THE JACKSON ELEMENT VICTORIOUS
1825-1828
Factional strife had not entirely smothered the demand for improvement
in the city government.[1] The arbitrary powers of the Common Council,
composed, as it was, of one Board in which sat both Aldermen and
Assistant Aldermen, excited general dissatisfaction. Having the power
of making assessments, ordering public improvements, and disposing of
the public property at will, the Aldermen made no detailed account of
their expenditures. One writer advised the Aldermen to curtail some of
their own extravagances: “Why not stop,” he wrote,
“in their career of eating the most unreasonable and costly
suppers every time they meet on public business and drinking
such wines as they never in the course of their lives tasted
before; choice wines that cost $40 a dozen? O! but I will soon
tell a tale that will make our citizens stare. I understand
that our city expenses are now nearly _$2,000 a day_.”
The State constitution of 1821-22 had granted the Common Council
greater powers than before in vacating and filling important offices
in the city. In 1823 the city debt was rising, and though the Common
Council professed to attempt retrenchment, no real effort was made, the
fathers being loth to give over the voting of pretended improvements
out of which they benefited as individual contractors. The agitation
continuing, the Legislature, in April, 1824, had passed a law to
“erect” two separate chambers--a Board of Aldermen to be elected from
among the freeholders for two years, and a Board of Assistants for one
year, with concurrent powers. The opponents of the new branch termed it
derisively the “House of Lords” and denounced its aristocratic nature.
The amendment was defeated by the radicals in June, though the interest
in it was slight. Over 8,000 electors failed to vote.
Other schemes for municipal reform dissolved in talk, and by the Spring
of 1825 public attention became concentrated again on the matter of
Jackson’s candidacy for the office of President. Barely had John
Quincy Adams been inaugurated when Tammany set about to make Jackson
his successor. On May 12 Sachem Nicholas Schureman, at the anniversary
celebration of the society, gave this toast: “Jackson, the Hero of New
Orleans, our next President.” Again, on July 4, the principal toast was
to Jackson.[2]
The Jackson campaign went energetically on. But it was rudely
interrupted during the following Autumn by a fresh series of
revelations regarding certain Tammany chieftains. The legislative
favoritism by which Jacob Barker was enabled to secure advantages for
his Exchange Bank (1818)[3] now culminated in a grave public scandal.
In September, 1826, Barker, Henry Eckford, another of the line of
Sachems; Matthew L. Davis, lately Grand Sachem, and several other
accomplices were principals in one of the most extended and sensational
trials which the city had known. They stood charged with swindles
aggregating several million dollars. The Grand Jury’s indictment of
September 15 charged them, and also Mark Spencer, William P. Rathbone,
Thomas Vermilyea and others, with defrauding the Mechanics’ Fire
Insurance Company of 1,000 shares of its own capital stock, 1,000
shares of United States Bank stock and $50,000; the Fulton Bank of
2,000 shares of its own capital stock and $50,000; the Tradesmen’s
Bank of 2,000 shares of its own capital stock and $50,000; the Morris
Canal and Banking Company of 2,000 shares of its own capital stock
and $50,000; and the Life and Fire Insurance Company of 2,000 shares
of its own capital stock. The indictment further charged these men
with obtaining fraudulently 1,000 promissory notes for the amount of
nearly $100 each, belonging to the Fulton Bank; and the same number of
notes for similar sums belonging respectively to the Tradesmen’s Bank,
the Morris Canal and Banking Company, and the Life and Fire Insurance
Company, and with additionally obtaining by fraud the sum of $50,000,
the property of Henry Barclay, George Barclay and others.[4]
A disagreement of the jury marked the first trial; the second brought a
conviction of the prisoners. Tammany Hall was unwilling to see any of
its leaders go to prison. As soon as the storm of popular indignation
blew over, a new trial was had for Davis, and owing to strong political
influence his acquittal was the outcome. Barker was again convicted,
but, thanks to the discreet use of his money, never saw a cell. He went
South and lived on till over ninety years of age.[5] Eckford fled to
the Orient and died in Syria. The severity of the law fell on the minor
offenders, two of whom, Mowatt and Hyatt, went to prison for two years,
and the Lambert brothers for one year.
The trial over, public interest again centered on the Presidential
struggle. Alive to the necessity of winning Tammany to his interest,
President Adams chose most of his New York appointees from its
organization, thereby creating in that body an alert clique of devoted
partizans. If the leaders had been able to direct the organization
absolutely, Adams might have bribed nearly all of them with offices,
favors or promises, but there were other deciding factors. The first
was the mass of the Democrats who favored Jackson and forced most
of the leaders to his support. The second was the organizing genius
of Martin Van Buren. He was a member of the Tammany Society, and in
September, 1827, he visited New York to compose the discord in the
general committee, which was divided equally on the question of the
Presidency, although in the society itself a majority was for Jackson.
