the criminal machinery of the law in New York
County. District Attorney Swann showed such energy
in the sustained prosecution of the infamous "white
slavers," that the formulating of charges against him
came as a surprise to many citizens who had formed a
good estimate of his activities in office. These charges,
made by Judge James A. Delehanty of the Court of Gen-
eral Sessions, on December 30, 1916, alleged misconduct
in office in the matter of certain assault cases resulting
from the garment trades strike of 1914.
In the list of charges forwarded to Governor Whitman
Judge Delahanty accused District Attorney Swann of
having deliberately presented a false recommendation to
a Judge of General Sessions on the strength of which he-
obtained the discharge on bail of more than a score of
defendants indicted in March, 1914, on various charges
of assault, riots, and injuries to property occurring dur-
ing the course of labor disputes on the East Side. Judge
Delahanty further charged that District Attorney Swann
even sought to have the indictments against these men
dismissed, although seven of them had offered to plead
guilty. Judge Delahanty had been an Assistant District
1914 1917 397
Attorney when Mr. Whitman was District Attorney, and

hence could claim an intimate familiarity with the details
of those very cases. Among the characters concerned in
the clothing trades strike were such notorious gangsters
" " " " " Jew "
as Dopey Benny Fein, Waxy Gordon,
Murphy and others such widely known for their activities
in the section east of the Bowery.
Assistant District Attorney Lucian S. Breckinridge
who had had charge of the preparation of many of these
cases for trial, had resigned on March 23, 1916, on the
ground that District Attorney Swann's action in the cases
was " a travesty on justice, and an outrage to decency,"
and that he (Mr. Breckinridge) did not purpose to ac-
quiesce in that action either actively or by silence. In
his letter of resignation Mr. Breckinridge asserted that
" disclosed a tale of
the investigation of the strike wrong
and outrage, and a use of gangsters and thugs in labor
troubles unparalleled in the history of this country." On
the other hand, Morris Hillquit, chief counsel for the labor
unions involved, asserted in an interview that " the in-
dictments were based on evidence furnished by a combina-
tions of notorious lawbreakers, who were known as such
to the prosecuting officials." Mr. Hillquit denounced
their story as
" a most
clumsy concoction, bearing evi-
dence of deliberate fabrication."
After the filing of the charges against him, District
Attorney Swann declared that the charges were actuated
by politics. He made a bitter personal attack upon Mr.
Breckinridge, and retaliated later by causing Mr. Breck-
inridge to be indicted upon the allegation that he had
received a bribe from manufacturers. On January 14,
1917, the City Club presented charges to Governor Whit-
man and asked for District Attorney Swann's removal
from office. The first charge included Judge Delehanty's
statements, and declared that District Attorney Swann's
efforts to procure the dismissal of indictments against
labor union men charged with assault constituted an at-
tempt to perpetrate a fraud on the Court of General
Sessions, and that its object was to pay a Tammany elec-
tion debt to East Side labor unionists. The second
charge asserted that by various means Mr. Swann had
sought to coerce and intimidate Mr. Breckinridge, who
was a valuable witness into any inquiry into the charges
against the District Attorney.
At this writing (March, 1917), it is not possible to
give the outcome of these charges the determination of
;
them and the decision are still to be forthcoming from

Governor Whitman when sufficient time shall have been
allowed for adequate inquiry.
By the end of 1916 the municipal administration
headed by Mayor John Purroy Mitchel had been in power
for three years with another year to serve. Usually in
past times after a fusion administration had been in office
for a year or two its unwise repressive acts only the more
strengthened Tammany, which always put forth the boast
that it was the real democratic bulwark against aristo-
cratic property rule and that it was the genuine repre-
sentative of the masses. On this claim it generally had
succeeded in elections for nearly two decades, returning a
majority of from 75,000 to 100,000 for the Democratic
candidates, especially in State and National elections.
In the 1916 election Tammany was able to give Wilson
a plurality of only about 40,000 over Hughes. To ac-
cept the results of any one particular election would be
unsafe. Nevertheless, it would seem to be the case that
as compared with its past Tammany is in a moribund
condition its only large hold, the decline of which is re-
;
lieved by but an occasional victory, is in Manhattan

Borough. The population of Manhattan is not growing
nearly as rapidly as some of the other boroughs which at
the same time show an increasing anti-Tammany or Re-
publican tendency.
While Tammany has been clinging to outworn tactics
and aims out of keeping with the rising standards of the
1914 1917 399
times, the anti-Tammany forces have learned much from

