The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1897-10-31

Once again, so the report goes, Tam
many is having the fight of its life"
Fighting Is Tammany's normal condi-
ton. It's century of history is a record
of fierce conflicts, in some of which the
fortunes of great statesmen and parties
were inYolyz d. As a political society 1t
WIS born during the thunders of the
struggle of the whisky insurCection in,
1894. Its first great achievement was the
capture OF the state CT New York for
jefferson and Burr in 1900, which de-
feated the federaiist candidate, Adams,
for reelection to the presidency. gave
the election to the democracy and start
ed that party on a career of power which
continued with only two Interruptions
1S41-5 and 1849-53-until 1861, while more
than ones in the past quarter of a CEN
fury it has turned the scale in a presi-
dental contest.
Alternately Tammany has passed
through various degrees of regularity"
'drregularity' and the inferno date
stages, being in the last named condition
at the present time. Actually or theo-
rctically 1t has always been a democrat
ic organization, but 1T often Violently
opposed certain democratic aspirants for
lhDlihlidLtti d. piCSiuCiil VI 6ONNlIOA,
and, when they were nominated, it has
sometimes rendered very doubtful aid
to the former ard offered fierce hostility
to the latter. Though nominally only
local political club. it has. at one time
and another had on its rolls, as active
or honorary members, most of the dis
tinguished democrats of New York OF
the past hundred years-Aaron Burr,
1t.
De Witt Clinton; Daniel d. Tompkins
(the vice presidenD, Silas Wright, Ben
jamin F. Butler, (Jaekson's attorney
generaD, Dean Richard, John Il. Hoff-
man, Samuel j. Tilden, Fernando Wood,
Daniel Manning, William C. Whitney
and a large numbsr of others. Many of
these-the two Clintons, Tompl1ins Van
Buren,, Tflden and Wood among the rest
were. also at one or more stages of
their career foss of Pammany.
Tammany was first organized as a Sc
cret social club by William Mooney. a
New York city upholsterer, in 1889, Aut
all the members who joined it for social
purposes left it when Washington de-
nounced the self constituted societies."
meaning the democratic clubs, for their
actual sor advocated resistance to the
law in the outbreak against the whskey
tax, in 1884. Those who remained in
it were, like Mooney, radicals in poll
tics, welA hostile to the fedeTalist ad-
ministration of Washington, and natur-
ally drifted into the new party first
called republican, and then democratic.
which was founded by Jefferson, and
which made its first rally as a national
n iyaf ion n l1a q
of 1896, supporting jefferson against Ad-
ans In 1906 Moneys club, which had
now, for ten years, been avowedly poll
teal instead Of social. was incorporated
under the name of the Tammany socie-
ty Qrom Tamanend, a Delaware Indian
CHIEF, a designation which it has borne
ever since.
In 1900, five years before it had formal
ly adopted the name, Tammany came
under the influence of Aaron Burr. one
OF the shrewdest and most unscrupulous
OF the partisan chieftans whom the
country has known. Under the direc-
ton of Burr, Tammany, in 1900, began
that system of canvassing, enrolling or
ganizing and marshaling ait the polls
the voters whom it could induce to sup
port it's candidate or policy which has
been. the foundation of its success as a
partisan body. The legislature chosen
in New York in May, 1900, was carried
by the republicans, largely through the
work of Burr and his lieutenants of the
Tammany society in New York city. AS
New York, in common Wi h most of the
states, chose presidential electors by the
legislature at that time, this republican
victory in New York in May, 1900, had
an important bearing on the result Of
the presidential election of that year.
In fact it virtually decided the election,
for, If the Federalist Adams had carried
New York in 1900, as he had done in 1896,
he would have beaten Jefferson, as he
did in the earlier year. That victory in
the May election made Burr a national
figure. 1t constrained the congressional
caucus-national delegate conventions
did not come into being. until 1S32-to
put Burr ON the ticket with Jefferson.
In the election the lie vote in the elector-
al college between these two sent the
contest to the house of represeni atives,
which chose Jefferson president, and
Burr became vice president Thus the
body known as the party machine origi-
mated with Burr Tammany was the
nrSL maCn1Ie, anu Lne eleCtlOn OF The
legislature in New York in 1900 was the
first political canvass in which the ma
chine went into operation. The phrase
machinery of a party" was used by
Burr in about the same sense in which
1t is employed today. Burr was the first
party boss, but the term boss as poll
teal designation was not used until
1870, when it was applied to another
Tammany chieftain, William M. Tweed.
In the ninety-seven years which have
passed since 1T made it's debut on the
political stage by turning the scale in IA
vor of the democrats in a presidential
election and making its first distinctive
~ political chieftain vice president,
Tammnny has passed through some
striking mutations of fortune. Il has at
one time and another fought many
democratic mayors of New York city
nearly all of those who did not owe
allegiance to it, and some of those who
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