In the politics of representative democracies , a political machine is a party organization that recruits its members by the use of tangible incentives (such as money or political jobs) and that is characterized by a high degree of leadership control over member activity. The machine's power is based on the ability of the boss or group to get out the vote for their candidates on election day.
170-685: Tammany Hall , also known as the Society of St. Tammany , the Sons of St. Tammany , or the Columbian Order , was an American political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789, as the Tammany Society . It became the main local political machine of the Democratic Party and played a major role in controlling New York City and New York state politics. It helped immigrants, most notably
340-521: A Bar Mitzvah ; and attended the wedding of a Jewish couple from his ward. Tammany Hall took full advantage of the burgeoning numbers of Irish immigrants to gather more votes. By 1855, 34 percent of New York City's voter population was composed of Irish immigrants, and many Irish men came to dominate Tammany Hall. Tammany Hall also served as a social integrator for immigrants by familiarizing them with American society and its political institutions and by helping them become naturalized citizens . One example
510-410: A Bronx County Democratic leader who ran the borough from 1922 until his death in 1953, Safire wrote "the so-called 'independent' voter is foolish to assume that a political machine is run solely on good will, or patronage. For it is not only a machine; it is an army. And in any organization as in any army, there must be discipline." Political patronage, while often associated with political machines,
680-499: A Catholic church in Bath, Maine . The most aggressive and innovative legislation came out of Massachusetts, where the new party controlled all but three of the 400 seats—only 35 had any previous legislative experience. The Massachusetts legislature in 1855 passed a series of reforms that "burst the dam against change erected by party politics, and released a flood of reforms." The period from 1854 to 1857 saw among Massachusetts Know Nothings
850-484: A Tammany hero, New York Governor Al Smith , won the Democratic presidential nomination. However, the organization also served as an engine for graft and political corruption , most infamously under William M. "Boss" Tweed in the mid-19th century. The Tammany ward boss or ward heeler ( wards were the city's smallest political units from 1786 to 1938) served as the local vote gatherer and provider of patronage. By
1020-585: A base of political capital. During the 1840s, hundreds of thousands of Irish immigrants arrived in New York City to escape the Great Famine and Tammany saw its power grow greatly. Tammany Hall's electoral base lay predominantly with New York's burgeoning immigrant constituency, which often exchanged political support for Tammany Hall's patronage. In pre- New Deal America, the extralegal services that Tammany and other urban political machines provided often served as
1190-428: A boss. All there is to it is having friends, doing things for people, and then later on they'll do things for you ... You can't coerce people into doing things for you—you can't make them vote for you. I never coerced anybody in my life. Wherever you see a man bulldozing anybody he don't last long. Theodore Roosevelt , before he became president in 1901, was deeply involved in New York City politics. He explains how
1360-480: A city, county, or state". William Safire , in his Safire's Political Dictionary , defines "machine politics" as "the election of officials and the passage of legislation through the power of an organization created for political action". He notes that the term is generally considered pejorative, often implying corruption. Hierarchy and discipline are hallmarks of political machines. "It generally means strict organization", according to Safire. Quoting Edward Flynn ,
1530-555: A combination of name-recognition, business contacts and financial resources, and the role of personal political machines. The phrase is considered derogatory "because it suggests that the interest of the organization are placed before those of the general public", according to Safire. Machines are criticized as undemocratic and inevitably encouraging corruption. Since the 1960s, some historians have reevaluated political machines, considering them corrupt but efficient. Machines were undemocratic but responsive. They were also able to contain
1700-406: A complex network of independent civic reform groups; each focused its lobbying efforts on its own particular reform agenda. The membership included civic-minded, well-educated middle-class men and women, usually with expert skills in a profession or business, who deeply distrusted the corruption of the machines. The consolidation of Brooklyn, western Queens County and Staten Island with Manhattan and
1870-478: A decline in the traditional nativist wing of the party and the rise of the group of abolitionists and reformers, including former Massachusetts Senate President Henry Wilson , looking to redirect the focus of the party. Historian Stephen Taylor says that in addition to nativist legislation, "the party also distinguished itself by its opposition to slavery, support for an expansion of the rights of women, regulation of industry, and support of measures designed to improve
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#17328444193792040-517: A duel . Tammany continued to support him for a time, but eventually pressure from the public persuaded the organization to no longer affiliate themselves with Burr. Matthew Davis would go on to refine the Society as a political machine, beginning in 1805. The Society, with Davis's guidance, received a state charter as a charitable organization, organized the General Committee of Tammany Hall, and used
2210-504: A family aristocracy. Even though New York State voted for Clinton the following year, Democratic-Republicans could not help but see Clinton's actions as being exactly what Tammany had accused them of. With this, most Democratic-Republicans in New York City turned away from Clinton. When Tammany Hall positioned itself to support the War of 1812 and to support the Embargo Act, many others who supported
2380-466: A field day following the story, especially when it was discovered that the key reformer was using committee funds to pay for a prostitute. The legislature shut down its committee, ejected the reformer, and saw its investigation become a laughing stock. The Know Nothings scored a landslide in New Hampshire in 1855. They won 51% of the vote, including 94% of the anti-slavery Free Soilers , and 79% of
2550-624: A fourth of the German and British Protestants in numerous state elections. It especially appealed to Protestants such as the Lutherans, Dutch Reformed and Presbyterians. Fearful that Catholics were flooding the polls with non-citizens, local activists threatened to stop them. On August 6, 1855, rioting broke out in Louisville, Kentucky , during a hotly contested race for the office of governor. Twenty-two were killed and many injured. This " Bloody Monday " riot
2720-512: A general housecleaning, and former county sheriff "Honest John" Kelly was selected as the new leader. Kelly was not implicated in the Tweed scandals and was a religious Catholic related by marriage to Archbishop John McCloskey . He cleared Tammany of Tweed's people and tightened the Grand Sachem's control over the hierarchy. His success at revitalizing the machine was such that in the election of 1874,
2890-455: A hierarchical system with a " boss " who held the allegiance of local business leaders, elected officials and their appointees, and who knew the proverbial buttons to push to get things done. Benefits and problems both resulted from the rule of political machines. This system of political control—known as " bossism "—emerged particularly in the Gilded Age . A single powerful figure (the boss)
3060-512: A lack of publicly proclaimed national leaders, and a deep split over the issue of slavery . In parts of the South, the party did not emphasize anti-Catholicism as frequently as it emphasized it in the North and it stressed a neutral position on slavery, but it became the main alternative to the dominant Democratic Party . The Know Nothings supplemented their xenophobic views with populist appeals. At
3230-461: A lesser amount for patrolmen). On election day, he gave his policemen some time off to vote, during which time his affiliated Dead Rabbits gang protected polling places. Wood won his second term. The Republicans, who made gains upstate, created a new state charter for New York City in response to this concentration of power in one man, which included more elected (instead of appointed) city department heads and officers. The Republicans also consolidated
3400-669: A major political party in the form of the American Party. The collapse of the Whig Party after the passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act left an opening for the emergence of a new major political party in opposition to the Democratic Party. The Know Nothing movement managed to elect congressman Nathaniel P. Banks of Massachusetts and several other individuals into office in the 1854 elections , and it subsequently coalesced into
3570-448: A major role in the state legislature in Albany. Tammany, for example, from the 1880s onward built a strong network of local clubs that attracted ambitious middle-class ethnics. In times of crisis however, especially in the severe depressions of the 1890s and the 1930s, the reformers took control of key offices, notably the mayor's office. The reformers were never unified; they operated through