the experiences of previous movements. Likewise they
have proved responsive to the broadening currents of the
age. Whatever their minor mistakes they have not re-
garded New York City as an object of low political tyr-
anny and brutal spoliation. They have, in the main,
applied constructive ability to administration, and have
evinced a keen sense not merely of the cleanly appearance
and well-ordered functions of the great city but of its
architectural and other aesthetic values as well, as shown
by several measures recently adopted. This is a very
different condition from that prevailing during the times
when the city's affairs were dictated by ignorant poli-
ticians whose sole aim was to enrich themselves quickly
and satisfy the predatory desires of their followers.
The anti-Tammany forces have learned, too, that re-
pression only nullifies in the popular mind the good effects
of other accomplishments. In the last few years New
York City officials have allowed absolute freedom of speech
and freedom of assemblage on the public streets, desig-
nating certain places for the purpose, and qualifying this
liberty only by the salutary proviso that the speakers be
held responsible for any unlawful utterances. An in-
structively different attitude, this, from that in days not
so long gone by when assemblages of citizens were forbid-
den to use streets and were mauled and clubbed by the
police, and when they were prohibited from holding dis-
cussions in public buildings.
Judged by the performances of many exploiting ad-
ministrations that have ruled and robbed New York City,
Mayor Mitchel's administration has been one of whole-
some tendencies and accomplishments. Its opponents
have bitterly attacked some of its policies, but however
of a debatable nature these may have been or are, the
antagonists of this administration have not been able to
assail it on the score of endorsed graft and incompetence
as has been the case with so many other city administra-
tions. It is not contended that evils have entirely dis-
appeared, but at any rate the base, ignoble practices and
the repellant incompetence characteristic of past " boss "
rule have been much supplanted by improved methods,
expert judgment, technical experience, a higher tone, and
good spirit.
The police department, so long the special canker, has
been placed on a different basis. A recent report of the
Bureau of Social Hygiene, which has closely investigated
that department, does not claim that graft has been en-
" tremendous
tirely eliminated but it points out that gains
have been made." The " vice ring," it reports, has been
broken up; the gambling evil has been greatly reduced;
organized graft is no longer the sinister and secure system
" Collusion between
that it was. exploiters of vice and
officials in the Police Department has ceased. Petty graft-
ing still occurs. The man on the beat may take a small
bribe to overlook a breach of the law, but protection can
no longer be purchased." The Committee of Fourteen
gives credit for this transformation largely to the
" " movement started
clean-up by Police Commissioner
Cropsey under Mayor Gaynor, and continued and elabo-
rated by Police Commissioner Arthur Woods under Mayor
Mitchel's administration. Some survivals of old stand-
ards still remain, particularly in the selection of police-
men too much for physical capacity and not enough for
technical intelligence as applied to detective work. From
these continuing old standards serious incapacity has
often resulted in the unearthing of crimes.
Had New York City a homogeneous population the
movement for a general elevation of civic standards would
have proceeded faster. But New York City's conglomer-
ate population with its polyglot diversities has naturally
presented great difficulties in the solid formation of a
unity of understanding and purposes. Nevertheless the
progress has been very considerable. In spreading its
educational measures for the conservation of health, the
1914 1917 401
Health Department of New York City for example, has

obviously encountered serious obstacles in dealing with a
heterogeneous and in many quarters a congested popula-
tion. Yet by intelligent perseverance it has succeeded so
well that in 1916, notwithstanding an infantile paralysis
epidemic, the death rate was only 13.82 per 1000
lowest death rate in New York City's history. The
notable improvements brought about by these and other
departments attest ever-increasing proficiency. Where
formerly the traditional conception of politics in New
York City was one cynically regarding office as a legiti-
mate means of spoils, graft, corruption and corporation
pillaging, new traditions have been gradually substituted.
The old influences may here and there persist, but they
are no longer accepted by masses of voters as a fixed creed.
The stage has been passed when the open venality of poli-
tics can be successfully flaunted; it is now the subtle in-
fluences often seeking surreptitiously to use government
for their own invidious ends that require the watching.
The supporters of Mayor MitchePs administration hold
that by eradicating partisan politics it has been able to
concentrate its whole attention upon the one duty of
providing efficient government for the city. They point
out, that contrary to the careless methods of some former
administrations, the Mitchel administration has, by pru-
dent supervision of finances reduced the budget annually
by several million dollars, and yet has made notable ex-
tensions in service. They further call attention to the
fact that the Mitchel administration has put a stop to the
ruinous practice of mortgaging the credit of the city for
generations in advance. For the first time, they also tell,
New York City has protested against the old arbitrary
practice of making enormous State appropriations for
objects in which New York City had no share; that as
result of this protest the State has already made partial
restitution; and that the program of city relief in this
direction should eventually mean an annual reduction of
$12,000,000 in New York City's tax burdens. The
Mitchel administration forces emphasize the great in-
crease in the collections from taxes, assessments, water
subway and miscellaneous revenue.
rates, docks, ferries,
These are some of the financial improvements enumer-
ated.
In the line of departmental progress Mayor Mitchel's
administration is credited with a large list of reforms and
innovations: The transformed morale of the Police De-
partment ; the efficiency of the Fire Department in greatly
curtailing the number of fires while at the same time that
department has cost $200,000 less a year than formerly ;
the humanizing of the activities of the Charities Depart-

ment and of the correctional system the progressive work
;
of the Health, Education and other departments; the en-

terprise of the Dock Department in adding seven miles of
wharfage and vast areas of dock space to New York har-
bor's piers. This is but the merest synopsis of the abun-
dant details set forth showing what Mayor Mitchel's ad-
ministration has done.
So attractive is this record that the description may
possibly seem open to the suspicion of being one-sided, if
not effusive. Recalling how often New York City has suf-
fered from flagrant maladministration, the skeptic may
be tempted to regard these attributed deeds as being too
good to be true. Besides, campaign documents are to be
scrutinized not so much for their assertions as for their
omissions.
It is true that the great bulk of the accomplishments
of Mayor Mitchel's administration may be justly claimed
by his supporters as genuine services which are bound to
become fixed standards any overthrow of which will not
be easily tolerated by the educated public. These Ad-
ministration annalists, however, have not separated the
reforms essentially enduring from those which by their
nature are merely experimental, as, for example, certain
educational policies. But experiments have their distinct
1914 1917 403
value ; better that they should be tried than inertia should

