TAMMANY QUARRELS WITH DE WITT CLINTON
1802-1809
The quarrel between Tammany and De Witt Clinton arose from Clinton’s
charge in 1802 that Burr was a traitor to the Republican party and had
conspired to defeat Jefferson. De Witt Clinton was a nephew of George
Clinton. When a very young man he was Scribe of the Tammany Society.
Owing to the influence of his powerful relative, backed by his own
ability, he had become a United States Senator, at the promising age
of thirty-three. His principal fault was his unbridled temper, which
led him to speak harshly of those who displeased him. George Clinton
thought himself, on account of his age and long public service,
entitled to the place and honors heaped upon Burr, whom he despised
as an unprincipled usurper. He was too old, however, to carry on a
contest, and De Witt Clinton undertook to shatter the Burr faction for
him. To oppose the Tammany Society, which embraced in itself nearly
all there was of the Republican party in New York City, was no slight
matter. But De Witt Clinton, with the confidence that comes of steady,
rapid advancement, went about it aggressively. He had extraordinary
qualities of mind and heart which raised him far above the mere
politicians of his day.
Such of the elective offices as were allowed the city were filled by
the Tammany Republicans from 1800 to 1809. State Senators, Assemblymen
and Aldermen were elective, but the Mayor, Sheriff, Recorder,
Justices of the Peace of counties--in fact, nearly all civil and
military officers from the heads of departments and Judgeships of
the Supreme Court down to even auctioneers--were appointed by a body
at Albany known as the Council of Appointment, which was one of the
old constitutional devices for centralizing political power. Four
State Senators, chosen by the Assembly, comprised, with the Governor,
this Council. Gov. Clinton, as president of this board, claimed the
exclusive right of nomination, and effectually concentrated in himself
all the immense power it yielded. He had De Witt Clinton transferred
from the post of United States Senator to that of Mayor of New York
City in 1803, and filled offices in all the counties with his relatives
or partizans. The spoils system was in full force, as exemplified by
the Council’s sudden and frequent changes. Though swaying New York
City, Tammany could get only a few State and city offices, the Clintons
holding the power elsewhere throughout the State and in the Council of
Appointment. Hence in fighting the Clintons, Tammany confronted a power
much superior in resources.
One of the first moves of the Clintons was to get control of the
Manhattan Bank. They caused John Swartwout, Burr’s associate director,
to be turned out. Some words ensued, and De Witt Clinton styled
Swartwout a liar, a scoundrel and a villain. Swartwout set about
resenting the insult in the gentlemanly mode of the day. Clinton
readily accepted a challenge, and five shots were fired, two of which
hit Swartwout, who, upon being asked whether he had had enough said
that he had not; but the duel was stopped by the seconds.
While the Clintons were searching for a good pretext to overthrow Burr,
the latter injudiciously supplied it himself when in 1804 he opposed
the election of Morgan Lewis, his own party’s nominee for Governor.
Burr’s action gave rise to much acrimony; and from that time he was
ostracized by every part of the Republican party in New York except
the chiefs of the Tammany Society, or Martling Men. He fell altogether
into disgrace with the general public when he shot Alexander
Hamilton in a duel, July 11, 1804. Tammany, however, still clung to
him. Two of Tammany’s chiefs--Nathaniel Pendleton and William P. Van
Ness--accompanied Burr to the field; John Swartwout, another chief, was
at Burr’s house awaiting his return. The Tammany men looked upon much
of the excitement over Hamilton’s death as manufactured. But as if to
yield to public opinion, the society on July 13 issued a notice to its
members to join in the procession to pay the “last tribute of respect
to the _manes_ of Hamilton.”
In the inflamed state of public feeling which condemned everything
connected with Burr and caused his indictment in two States, the
Sachems knew it would be unwise for a time to make any attempt to
restore him to political power. They found their opportunity in
December, 1805, when, strangely enough, De Witt Clinton, forced by
the exigencies of politics, made overtures to form a union with the
Burrites in order to resist the powerful Livingston family, which, with
Gov. Morgan Lewis at its head, was threatening the Clinton family. The
Burrites thought they would get the better of the bargain and be able
to reinstate their chief.