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#17328444193793740-421: A mayor. Hewitt had also offended Irish voters by deciding not to review a St. Patrick's Day parade they requested of him. Grant allowed Croker free run of the city's contracts and offices, creating a vast patronage machine beyond anything Tweed had ever dreamed of a status which continued under Grant's successor, Thomas Francis Gilroy . With such resources of money and manpower – the entire city workforce of 1,200
3910-649: A minor role in American politics until the arrival of large numbers of Irish and German Catholics started in the 1840s. It then emerged in nativist attacks. It appeared in New York City politics as early as 1843 under the banner of the American Republican Party . The movement quickly spread to nearby states using that name or Native American Party or variants of it. They succeeded in a number of local and Congressional elections, notably in 1844 in Philadelphia, where
4080-584: A new political party which was known as the American Party. Particularly in the South , the American Party served as a vehicle for politicians who opposed the Democrats. Many of the American Party's members and supporters also hoped that it would stake out a middle ground between the pro-slavery positions of Democratic politicians and the radical anti-slavery positions of the rapidly emerging Republican Party . The American Party nominated former President Millard Fillmore in
4250-491: A pejorative sense. The terms "machine" and "boss" in the 19th century were negative epithets used by their reform-minded opponents. However in the 20th century these became standard terms for scholars and analysts who sometimes emphasized their positive contributions. The Encyclopædia Britannica defines "political machine" as "a party organization, headed by a single boss or small autocratic group, that commands enough votes to maintain political and administrative control of
4420-441: A political force. During the 1828 U.S. presidential election , Tammany Hall leaders met with Democratic candidate Andrew Jackson and agreed to endorse him after he promised to give them control over the allocation of some federal jobs. After he was elected president, Jackson fulfilled his promise. After 1829, Tammany Hall became the city affiliate of the Democratic Party, controlling most of the New York City elections afterwards. In
4590-407: A political party called the American Party, which attracted many members of the by then nearly defunct Whig party as well as a significant number of Democrats. Membership in the American Party increased dramatically, from 50,000 to an estimated one million plus in a matter of months during that year. The historian Tyler Anbinder concluded: The key to Know Nothing success in 1854 was the collapse of
4760-464: A protégé of Murphy who became the boss in the Bronx, said Murphy always advised that politicians should have nothing to do with gambling or prostitution and should steer clear of involvement with the police department or the school system. A new challenge to Tammany came from William Randolph Hearst , a powerful newspaper publisher who wanted to be president. Hearst was elected to Congress with Tammany support,
4930-511: A purchase of a pauper's burial ground on Ward's Island and the sale of city property occupying Gansevoort Market near the western end of 14th Street to Reuben Lovejoy, an associate of James B. Taylor, a friend of many of the Aldermen. Other deals included expensive fireworks displays and bribes for ferry and railroad operations (Jacob Sharp for the Wall Street Ferry and various applicants for
5100-666: A rudimentary public welfare system . Irish immigrants became even more influential during the mid-1840s to early 1850s. With the Great Famine in Ireland, by 1850, more than 130,000 immigrants from Ireland lived in New York City. Since the newly arrived immigrants were in deep poverty, Tammany Hall provided them with employment, shelter, and even citizenship sometimes. For example, the group gave referrals to men looking for work and legal aid to those who needed it. Tammany Hall would also provide food and financial aid to families with sick or injured breadwinners. In an example of their involvement in
5270-576: A separate police force, the Metropolitan Police, from the police forces of Kings, Richmond, and Westchester counties. The Republicans in the state legislature also moved the city mayoral elections to odd years, making the next election for mayor in December 1857. A power struggle followed between Wood's Municipal Police and the newly created Metropolitan Police, as well as between the Dead Rabbits and
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5440-578: A setback when, fueled by the public hearings on police corruption held by the Lexow Committee based on the evidence uncovered by the Rev. Charles Parkhurst when he explored the city's demi monde undercover, a Committee of Seventy was organized by Council of Good Government Clubs to break the stranglehold that Tammany had on the city. Full of some of the city's richest men – J.P. Morgan , Cornelius Vanderbilt II , Abram Hewitt and Elihu Root , among others –
5610-445: A springboard to other appointments, and to have his friends placed in various offices. From this position of strength, he was elected "Grand Sachem" of Tammany, which he then used to take functional control of the city government. With his protégés elected governor of the state and mayor of the city, Tweed was able to expand the corruption and kickbacks of his "Ring" into practically every aspect of city and state governance. Although Tweed
5780-401: A strong party whip structure. Machines sometimes have a political boss , typically rely on patronage , the spoils system , "behind-the-scenes" control, and longstanding political ties within the structure of a representative democracy. Machines typically are organized on a permanent basis instead of a single election or event. The term "machine" usually is used by its reform-minded enemies in
5950-470: A target of prohibitionists and reformers. At the start of the 1850s, the city economy began to pick up and Tammany members would profit. The City Council of New York during these years would be known as the most corrupt up to this time. The new City Council of 1852 swept in Tammany politicians to replace the outgoing Whig ones, who did little with their power. The new council was made up of two sets of 20 members,
6120-476: A third of the vote. After the war, Mozart Hall aligned itself more closely with Tammany, and gradually lost influence. It disbanded in 1867. Tammany's control over the politics of New York City tightened considerably under Tweed. In 1858, Tweed capitalized on the efforts of Republican reformers to rein in the Democratic city government to obtain a position on the County Board of Supervisors, which he then used as
6290-524: A traitor to the Democratic-Republican Party. Clinton's uncle, George Clinton, was jealous of Burr's achievements and positions. However, George was too old to compete with young Aaron Burr, and so he left it to his nephew. One of Burr's political cohorts and the author of Burr's biography was a businessman, a newspaper editor, and a sachem of the Society named Matthew L. Davis. Other Burr operatives included William P. Van Ness and John Swartwout,
6460-656: A twenty-member Board of Aldermen and a twenty-member Board of Assistant Aldermen. This new council would be known as the Forty Thieves. Each Alderman had the power to appoint police (including precinct officers) and license saloons within his district. Together, the Aldermen possessed the power to grant franchises for streetcar lines and ferries. Each Alderman also sat as judge in criminal courts, determining who sat for juries and choosing which cases came to trial. On paper, these aldermen received no pay. A number of real estate deals followed with suspicious transaction amounts, including
6630-515: A white man in court. In the spring of 1855 , Know Nothing candidate Levi Boone was elected mayor of Chicago and barred all immigrants from city jobs. Abraham Lincoln was strongly opposed to the principles of the Know Nothing movement, but did not denounce it publicly because he needed the votes of its membership to form a successful anti-slavery coalition in Illinois. Ohio was the only state where
6800-437: A win, there was less need to recruit new members, as this only meant a thinner spread of the patronage rewards to be spread among the party members. As such, later-arriving immigrants, such as Jews, Italians, and other immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe between the 1880s and 1910s, saw fewer rewards from the machine system than the well-established Irish. At the same time, the machines' staunchest opponents were members of
6970-448: Is not essential to the definition for either Safire or Britannica . A political machine is a party organization that recruits its members by the use of tangible incentives—money, political jobs—and that is characterized by a high degree of leadership control over member activity. Political machines started as grass roots organizations to gain the patronage needed to win the modern election. Having strong patronage, these "clubs" were
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7140-614: Is used as a shield against federal and state laws against the practice. In the 1960s and 1970s, Edward Costikyan , Ed Koch , Eleanor Roosevelt , and other reformers worked to do away with Tammany Hall of New York County . To a lesser degree, the Democratic Party machines in Kings, Bronx, and Queens counties continued until the end of the 1980s. Japan's Liberal Democratic Party is often cited as another political machine, maintaining power in suburban and rural areas through its control of farm bureaus and road construction agencies. In Japan,