prevail.
One of the few specific charges brought against Mayor
Mitchel's administration is the assertion that a coterie
of real estate speculators has profited unduly by the sale
of park sites and other real estate to the city and State
during recent years. In reply the supporters of Mayor
Mitchel's administration say that the acquisition of these
properties was indispensable to great public improvements
planned; that whatever payments have been made have
been paid by the regularly determined award of the courts ;
and that there is not the slightest evidence of collusion on
the part of city officials.
Thus far the opponents of Mayor Mitchel's administra-
tion have devoted much of their energy to attempts at
personal onslaughts. This line of action has called forth
the comment that it is because of the very absence of ad-
ministrative scandals that the administration's adversaries
resort to vague personal attacks. From these opponents
has come the persistent innuendo that because of Mayor
Mitchel's occasional social associations with rich and pow-
erful personages, his official activities must necessarily be
influenced by that contact. It is aptly pointed out that
the hypocrisy and demagogery of such an aspersion may
be properly estimated when it is recalled that the elements
mainly concerned in spreading it have been the identical
organized forces that year after year were the tools of
designing men and corporations that by the adroit use of
corrupt politics vested in themselves huge corporate privi-
leges and powers and enormous wealth.
THE END
INDEX
Barker, James W., 174
Barnard, George G., 223, 242,
movement, 122-123
Abolitionist 244, 248, 268
Ackerman, Simon, 24 "Barnburners,'* 140-149, 161
Adams, John, 5 Barnes, William, Jr., 395
Adams, John Quincy, 5, 61-65, Barr, Thomas J., 163, 165, 170
70-74, 82 Barrett, George C., 237
Êtna Fire Insurance Co., 97 Becker, Charles, 356-357, 359-
Ahearn, John F., 316, 324-326 360
Aldermanic corruption, 81, 98- BedeU, Louis, 347
99, 103, 105, 132-133, 155, 156, Beecher, Henry Ward, 237
167-171, 181, 197-198, 252, Bell, Isaac, Jr., 192
263-265 Belmont, August, 230-252; 350-
Allds, Jotham P., 342 351
Allen, Stephen, 57, 60, 88, 89, 106 Bennet, William M., 338
Alley, Saul, 106 Bennett, James Gordon, 72, 144
Amory, William N., 293, 320- Bermel, Joseph, 329-30
321, 332, 334-335 Bensel, John A., 389
Andrews, Avery D., 279 Betts, Peter, 96
Anti-Masonic party, 83, 87 Biddle, Nicholas, 89
Anti-Monopolists, 103, 109, 113- Billings, Rev. H. W., 225
114, 119 Bingham, John, 24-25
Apollo Hall Democracy, 254 Bingham, Theodore A., 339-340
Arcularius, Philip I., 23 Binkerd, Robert S., 331
Astor, John Jacob, 232 Birney, James G., 137
44
Blackbirds," 186
B Blake, George W., 363, 369-370,
377
Bailey, Benjamin, 88 Bleecker, Anthony J., 179-180
Baker, Gardiner, 7 Bloodgood, Abraham, 118
Baker, Ray Stannard, 321 Bloodgood, John M., 118, 125,
Bank of America, 96, 126 144
Bank of the Metropolis, 64 Blunt, Orison, 205
Bank of the United States (see Bogardus, Cornelius, 165
U. S. Bank) Bogert, John A., 147
Banks, abuses of, 13-14, 18, 79, Boole, Francis I. A., 199, 202,
96-98, 106-107, 114 203, 205, 206, 208
Bannard, Otto, 341-342 Bowne, Walter, 42, 81, 82, 88, 89,
Bar Association, 253, 276, 284, 98, 121, 127
373 Breckinridge, Lucian S., 397-398
Barker, Isaac O., 179-180 Bradley, Gaffney & Steers, 365
Barker, Jacob, 13, 31, 44, 48, 49, Brady, Anthony N., 332, 351,
66, 70-71 383, 385-386, 390
405
406 INDEX
Brady, James T., 144, 194 Civic Alliance, 341
Brady, William V., 141-142 Civil War, 49, 194, 196-197, 306
Briggs, John R., 213 Cleveland, Grover, 262, 265, 271,
Broadway Railroad Co., 263-264 274-275
Broadway Surface Railroad Co., Clark, Aaron, 109, 110, 118, 120,
263-264 144
Brooklyn Rapid Transit Co., 378 Clark, William H., 273
Broome, John L., 16, 50, 60 Clay, Henry, 82, 137, 157
Brown, E. D., 232 Clinton, DeWitt, 16, 17-19, 26,
Brownell, J. Sherman, 141 28-30, 31-32, 34, 36, 38-40, 45-
Brush, Jacob, 165 48, 52, 54-55, 61, 64, 68, 75, 88
Bryan, William J., 281 Clinton, George, 2, 17-19, 26
Bryant, William Cullen, 100, 116 Cochran W. Bourke, 267-273
Buchanan, James, 178, 180, 194, Cochrane, John, 165, 172, 188
251 Cockroft, William, 168
Buckmaster, George, 40, 41, 60 Coddington, Jonathan I. 134-135
Buckley, William H., 343 Cohalan, Daniel F., 353-354, 355,
Bureau of Municipal Research, 373-374
325 Colden, Cadwallader D., 8, 47,
Bureau of Social Hygiene, 400 48, 51, 52-53, 60
Burr, Aaron, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, Coler, Bird S., 304, 316
126 Commercial Bank, 103
Butler, Benjamin F., 206 Committee of Seventy, 253; 278
Butler, W. O., 143 Conkling, Frederick A., 218-219
Byrnes, Thomas F., 316 Conner, William C., 192
Connolly, J. A., 373
Connolly, Richard B., 122, 152,
165, 202, 214-215, 221, 227, 235,
240-241, 244, 248, 249
Calhoun, John C., 64 Conover, Daniel D., 182
Cambreleng, C. C., 89, 140 Cook, Noah, 119
Campbell, Allan, 262 Coogan, James J., 271
Cardozo, Albert, 220, 248 Cooper, Edward, 184, 259, 260
Carroll, John F., 284-298 Cornell, Alonzo B., 260, 262
Cass, Lewis, 87, 143, 157 Cornell, William H., 273
Cassidy, Edward F., 341-342 Corruption, 77, 96-98, 126, 132-<
Cassidy, Joseph, 330, 386-387 133, 153-154, 167-171, 181-182,
Catholics, feeling against, 30, 134 191-192, 197-199, 200, 203, 206-
Cebra, John Y., 95 207, 212-213, 219-220, 222-223,
Chatham Fire Insurance Co., 97 227, 229, 232-233, 238, 239, 241,
Cheetham, James, 26, 27, 28 263-264, 271-273, 277-278, 288-
Chemical Bank, 96-97 289, 307-308, 317, 318, 338,
Chittenden, S. B., 197-198 342-350, 358-359, 363-371, 372,
Choate, Joseph H., 240 386-387
Church, Sanford E., 252 Coulter, James E., 167
Cisco, John J., 150 Cram, J. Sergeant, 383-385
City Club, 278, 291, 303-304, 325, Cravath, Paul D., 334
327 331 Crawford, William H., 61, 63-64
Citizens' Union, 282, 327 Creek Indians, 6
City Reform party, 172-174, 178- Croker, Richard, 226, 255, 263-
180 264, 267-270, 278-282, 284, 287-
INDEX 407
289, 292, 293, 295-298, 310, 360, Election violence, 73-75, 98, 159,
389 177-180
Crolius, Clarkson, 86 Ellingwood & Cunningham, 346-
Cromwell, George, 317 347
Cullen, Edgar M., 376-377 Ellis,William A., 275
Cutting, Francis B., 147 Elkins, William L., 332
Ely, Smith, Jr., 208, 259
Emmett, Thomas Addis, 46
Empire Club, 136-138
Engeman, William A., 349
Darling, William A., 208 Equitable Life Assurance Soci-
Darlington, Thomas, 389 ety, 307-308, 334
Davies, Thomas E., 168 Equal Rights party, 93-95, 98,
Davis, Matthew L., 12, 24, 25, 28, 100-102, 105-108, 110-111, 114
45, 70-71 Erhardt, Joel B., 271
Davis, William A., 16, 33 Erie Canal, 16, 40, 45, 48, 49, 54,
Davis, Vernon M., 367 65-68
"Dead Rabbits," 186, 189, 191 Erie Railway corruption, 223, 231
Debt, imprisonment for, 94-95 Evarts, William M., 237-242
Delaney, John H., 364-365, 368, Exchange Bank, 48, 70
383
Delavan, Daniel E., 152
Delehanty, James A., 396-397
Democratic Club, 388
Denniston, Isaac, 51 Fairlie, James, 72
Devlin, Charles, 182, 204 Farley, Terrence, 200
Dix, John A., 259; 331, 353, 354 Fassett Committee, 263-264, 272^
Dolan Thomas, 293 274
Douglas, Stephen, 195 Fassett, J. Sloat, 272
Dowd, William, 260 Federalists, 9, 11, 13-14, 16, 25-
Downes, Samuel, 197 26, 29, 34-37, 40-41, 44, 45, 47,
Drake, Ellis G., 141 49, 61, 109, 114
Dunn, Bartholomew, 326, 328, Fellows, John R., 264
389 Fenton, Reuben E., 208
Dunn, Thomas J., 326 Ferguson, John, 38, 39
Duryea, Stephen C., 152 Fidelity & Casualty Co., 344
Fields, "Tom," 244
Fillmore, Millard, 80
E Fish, Preserved, 101
Fisk, James, Jr., 223, 230
Eckford, Henry, 70, 71 Flack, James A., 271
Edson, Franklin, 262, 264, 268 Flannery, Joseph A., 328
Edwards, Ogden, 89 Foley, Charles A., 390
Eighth Avenue railroad, 167 Foley, John, 232, 242
Einstein, Edwin, 274-275 Foley, Thomas F., 389
Elder, Robert, 350 Fornes, Charles V., 306
Election frauds, 73-75, 90-91, Fowler, Isaac V., 146, 165, 190^
114, 118-122, 135, 137, 147, 158- 191, 194
159, 177-180, 191, 195-196, 203- Fowler, John Walker, 195-251
204, 206, 208-209, 218, 220, 275, Fox, John, 225; 389
276 Francis, John W., 4
408 INDEX
Franklin, Morris, 134-135 II
Freedman, Andrew, 296-297
Free Soilers, 161 Hadfelt, Richard, 36
Fremont, John C., 80 Haff, John P., 13, 61, 60
French Revolution, 8, 9 Haffen, Louis F., 294, 1897, f98,
Fulton Bank, 71 316, 326-329
Hackett, John K., 204
Hackley, Andrew J., 198
Hagan, James J., 363
Gaffney, James E., 302, 310-311, Haight, D. H., 168
313, 349, 362, 3S6-369, 371- Hall, A. Oakey, 216, 518, 224,
372, 385, 389 227, 230, 239, 240-242
Gallagher, Ernest, 329-330 Halleck, Fritz Greene, 11
"
Gangs," 130-132, 185-186, 267, Hallett, William Paxen, 95, 124-i
299 125
Gardiner, Asa Bird, 289 Hamilton, Alexander, 2, 3, 14,
Garvey, Andrew J., 216, 221- 19, 66
222, 248-249 Hamilton, Andrew, 308, 381
Gaynor, William J., 340-341, 349, Hammond, Judah, 1, 10
356, 378-379, 400 Hancock, Winfield S., 260
General Railway Signal Co., 394 Hanford, Benjamin, 295
Genet, E. C., 50 B., 366
"Hanger, Harry
Genet, Harry W., 225, 226, 244 Hardshells," 161-165, 173, 174-
George, Henry, 269, 270, 282 175
George, Henry, Jr., 282 Harlem Railroad, 99, 103, 123
Gibbs, Frederick S., 262 Harper, James, 134-136
Gilbert, Garrit, 103 Harrison, William Henry, 129n
Gillroy, Thomas F., 267, 274, 130
275 Hart, Emanuel B., 141, 184
Glynn, Martin, 388-392 Haskell, Job, 104, 114
Goff, John W., 276 Havemeyer, William F., 138-139,
Goodsell, Louis F., 347 140, 142, 152, 192-193, 237, 239,
Gorham, Daniel, 114 241, 252, 254, 255, 256, 261, 279
Gould, Jay, 223 Hayes, Jacob, 13
Grace, William R., 260-261, 262 Hearst, George, 309
Grady, Thomas F., 343-34, 349 Hearst, William R., 309, 322-
Grant, Hugh J., 262-264, 265, 323, 341-342
267-269, 271-272, 274, 278 Hennessy, John A., 363-365, 369,
Grant, U. S., 218, 256 377, 382-386
Greeley, Horace, 115, 117, 188,254 Herrick, John J., 174-175
Green Andrew H., 241, 248 Hewitt, Abram S., 268-271, 273
Green, Duff, 87 Hill, David B., 275
Greene, Francis V., 304 Hillquit, Morris, 397
Gresser, Lawrence, 316, 330-331 Hoffman, John T., 208, 216-218,
Grinnell, Moses H., 119 224, 230, 250
Griswold, John A., 217 Hoffman, Josiah Ogden, 7
Grout, Edward M., 306 Holmes, Silas, 96
Gumbleton, Henry A., 260 Home Insurance Co., 343
Gunther, C. Godfrey, 189, 201, Hone, Philip, 69
205, 208, 252 Hotchkiss, William H., 342-347
Guthrie, W. D., 328, 373 Houston, Sam, 141
INDEX 409
Hoyt, Gould, 41
Hoyt, Jesse, 106, 124
Hubbard, Ruggles, 50, 60
" " Keating, James P., 272
Huckleberry railroads fran- 250-
Kelly, John, 215, 218-219,
chises, 280 257, 258-261, 267, 268
Hudson Insurance Co., 98 Kendall, George H., 372
Hughes, Charles E., 323, 326-331, Kennedy, John J., 389-390
834, 346, 347, 398 Kennedy, William D., 196
Humbert, Jonas, 23, 24, 25, 60 King, Charles, 41
"
Hunkers," 140-149, 159, 161 Kingsland, Ambrose C., 152
Hunn, John S., 44 Kingsley, Darwin P., 345
Hunt, Wilson G., 174-175 Kipp, Solomon, 167
Hyde, Charles H., 348-349 Knights of Labor, 269
Know-Nothings (see also Native
Americans), 174, 191
Ice Trust, 286

