Tammany Hall

This article is about the political organization. For the band, see Tammany Hall NYC

Tammany Hall was the name given to the Democratic Party political machine that played a major role in New York City politics from the 1790s to the 1960s. It was a dominant player from the mayoral victory of Fernando Wood in 1854 through the election of Fiorello LaGuardia in 1934.

History

1790-1850

The Tammany Society of New York City was founded in the 1780s. The name "Tammany" comes from a Native American leader of the Lenape. The society adopted many Native American words and customs, going so far as to call its hall a wigwam. By 1798, however, the Society's activities had grown increasingly politicized and eventually Tammany, led by Aaron Burr emerged as the center for Jeffersonian Democratic-Republican politics in the city. Burr built the Tammany society into a political machine for his election of 1800, in which he was elected Vice President. Without Tammany, historians believe, President John Adams might have won New York state's electoral votes and won reelection. and Hecht 149-50

After 1839 Tammany became the city affiliate of the Democratic Party, emerging as the controlling interest in New York City elections after Andrew Jackson's. In the 1830s the Loco-Focos comprised a democratic, anti-monopoly faction that appealed to workingmen. Throughout the 1830s and 1840s the Society expanded its political control even further by earning the loyalty of the city's ever-expanding immigrant community, a task that was accomplished by helping newly-arrived foreigners obtain jobs, a place to live, and even citizenship so that they could vote for Tammany candidates in city and state elections. The mass immigrant constituency primarily functioned as a base of political capital. The "ward boss" served as the local vote gatherer and provider of patronage. New York City used the designation "ward" for its smallest political units from 1686-1938.

The Irish

Tammany is forever linked with the rise of the Irish in American politics. Beginning in 1846, large numbers of Irish Catholics began arriving in New York. Equipped with a knowledge of English, very tight loyalties, a genius for politics, and what critics said was a propensity to use violence to control the polls, the Irish quickly dominated Tammany. In exchange for votes, they provided money and food. From 1872 onward Tammany had an Irish "boss." They played an increasingly important role in state politics, supporting one candidate and feuding with another. The greatest success came in 1928 when a Tammany hero, New York Governor Al Smith, won the Democratic presidential nomination.

Tweed Machine

By 1854 Tammany's lineage and support from immigrants had combined to make it a powerful force in New York politics. In that year, the Society elected its first New York City mayor. Tammany's "bosses" (called the Grand Sachem) and their supporters enriched themselves by illegal means. The most famous boss of all was William M. "Boss" Tweed. Though not Irish himself, Tweed was elected with the support of Irish immigrants. His corrupt reign was overthrown and he went to prison, in a reform movement led by Democratic governor Samuel J. Tilden in 1872. Protestant minister Charles Henry Parkhurst publicly denounced the Hall in 1892, which led to a Grand Jury investigation, the appointment of the Lexow Committee and the election of a reform mayor in 1894.

1890-1950

Despite occasional defeats Tammany was consistently able to survive and, indeed, prosper and continued to dominate city and even state politics. Under leaders like John Kelly and Richard Croker it controlled Democratic politics in the city. Tammany opposed William Jennings Bryan in 1896.

In 1901 the anti-Tammany forces elected reformer Seth Low, a Republican. From 1902 until his death in 1924 Charles F. Murphy was the boss. In 1932 the machine suffered a dual setback when Mayor James Walker was forced from office because of corruption and opponent Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president. He stripped Tammany of its federal patronage -- much expanded because of the New Deal -- and handed city patronage to Ed Flynn, boss of the Bronx. Roosevelt helped Republican Fiorello LaGuardia become mayor on a Fusion ticket, thus removing even more patronage from Tammany's control. Tammany never recovered, but it staged a small scale come-back in the early 1950s under the leadership of Carmine DeSapio, who succeeded in engineering the elections of Robert Wagner, Jr. as Mayor in 1953 and Averill Harriman as governor in 1954, while simultaneously blocking his enemies, especially Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr. in the 1954 race for state Attorney General.