7310-770: The Dred Scott v. Sandford pro-slavery decision of the Supreme Court of the United States further galvanized opposition to slavery in the North, causing many former Know Nothings to join the Republicans. The remnants of the American Party largely joined the Constitutional Union Party in 1860 and they disappeared during the American Civil War . Anti-Catholicism was widespread in colonial America , but it played
7480-509: The 1856 presidential election , but he kept quiet about his membership in it, and he personally refrained from supporting the Know Nothing movement's activities and ideology . Fillmore received 21.5% of the popular vote in the 1856 presidential election, finishing behind the Democratic and Republican nominees. Henry Winter Davis , an active Know-Nothing, was elected on the American Party ticket to Congress from Maryland. He told Congress that "un-American" Irish Catholic immigrants were to blame for
7650-549: The Brooklyn Bridge was begun, land was set aside for the Metropolitan Museum of Art , orphanages and almshouses were constructed, and social services – both directly provided by the state and indirectly funded by state appropriations to private charities – expanded to unprecedented levels. All of this activity, of course, also brought great wealth to Tweed and his friends. It also brought them into contact and alliance with
7820-472: The Brooklyn Navy Yard ). Davis announced that the Society was going to provide proper burials for these soldiers with a monument dedicated to their memory on nearby land owned by a fellow sachem. The remains were, in fact, reburied. The Society led a flotilla, on April 13, 1808, in thirteen boats, to Brooklyn, with each boat carrying a symbolic coffin. A dedication ceremony was held at Wallabout Bay and
7990-754: The Dead Rabbits , the Bowery Boys , Mike Walsh's Spartan Association, the Roach Guards , the Plug Uglies, the Wide-Awakes, and Captain Isaiah Rynders ' Empire Club. Rynders was the leader of Tammany's Sixth Ward and a member of the General Committee who was also said to have been responsible for coordinating all political-related gang activity. Many of these leaders coordinated their activities from saloons, which became
8160-639: The French First Republic after the French Revolution toppled the Ancien Régime ("old rule"), in 1793. By 1798, the society's activities had grown increasingly political. High-ranking Democratic-Republican Aaron Burr saw Tammany Hall as an opportunity to counter Alexander Hamilton 's Society of the Cincinnati . Eventually Tammany emerged as the center of Democratic-Republican Party politics in
8330-488: The Irish Famine of the late 1840s. After 1854, it expanded its political control even further by earning the loyalty of the city's rapidly expanding immigrant community, which functioned as its base of political capital. The business community appreciated its readiness, at moderate cost, to cut through regulatory and legislative mazes to facilitate rapid economic growth. By 1872, Tammany had an Irish Catholic "boss". In 1928,
8500-525: The Native American Party before 1855, and afterwards simply the American Party . Members of the movement were required to say "I know nothing" whenever they were asked about its specifics by outsiders, providing the group with its colloquial name. Supporters of the Know Nothing movement believed that an alleged " Romanist " conspiracy to subvert civil and religious liberty in the United States
8670-469: The second party system , brought about primarily by the demise of the Whig Party. The Whig Party, weakened for years by internal dissent and chronic factionalism, was nearly destroyed by the Kansas–Nebraska Act . Growing anti-party sentiment, fueled by anti-slavery sentiment as well as temperance and nativism, also contributed to the disintegration of the party system. The collapsing second party system gave
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#17328444193798840-480: The "boss". Charles Murphy was the highly effective but quiet boss of Tammany Hall from 1902 until his death in 1924. "Big Tim" Sullivan was the Tammany leader in the Bowery and the machine's spokesman in the state legislature. Republican local organizations were much weaker, but they played key roles in forming reform coalitions. Most of the time they looked to Albany and Washington for their sphere of influence. Seth Low ,
9010-453: The 1790s to the 1960s. From 1872, Tammany had an Irish "boss". However, Tammany Hall also served as an engine for graft and political corruption, perhaps most notoriously under William M. "Boss" Tweed in the mid-19th century. Lord Bryce describes these political bosses saying: An army led by a council seldom conquers: It must have a commander-in-chief, who settles disputes, decides in emergencies, inspires fear or attachment. The head of
9180-553: The 1830s the Loco-Focos , an anti-monopoly and pro-labor faction of the Democratic Party, became Tammany's main rival for votes by appealing to workingmen. However, Tammany's political opponent remained the Whigs. During the 1834 New York City mayoral governor election, the first city election in which the popular vote elected the mayor, both Tammany Hall and the Whig party, from their headquarters at
9350-515: The 1855 fall elections the Know Nothings again swept New Hampshire against the Democrats and the small new Republican party. When the Know Nothing "American Party" collapsed in 1856 and merged with the Republicans, New Hampshire now had a two party system with the Republicans edging out the Democrats. The Know Nothings also dominated politics in Rhode Island, where in 1855 William W. Hoppin held
9520-516: The 1880s, Tammany was building local clubs that appealed to social activists from the ethnic middle class. At its peak the machine had the advantage of a core of solid supporters, and usually exercised control of politics and policymaking in Manhattan; it also played a major role in the state legislature in Albany . Charles Murphy acted as boss from 1902 to 1924. "Big Tim" Sullivan was the Tammany leader in
9690-412: The Bowery , and the machine's spokesman in the state legislature. In the early 20th century, the two men promoted Tammany as a reformed agency dedicated to the interests of the working class. The new image deflected attacks and secured a following among the emerging ethnic middle class. In the process Robert F. Wagner became a powerful United States Senator , and Al Smith served four terms as governor and
9860-409: The Bronx in 1898 multiplied the power of these reform groups, so long as they could agree on a common agenda, such as consolidation itself. There was no citywide machine. Instead, Democratic machines flourished in each of the boroughs, with Tammany Hall in Manhattan the most prominent. They typically had strong local organizations, known as "political clubs", as well as one prominent leader often called
10030-608: The Deep South, where small-town machine politics are relatively common, also feature what might be classified as political machines, although these organizations do not have the power and influence of the larger boss networks listed in this article. For example, the " Cracker Party " was a Democratic Party political machine that dominated city politics in Augusta, Georgia , for over half of the 20th century. Political machines also thrive on Native American reservations, where tribal sovereignty
10200-429: The Democrats and the emergence of the anti-slavery Republican party in the North. In the South as a whole, the American Party was strongest among former Unionist Whigs. States-rightist Whigs shunned it, enabling the Democrats to win most of the South. Whigs supported the American Party because of their desire to defeat the Democrats, their unionist sentiment, their anti-immigrant attitudes and the Know Nothing neutrality on
10370-609: The General Committee to decide leadership within the Democratic-Republican party in New York City from that point forward. In December 1805, Dewitt Clinton reached out to Burr's supporters to gain enough support to resist the influence of the powerful Livingston family. The Livingstons, led by former New York City mayor Edward Livingston , backed New York Governor Morgan Lewis, who presented a significant challenge to Clinton. The Tammany Hall sachems agreed to meet with Clinton in secret, on February 20, 1806, and agreed to back him, on
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#173284441937910540-546: The Irish , rise in American politics from the 1850s into the 1960s. Tammany usually controlled Democratic nominations and political patronage in Manhattan for over 100 years following the mayoral victory of Fernando Wood in 1854, and used its patronage resources to build a loyal, well-rewarded core of district and precinct leaders; after 1850, the vast majority were Irish Catholics due to mass immigration from Ireland during and after
10710-692: The Know Nothing candidate Daniel Ullman came in third in a four-way race for governor by gathering 26% of the vote. After the 1854 elections, they exerted a large amount of political influence in Maine, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and California, but historians are unsure about the accuracy of this information due to the secrecy of the party, because all parties were in turmoil and the anti-slavery and prohibition issues overlapped with nativism in complex and confusing ways. They helped elect Stephen Palfrey Webb as mayor of San Francisco and they also helped elect J. Neely Johnson as governor of California. Nathaniel P. Banks
10880-448: The Know Nothings a much larger pool of potential converts than was available to previous nativist organizations, allowing the Order to succeed where older nativist groups had failed. In San Francisco , a Know Nothing chapter was founded in 1854 to oppose Chinese immigration—members included a judge of the state supreme court, who ruled that no Chinese person could testify as a witness against
