Year: 1875




Know Nothing, Dark Lantern Or


gani1ation'


Our contemporary the Eueaing Post has
published a series Of interesting papers going
to show the real character of Tammany Hall
as political influence in New York. These
papers confirm, in a remarkable degree the
arguments adduced by the HERALD in its war
upon the one-man power of John Kelly and
its opposition to the attempt to reduce the
\ great democratic party into mere satrapy
Y 81 an organization whose greatest triumph
has been the enabling of Tweed and his con
federates to rob New York Of millions Of the
peoples money. We see how society be-
ginning as the expression Of patriotic and
social impulse on the part Of our fathers,
\ who had stood shoulder 10 shoulder
\ during the Revolution, and who knew the
| value OF confidence and friendship, could
be diverted to the uses Of politicians like
Aaron Burr, who at an early day took pos
session Of the machinery Of the society and
bent it to their own ambitious and selfish
schemes. IT shows how history repeats itself
with almost unerring fidelity. We see the
society which served the corrupt and infa-
nous ambition Of Burr seventy years ago
doing the same office for the still more cor
rupt and infamous Tweed. Honest demo-
Gratis who may have had some scruple about
fighting an organization that claimed to be
democratic" and regular" will be com
forted in knowing that men as illustrious as
Alexander Hamilton and De Witt Clinton
gloried in doing the same thing in their day


In the beginning Tammany Society was
a proper organization. It's purposes We're
humane and in harmony with the temper
and habits Of our people 1t was the rival
Of the old Society Of the Cincinnati, which
was open to the grave objection Of endeavor-
ing to perpetuate military, hereditary
system, which might have grown into an
order Of nobility or something akin to it.
But there were seeds Of evil in both the
Cincinnati and the Tammany societies. In
the former the good sense Of the members
/ soon stripped it Of its dangerous features;
but the other was not SO fortunate. The
secret feature clung to it. Its members
soon became politicians. The astute and
unscrupulous intellect Of Aaron Burr, like
| that Of his successor, and, in some respects,
his imitator, Sweeny, saw the enormous
| advantage that would result from a power
4 that was secret; that worked in the dark
that was not responsible to any legal inhu-
ence or to any political or social tribunal /;
| that could defy impeachment or censure that
| destroyed It's adversaries in the night time,
| like the emissaries Of the secret societies Of
Sicily that claimed to govern BY clamor and
mob violence, like the Jacobins who COM
PEELED reluctant and dismayed convention
to vote the death Of king. It is mistake,
therefore to assume that the evil Of Tam
many Hall is Of recent growth. 1t was en-
grated upon the twig by Aaron Burr, and its
fruits we're gathered from the matured tree by
John Kelly and William NJ. Tweed.


Looking at the whole matter clearly and
not through the mists Of party canvass
how could it be otherwise? How can any
secret association that takes part in politics
be other than an enemy Of true democracy 2
The very essence of democracy is the light.
Democracy means the will Of the people ex-
pressed without limitation or menace,
openly freely before all men, with opportu-
nifty for debate and inquiry and compar-
ison Of opinion. II democracy means any
thing at all it means that there shall be the
utmost freedom in the selection of candi-
dates, in the development Of platform
Of principles in the administration Of
its affairs, in the enforcement of that
gentle and fraternal discipline necessary
to the harmonious existence Of any party
This is the basis Of all true democracy, the
principle Of popular sovereignty propounded
by the glorious Douglas, and for the defence
Of which he was stricken down by the slave
power, whose leaders were as hostile to pure
democracy as Aaron Burr himself For more
than two generations Tammany Hall has
been the expression Of the ambition and the
cupidity OF men who used its machinery
to control the democratic party, and to hold
power over the sufrages of the people, the
patronage Of our city and the disbursements
Of our treasury


Taken as a whole the history Of Tammany
Hall shows that it has, as general thing,
been an evil to the democracy If we 20
back to the time Of Van Buren. under whose
political reign the Albany Regency and Tam
many Hall were in alliance, we shall find that
it has rarely been victorious except at the
sacrifice Of principles or hopes which should
never have been put in peril. Look at the
late election as an example, Here were good
men in nomination, men who had a right to
expect from the democracy a recognition Of
their services, their personal character their
desire 10 stand well with their fellow mon
II the democracy Of New York could have
had an opportunity Of voting for such
men, untrammelled by the behests Of
secret, dark lantern, Know Nothing Order,
these men would have been chosen to
place But this was not permitted in
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