constantly to suffer defeat on account of dissensions in its own ranks which might be avoided by a general agreement in a party convention. The necessity for state and local party organization was further emphasized by the transformation of the older appointive offices into elective offices, and by that rapid increase in the number of government officials which inevitably accompanied the social and economic development of the commonwealths. As the large number of elective offices made it impossible for the mass of the people to join in making nominations and running the political machinery, party business fell more and more into the hands of the politicians who were experts in the mysteries and the manipulations of primaries and elections. Wherever important elective offices were created, machinery for making party nominations inevitably followed, with its long train of primaries, caucuses, and conventions. Each new elective office only added to the weight, complexity, and strength of the party machine. Party organizations gathered great power also from the development of railways and industries within the states. With this economic advance charters, franchises, and special legislation were in great demand, and the political party that controlled a state legislature had within its gift privileges of almost priceless value. The agents of corporations learned that they could best secure their coveted advantages by making terms with the leaders of the political organizations, who would in turn manipulate the primaries and conventions in such a way as to secure control of the necessary instruments of government. Party organization in the South was greatly strengthened after the Civil War by the strenuous efforts of the whites to oust the Republican "carpet-baggers," retire the negroes from the polls, and secure their ancient dominion. Any respectable white man who refused to coöperate with the Democratic party in its determination to reconquer the position that had been lost by the war was regarded as a traitor to his community. Thus the South became "solid," and the government in each commonwealth was identified with the organization of the Democratic party.2 1 For this important document, see Readings, p. 123. The way to offices, honors, and emoluments was only open to champions of the ruling white organization, and the freedom of debate and discussion, which was so characteristic of the South before the Civil War, was supplanted by party discipline that kept the ranks in order against "negro domination." The rise of cities added a new element of strength and complexity to party machinery. As the great cities of Boston, New York, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Chicago, and St. Louis forged to the front they offered unparalleled opportunities for the organization and discipline of party workers. The election of the municipal officers led to the establishment of municipal primaries, caucuses, conventions, and committees wheels within wheels, the mysteries of which could only be understood by expert politicians who kept constant watch on their operation. It was not only the spoils of the offices their fees, salaries, and other emoluments-that attracted the politicians and led them to organize their armies of workers. Franchises for street railway lines, water works, gas and electric light plants, telephones and telegraphs, elevated railways, and subways had to be granted; and whoever possessed the political power in the municipality could form a connection with the private interests seeking privileges, which would yield revenues undreamed of by kings of old. With the concentration of population the number of saloons increased; the liquor interests began to fight for licenses and for immunities from the enforcement of the closing laws; and the saloons in every ward and precinct naturally became political centres in close connection with the powers higher up that were manipulating the whole political machine.1 The Rise and Development of Tammany Hall The evolution in municipal political machinery is illustrated in a striking manner by the rise and development of Tammany Hall in New York City. This organization was established sometime before 1789, for the purpose of connecting "in indissoluble bonds of friendship, brethren of common attachment to the political rights of human nature and the liberties of the country." 1 See Readings, p. 505, for the interesting testimony of a New York policecaptain as to the connection established between the saloons and the dominant political organization. 16? It seems that William Mooney, an Irishman of humble extraction, anxious to "diffuse the light of liberty," was chiefly instrumental in the organization of this society. As its purposes were patriotic and benevolent, it took the name of an Indian chief of William Penn's time, Tammany, celebrated for his wisdom, peace, diplomacy, and exemplary life. Tammany had been canonized as a saint by the Revolutionary army in place of St. George, the slayer of the dragon and the patron protector of the British army. In honor of this noble red man, a number of Tammany societies had been established at various points throughout the East. The New York organization, therefore, got its name from older societies, and, as if to give more weight to its American character, it took the name of Columbus also and called itself "the Tammany Society or the Columbian Order." The early purposes of the Tammany Society were social and patriotic rather than political, and it seems strange to say that some of the first leaders were decidedly anti-Catholic. As a secret society its membership was limited; candidates were initiated according to prescribed rites; and officers bearing Indian titles were elected. The Society, however, in its membership