Immigration, 134, 154-155, 209
Immigrants, marshalling in poli-
tics, 128-129, 151, 188, 209, 217 Laimbeer, Francis E., 287
Ingersoll, James H., 214-215, Lawrence, Abraham R., 254
221, 238 Lawrence, Cornelius W., 92, 103
Interstate Commerce Commis- Lawrence, John L., 72
sion,315-318 Ledwith, Thomas W., 229-230
Interborough Rapid Transit Co., Lee, Gideon, 101
378-380, 393 Legislative corruption, 77, 96-98,
Ireland, W. H., 72, 89 103-104, 200, 222-223, 227, 244,
Irish, prejudice against, 30, 45 342-350, 352, 372
Irish, mob Tammany Hall, 46 Leggett, William, 100, 110, 116,
Irving Hall, 226 122, 123
"Irving Hall Democracy," 258, Lexow, Clarence, 276
260-262, 274 Lewis, Morgan, 18
Irving, "Jimmy," 244 Liberal Republicans, 253
Ives, Henry S., 272 Libby, James S., 177, 179-180
Ivins, William M., 322-323 Life & Fire Insurance Co., 71
Lincoln, Abraham, 196, 206
Livingston, Edward, 9, 16
Livingston family, 30
Locofocos, 102, 108, 115
Jaehne, Henry W., 264 Loew, Charles E., 206-207
Jackson, Andrew, 5, 52, 61-65, Long Sault Development Co.,
70, 73-76, 80, 85-89, 90-91, 115, 377
123, 188 Lovejoy, Reuben, 170
Jacques, Moses, 94, 106, 110 Low, Seth, 282, 290, 294-295, 302,
Jefferson, Thomas, 4, 5, 9, 15, 303-306
116, 188 Lowber, Robert W., 181
Jerome, Travers, 291-
William Lotteries, 51, 52
292, 319-322, 331-335
294, Lynch, John R., 213
Johnson, Sidney G., 394 Lyons Beet Sugar Refining Co.,
Judah, Napthali, 51, 60 352
410 INDEX
M Mitchel, John Purroy, 322, 326,
'
382, 388, 398-403