The negotiators met secretly February 20, 1806, at Dyde’s Hotel. John
Swartwout and the other Tammany chiefs insisted as conditions of the
union that Burr should be recognized as a Republican; that his friends
should be well cared for in the distribution of offices, and that
“Burrism” should never be urged as an objection against them. The
Clintons, anxious to beat down the Livingstons, were ready to agree to
these terms, knowing that Burr’s prestige was utterly swept away and
that any effort of his followers to thrust him forward again would be
a failure. Clintonites and Burrites set to drinking hilariously as a
token of good will. But their joy was premature.
When the body of the Tammany men learned of the arrangement they were
aroused. The Sachems drew off, and the Tammany Society continued to
revile Clinton and to be reviled in return.
It was just before this that the Tammany Hall political organization,
as apparently distinct from the Tammany Society, was created. In 1805
the society made application for, and obtained from the Legislature,
the charter, which still remains in force, incorporating it as a
benevolent and charitable body “for the purpose of affording relief to
the indigent and distressed members of said association, their widows
and orphans and others who may be proper objects of their charity.”
The wording of the charter deluded only the simple. Everybody knew
that the society was the center around which the Republican politics
of the city revolved. It had its public and its secret aspects. “This
society,” says _Longworth’s American Almanac, New York Register and
City Directory_ for 1807-1808, in a description of Tammany, “has a
constitution in two parts--public and private--the public relates to
all external or public matters; and the private, to the arcana and all
transactions which do not meet the public eye, and on which its code of
laws are founded.”
The Sachems knew that to continue appearing as a political club would
be most impolitic. Year after year since 1798 the criticisms directed
at the self-appointed task of providing candidates for the popular
suffrage grew louder. In 1806 these murmurings extended to Tammany’s
own voters. Honest Republicans began to voice their suspicions of
caucuses which never met and public meetings called by nobody knew
whom. The Sachems, though perfectly satisfied with the established
forms which gave them such direct authority, wisely recognized the need
of a change.
It was agreed that the Republicans should assemble in each ward to
choose a ward committee of three and that these ward committees should
constitute a general committee, which should have the power of
convening all public meetings of the party and of making preparatory
arrangements for approaching elections. This was the origin of the
Tammany Hall General Committee, which, consisting then of thirty
members, has been expanded in present times to over five thousand
members.
At about the same time each of the ten wards began sending seven
delegates to Martling’s, the seventy forming a nominating committee,
which alone had the right to nominate candidates. The seventy met
in open convention. At times each member would have a candidate for
the Assembly, to which the city then sent eleven members. These
improvements on the old method gave, naturally, an air of real
democracy to the proceedings of the Tammany faction in the city and
had the effect of softening public criticism. Yet behind the scenes
the former leaders contrived to bring things about pretty much as they
planned.
The action of the nominating committee was not final, however. It was
a strict rule that the committee’s nominations be submitted to the
wards and to a later meeting of all the Republican electors who chose
to attend and who would vote their approval or disapproval. If a name
were voted down, another candidate was substituted by the meeting
itself. This was called the “great popular meeting,” and its design
was supposed to vest fully in the Republican voters the choice of
the candidates for whom they were to vote. But in those days, as has
always been the case, most voters were so engrossed in their ordinary
occupations that they gave little more attention to politics than to
vote; and the leaders, except on special occasions, found it easy to
fill the great popular meeting, as well as other meetings, with their
friends and creatures, sending out runners, and often in the winter,
sleighs, for the dilatory. To the general and nominating committees
was added, several years later, a correspondence committee, which was
empowered to call meetings of the party when necessary, the leaders
having found the general committee too slow and cumbersome a means
through which to reach that important end.
