Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-04-01
rAhmAsY HALL AND SOCIETY.

FAMEAHY HALL AND SOCIETY.
The Tammany Hall organization con-
sists of three parts first, the secret 30
-, l,oxyn rs the Tammany Society, or
Columbian Order" which was founded IN
100 in the first month of Washington's
administration, and was incorporated IN
Io05 which erected the building on the
oo~ney of Nassau and Frankfort streets
fo~merlv known as Tammany Hall, and
controls by lease the present hall on -four
+aanth street secondly, the General Com
Yo;ttee and Assembly District Committees
~ the Tammany Hail Democracy, which
are councils of voters, and date, with
many intermediate changes of detail, from
lS22: thirdly, the voters usually about
90 600 or two thirds of the entire vote of
the city, who act in harmony with the
committees and constitute the Tammany
Hall Democracy.
The Tammany Society has passed, dur
;np ninety years, through five important
epochs of evolution, and IS now In 1t sixth.
From 1889 to 1900 it was anti-monarchical
and anti-foreign, with Federahst officers
and American-Indian costumes, customs,
and regalia, caltiEating a distaste for Eu-
ropean modes of government by the sedu-
lous substitution of certain fancied abo-
risinal customs Its members discussed
political questions, after the Indian fashion,
around council fires, at which they smoked
the traditional calumet, assisted, perhaps,
by draughts of the traditional fire-water. In
1890 they received the Creek Indians, on a
visitwhich one of the Tammany sachems had
induced the Creek chiefs to make to New
York, in such perfect limitations of the
native costume, and in such gorgeously
savage feathers, moccasons, leggings, war
paint, war.clubs and tomahawks, that
the Creeks set up a whoop OF JOY
ful recognition, which the Tammany
braves mistook for the Indian mode of
saying grace before human carving and
scattered in sudden panic. At this in
terview Secretary Jefferson, Chief Justice
jay, Governor George Clinton and Mayor
Duane were present. The Greeks danced
and sang the E-tho song the Tammany
Grand Sachem assured the Creek Grand
Sachems that the spirit of Columbus and
Tammany were then promenading arm-in-
arm through the wigwam The Sycamore
of Tainmany presented the chiefs with the
calumet. who in return dubbed him with one
OF those musical Indian appellations which
ought to be immortal -Tuliva Mico, or
Chief of the Wh'.e Town. In the evening
the entire party attended the theater to-
gether. and before they left the Greeks en-
tered into treaty with Washington, the
beloved Sachem of the Thirteen Fires"
From these facts it will be easily under
stood how the Tammany Society came to
call its thirteen Trustees or Directors Sa-
chems, and its chief officer, selected from
among the thirteen, its Grand Sachem !;
and why it included among its officers a
Sycamore and a Wiskinskie. But the In
dian language failing to contain any words
adequate to express either the idea of a
Secretary or of Treasurer, while the ne
cessities of the Society required both rec
ords and money, the Society consented to
use the terms Scribe and Treasurer. In
the records Of the Society, the Christian
Era, being an epoch of foreign origin, was
discarded, and the transactions dated from
three events-the discovery of America by
Columbus, the Declaration of hdepen-
dence and the formation of the Tam
many Society. The year was divided,
after the strictly native American
fashion, into the seasons of bios
SONS. of fruits, of harvests and of SHOWS.
Nor were imported names allowed to desc
crate the months, which appeared on the
records, in supposed Indian style, as first,
second, third, ETC., "moons. Thus, in
respect of language, the Tammany Society,
in its first epoch, was faith
full expression of Apglophobia. Josiah
Ogden Hoffman, Melancthon Smith-then
a formidable opponent of Hamilton -Aaron
Burr, De Witt Clinton, George Clinton,
and Clarkson Crolius were conspicuous
leaders or inspirers of this period, which
was somewhat torn by conflicts between
the Burrites, Clintonites, and Lewisites.
The society at this time, however, was in
no immediate contact with the voters,
knew nothing of the general and district
committees and was mere private politi-
cal club, one of whose chief occupations
was the collection of a museum of Ameri-
Caa and g isularly of Revolutionary,
curiosIJles.
At this period the ruling spirit in Tam
many Hall was the muEificent and gener-
Gus William NJ. Tweed, then in control of
the Street Department and Chairman Of the
Board of Supervisors, ever foremost IN the
benevolent and genial work of distributing
the peoples money among as many OF the
people as he could reach. He sent wood,
coal and bread to the poor Of his ward, and
they repaid him to the last with their
votes. He toasted the paupers at Randalls
Island, and the blessings of those who had
seldom tasted turkey or champagne were
poured upon him. He replenished
the furniture of the engine-houses
for the "bhoys," and took care that no
Democrat who served his country faithfully
at the polls on election day should ever
pine in filthy dungeons for lack Of straw
BAIL Had he been a close and
philosophic student of the decline
and fall of the Roman Empire, he
could not have understood more thoroughly
that when universal suffrage had placed
the control of great city in the hands of
its paupers, a true and sagacious states
manship would consist in stealing from the
rich the means with which to feed the
poor. Throughout all his princely career
of lavish generosity though those to
whom he distributed the public money
We're numbered by tens of thousands, and
though they Included public chart
ties, pimps, officials, strikers, gamblers,
fancy-women, and Legislators of the
most unimpeachable integrity we have
never heard of but one donation from him
being returned. A Metho list church, to
, which he had given 5000, allowed its virtue
to get so much the better of its politeness
as to decline to receive stolen money
international Review.