11050-606: The Loco-Focos and the conservatives of the Hall. At the age of 28, in 1840, Wood was put up by Tammany Hall for a U.S. congressional seat, which he won. After Wood's service in Congress, he became a successful businessman through real estate dealings and was elected mayor of New York City in 1854. William Tweed said of Wood, "I never yet went to get a corner lot that I didn't find Wood had got in ahead of me." In his first term as mayor, Wood ensured
11220-572: The Masonic Hall, battled in the streets for votes and protected polling locations in their respective regions from known opposition voters. During the 1838 state election for governor, the rival Whig party imported voters from Philadelphia, paying $ 22 a head for votes in addition to paying for votes at their polling places. Tammany Hall operatives continued their practice of paying prisoners of the almshouses for votes and also paying for votes at their polling places. The Tammany Hall " ward boss " served as
11390-407: The New York City political arena until Fiorello La Guardia 's mayoralty after the election of 1933. After Fernando Wood's losing reelection run for U.S. Congress in 1842, he left politics for a while to work on his shipping business. A power vacuum of sorts existed through the 1840s for Tammany Hall, which became preoccupied with fights between political gangs fighting over turf. These gangs included
11560-446: The Ring is such a commander. He dispenses places, rewards the loyal, punishes the mutinous, concocts schemes, negotiates treaties. He generally avoids publicity, preferring the substance to the pomp of power, and is all the more dangerous because he sits, like a spider, hidden in the midst of his web. He is a Boss. When asked if he was a boss, James Pendergast said simply, I've been called
11730-459: The South and integration into its society. Immigrants fears were unjustified, however, because the national debate over slavery and its expansion, not nativism or anti-Catholicism, was the major reason for Know-Nothing success in the South. The southerners who supported the Know-Nothings did so, for the most part, because they thought the Democrats who favored the expansion of slavery might break up
11900-399: The Tammany candidate, William H. Wickham , succeeded the unpopular outgoing reformist incumbent, William F. Havemeyer (who died shortly thereafter), and Democrats generally won their races, delivering control of the city back to Tammany Hall. A noted statue of John Kelly is located in the hall, the work of Irish sculptor Robert Cushing . The mayoral election of 1886 was a seminal one for
12070-585: The Third Avenue railroad). Aldermen would also resort to creating strike legislation to obtain quick cash: a spurious bill would be introduced that would obviously financially harm someone, who would then complain to legislators. These legislators would then kill the bill in committee for a fee. As the press became aware of the Forty Thieves tactics, a reform movement instigated for a change in the city charter in June 1853 so that city work and supply contracts were awarded to
12240-491: The Union. In 1855, the American Party challenged the Democrats' dominance. In Alabama, the Know Nothings were a mix of former Whigs, malcontented Democrats and other political misfits; they favored state aid to build more railroads. In the fierce campaign, the Democrats argued that Know Nothings could not protect slavery from Northern abolitionists. The Know Nothing American Party disintegrated soon after losing in 1855. In Virginia,
12410-497: The United States in the period between 1830 and 1860 made religious differences between Catholics and Protestants a political issue. Violence occasionally erupted at the polls. Protestants alleged that Pope Pius IX had contributed to the failure of the liberal Revolutions of 1848 in Europe and they also alleged that he was an enemy of liberty, democracy and republicanism . One Boston minister described Catholicism as "the ally of tyranny,
12580-422: The Whig Party was strongest in high income districts, the Know Nothing electorate was strongest in the poor districts. They expelled the traditional upper-class, closed, political leadership, especially the lawyers and merchants. In their stead, they elected working-class men, farmers and a large number of teachers and ministers. Replacing the moneyed elite were men who seldom owned $ 10,000 in property. Nationally,
12750-424: The Whigs, plus 15% of Democrats and 24% of those who abstained in the previous election for governor the year before. In full control of the legislature, the Know Nothings enacted their entire agenda. According to Lex Renda, they battled traditionalism and promoted rapid modernization. They extended the waiting period for citizenship to slow down the growth of Irish power; they reformed the state courts. They expanded
12920-484: The aftermath of the riot, and disgruntled insiders began to leak the details of the extent and scope of the Tweed Ring's avarice to the newspapers. Specifically, O'Brien forwarded the city's financial accounts to The New York Times . The New York Times , at that time the only Republican associated paper in the city, was then able to reinforce stories they had previously published against the ring. The Committee of Seventy
13090-596: The annual end-year gift in 1989, LDP Party Headquarters gave $ 200,000 to every member of the Diet. Supporters collect benefits such as money payments distributed by politicians to voters in weddings, funerals, New year parties among other events, and ignore their patrons' wrongdoings in exchange. Political ties are held together by marriages between the families of elite politicians. Nisei , second generation political families, have grown increasingly numerous in Japanese politics, due to
13260-668: The anti-Catholic orator Lewis Charles Levin was elected Representative from Pennsylvania's 1st district. In the early 1850s, numerous secret orders grew up, of which the Order of United Americans and the Order of the Star Spangled Banner came to be the most important. They emerged in New York in the early 1850s as a secret order that quickly spread across the North, reaching non-Catholics, particularly those who were lower middle class or skilled workers. The name Know Nothing originated in
13430-465: The backing of James Gordon Bennett 's New York Tribune , as the champion of workingclass Irish and German immigrants against the "kid glove, scented, silk stocking, poodle-headed, degenerate aristocracy." The Republicans attempted to combine their efforts with Tammany, but the deal could not be consummated, making it a three-candidate race, which Wood won with 38.3% of the vote. It was Wood's second and last term as mayor, serving until 1862. Mozart Hall
13600-485: The city. Burr used Tammany Hall as a campaign asset during the election of 1800 , in which he acted as Democratic-Republican campaign manager. Some historians believe that without Tammany, President John Adams might have won New York State's electoral votes and won reelection. Early cases of political corruption involving Tammany Hall came to light during the group's feud with local politician Dewitt Clinton . The feud began in 1802 after Clinton accused Aaron Burr of being
13770-536: The civil rights of Irish Catholic immigrants. After this, state courts lost the power to process applications for citizenship and public schools had to require compulsory daily reading of the Protestant Bible (which the nativists were sure would transform the Catholic children). The governor disbanded the Irish militias and replaced Irish holding state jobs with Protestants. However, Know Nothing lawmakers failed to reach
13940-488: The committee supported William L. Strong , a millionaire dry-goods merchant, for mayor, and forced Tammany's initial candidate, merchant Nathan Straus , co-owner of Macy's and Abraham & Straus , from the election by threatening to ostracize him from New York society. Tammany then put-up Hugh Grant again, despite his being publicly dirtied by the police scandals. Backed by the committee's money, influence and their energetic campaign, and helped by Grant's apathy, Strong won
14110-408: The common heelers. Many machines formed in cities to serve immigrants to the U.S. in the late 19th century who viewed machines as a vehicle for political enfranchisement . Machine workers helped win elections by turning out large numbers of voters on election day. It was in the machine's interests to only maintain a minimally winning amount of support. Once they were in the majority and could count on
14280-678: The condition that the Clintons would once again acknowledge Aaron Burr as a Democratic-Republican and stop using "Burrism" as a reason to object to their ideas. The Clintons readily agreed to these conditions, but did not intend to honor them. When the Sachems caught wind of this, the feud between Tammany Hall and Clinton resumed. Tammany Hall became a locally organized machine dedicated to stopping Clinton and Federalists from rising to power in New York. However, local Democratic-Republicans began to turn against Tammany Hall. From 1806 to 1809 public opinion forced
14450-574: The disclosures, the Federalists won control of the state legislature and the Democratic-Republican Party maintained a slim majority of the local government in New York City. Matthew Davis convinced other sachems to join him in a public relations stunt that provided income for the Society. The shallow graves of some Revolutionary War soldiers who died in British prison ships were located in Wallabout Bay (near