To hold public favor, the Tammany Society thought prudent to make it
appear that it was animated by patriotic motives instead of the desire
for offices. That the people might see how dearly above all things
Tammany prized its Revolutionary traditions, the society on April 13,
1808, marched in rank to Wallabout, where it laid the corner-stone of a
vault in which were to be placed the bones of 11,500 patriots who had
died on board the British prison ships. On April 26, the vault being
completed, the remains were laid in it. The Tammany Society, headed by
Benjamin Romaine and the military; the municipal officials, Gov. Daniel
D. Tompkins, members of Congress, Army and Navy officers, and many
other detachments of men of lesser note participated in the ceremony.
The Federalists maintained that Tammany’s patriotic show was merely an
election maneuver. Subsequent developments did not help to disprove the
charge. The society proclaimed far and wide its intention of building
a monument over the vault, and induced the Legislature to make a grant
of land worth $1,000 for the purpose. Associations and individuals
likewise contributed. The political ceremonies connected with the
burial having their expected effect, Tammany forgot altogether about
its project until ugly rumors, pointing to the misuse of the money
collected, forced the society in 1821 to petition the Legislature for
further aid in erecting the monument. On that occasion the Tammany
Society was denounced bitterly. It was brought out that such was
Tammany’s interest in the monument that no request was ever made for
the land granted by the Legislature in 1808. The Legislature, however,
granted $1,000 in cash.[1] This sum was not enough; and as Tammany did
not swell the amount, though its Sachems were rich with the spoils of
office, a resolution was introduced in the Assembly, March 4, 1826,[2]
stating that as the $1,000 appropriated February 27, 1821, had not been
used for the purpose but remained in the hands of Benjamin Romaine,
the society’s treasurer, it should be returned, and threatening legal
proceedings in case it was not. This resolution, slightly amended, was
passed on a close vote. There is, however, no available record of what
became of the $1,000.
During three years, culminating in 1809, a series of disclosures
regarding the corruption of Tammany officials astounded the city.
Rumors grew so persistent that the Common Council was forced by public
opinion to investigate. In the resultant revelations many Tammany
chiefs suffered.
Benjamin Romaine, variously Sachem and Grand Sachem, was removed in
1806 from the office of City Controller for malfeasance, though the
Common Council was controlled by his own party.[3] As a trustee of
corporation property he had fraudulently obtained valuable land in the
heart of the city, without paying for it. The affair caused a very
considerable scandal. The Common Council had repeatedly passed strong
resolutions calling on him to explain. Romaine must have settled in
some fashion; for there is no evidence that he was prosecuted.
On January 26, 1807, Philip I. Arcularius, Superintendent of the
Almshouse, and Cornelius Warner, Superintendent of Public Repairs, were
removed summarily.[4] It was shown that Warner had defrauded the city
as well as the men who worked under him.[5]
Jonas Humbert, Inspector of Bread and sometime Sachem, was proved to
have extorted a third of the fees collected by Flour Inspector Jones,
under the threat of having Jones put out of office. In consequence
of the facts becoming known, Humbert and his associate Inspector,
Christian Nestell, discreetly resigned their offices--probably to avert
official investigation.[6]
Abraham Stagg, another of the dynasty of Grand Sachems, as Collector
of Assessments failed, it was disclosed in 1808, to account for about
$1,000.[7] Two other Assessment Collectors, Samuel L. Page (for a long
time prominent in Tammany councils), and Simon Ackerman, were likewise
found to be embezzlers.[8] Stagg and Page managed to make good their
deficit by turning over to the city certain property, but Ackerman
disappeared.
John Bingham, at times Sachem, and a noted politician of the day,
managed, through his position as an Alderman, to wheedle the city
into selling to his brother-in-law land which later he influenced the
corporation to buy back at an exorbitant price. The Common Council,
spurred by public opinion, demanded its reconveyance.[9] Even Bingham’s
powerful friend, Matthew L. Davis, could not silence the scandal, for
Davis himself had to meet a charge that while defending the Embargo at
Martling’s he was caught smuggling out flour in quantities that yielded
him a desirable income.
But worse than these disclosures was that affecting the society’s
founder, William Mooney. The Common Council in 1808 appointed him
Superintendent of the Almshouse, at an annual recompense of $1,000 and
the support of his family in the place, provided that this latter item
should not amount to over $500. Mooney had a more exalted idea of how
he and his family ought to live. In the summer of 1809 the city fathers
appointed a committee to investigate. The outcome was surprising.