McAneny, George, 382 Monroe, James, 5, 39, 49, 51, 83
McCall, Edward E., 345, 362, 371, Montgomery, General, 52
380-382, 385, 388, 392-394 Mooney, William, 1, 12, 24, 25,
McCall, John A., 380-383 34, 52, 87
McCarren, Patrick H., 317, 339, Morgan, Edwin D., 27
340, 351 Morgan, John J., 110
McCann, Patrick H., 263, 268 Morgan, J. Pierpont, 351
McClave, John, 278 Morgan, J. P. & Co., 314-315
McClellan, Gen. George B., 206 Morgans, Morgan, 160
McClellan, George B., 305, 316- Morris Canal & Banking Co.,
317, 322-325, 327, 338-340 71
McCullough, John, 285 Morris, Robert H., 127, 130, 132,
McGillivray, Alexander, 6 134
McGovan, Patrick F., 316, 317 Morrissey, John, 225, 250, 252,
McKane, John Y., 340 255
"McKeon Democracy," 205, 208 Morse, Samuel F. B., 130
McKeon, John, 141, 152, 184 Morss, John, 89
McLaughlin, Hugh, 306 Moss, Frank, 279, 287
McLean, George W., 221 Mozart Hall, 188, 190, 196, 198,
McMahon, Daniel F., 297 200-205, 208, 219
McQuade, Arthur J., 264 Municipal Ownership League,
McQuade, John, 282 qnq
OUv/j
ooc)
OxZX/
Mack, Norman E., 383 Municipal Taxpayers' Associa-