14620-463: The early 1870s. Platt was the key organizer of most of these committees, the first of which was the Fassett Committee of 1890. This first committee featured testimony from Croker's brother-in-law, revealing gifts of cash surrounding his hotel business. The recorded testimonies resulted in no indictments and the Democrats would not suffer in the elections of 1890 or 1892. In 1894, Tammany suffered
14790-471: The effects of the organisation, Tammany was frequently criticised in the 19th century for being directly responsible for the nativism , anti-Catholic sentiment , and the rise of the Know Nothing Party in the preceding century due to fears about Tammany's influence and tactics. The Tammany Society was founded in New York on May 12, 1789, originally as a branch of a wider network of Tammany Societies ,
14960-410: The election by a landslide. In Washington, D.C., Know Nothing candidate John T. Towers defeated incumbent Mayor John Walker Maury , triggering opposition of such a high proportion that the Democrats, Whigs, and Freesoilers in the capital united as the "Anti-Know-Nothing Party". In New York, where James Harper had been elected mayor of New York City as an American Republican almost a decade before,
15130-424: The election handily, and spent the next three years running the city on the basis of "business principles", pledging an efficient government and the return of morality to city life. The election was a Republican sweep statewide: Levi Morton , a millionaire banker from Manhattan, won the governorship, and the party also ended up in control of the legislature. Croker was absent from the city for three years starting at
15300-647: The exception of the two-year period of 1823–1824, and Tammany Hall's influence waned. Martin Van Buren and his Albany Regency soon began controlling the policy of Tammany Hall. This included pushing for the state referendum that eventually granted the right to vote in New York State to all free white men in 1821. After voting rights were expanded, Tammany Hall could further increase its political power. Tammany Hall soon began to accept Irish immigrants as members and eventually became dependent on them to maintain viability as
15470-543: The feud between Tammany Hall and the Clintonites intensified, as each party continued attacking each other. One of the Clintonites, James Cheetham, wrote extensively about Tammany and its corrupt activities, using his position as State Printer and publishing his work in the American Citizen newspaper . Tammany Hall did not take lightly to these activities and managed to remove Cheetham from his position as State Printer. At
15640-425: The first five years of the 1850s reached a level five times greater than a decade earlier. Most of the new arrivals were poor Catholic peasants or laborers from Ireland and Germany who crowded the tenements of large cities. Crime and welfare costs soared. Cincinnati's crime rate, for example, tripled between 1846 and 1853 and its murder rate increased sevenfold. Boston's expenditures for poor relief rose threefold during
15810-517: The first of which had been formed in Philadelphia in 1772. The society was originally developed as a club for "pure Americans". The name "Tammany" comes from Tamanend , a Native American leader of the Lenape . The society adopted many Native American words and also their customs, going so far as to call their meeting hall a wigwam . The first Grand Sachem , as the leader was titled, was William Mooney, an upholsterer of Nassau Street . Although Mooney claimed
15980-569: The fold those elements outraged by the reformers' attempt to outlaw Sunday drinking and otherwise enforce their own authoritarian moral concepts on immigrant populations with different cultural outlooks. Tammany's candidate, Robert A. Van Wyck , easily outpolled Seth Low , the reform candidate backed by the Citizens Union, and Tammany was back in control. Its supporters marched through the city's streets chanting, "Well, well, well, Reform has gone to Hell!" A final state investigation began in 1899 at
16150-711: The future of the labor political movement, but the ULP was not to last, and was never able to bring about a new paradigm in the city's politics. Tammany had once again succeeded and survived. More than that, Croker realized that he could use the techniques of the well-organized election campaign that the ULP had run. Because Tammany's ward-heelers controlled the saloons, the new party had used "neighborhood meetings, streetcorner rallies, campaign clubs, Assembly District organizations, and trade legions – an entire political counterculture" to run their campaign. Croker now took these innovations for Tammany's use, creating political clubhouses to take
16320-479: The governorship and five out of every seven votes went to the party, which dominated the Rhode Island legislature. Local newspapers such as The Providence Journal fueled anti-Irish and anti-Catholic sentiment. In the Southern United States, the American Party was composed chiefly of ex-Whigs looking for a vehicle to fight the dominant Democratic Party and worried about both the pro-slavery extremism of
16490-400: The hours needed to support it. Hewitt turned out to be a terrible mayor for Croker, due to his nativist views, and in 1888 Tammany ran Croker's hand-picked choice, Hugh J. Grant , who became the first New York-born Irish American mayor. Although Hewitt ran an efficient government, Croker viewed Hewitt as being too self-righteous and did not grant Croker the patronage jobs he was expecting from
16660-451: The importation of supposedly subversive government documents and academic books from Europe. It upgraded the legal status of wives, giving them more property rights and more rights in divorce courts. It passed harsh penalties on speakeasies, gambling houses and bordellos. It passed prohibition legislation with penalties that were so stiff—such as six months in prison for serving one glass of beer—that juries refused to convict defendants. Many of
16830-475: The informal or extralegal aides provided by machines. In the 1940s most of the big city machines collapsed, with the exception of Chicago. A local political machine in Tennessee in the 1930s and 1940s was forcibly removed in what was known as the 1946 Battle of Athens . Smaller communities such as Parma, Ohio , in the post–Cold War era under Prosecutor Bill Mason's "Good Old Boys" and especially communities in
17000-416: The intrusion of religious influence on the political arena. These influences have brought vast multitudes of foreign-born citizens to the polls, ignorant of American interests, without American feelings, influenced by foreign sympathies, to vote on American affairs; and those votes have, in point of fact, accomplished the present result. The party entered a period of rapid decline after Fillmore's loss. In 1857
17170-626: The latter of whom dueled with De Witt Clinton in 1802 in New Jersey. In 1803, Clinton left the United States Senate and became Mayor of New York City. As mayor, Clinton enforced a spoils system and appointed his family and partisans to positions in the city's local government. Tammany Hall soon realized its influence over the local political scene was no match for that of Clinton, in part because Burr's support among New York City's residents greatly faded after he shot and killed Alexander Hamilton in
17340-425: The lives of citizens, in the course of one day, Tammany figure George Washington Plunkitt assisted the victims of a house fire; secured the release of six drunks by speaking on their behalf to a judge; paid the rent of a poor family to prevent their eviction and gave them money for food; secured employment for four individuals; attended the funerals of two of his constituents (one Italian, the other Jewish); attended
17510-526: The local Common Council to crack down on Tammany Hall. The resulting investigations found that a number of Tammany officials were guilty of embezzlement and illegal activity. For example, one official, Benjamin Romaine was found guilty of using his power to acquire land without payment and was ultimately removed from his office as City Comptroller despite the Council being controlled by Democratic-Republicans. Following
17680-500: The local vote gatherer and provider of patronage. New York City used the designation "ward" for its smallest political units from 1686 to 1938. The 1686 Dongan Charter divided the city into six wards and created a Common Council which consisted of an alderman and an assistant alderman elected from each ward. In 1821, the Common Council's authority was expanded so it would also elect the city's mayor, who had previously been appointed by
17850-409: The lowest bidder, franchises were awarded to the highest bidder, and bribery was punished harshly. Fernando Wood attempted several small business ventures in the city during the 1830s while simultaneously increasing his involvement with Tammany Hall. These early business attempts failed, but by 1836, at the age of 24, he became a member of the Society and became known for resolving the dispute between
18020-450: The machine worked: The organization of a party in our city is really much like that of an army. There is one great central boss, assisted by some trusted and able lieutenants; these communicate with the different district bosses, whom they alternately bully and assist. The district boss in turn has a number of half-subordinates, half-allies, under him; these latter choose the captains of the election districts, etc., and come into contact with
18190-578: The machines. In the 1930s, James A. Farley was the chief dispenser of the Democratic Party's patronage system through the Post Office and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) which eventually nationalized many of the job benefits machines provided. The New Deal allowed machines to recruit for the WPA and Civilian Conservation Corps , making Farley's machine the most powerful. All patronage
