page_title: Charles Haynes Haswell
section_title: Politics
hierarchical_section_title: Charles Haynes Haswell / Politics
caption_attribution_description: "Interior view of Tammany Hall decorated for the National Convention July 4th, 1868"
context_page_description: Charles Haynes Haswell was a naval engineer, New York City politician and historian. A native resident of New York City, Haswell was author of one of the most broadly circulated engineering manuals of the 19th century, and also published a collection of remembrances of the city drawn from his private journals. He was the first Engineer-in-Chief of the United States Navy.
context_section_description: From the time of his return to New York following his Naval service, Haswell also became active in politics.  In 1855 he was elected to the New York City Common Council, representing the city's 21st Ward, and in his final year, 1859, he served as president of the council. He served as chairman of a politically stacked grand jury impaneled to investigate voter fraud in the election of 1868. Like most of the members of this body, he was deeply associated with the Tammany Hall political machine, of which he served as leader or Grand Sachem from 1876 to 1882.  He would serve as a trustee of the New York and Brooklyn Bridge, and as President of the New York Board of Corrections. A lifelong Democrat, at the time of his death he was the oldest living member of the Tammany organization.
caption: Tammany Hall in convention regalia, 1868
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