Madison, James, 5, 32, 33 tion, 253
Manhattan Bank, 13, 14, 18, 37, Murphy, Charles F., 297-298,
126-127 299-303, 306, 310-311, 317, 322,
Manning, John J., 147 324, 326, 338-340, 344, 349, 351,
Marcy, William L., 91, 119 353, 355, 356, 360-364, 369-
Martin, Bernard F., 272 373, 375-376, 378, 382-386, 388-
Martin, James J., 278 389, 395
Martling, Abraham, 11 Murphy, John J., 301, 310
Mason, Daniel, 334 Murphy, John M., 366
Maxwell, Hugh, 36 Mutual Life Insurance Co., 307
Mazet Committee, 280, 284-286
Mechanics' Fire Insurance Co., N
71
Medical Science lottery swindle, Nast, Thomas, 235, 239
51 National Republican party, 85-
Mellen, Charles S., 314-318 86; election frauds, 90-91
Merchants' Bank, 96, 100 Native American party, 103, 108,
Merritt, Henry W., 125 121, 128, 134-135, 138, 139, 142,
Metcalfe, Luke, 96 155, 174-175, 179, 187, 191
Metropolitan Securities Co., 332 Naughton & Co., 297
Metropolitan Street Railway Co., Nestell, Christian, 24
293-294, 319, 320, 333-334, 348 Newcomb, Colin G., 127
Metz, Herman A., 317, 338 New York Contracting & Truck-
Mickel, Andrew H., 139, 147, ing Co., 302, 309-312, 314, 318
152 New York County Democracy,
Ming, Alexander Jr., 114 261-262, 269, 274
INDEX 411
New York Life Insurance Co., Peck, Duncan W., 390

