Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1875-11-12

the ueCent Heh1 lne taxpayers found
that they had some intesest in govern
mental matters. OF course they carried
the city,-they can do so any time they
set themselves about it.
1t was a gloomy night at THmmany
Han,-a funeral could not be more de
spiritIng or depressing. Kelley. the
Boss, made a dOleful speech and the
mourners dispersed. Gone were their
visions of plunder,-gone were their
hopes of an immunity from punishment
for crime-gone were their hopes of rule, &,
in brief Every thief and blackguard in
New York was in mourning that night.
1t was quite different at Trying Hall, the
head quarters ofthe anti Tammany party.
A fine band pealed forth joyous notes,
the Air was filed with fireworks, excellent
| speeches were made and the excited,
gratifed throng did not disperse till early
in the morning. New York, Br rOoklYn
Massachusetts and Pennsylvania together
made last Tuesday memorRbl day.
TANlMANT.
What is Tammany! No name appears
more frequently in politics, but few know
anything of IFS origin or of Its metho OF
working. 1t is understood to be an i'm
mense political power, Of what it is,
and how it works, but few know.
"Tsmmany Society, or the Columbian
Order" was established in 1779 by vii.
liam Moony, noted politician Of that
day. During the Revolutionary war he
had been 9 staunch patriot, and after its
close an active politician and partisan
The order took its name from Tammany
Il n nalo ohnaF ard sfs
ernment was modled after that of the In
dians, Great Father being the chief,
surrounded by twelve sachemes as his
counselors. Mooney was the first Grand
Sachem. At the beginIng there WAS some
pretext of fbenevolence in the order, but
that was doubtless sham. It's objects
were always political and nothing else.
The members met for many years at
taverns, and the meetings we're, after the
business OF the evening had been dis
patched, very jolly.
While Mooney was the originator of
the order, and its first chief, q greater man
was from its beginning for many years its
actual head, though he wisely kert out
Ofsight Aaron Burr, the greatest and
| foulest of American politicians, saw at
once the advantages to be gained by
having disciplined body behind h.m,
and he seized Tammany and subOrdina-
| ted it to his purposes. He was the leade
OF the lower classes in the city and State,
and he used Tammany to control the
better classes OF which it was then COM
posed. Hamilton, his bitter enemy, was
the head of the society of the Cincinnati,
which was Federal in its tendencies, an
Tammany was fair Offset to its inf1u-
ence.
The society was then precisely what
II is nova political power in the hands
of set OF men working for common
object. In 1900 the election In New
York City made Jefferson and Burr Pres
ident and Vice PreIdent of the United
States. 1t was Burr who did it, by
means of Tammany men who were initia-
ted on the eve of election, and telt IN
honor bound to vote the ticket it had
made but beyond that was the adVan-
tage OF having disciplined force to 2 ct
out its own vote, and to control the
floating vote which generally decides
elections.
Burr used TammanY against the Clin-
tons, and 1t was his principal weapon as
long as he figured IN politics. Some
times Clinton beat Tammany and some
times Tammany beat Clinton, but in eth
er case the organization p-eserv3d its
vitality. 1t was power sometimes
humbled but never crushed.
Martin Van Buren, originally an oppo-
nent having commenced political life as
a Clintonian, saw, like Burr, the advan-
tages to be derived from the organization,
and he Joined it. 1t carried him into all
the minor offices he desired, and finally
made him Senator. Clinton died in
1928, and from that time for many years
the society had no vigorous opponent
1t became the soul and heart of the
Democratic party of New York and its
power was felt in Washington. Whoev-
er was its chief had supreme control,
and from his dictum there was no appeal.
To hold any Office in Tammsny was to
have the confidence of the leader, and all
that leader had to do was to ask. From
the Governor down to the lowest fleer
he made them.
In 1854 Fernando Wood became its
master spirit, and was elected to the NAV
oralty of the city. In 1856 Sweeny, and
their associates threw Wood overheard,
and they ruled it. When the people rose
in their wrath and oVerthreW that
dynasty John Kelly took the reins and
has them now, though the late election
will probably finish him, and another
will take his place.
The society has regular form of in
| itiation, the same as other secret socie-
| ties, and its members are bound BY
pledges, though fidelity is assured more
| BY the profit to be derived from faithful
ness than by any VOWS its members take.
It is most admirably organized. First
| there Is the Grand Sachem, who ap-
points all the committees. The COM
mittees call all conventions of the Dem
ocratic party of the city and county, and
they number hundreds. The head has
| the power to appoint and remove from
the committees at pleasure, so every man
| of them is in his power. At this point
the real strength of the society begins.
No man can be appointed to any posi-
ton except upon the Endorsement of
these co omittees. The great army of Office
holders, those who receive and disburse
| the enormous sums required to govern
the city of New York, all hold their
places by the will of these committees,
hold their places at the will of one man,
! the head. This system makes the Grand
Sachem the dictator of the city, for only
o OCCASIONALLY can the peOpls be so reused
as to comb iue against force so well dis
ciplined and so admirably directed.
Then 1t has the moral support of the
party in the State and nation. No Demo
cratic politician who aspires to prefer
ment can afford to be Indifferent to a
power that controls so great State as
New York, for Tammany not only makes
municipal and State officers, hut it
selects the delegates to National Conven-
tions. 1t is, in short, the Democratic
party of the State in the hands of one
man. His rule is not only aeknowledg-
| ed by the leaders, but they do all in their
| power TO strengthen it, because each
one has patronage to distribute in pro-
portion to the votes he can control.
| The offices are all divided among the
faithful, and, if there are not enough to
go around, it is easy enough to make
new ones.
How was it overthrown at the last
elections Why, Kelly, the present
head, was not judiciOus in distribution.
John Morrissey wanted more than Kelly
thought he was entitled 10, and MorisseY
rebelled Kelly removed him from the
committee, and he went out aud appeal
ed to the people. Kelly had cut down
the wages of the laborers in the employ
of the city, and was consequently unpOpu-
lar with them. The Republicans were
willing to do anything to kill this one
man power, and so they united with the
Anti -Tammany Democrats, and carried
the city.
This has been done before, and proba-
bly, will be again, but 1t will not XIII the