Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-09-08

1
| inally as a benevolent association; but the char
| tiles of the city, both public and private, were
as little disturbed by it, we believe, in its earliest
| days as they are now 1t was really designed TO
| have both a social and political character, and
| rapidly assumed the place of club bearing the
same relation to the Jelfersonan party and prnci-
| pies in national politics which the society of the
| Cincinnati was regarded as having to those of
Mr. Hamilton and his friends.
Three generations of men have played their
part in the world since Tammany was founded;
and much larger number of generations of
politicians have come forward in active life and
power, and have retired again into oblivion.
Tammany early became centre in state and
national politics. and every great crisis in public
affairs was pretty sure to be felt and heard in its
walls before it reached the world at large. In
the first twenty years Of its activity such men as
Philip Hone, Courtlandt Van Buren,, Peter Mas
terton, James Ogden Hoffman, Stephen Van
Rensselaer, Jacob Barker, Peter K. Livingston
and James Kent, and many men still well known
in the history of the nation, of the state, or at
least of the city, used to meet together every
week and discuss the very foundations OF our
American institutions, and the means to be used
to save New York from becoming prey to the
unprincipIed and centralizing ambition, as they
regarded it,, of men who, under the name of fed.
eralists and the pretence of republicanism hid,
rs was suspected, "monarchical plots" and
British instincts"
II was in the next generation that Tammany
grew ITCH, COlnlOILdDIc ana JOlIY. ltS real
power in national politics was perhaps less in
the DAYS when Jackson led the democratic party
triumphant with a war cry through the coun-
try than it had been when Jefferson relied
wholly upon ideas for political success. But
the sachemS now made up in social enjoyment
for any lack of ambition; and men are still
living by whom Hallech's rolcking verses
were first read as describing a reality well
known to them:
There's barrel of porter in Tammany hall,
And the Bucktails are swigging it all the night
In the time of my boyhood twas pleasant to call
For seat and cigar mid the jovial thrOng.
GLOW much Cozzens will draw of such beer ere he
Is question of moment to me and to all;
For still dear to my SOUL as twas then to my
ewes,
Is that barrel of porter at Tammany hall"
1t would not be fair to say that Tammany
began to decline, either in responsibility or in
real influence, when such men as Churchill c.
Cambreling, Saul Alley, Judge d. p. Ingraham
Daniel d. Tompkns, Robert Morris, Gulian c.
Verplanck and Charles O'Conor were its lead
ing spirits; but it is certainly true that the
narrowing of its field in national politics pre-
pared the way for personal influences and 70.
the growth of ciques and factions, which con-
tnually threatened TO break up the society.
The more Tammany attended to local politics
the more it became the instrument of individual
ambition, or, at least, the more effort was made
to use it in this way. For the last quarter Of a
century, from the time when Mr. Fernando
Wood became power in municipal affairs, and
Isaac V Fowler the central manager of party
tactics there has been no such harmony in
Tammany hall as results from unity of principle
and from common devotion to great aud patri-
otto ends.
The change was not sudden; but it was very
rapid, from the days when pure national pat
riots, like Benjamin F. Butler John W. Ed
monds, Stephen Allen, William F. Havemeyer
and their associates, were known to the public
as giving character at once to Tammany hall
and TO the democratic party in the nation, to
the days when Mr.. Wood, supported by all the
"roughs," the criminals and the trading pOlti-
clans of New York city, detied the democrats of
the state and nation with his "rule or ruin"
policy.
Mr. Wood, indeed, was the first to ATTEMPT
the reduction of Tammany hall from centre
of national politics to an instrument of person.
al ambition and local intrigue. Mr. Fowler was
closely connected with the democratic managers
at Washington and throughout the country; MIR.
Wood, while out of favor with them, was strong
in his control of the mob in this city, whom he
| organized into great political power. The
| difference between them eliminated in the Sc.
| cession of Mr. Wood from Tammany, turning
| against it suddenly all the machinery of ward
politics, and making Mozart hall a formidable
rival of it in all local affairs After the legsla-
| ture had destroyed the power of the mayor, and
| Mr.. Wood had been defeated in the city, he OBJ
| tanned an election to congress; and having no
| longer any advantage TO gain by quarrelling
with Tammany hall, he returned to his old as
| sociates there. But the wound in the society
was not really healed; the bitter feelings so long
| entertained smOuldered, ready to break out
| again at any time. The national character OF
| Tammany and its right to represent democratic
| principles were gone forever.