307-308, 346, 381 Peckham, Wheeler H., 242
New York Municipal Railway Pendleton, Nathaniel, 19
Corporation, 393 Penn, William, 2
New York, New Haven & Hart- People's Gas Light Co., 206
ford Railroad Co., 312-318 People's Municipal League, 274
New York & Portchester Rail- People's Traction Co., 332
road, 312-318 Perkins, James, 98, 179
New York Stock Exchange, 377 Phelps, William Walter, 237
New York, Westchester & Boston Philbin, Eugene A., 289-291
Railroad Co., 312-318 Phoenix Insurance Co., 342-345
New York, Westchester & Con- Phoenix, J. Philips, 129
necticut Traction Co., 332 Pierce, Franklin, 157, 159, 194
Nicholl, Francis S., 63 Pierson, Isaac, 13
Ninth Avenue Railroad, 167 Pierrepont, Edwards, 240
Nixon, Lewis, 292, 295-296 Pintard, John, 7
Noah, M. M., 47, 60-62, 66, 75, Platt, Thomas C., 288, 305
80, 88, 89, 123, 147 Plunkett, George W., 383, 385,
Norton "Mike," 225, 244 389
Polk, James K., 136-137, 141
O Populist party, 275
Porter, Peter B., 45, 46
O'Brien, James, 225, 238, 254, 268 Potter, Henry C., 289
O'Brien, John J., 262 Prendergast, William A., 382
O'Conor, Charles, 147, 242, 252 Price, William M., 124
O'Gorman, James A., 353-354 Prince, Benjamin, 41, 60
Ogden, Henry, 123 Prohibitionists, 275
O'Neil, "Honest" John, 264 Progressive party, 371, 396
Opdyke, George P., 170, 192-193, Public Service Commission, 333,
201 379-380, 388, 392-394
Ordway, Samuel H., 330-331 Purdy, Elijah F., 122, 141, 146,
O'Rourke, Matthew, 237-238, 248 152, 163, 165, 168, 184, 192,
Osborne, James W., 319-320, 365, 197
389 Purser, George H., 206
Owego Lottery, 51
Owen, Robert, 78 Q
Owen, Robert Dale, 78-79
Queens' Borough Property Own-
ers' Ass'n, 329
Quincy, Josiah, 179
Page, William H., Jr., 334 Quigg, Lemuel Eli, 333
Page, Samuel L., Jr., 24
Panics, 109, 117, 186-187
Parkhurst, Charles H., 278
Parton, James, 117 Radcliff, Jacob, 29, 36, 39, 41, 42,
Partridge, John N., 308-304 47
Paulding, William, Jr., 47, 60, Raines, John, 352
69, 127 Ramapo Water Company, 286
Parker, Andrew D., 279 Rathbone, William P., 71
Patterson & Co., 366 Reel, C. Gordon, 362, 365, 371,
Peaconic Co., 101 390
INDEX
Republicans, 161, 187, 191, 212, Sharp, Jacob, 168, 169
217-218, 229-230, 243, 256, 262, Sharpe, John, 44
275, 282, 306-308, 346, 351- Sharpe, Peter, 72, 77, 89
352, 382, 394-396 Shaw, James G., 367
Revolution, American, 1, 3, 82 Sheehan, John C., 278, 280, 281,
Reynolds, William B., 171 297
Riker, Richard, 15, 36 Sheehan, William F., 353
Ringgold, Benjamin, 107-108 Shepard, Edward M., 290-295
Riots, 109, 131-132, 162, 182, 184, Shepard, Lorenzo B., 141, 290,
185, 191 295
Roberts, Marshall O., 208, 231 Shonts, Theodore, 379-380
Robinson, Lucius, 259-260 Sickles, Daniel E., 144, 158, 189
Roche, Walter, 213 Single-Taxers, 269
Rogers, G. Tracy, 346-348 Skidmore, Burtis, 168
Rogers, H. H., 351 Skidmore, William E., 114
Romaine, Benjamin, 13, 22, 23, Slamm, Levi D., 94-110
25, 33, 34, 61, 72 Slavery, Tammany's support of,
Romaine, Samuel B., 77 143-148
Roosevelt, Robert B., 240 Small, Wilson, 176-183
Roosevelt, J. J., 95 Smith, Alfred E., 396
Roosevelt, Theodore, 270, 279, Smith, Isaac L., 106
285, 289, 395 Smith, Morgan L., 107-108
Rosenthal, Herman, 256-257 Smith, Robert, 133
Russell, Charles E., 382, 388 Smith, Thomas, 389
Russell, William Hepburn, 302 Smith, Thomas R., 81
Rutgers, Col., 42 Smythe, John F. B., 272
Ryan, Allan, 383-384, 390 Socialist Labor party, 306
Ryan, Thomas F., 293, 332-334, Socialists, 269, 275, 382, 384
"
353, 383-384 Softshells," 161-165, 173, 174-
Rynders, Isaiah, 136, 138, 157, 175
195 Spencer, Mark, 71
Stagg, Abraham, 24, 25, 72, 77
Stagg, Peter, 72
State Bank, 107
Sanford, Nathan, 33 Stayner, George H., 272
Savage, J. Y., 176-177 Stevens, John F., 379-380
Schell, Augustus, 252-259 Stewart, James C., 367, 383
Schell, Edward, 232 Stilwell, Silas M., 80
Schureman, Nicholas, 70 Stilwell, Stephen J., 352, 372,
Scott, Francis M., 274 378
Shandley, Edward J., 233 Stoneall, James C., 107
Seagrist, Nicholas, 188 Strahan, Edward, 141
Seaver, Joel P., 101 Straus, Nathan, 278
Selden, Dudley, 90, 138 Strong, Roger, 41, 60
Seventh Ward Bank, 97, 123, 124, Strong, William L., 278-279
179 Sulzer, William, 360-373, 375-
Seward, George F., 344-345 378, 381-385, 388, 390, 393
Seward, William H., 119 Sullivan, "Big Tim," 315, 344-
Seymour, Horatio, 152, 204, 216, 345
"
218, 230, 252 Sullivan, Little Tim," 311
Sharp, George, 99 Swann, Edward, 396-398
INDEX
Swartwout, John 13, 18, 19, 33, Tweed, Richard M., 246
44 Tweed, William M., 151, 156,
Swartwout, Robert, 13, 16, 33, 63, 167-168, 191-192, 209-210, 211-
97, 118 224, 225-236, 239-247, 255, 259,
Swartwout, Samuel, 63, 76, 103, 265, 281, 310, 318
106, 123-124 Tyler, John, 137
Sweeny, Peter B., 151, 176-177,
184, 214-215, 224, 247 U
Ulshoeffer, Michael, 77
Unionist Club, 137
Taintor, Henry F., 248 United Labor party, 270, 271
Tappan, Lewis, 123 United States Bank, 71, 84, 86,
Tammany election frauds, 73-75, 89-92, 112-114
90-91, 120, 135, 137, 154, 158, Untermeyer, Samuel, 334
159, etc.
Tammany Hall, violence in, 63,
113-114, 131, 138, 158, 161-162,
177, 189 Valentine, Abraham M., 31
Tammany leaders, frauds of, 23- VanBuren, Martin, 13, 72, 87,
26, 50-51, 70-71, 123-124, 126- 88, 108, 112-114, 115, 124, 129,
127, 152, 167-171, 182, 194- 130, 143, 205
195, 221-249, 263-264, 272-273, Vanderbilt, William K., 351
325, 327-328, 326-329, 389 Vanderpoel, Judge, 129
Tammany sachems in elections, VanNess, John, 13, 63
114-115, 162-165, 183-185, 189- VanNess, William P., 13, 15, 19,
190, 226 65-66
Tallmadge, Nathaniel P., 87 Van Wyck, Robert C., 282, 286,
Tappan, Lewis, 123 289, 295, 301
Taylor, Douglas, 184-194 Van Schaick, Myndert, 144, 148
Taylor, Gen., 143 VanTuyl, George C., 354
Taylor, James B., 168-170 Varian, Isaac L., 102, 105, 118,
Taylor, Joseph S., 182 120, 121, 123, 129
Third Avenue surface railway Vermilyea, Thomas, 71
franchise, 167-168 Verplanck, Gulian C., 36, 89, 90,
Thompson, Jonathan, 126-127 92
Thome, Oakley, 314-315 Viaduct Railroad, 231
Tibbits, Elisha, 95 Voorhis, Peter R., 191
Tiemann, Daniel F., 181, 187, 188, Vreeland, H. H., 347-348
192
Tilden, Samuel J., 140, 184, 227, W
242, 245, 252, 256, 259
Todd, William, 64, 72 Wales, Salem H., 256
Tompkins, Daniel D., 15, 22, 39, Waldron, William J., 97
45, 53-54, 96 Wall & Cortland St. Ferries
Tompkins, Minthorne, 140 Railroad, 332, 334
Tories, 2, 3 Wallach, W. D., 145
Tradesmen's Bank, 71 Walsh. "Mike," 130-131, 144,
Tracy, Benjamin F., 282 157, 251
Travis, Eugene M., 350 War of 1812, 32-34, 35, 49
Tucker, Gideon J., 195 Ward, Jasper, 97
a
414 INDEX
Waring, George E., Jr., 279 Willett, Marinus, 6, 73
Warner, Cornelius, 23 Willett, William, Jr., 386-387
Washington, George, 5, 6, 9, 10 Williams, George V. S., 394
Waterbury, Nelson J., 165, 190, Williams, Talcott, 184
195-196 Wilson, Woodrow, 398
Webb, James Watson, 80, 87, 89 Women's Municipal League, 291
Weed, Thurlow, 98 Wood, Fernando, 122, 146, 148,
Webster, Daniel, 188 149, 150-152, 159, 165, 174-
Wendover, Peter, 61 180, 181-193, 196-205, 208-
Westervelt, Jacob A., 159-160 209, 219, 220
Western, Henry M., 146, 160 Wood ford, Stewart, L., 230
Wetmore, Prosper M., 107-108 Woodhull, Caleb S., 144
Wetmore, Robert C, 119 Woodruff, Thomas T., 86
Whig frauds, 108, 118-122, 154 Woods, Arthur, 400
Whigs, 92, 101, 103, 108-110, 114, Wortman, Tennis, 15, 26, 41, 51,
117-122, 128-129, 133-134, 137- 60
139, 155, 159, 160, 171, 179, 211
White, Campbell P., 126
Whiting, James R., 125, 179 "
Whitman Charles S., 357, 359, Young Democracy," 225-226,
367, 387, 389, 392, 394, 396, 238
398 Young, George W., 379
Whitney, William C., 293, 332,
351
Wickham, William H., 256
Widener, P. A. S., 293, 332, 351 Zimmerlin, Henry F., 352
A ft 1
u
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THE HISTORY OF TAMMANY HALL