18360-670: The main driving force in gaining and getting out the "right party vote" in the election districts. The term "political machine" dates back to the 19th century in the United States, where such organizations have existed in some municipalities and states since the 18th century. In the late 19th century, large cities in the United States— Boston , Chicago , Cleveland , Kansas City , New York City , Philadelphia , St. Louis , Memphis —were accused of using political machines. During this time "cities experienced rapid growth under inefficient government". Each city's machine lived under
18530-472: The middle class, who were shocked at the malfeasance and did not need the financial help. The corruption of urban politics in the United States was denounced by private citizens. They achieved national and state civil-service reform and worked to replace local patronage systems with civil service . By Theodore Roosevelt 's time, the Progressive Era mobilized millions of private citizens to vote against
18700-604: The nativist Bowery Boys . Tammany Hall did not put Wood up for reelection in December 1857 in light of the Panic of 1857 and a scandal involving him and his brother, Benjamin Wood . As a result of the scandal, Fernando Wood left or was expelled from Tammany in 1858 to form a third party, the Mozart Hall Democracy, or Mozart Hall , named after their building at the corner of Broadway and Bleecker Street. Wood ran for mayor in 1859, with
18870-468: The new party leadership showed incomes, occupation, and social status that were about average. Few were wealthy, according to detailed historical studies of once-secret membership rosters. Fewer than 10% were unskilled workers who might come in direct competition with Irish laborers. They enlisted few farmers, but on the other hand they included many merchants and factory owners. The party's voters were by no means all native-born Americans, for it won more than
19040-569: The new party were a direct threat to their own status as the putative champions of the working man. Having inadvertently provoked George into running, Tammany now needed to field a strong candidate against him, which required the cooperation of the Catholic Church in New York, which was the key to getting the support of middle-class Irish American voters. Richard Croker , Kelly's right-hand man, had succeeded Kelly as Grand Sachem of Tammany, and he understood that he would also need to make peace with
19210-403: The non-Tammany "Swallowtail" faction of the Democratic Party to avoid the threat that George and the ULP posed, which was the potential re-structuring of the city's politics along class lines and away from the ethnic-based politics which had been Tammany's underpinning all along. To bring together these disparate groups, Croker nominated Abram Hewitt as the Democratic candidate for mayor. Not only
19380-406: The number and power of banks; they strengthened corporations; they defeated a proposed 10-hour workday law. They reformed the tax system; increased state spending on public schools; set up a system to build high schools; prohibited the sale of liquor; and they denounced the expansion of slavery in the western territories. The Whigs and Free Soil parties both collapsed in New Hampshire in 1854–55. In
19550-470: The onset of the Lexow Committee, residing in his homes in Europe. Still, Tammany could not be kept down for long, and in 1898 Croker, aided by the death of Henry George – which took the wind out of the sails of the potential re-invigoration of the political labor movement – and returned from his stay in Europe, shifted the Democratic Party enough to the left to pick up labor's support, and pulled back into
19720-467: The opponent of material prosperity, the foe of thrift, the enemy of the railroad, the caucus, and the school". These fears encouraged conspiracy theories regarding papal intentions of subjugating the United States through a continuing influx of Catholics controlled by Irish bishops obedient to and personally selected by the Pope. In 1849, an oath-bound secret society , the Order of the Star Spangled Banner ,
19890-516: The organization. Union activists had founded the United Labor Party (ULP), which nominated political economist Henry George , the author of Progress and Poverty , as its standard-bearer. George was initially hesitant about running for office but was convinced to do so after Tammany secretly offered him a seat in Congress if he would stay out of the mayoral race. Tammany had no expectation of George being elected but knew that his candidacy and
20060-567: The party gained strength in 1855. Their Ohio success seems to have come from winning over immigrants, especially German-American Lutherans and Scots-Irish Presbyterians, both hostile to Catholicism. In Alabama, Know Nothings were a mix of former Whigs, discontented Democrats and other political outsiders who favored state aid to build more railroads. Virginia attracted national attention in its tempestuous 1855 gubernatorial election. Democrat Henry Alexander Wise won by convincing state voters that Know Nothings were in bed with Northern abolitionists. With
20230-513: The party supported a Jewish candidate for governor, Daniel Ullman , in 1854. In the spring of 1854, the Know Nothings carried Boston and Salem, Massachusetts, and other New England cities. They swept the state of Massachusetts in the fall 1854 elections, their biggest victory. The Whig candidate for mayor of Philadelphia, editor Robert T. Conrad , was soon revealed as a Know Nothing as he promised to crack down on crime, close saloons on Sundays and only appoint native-born Americans to office—he won
20400-505: The party's success in sweeping to almost complete control of the Massachusetts legislature after its 1854 landslide victory. He finds the new party was populist and highly democratic, hostile to wealth, elites and to expertise, and deeply suspicious of outsiders, especially Catholics. The new party's voters were concentrated in the rapidly growing industrial towns, where Yankee workers faced direct competition with new Irish immigrants. Whereas
20570-417: The place of the saloons and involving women and children by sponsoring family excursions and picnics. The New Tammany appeared to be more respectable, and less obviously connected to saloonkeepers and gang leaders, and the clubhouses, one in every Assembly District, were also a more efficient way of providing patronage work to those who came looking for it; one simply had to join the club, and volunteer to put in
20740-468: The police force was responsive to his needs and convinced commissioners to allow him to fire officers not performing their duties. He was then accused of only hiring Democrats to replace those fired officers. Wood defied tradition and ran for a second term as mayor in 1856, which irked some of his Tammany associates. During the campaign, his police force acted as his henchmen and Wood took a portion of their salary for his war chest ($ 15 to $ 25 for captains and
20910-706: The political backing of the Clinton family in this era, whereas the Schuyler family backed the Hamiltonian Federalists , and the Livingstons eventually sided with the anti-federalists and the Society. The Society assisted the federal government in procuring a peace treaty with the Creek Indians of Georgia and Florida at the request of George Washington in 1790. It also hosted Edmond-Charles Genêt , representative of
21080-416: The political machines of the past had flaws but provided better governance than the alternatives. He wrote that political machines created positive incentives for politicians to work together and compromise – as opposed to pursuing "naked self-interest" the whole time. Know Nothing Party The Know Nothings were a nativist political movement in the United States in the 1850s, officially known as
21250-418: The president of Columbia University, was elected the reform mayor in 1901. He lacked the common touch and lost much of his working-class support when he listened to dry Protestants eager to crack down on the liquor business. Murphy wanted to clean up Tammany's image and sponsored progressive era reforms benefiting the working class through his two protégés, Governor Al Smith and Robert F. Wagner . Ed Flynn ,
21420-510: The prompting of newly elected Theodore Roosevelt. This Mazet Investigation was chaired by Republican assemblyman Robert Mazet and led by chief counsel Frank Moss , who had also participated in the Lexow Committee. The investigation revealed further detail about Croker's corporate alliances and also yielded memorable quotes from police chief William Stephen Devery and Croker. This was also the committee that began probing Croker about his holdings in ice companies. Despite occasional defeats, Tammany
21590-451: The recent election of Democrat James Buchanan as president, stating: The recent election has developed in an aggravated form every evil against which the American party protested. Foreign allies have decided the government of the country – men naturalized in thousands on the eve of the election. Again in the fierce struggle for supremacy, men have forgotten the ban which the Republic puts on
21760-480: The reforms were quite expensive; state spending rose 45% on top of a 50% hike in annual taxes on cities and towns. This extravagance angered the taxpayers, and few Know Nothings were reelected. These successes at enacting reform legislation came at the expense of the traditional nativist priorities of the party, causing some national Know Nothing leaders, like Samuel Morse, to question the Massachusetts party's aims. The Massachusetts Know Nothings did advance attacks on