Eleanor Roosevelt organized a counterattack with Herbert Lehman and Thomas Finletter to form the New York Committee for Democratic Voters, a group dedicated to fighting Tammany. In 1961 the group helped remove DeSapio from power. The once mighty Tammany political machine, now deprived of its leadership, quickly faded from political importance and by the mid-1960s had ceased to exist.

Leaders

1797	–	1804	Aaron Burr
1804	–	1814	Teunis Wortmann
1814	–	1817	George Buckmaster
1817	–	1822	Jacob Barker
1822	–	1827	Stephen Allen
1827	–	1828	Mordecai M. Noah
1828	–	1835	Walter Bowne
1835	–	1842	Isaac L. Varian
1842	–	1848	Robert H. Morris
1848	–	1850	Isaac B. Fowler
1850	–	1856	Fernando Wood
1857	–	1858	Isaac V. Fowler
1858			Fernando Wood
1858	–	1859	William M. Tweed and Isaac V. Fowler
1859	–	1867	William M. Tweed and Richard B. Connolly
1867	–	1871	William M. Tweed
1872			John Kelly and John Morrissey
1872	–	1886	John Kelly
1886	–	1902	Richard Croker
1902			Lewis Nixon
1902			Charles F. Murphy, Daniel F. McMahon, and Louis F. Haffen
1902	–	1924	Charles F. Murphy
1924	–	1929	George W. Olvany
1929	–	1934	John F. Curry
1934	–	1937	James J. Dooling
1937	–	1942	Christopher D. Sullivan
1942			Charles H. Hussey
1942	–	1944	Michael J. Kennedy
1944	–	1947	Edward V. Loughlin
1947	–	1948	Frank J. Sampson
1948	–	1949	Hugo E. Rogers
1949	–	1961	Carmine G. DeSapio

References

Allen, Oliver E. The Tiger: The Rise and Fall of Tammany Hall (1993)
Erie, Steven P. Rainbow's End: Irish-Americans and the Dilemmas of Urban Machine Politics, 1840—1985 (1988).
Finegold, Kenneth. Experts and Politicians: Reform Challenges to Machine Politics in New York, Cleveland, and Chicago (1995) on Progressive Era
Mandelbaum, Seymour J. Boss Tweed's New York (1965) (ISBN 0471566527)
Moscow, Warren. The Last of the Big-Time Bosses: The Life and Times of Carmine de Sapio and the Rise and Fall of Tammany Hall (1971)
Mushkat, Jerome. Fernando Wood: A Political Biography (1990)
M. Ostrogorski; Democracy and the Party System in the United States (1910)
Herbert S. Parmet and Marie B. Hecht. Aaron Burr; Portrait of an Ambitious Man 1967.
William Riordan, Plunkett of Tammany Hall (1963) 1915 memoir of New York City ward boss
Stave, Bruce M. , John M. Allswang, Terrence J. McDonald, Jon C. Teaford. "A Reassessment of the Urban Political Boss: An Exchange of Views" History Teacher, Vol. 21, No. 3 (May, 1988) , pp. 293-312
Steffens, Lincoln. The Shame of the Cities (1904) muckraking expose of machines in major cities
T. L. Stoddard, Master of Manhattan (1931), on Crocker
Nancy J. Weiss, Charles Francis Murphy, 1858-1924: respectability and responsibility in Tammany politics(1968).
M. R. Werner, Tammany Hall (1932)
Harold B. Zink; City Bosses in the United States: A Study of Twenty Municipal Bosses (1930)

External links

Sources

Much of the text of this article was copied from the Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site operated by the National Park Service and placed into the public domain. The original authors cite the following sources:

Kilroe, Edwin P. Saint Tammany and the Origin of the Society of Tammany, or Columbian Order in the City of New York . Washington, D.C.: George Washington University Microfiche, 1913, 48.
Lash, Joseph. Eleanor, The Years Alone. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1972, 274-276.

Political history of New York City | Democratic Party (United States) | Irish American history | Leaders of Tammany Hall