Mooney had spent nearly $4,000 on himself and family in addition to
his salary; he had taken from the city supplies about $1,000 worth of
articles, and moreover had expended various sums for “trifles for
Mrs. Mooney”--a term which survived for many years in local politics.
The ofttimes Grand Sachem of the Tammany Society could not explain his
indulgences satisfactorily, and the Common Council relieved him of the
cares of office, only one Alderman voting for his retention.[10]
Most of these leaders were only momentarily incommoded, the Tammany
Society continuing many of them, for years after, in positions of trust
and influence. Mooney subsequently was repeatedly chosen Grand Sachem
and Father of the Council; Romaine was elected Grand Sachem in 1808,
again in 1813, and frequently Sachem; Matthew L. Davis was elected
Grand Sachem in 1814 and reelected in 1815[11] and was a Sachem for
years later; Abraham Stagg remained a leader and continued to get
contracts for street paving and regulating, and neither Jonas Humbert
nor John Bingham suffered a loss of influence with the Wigwam men.
Meanwhile the Sachems were professing the highest virtue. The society’s
calls for meetings ran like this:
“Tammany Society, or Columbian Order--Brothers, You are
requested to assemble around the council fire in the Great
Wigwam, No. 1, on Saturday, the 12th inst., at 9 o’clock A. M.
(wearing a bucktail in your hat), to celebrate the anniversary
of the Columbian Order and recount to each other the deeds of
our departed chiefs and warriors in order that it may stimulate
us _to imitate them in whatever is virtuous and just_.”[12]
The public, however, took another view of the matter. These scandals,
and the showing of a deficit in the city’s accounts of $250,000, hurt
Tammany’s prestige considerably. The Republican strength in the city at
the election of April, 1809, showed a decrease of six hundred votes,
the majority being only 116, while the Federalists carried the State,
and thus secured control of the Council of Appointment.
The lesson was lost on the leaders. The society at this time was led by
various men, of whom Teunis Wortman[13] was considered the chief power.
Wortman was as enraged at the defection of these few hundred voters as
his successors were at a later day at an adverse majority of tens of
thousands. He caused a meeting to be held at Martling’s on May 19, and
secured the appointment of a committee, with one member from each of
the ten wards, instructed to inquire into the causes contributing to
lessen Tammany’s usual majority. The committee was further instructed
to call a general meeting of the Republican citizens of the county,
on the completion of its investigation, and to report to them, that
it might be known who were their friends and who their enemies. Here
is to be seen the first manifestation of that systematic discipline
which Tammany Hall thereafter exercised. Wortman’s plan excited both
Clintonites and Federalists. The committee was called “the committee
of spies,” and was regarded generally as the beginning of a system of
intimidation and proscription.
In the passionate acrimony of the struggle between Tammany and the
Clintons, the Federalists seemed to be well-nigh forgotten. The
speakers and writers of each side assailed the other with great fury.
One of these was James Cheetham, a Clinton supporter and editor of
the _American Citizen_. Goaded by his strictures, the Tammany Society
on the night of February 28, 1809, expelled him from membership on
the grounds that he had assailed the general Government and vilified
Jefferson.
In the _American Citizen_ of March 1, Cheetham replied that the
resolution was carried by trickery. “Tammany Society,” Cheetham
continued, “was chartered by the Legislature of the State for
_charitable purposes_. Not a member of the Legislature, when it was
chartered, imagined, I dare to say, that it would be thus perverted to
the worst purposes of faction.” On May 1 he sent this note to the Grand
Sachem:
“Sir, I decline membership in Tammany Society. Originally
national and Republican, it has degenerated into a savage
barbarity.”
Cheetham then wrote to Grand Sachem Cowdrey for a certified copy of the
proceedings, saying he wanted it to base an action which he would bring
for the annulment of the charter of the Tammany Society for misuser.
