TAMMANY HALL. The name applied (1) to a powerful political organization in New York City; (2) to the building which serves as the organization's headquarters; and (3) sometimes incorrectly to the society from which the organ ization leases the building. The name is adapted from that of an Indian chief, Tamanend, of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware tribe, who was fa mous for his virtues and his wisdom, but about whom little is definitely known. his name ap pears on deeds for tracts of land, dated June 23, 1683, and July 5, 1697; and according to tra dition he died about 1740. and was buried in New Britain Township, Bucks County, Pa. Be fore and during the Revolutionary War, societies with Tamanend as their patron saint were organized in imitation, and to a certain extent in ridicule, of such societies as Saint Andrew's Society, Saint David's Society, Saint George's Society, and the Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick. The organizations were of a patriotic nature, and were affiliated in spirit with the Sons of Lib erty. In Philadelphia the Sons of King (later Saint) Tammany met almost every year from 1772 to 1791, and later, in 1795, a short-lived branch of the New York society was established there.
On May 12, 1789, William Mooney, an uphol sterer, who previously had been active as one of the Sons of Liberty, founded in New York, ostensibly as a patriotic and social organization, the secret Society of Saint Tammany or Colum bian Order, which in 1805 was regularly incor porated as a fraternal aid association. The ritual and organization of an Iroquois lodge were followed more or less closely by the founders, the society being divided into thirteen tribes, each of which had its separate totem, the year being divided into four seasons, each month being called by some distinguishing char acteristic, and the officers being known as the grand sachem, sachems, the sagamore, or master of ceremonies, and the wiskinskie, or door keeper. In 1811 the society built its first hall, at the corner of Frankfort Street and Park Row, and in 1S67 moved into the present Tammany Hall on Fourteenth Street. The political organi zation is nominally distinct from the society, but the two may in many respects be regarded as virtually identical, the leadership of both being largely in the same hands.
Though the society was ostensibly organized for patriotic. social, and benevolent purposes, it early took an active interest in politics and soon came to stand distinctively for Democracy and decentralization, identifying itself defi nitely (in 1798) with the Democratie-Republi cans as opposed to the Federalists. Aaron Burr
is supposed to have given the society (indirectly) its first training in the devious ways of practical politics, and in 1800 the society first took an active part in a political campaign, being instru mental in carrying New York for Jefferson. From that time to the present Tammany has generally assumed to be the local representative of the National Democratic Party, and has ex erted a powerful influence on the political his tory of the State, and a preponderating influence on the political history of the city. At times the organization has been bitterly assailed by rival factious of the Democratic Party, and on at least one occasion, in )S78, it bolted the party's regular State ticket, but for the most part it has controlled a vast majority of the Democratic voters of the city. After 1834, when the mayoralty first became elective, it devoted its attention primarily to securing control of the city government, and from 1834 to 1903 suc ceeded in electing fully two-thirds of the mayors. Gradually its organization became more and more perfected, and the inrush of immigrants after about 1840 added enormously to its strength, Tammany succeeding largely by its political skill and tact in securing the adhesion of an immense majority of the foreign-born citizens. In order to secure proper compactness and dis cipline within the organization, great power was necessarily thrown into the hands of a few indi viduals, and in the history of Tammany many of its officers are alleged to have succumbed to the temptations which such power has brought. From an early period charges of corruption, peculation, and blackmail were made against Tammany leaders by their political opponents, and the climax was reached in 1869-71, when Tweed and his associates were proved to have robbed the city of untold millions. (See TWEED, WILLIAM M.). Damaging disclosures concerning the methods of Tammany were also made dnring the investigations conducted respectively by the State Committee on Cities, headed by J. Sloat Fassett, in 1890, the special committee of the State Senate, headed by Clarence Lexow, in 1894, and the special committee of the State Assembly, headed by Robert Mazet, in 1899.