The first deadly breach made in Tammany
| was the foundation of the Manhattan club. Mr..
| William NJ. Tweed became a Sachem in 1859
| and he gradually brought into the society a
number of faithful followers actuated by an
ambition like his own. Mr.. F. l. A. Boole, Mr..
| Terence Farley and Mr.. Henry W. Genet Joined
it in 1868. These active spirits soon began to
| give character to the meetings of Tammany
| and to extend its operations in directions before
| unknown to it. About this time, for instance
| the names of many of its members became as
| sOciated by common report with "bounty-
| jumping" frauds, as well as with notorious dis
| loyalty to the gOvernn ent of the United States
| The "silk stocking" sachems, the members of
| the society who loved and revered its old tradi-
| tions and its dignity, began to regard it as de-
| generate and degrading, and they seeded in a
| body under the lead of Mr.. John Van Buren,
| and formed the Manhattan club. Among them,
| were Samuel j. Tflden, Andrew H. Green, Geo
| Purser, Augustus Schell, Horace f. Clark Mel
| son j. Waterbury and Emanuel b. Hart.
| Mr.. Richard B. Connolly was already an old
member of Tammany ut that time having
/
| been county clerk and state senator, and as
| pired to be comptroller on the strength of the
| Broadway railroad speculation, which was
| stopped for Il time by Governor Seymour's veto.
| However, he remained with Mr.. Tweed in the
| society. But the future triumvirate, that
| was to give away $4,000, 900 of the peoples
| money in twenty minutes, was still INCOMPLETE
until, in 1864, Mr. A. Oakley Hall, the republi
| can district attorney of the city, entered the
| Tammany society amid the rejoicings of all men
| vrrhn fprt 10 Cf+I nI,,It-
| they regarded Mr. Hall as a man who had
| rats sure instinct for a sinking ship. Mr. Hall
| himself seems to have regarded his conversion
as an event Of frst-rate importance in 1.-THE his
| tory Of Tammany, for he is, we believe the only
Sachem who has thought fit, in writingihs name
under the constitution OF the society, TO add
| comments upon the occasion. Under Mr.. Halls
| name appear, as we are assured, in his own
handwriting, the following lines:
Whilst counci-fres hold out to burn,
| The ytlest sinner may return.
(Signedl COX"
Not to be outdone by any other set of men,
| Mr.. Tweed and a few of his personal friends
themselves abandoned all thought of making
| Iammany hall the centre of their social life
and they resorted to the "Amercus Club an
old organization, devoted for many years TO
clam chowder and small beer; but speedily
raised, under the grand sachem, to all the luxti-
! ny of French cooks and champagne. The fun
| damental law Of the Americas club from the be.
| SluuluS 10 uHuCTsLOOu 10 nave been that party
| politics should not be discussed in il; and if wei
coined into fellowship such republicans as
Messrs. Henry Smith, Isaac X Oliver and Owen
| w. Brennan, as well as democrats like Messrs
| Charles G. Cornell, J. H. Ingelsol Andrew
j. Garyey and L. A. Woodward, provided that
they were the devoted personal friends of Mr..
! William NJ. Tweed.
And now came the epoch of personal cliaues
and OF factions and clubs devoted to the adj
yancement OF individual men, and sometimes
named for them The Blossom club, a result of
me same dsintegrating movement, was started
by Mr. John Clancy, and had the Leader for its
organ. 1t has since reached much larger pro-
portions, and has moved from the sixth ward,
where 1t lay behind the tombs, up into Fifth
avenue, under the counsels and guidance of Mr.,
Matthew L. Brennan But it is not tbe great
and luxurious social and political clubs alone
which have divided among them the old beri-
| tage of fellowship and influence scattered nv
Tammany hall. Ward associations have sprung
up; Tweed clubs, Brennan societies, Norton as
socations, Connolly coteries, bodies Of men talino
their names from Michael Norton, Edward
Shandley, Thomas Dreamer, and perhaps even
Peter Owens, have made their appearance, and