Cowdrey expressed regret at not being able to accommodate him. “Tammany
Society,” wrote Cowdrey,
“is an institution that has done much good and may and
undoubtedly will do more.… I do not think one error can or
ought to cancel its long list of good actions and wrest from it
its charter of incorporation, the basis of its stability and
existence.”
The _American Citizen_ thereupon bristled with fiercer attacks upon
Tammany. “Jacobin clubs,” says “A Disciple of Washington,” in this
newspaper, July 29, 1809,
“are becoming organized to overawe, not only the electors but
the elected under our government; such are the Washington and
the Tammany Societies. The latter was originally instituted
for harmless purposes and long remained harmless in its acts;
members from all parties were admitted to it; but we have seen
it become a tremendous political machine.… The Washington
Jacobin Club, it is said, consists of at least two thousand
rank and file, and the Tammany Jacobins to perhaps as many.…
The time will come, and that speedily, when the Legislature,
the Governor and the Council of Appointment shall not dare to
disobey their edicts.”
Tammany retaliated upon Cheetham by having a bill passed by the
Legislature taking away from him the position of State Printer, which
paid $3,000 a year.
Tammany’s comparative weakness in the city, as shown in the recent
vote, prompted Clinton to suggest a compromise and union of forces.
Overtures were made by his agents, and on July 13, 1809, twenty-eight
of the leaders of the Clinton, Madison, Burr and Lewis factions met in
a private room at Coleman’s Fair House. Matthew L. Davis told them the
chiefs ought to unite; experience demonstrated that if they did they
would lead the rest--meaning the voters. Tammany, he said, welcomed
a union of the Republican forces so as to prevent the election of a
Federalist Council of Appointment. Davis and Wortman proposed that they
unite to prevent any removals from office; that the two opposition
Republican clubs in turn should be destroyed and that their members
should go back to the Tammany Society, which, being on the decline,
must be reenforced. Or, if it should be thought advisable to put down
the Tammany Society, “considering its prevailing disrepute,” then a new
society should be organized in which Burrites, Lewisites, Clintonites
and Madisonians were to be admitted members under the general family
and brotherly name of Republican.
De Witt Clinton cautiously kept away from this meeting, allowing his
lieutenants to do the work of outwitting Tammany. A committee of ten
was appointed to consider whether a coalition of the chiefs were
practicable; whether, if it were, the people would agree to it; whether
the Whig (opposition Republican) clubs should be destroyed and whether
the Tammany Society should be reenforced.
The meeting came to naught. In this effort to win over the Tammany
chiefs, De Witt Clinton abandoned his protégé and dependent, Cheetham,
who had made himself obnoxious to them. Finding Clinton’s political
and financial support withdrawn, Cheetham, out of revenge, published
the proceedings of this secret meeting in the _American Citizen_, and,
awakening public indignation, closed the bargaining. A few nights later
a Tammany mob threw brickbats in the windows of Cheetham’s house. By
his death, on September 19, 1810, Tammany was freed from one of its
earliest and most vindictive assailants.
FOOTNOTES
[1] _Journal of the Assembly_, 1821, p. 532, also p. 758.
[2] _Ibid._, 1826, p. 750.
[3] _MS. Minutes of the Common Council_, Vol. 16, pp. 239-40 and 405.
[4] _MS. Minutes of the Common Council_, Vol. 16, pp. 288-89.
[5] _Ibid._, p. 316.
[6] _Ibid._, p. 50.
[7] _Ibid._, Vol. 18, p. 194.
[8] _Ibid._
[9] _Ibid._, Vol. 20, pp. 355-56.
[10] _Ibid._, Vol. 20, p. 308. The full report on Mooney’s
administration appears in _Ibid._, pp. 376-92.
[11] Although the subsequent laws of the Tammany Society forbade the
successive reelection of a Grand Sachem, the incumbent of the office
was frequently permitted to “hold over.”
[12] Advertisement in the _Columbian_, May 14, 1810.
[13] Wortman had been a follower of Clinton and had been generously
aided by him. He suddenly shifted to Tammany, on seeing better
opportunities of advancement with that body.