21930-543: The restoration of the Union as it existed before the war with slavery in place, or, alternately, peace without reunion (espoused by an extreme faction). William M. Tweed , most of Tammany's politicians, and many prominent businessmen were in the "War" faction, while Mozart Hall was the center of the "Peace" Democrats in New York. While the division between Tammany and Mozart had worked in Wood's favor in 1859, in 1861 it caused Republican George Opdyke to be elected, over Wood and Tammany's C. Godfrey Gunther , with barely more than
22100-545: The rich elite of the city, who either fell in with the graft and corruption, or else tolerated it because of Tammany's ability to control the immigrant population, of whom the " uppertens " of the city were wary. James Watson, who was a county auditor in Comptroller Dick Connolly 's office and who also held and recorded the ring's books, died a week after his head was smashed by a horse in a sleigh accident on January 21, 1871. Although Tweed guarded Watson's estate in
22270-592: The same period. Unlike later antisemitic nativist groups in the U.S. , and despite their zealous xenophobia and religious bigotry, the Know Nothings did not focus their ire on Jews or Judaism. Prioritizing a zealous disdain for Irish and German Catholic immigrants, the Know Nothing Party "had nothing to say about Jews", according to historian Hasia Diner , reportedly because its backers believed Jews, unlike Catholics, did not allow "their religious feelings to interfere with their political views." In New York ,
22440-462: The same time, Clinton attempted to cooperate with Tammany Hall in order to create a state dominated by Democratic-Republicans. In an attempt to persuade Tammany sachems, he pulled his support for Cheetham, who was his protégé at the time. Cheetham's loss of Clinton's support angered him, and he responded by releasing details of Tammany and Clinton's attempts at cooperating to control the state. On September 18, 1810, James Cheetham died after an attack that
22610-527: The same time, as Dennis R. Judd and Todd Swanstrom suggest in City Politics that this view accompanied the common belief that there were no viable alternatives. They go on to point out that this is a falsehood, since there are certainly examples of reform oriented, anti-machine leaders during this time. In his mid-2016 article "How American Politics Went Insane" in The Atlantic , Jonathan Rauch argued that
22780-609: The semi-secret organization of the party. When a member of the party was asked about his activities, he was supposed to say, "I know nothing." Outsiders derisively called the party's members "Know Nothings", and the name stuck. In 1855, the Know Nothings first entered politics under the American Party label. Defunct Newspapers Journals TV channels Websites Other Economics Gun rights Identity politics Nativist Religion Watchdog groups Youth/student groups Miscellaneous Other The immigration of large numbers of Irish and German Catholics to
22950-501: The skill behind Tweed's system ... The Tweed ring at its height was an engineering marvel, strong and solid, strategically deployed to control key power points: the courts, the legislature, the treasury and the ballot box. Its frauds had a grandeur of scale and an elegance of structure: money-laundering, profit sharing and organization. Under "Boss" Tweed's dominance, the city expanded into the Upper East and Upper West Sides of Manhattan,
23120-556: The slavery issue. David T. Gleeson notes that many Irish Catholics in the South feared that the arrival of the Know-Nothing movement portended a serious threat. He argues: The southern Irish, who had seen the dangers of Protestant bigotry in Ireland, had the distinct feeling that the Know-Nothings were an American manifestation of that phenomenon. Every migrant, no matter how settled or prosperous, also worried that this virulent strain of nativism threatened his or her hard-earned gains in
23290-620: The spending demands of special interests. In Mayors and Money , a comparison of municipal government in Chicago and New York, Ester R. Fuchs credited the Cook County Democratic Organization with giving Mayor Richard J. Daley the political power to deny labor union contracts that the city could not afford and to make the state government assume burdensome costs like welfare and courts. Describing New York, Fuchs wrote, "New York got reform, but it never got good government." At
23460-464: The state government. In 1834, the state constitution was amended to require the city's mayor to be elected by direct popular vote. Also in 1834, Cornelius Van Wyck Lawrence , a pro-Tammany Democrat, would become the first mayor ever elected by popular vote in the city's history. Throughout the 1830s and 1840s, the Society expanded its political control even further by earning the loyalty of the city's ever-expanding immigrant community, which functioned as
23630-449: The state level, the party was, in some cases, progressive in its stances on "issues of labor rights and the need for more government spending" and furnished "support for an expansion of the rights of women , the regulation of industry, and support of measures which were designed to improve the status of working people." It was a forerunner of the temperance movement in the United States . The Know Nothing movement briefly emerged as
23800-441: The state voted to provide the Society $ 1,000 to build a monument. The Society pocketed the money and the monument was never built. However, Tammany Hall did not learn their lesson, and instead of fixing the problem of corruption, Wortman, one of the chief powers at the time, created a committee, consisting of one member from each ward, that would investigate and report in general meetings who were friends or enemies. During 1809–1810,
23970-435: The status of working people". It passed legislation to regulate railroads, insurance companies and public utilities. It funded free textbooks for the public schools and raised the appropriations for local libraries and for the school for the blind. Purification of Massachusetts against divisive social evils was a high priority. The legislature set up the state's first reform school for juvenile delinquents while trying to block
24140-420: The top role in the early organization, it was a wealthy merchant and philanthropist named John Pintard who created the society's constitution and declared it to be "[a] political institution founded on a strong republican basis whose democratic principles will serve in some measure to correct the aristocracy of our city." Pintard also established the various Native American titles of the society. The Society had
24310-501: The two-thirds majority needed to pass a state constitutional amendment to restrict voting and office holding to men who had resided in Massachusetts for at least 21 years. The legislature then called on Congress to raise the requirement for naturalization from five years to 21 years, but Congress never acted. The most dramatic move by the Know Nothing legislature was to appoint an investigating committee designed to prove widespread sexual immorality underway in Catholic convents. The press had
24480-513: The victory by Wise, the movement began to collapse in the South. Know Nothings scored victories in Northern state elections in 1854, winning control of the legislature in Massachusetts and polling 40% of the vote in Pennsylvania. Although most of the new immigrants lived in the North, resentment and anger against them was national and the American Party initially polled well in the South, attracting
24650-431: The votes of many former southern Whigs. The party name gained wide, but brief, popularity: Know Nothing candy, tea, and toothpicks appeared, and the name was given to stagecoaches, buses, and ships. In Trescott , Maine, a shipowner dubbed his new 700-ton freighter Know-Nothing. The party was occasionally referred to, contemporaneously, in a slightly pejorative shortening, "Knism". Historian John Mulkern has examined
24820-552: The war joined Tammany Hall. In fact, during this time, because of its success in establishing political opinion, Tammany Hall was able to grow stronger and even gained support from Federalist members who supported the war. The Native American titles of the Society were disused during and after the War of 1812 in response to attacks from Native Americans on White Americans. During this time we see Tammany Hall's earliest application of its most notable technique—turning support away from opposing parties and rewarding newly joined members. This
24990-522: The week prior to Watson's death, and although another ring member attempted to destroy Watson's records, a replacement auditor, Matthew O'Rourke, associated with former sheriff James O'Brien provided city accounts to O'Brien. Further, Tammany demonstrated inability to control Irish laborers in the Orange riot of 1871 that also began Tweed's downfall. Campaigns to topple Tweed by The New York Times and Thomas Nast of Harper's Weekly began to gain traction in
25160-460: The word jiban (literally "base" or "foundation") is the word used for political machines. For decades, the LDP was able to dominate rural constituencies by spending heavily on rural areas, forming clientelist bonds with many groups and especially agriculture. Japanese political factional leaders are expected to distribute mochidai (literally snack-money) funds to help subordinates win elections. For
25330-500: The workings of these committees. In exchange for all these benefits, immigrants assured Tammany Hall they would vote for their candidates. By 1854, the support Tammany Hall received from immigrants would firmly establish the organization as the leader of New York City's political scene. With the election of Fernando Wood , the first person to be supported by the Tammany Hall machine, as mayor in 1854, Tammany Hall would proceed to dominate