Br BONI & LIVERIGHT. INC.

In most men's minds a certain spell of wonder attaches

State and city histories, and a great number of biogra-

ords, Treasury Reports, Records of the Police, Common

independent in politics; and I have even voted, when

with such exceptions as are obviously necessary with -re-

The records show that a succession of prominent Tam-

years ago. State Senator Fassett, in 1890, made a sim-

in credit and esteem." The exact reverse of both state-

believe, will befound in the pages of this book. Another

has been one ill calculated, of itself, to bring particular

honor to the incumbent.

somewhat to the temporary heightening of political stand-

to-day outwardly conforms to ethical demands which

libraries, its magnificent buildings, its museums, its parks,

dominancy of corruption, violence and fraud. The an-

paid dear tribute for every forward step it has taken.

The difficulties of securing the publication of this work

able recommendations. One other declined it without

ranted in locking horns with Tammany Hall . . ." It

Acknowledgments for the courtesies tendered me, and

Since the original publication of this work, a large num-

objection on the part of any publisher that publication of

" For the

ably so far as we are concerned. The policy of publish-

At about the same time, the head of another prominent

issuing such a book with the imprint of our house. I

publication of the work, the principal of those reasons

" I have been

FOREWORD TO THE NEW EDITION (1917) . ... . . xiii

RESISTANCE TO ARISTOCRACY 1789-1798 . . . . 1

AARON BURR AT THE HELM 1798-1802 . . . . 11

CHAPTER XXI *AGE

WOOD'S SECOND ADMINISTRATION 1856-1859 . . 181

TAMMANY'S CONTROL UNDER LEADER MURPHY 1906-

Society of St. Tammany, or Columbian Order,

During this agitation Hamilton managed to strengthen

laws. all places held by the patriot army a Tory

and banking privileges, which they did not hesitate to employ as a

Dr. John W. Francis tells, in his Reminiscences, of

Jefferson saw a danger to the liberties of the people in

styled Grand Sachem. In its early years the society had

of Fruits, Seventh Moon, Year of Discovery three hun-

"Sacred's the ground where Freedom's found,

The society contemplated founding a chain of Tam-

sound the Tammany make-believe red-faces fled in dismay.

itselfwith assiduity to this department, but the practical

Fourth of July and Evacuation Day. The society's pa-

Virtue and Patriotism ever be the distinguishing charac-

The toasts, that now seem so quaint, mirror the spirit

and chiefs of the Grand Council of the Thirteen United

sion were about 400 members in civilian dress. From

There is no record of the carrying out of this threat.

"rebuked self-creative societies from an apprehension that their

To such straits was driven the society which, a short

AAEON BUEE AT THE HELM

second period of the Tammany Society began