and spirit was in decided contrast to the more aristocratic classes of New York City. When it was incorporated in 1805, its avowed object was to afford "relief to the indigent and distressed of the said association, to widows and orphans, and others who may be found proper objects of free charity." The Tammany Society seems to have entered politics in support of Jefferson during the hot campaign of 1800, and from that time forward it began to exercise more and more control over elections in the city. The extension of the suffrage by the state constitutional convention of 1821 strengthened its hold upon the working-class electors of the city; and its influence was further advanced on the adoption of universal manhood (white) suffrage by the constitutional amendment of 1826.2 A few years later the great famines in Ireland began to drive thousands of Irish peasants to America. They were received with open arms by The traditional date, 1789, for the establishment of Tammany Hall seems to be wrong, and even Mooney's part in it is uncertain. See a forthcoming study of Tammany Hall by Mr. Kilroe of New York City. 2 See above, p. 85. the Tammany Society, and through that organization many rose to positions of wealth and influence. As the population of the city and the membership in the Society increased, a Democratic-Republican political organization was slowly evolved which was nominally distinct from the Columbian Order. This political organization, in the beginning, took the form of a "general meeting" composed of members of the Society and its political supporters. At length, about 1822, the general meeting was supplanted by a general committee composed of delegates elected at ward primaries; and in due time complete control over the Society and the Democratic-Republican organization, formed in connection with it, passed into the hands of a sub-committee of the general committee. For practical purposes, moreover, the leading members of the general committee and the sub-committee were at the same time officers and leading members in the Tammany Society. With the victory of the Jeffersonian party in the presidential election, the spoils of federal offices in New York City began to fall to the leaders in the Tammany organization. In 1839 the organization elected its first mayor of New York, and thus the spoils of local offices were added to the rich gains made in federal elections. The Society was further strengthened by the multiplication of municipal offices, and the astounding rise in local expenditures. Here were unlimited opportunities for an astute leader bent upon the manipulation of politics for his own personal gain. This leader appeared in 1863 in the person of William Marcy Tweed' who, in that year, became chairman of the general committee of Tammany Hall and the Grand Sachem of the Tammany Society. Tweed was born in 1823; he was educated at a public school, and entered politics in his ward as a fireman in a volunteer company about 1850. He was shortly elected to the county board of supervisors, which had large powers distinct from those of the city authorities, in levying local taxes and spending money for county buildings and improvements. He served on this board for a period of thirteen years, being four times elected its president; and he used the financial power which it gave him 1 See below, chap. xxx. 2 There were, however, leaders of some renown before Tweed's day. to extend his authority over the other branches of the city administration. From this point of vantage he began an organization within the Tammany Society for the purpose of controlling the city administration. In 1869, the Tweed group had possession of the mayor's office, the common council, the district attorney's office, the county and city treasury, the street department, the comptroller's office, the municipal judgeships, the speakership of the assembly at Albany, the state legislature, and even the executive department of the state.1 The pernicious operations of this group when in control of the metropolis and the commonwealth cannot even be catalogued here. Between 1860 and 1871 the debt of the city was multiplied nearly fivefold; a county courthouse which was to cost $250,000 really cost more than $8,000,000, the taxpayers being charged $470 apiece for chairs and $400,000 apiece for safes; and under the specious title of "general purposes" enormous sums of money were paid out fraudulently by the comptroller. In short, no bounds seem to have been set to the ambitions of Tweed and his fellow-workers; but they overreached themselves in 1871, when their operations were exposed by the New York Times. A committee of indignant citizens was formed to break up the ring, and prosecute the criminals. Tweed was arrested on the charge of having stolen $6,000,000; he was convicted, fined, and sentenced to twelve years in prison in 1873; released on an order of the court of appeals, he was rearrested and confined in Ludlow Street jail, from which he escaped in 1875, only to be arrested in Spain and brought back to prison, where he died shortly afterward. The other leading members of the ring were likewise made to feel the penalties of the law. The exposure of this group of astute and unscrupulous political operators showed to the American people for the first time the precise ways in which powerful political machines might be built up out of the spoils of municipal offices and municipal privileges. New York City has not been the only sufferer from exploiting political organizations; Philadelphia, Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis, San Francisco, and, in fact, every other American municipality of any size, has had an experience not differing fundamen 1 For Croker's own description of his Tammany organization, see Readings, p. 567. |