25500-517: Was Hewitt the leader of the Swallowtails, but he was noted philanthropist Peter Cooper 's son-in-law and had an impeccable reputation. To counter both George and Hewitt, the Republicans put up Theodore Roosevelt , the former state assemblyman. In the end, Hewitt won the election, with George out-polling Roosevelt, whose total was some 2,000 votes less than the Republicans had normally received. Despite their second-place finish, things seemed bright for
25670-467: Was a major player in city politics through the 1860s and was successful in getting additional school wards for German communities. During the Civil War , Democrats were divided between " War Democrats " – who wanted victory on the battlefield but objected to what they considered radical Republican legislation and the erosion of civil rights by Abraham Lincoln – and " Peace Democrats ", who favored
25840-454: Was also extended once again to the state legislature, where a similar patronage system to the city's was established after Tammany took control in 1892. With the Republican boss, Thomas Platt , adopting the same methods, the two men between them essentially controlled the state. The 1890s began with a series of what would be three political investigations into Tammany operations, reminiscent of
26010-436: Was at the center and was bound together to a complex organization of lesser figures (the political machine) by reciprocity in promoting financial and social self-interest. One of the most infamous of these political machines was Tammany Hall , the Democratic Party machine that played a major role in controlling New York City and New York politics and helping immigrants, most notably the Irish, rise up in American politics from
26180-494: Was being hatched by Catholics . Therefore, they sought to politically organize native-born Protestants in defense of their traditional religious and political values. The Know Nothing movement is remembered for this theme because Protestants feared that Catholic priests and bishops would control a large bloc of voters. In most places, the ideology and influence of the Know Nothing movement lasted only one or two years before it disintegrated due to weak and inexperienced local leaders,
26350-476: Was consistently able to survive and prosper. Under leaders such as Charles Francis Murphy and Timothy Sullivan , it maintained control of Democratic politics in the city and the state. The politics of the consolidated city from 1898 to 1945 revolved around conflicts between the political machines and the reformers. In quiet times the machines had the advantage of the core of solid supporters and usually exercised control of city and borough affairs; they also played
26520-566: Was defeated for mayor after a bitter contest with Tammany and won Tammany support for his unsuccessful quest for the governorship of New York. Hearst did manage to dominate Tammany mayor John F. Hylan (1917–25), but he lost control when Smith and Wagner denied Hylan renomination in 1925. Hearst then moved back to his native California. Political machine While these elements are common to most political parties and organizations, they are essential to political machines, which rely on hierarchy and rewards for political power, often enforced by
26690-501: Was elected mayor on a Fusion ticket and became the first anti-Tammany mayor to be re-elected. A brief resurgence in Tammany power in the 1950s, under the leadership of Carmine DeSapio , was met with Democratic opposition, led by Eleanor Roosevelt , Herbert Lehman , and the New York Committee for Democratic Voters. By the mid-1960s, Tammany Hall had ceased to exist. Although not common in modern interpretations and evaluations of
26860-488: Was elected to Congress as a Know Nothing candidate, but after a few months he aligned with Republicans. A coalition of Know Nothings, Republicans and other members of Congress opposed to the Democratic Party elected Banks to the position of Speaker of the House . The results of the 1854 elections were so favorable to the Know Nothings, up to then an informal movement with no centralized organization, that they formed officially as
27030-546: Was elected to the State Senate, his true sources of power were his appointed positions to various branches of the city government. These positions gave him access to city funds and contractors, thereby controlling public works programs. This benefitted his pocketbook and those of his friends, but also provided jobs for the immigrants, especially Irish laborers, who were the electoral base of Tammany's power. According to Tweed biographer Kenneth D. Ackerman: It's hard not to admire
27200-410: Was essentially available to him when needed – Croker was able to neutralize the Swallowtails permanently. He also developed a new stream of income from the business community, which was provided with "one stop shopping": instead of bribing individual officeholders, businesses, especially the utilities, could go directly to Tammany to make their payments, which were then directed downward as necessary; such
27370-584: Was formed in September 1871 by prominent reformers to examine the misdeeds of the Tweed ring. Tweed was arrested and tried in 1872. After he died in Ludlow Street Jail in 1878, political reformers took over the city and state governments. Following Tweed's arrest, Tammany survived, but was no longer controlled by Protestants and was now dependent on leadership from bosses of Irish descent. Tammany did not take long to rebound from Tweed's fall. Reforms demanded
27540-462: Was founded by Charles B. Allen in New York City. At its inception, the Order of the Star Spangled Banner only had about 36 members. Fear of Catholic immigration caused some Protestants to become dissatisfied with the Democratic Party , whose leaders included Catholics of Irish descent in many cities. Activists formed secret groups, coordinating their votes and throwing their weight behind candidates who were sympathetic to their cause: Immigration during
27710-532: Was his patronage of immigrants. The origins of Tammany Hall were based on representing "pure" or "native" Americans. This meant that the Hall dismissed immigrants such as the Irish and Germans, although the Germans were more politically averse. On April 24, 1817, discontent with this treatment led to a huge riot during a Tammany general committee session. Until his death in 1828, Clinton would remain Governor of New York, with
27880-404: Was not the only violent riot between Know Nothings and Catholics in 1855. In Baltimore , the mayoral elections of 1856, 1857, and 1858 were all marred by violence and well-founded accusations of ballot-rigging. In the coastal town of Ellsworth, Maine , in 1854, Know Nothings were associated with the tarring and feathering of a Catholic priest, Jesuit Johannes Bapst . They also burned down
28050-530: Was possibly Tammany-related. Between the years 1809 and 1815, Tammany Hall slowly revived itself by accepting immigrants and by secretly building a new wigwam to hold meetings whenever new Sachems were named. The Democratic-Republican Committee, a new committee which consisted of the most influential local Democratic-Republicans, would now name the new Sachems as well. When Dewitt Clinton decided to run for president in 1811, Tammany Hall immediately accused Clinton of treason to his party, as well as attempting to create
28220-423: Was screened through Farley, including presidential appointments. The New Deal machine fell apart after he left the administration over the third term issue in 1940 . Those agencies were, for the most part, abolished in 1943, and the machines suddenly lost much of their patronage. The formerly poor immigrants who had benefited under Farley's national machine had become assimilated and prosperous, and no longer needed
28390-424: Was the Democratic presidential nominee in 1928. Tammany's influence waned during the 1930s and early 1940s, when it engaged in a losing battle with Franklin D. Roosevelt , the state's governor (1929–1932) and later U.S. President (1933–1945). In 1932, after Mayor Jimmy Walker was forced from office when his bribery was exposed, Roosevelt stripped Tammany of federal patronage. Republican Fiorello La Guardia
28560-604: Was the case for Federalists who joined the Society. Tammany Hall managed to gain power, as well as reduce Clinton and his followers to just a small fraction. In 1815, Tammany Hall grand sachem John Ferguson defeated Dewitt Clinton and was elected mayor. However, in 1817, Clinton, with his success on the Erie Canal project , gained so much popularity that, despite his weak position after the War and Tammany's immense efforts, he once again became Governor of New York and Tammany Hall fell again. Another factor leading to Clinton's popularity
28730-491: Was the control Tammany had come to have over the governmental apparatus of the city. Croker mended fences with labor as well, pushing through legislation which addressed some of the inequities which had fueled the labor political movement, making Tammany once again appear to be the "Friend of the Working Man" – although he was careful always to maintain a pro-business climate of laissez-faire and low taxes. Tammany's influence
28900-439: Was the naturalization process organized by William M. Tweed . Under Tweed's regime, "naturalization committees" were established. These committees were made up primarily of Tammany politicians and employees, and their duties consisted of filling out paperwork, providing witnesses, and lending immigrants money for the fees required to become citizens. Judges and other city officials were bribed and otherwise compelled to go along with
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