The Jackson men quickly gained predominant influence. On September
27 the general committee recommended in a public address to its
“fellow-citizens” that when they met in their wards, they should elect
such citizens _only_, to represent them in their different committees,
as were favorable to Jackson. The Adams men were enraged.[6] Col. James
Fairlie, a veteran of the Revolution; Benjamin Romaine, Peter Sharpe,
William Todd, W. H. Ireland, Abraham Stagg, Peter Stagg and John L.
Lawrence, known as “the elite” of Tammany Hall, and others, denounced
this action. “Was such a power of proscription and dictation ever
delegated to or practised by any other general committee?” they asked
in an address.
The ward primary elections on the night of October 3 were tumultuous.
The Jackson men took possession of the meeting rooms, installed their
own chairmen and passed resolutions, without allowing the Adams
supporters a chance to be heard. Both factions then alternately
held meetings in Tammany Hall. So determined was the struggle to get
possession of the Wigwam that the Adams men contrived to expel their
opponents from it for one day, and the Jackson men had to make their
nominations in the cellar called “the Coal Hole.” At a later meeting of
the Adams faction, embracing a group of old Federalists, Col. Marinus
Willett, a venerable Revolutionary patriot, who presided, spoke of
“the danger and absurdity of confiding the destinies of the country to
a mere arbitrary soldier.” The meeting passed resolutions denouncing
the general committee majority and reiterating its support of Adams.
The Jackson men rallied to the Wigwam in force and approved the ticket
nominated in “the Coal Hole.” The nominees were for local offices and
were themselves of no particular importance. The great question was
whether New York City favored Jackson or Adams, and the coming election
was the accepted test.
The Jackson men made desperate efforts to carry the city. Now were
observable the effects brought about by the suffrage changes of 1822
and 1826. The formerly disinherited class had become attached to
Tammany Hall, and the organization, entirely reversing its exclusive
native policy, declared for a reduction of the five-year naturalization
period. From that time forth the patronage of aliens became a settled
policy of Tammany. In this election these aliens exercised a powerful
influence, materially aiding Jackson.
Cases of fraud and violence had hitherto been frequent; but nothing
like the exhibition at the primaries and polls in November, 1827, had
ever been known. Cart-loads of voters, many of whom had been in the
country less than three years, were used as repeaters in the different
wards. An instance was known of one cart-load of six men voting at six
different places. Other men boasted of having voted three and four
times. In an upper ward, where the foreign population had full sway,
an American found it almost impossible to appear or vote at all. If
he tried the experiment, he was arrested immediately, his votes were
taken from him and Jackson votes put in his hands. Many of the polling
places had no challengers, and most of the inspectors did duty for
the Jackson ticket by a display of stout hickory branches. By such
means the Jackson men rolled up in the city a majority of nearly five
thousand.
Reflective citizens of both parties were alarmed and humiliated by
the events of the election. The public conscience was not used to the
indiscriminate stuffing of ballot boxes. To the revelations of this
election can be traced the origin of the Native American party, whose
cry that “political privileges should belong exclusively to the natives
of the country” even now was heard.
Though a year before the time for choosing a President, the result of
this election strongly indicated the choice of Jackson and caused great
exultation and encouragement among his supporters in other cities.
In the Winter of 1827, Tammany sent a delegation to visit him at New
Orleans, ostensibly to present an address on the anniversary of the
battle of New Orleans, but in reality, it was supposed, to confer with
him on the work to be done in his behalf. By the beginning of 1828 the
organization was controlled wholly by Jackson men. Not a nomination,
however petty, was made of a man not known to be his partizan. The
great body of Democrats approved this course on the ground that
Jackson’s election was the real issue, and that local issues were
subordinate for the time. When the Adams men tried to hold anti-Jackson
meetings in the Wigwam, the Sachems stepped forward and exercised a
long dormant power--a power which explains the real connection between
the society and the organization, and which it frequently used later
against hostile factions. Through pressure, the lessee of Tammany
Hall sold to the society his lease. This secured, the society put
in charge of the building (which was fitted in part as a hotel as
well as a hall) another person, instructed not to let any room to the
Adams committee. The Adams men asked by what right a “charitable and
benevolent society” interfered in politics. But, being excluded, they
could no longer claim they represented Tammany Hall--a fatal loss to
them and an important advantage to the Jackson men, who now were the
only Tammany organization. The Adams committees were thus shut off from
holding any meetings in the hall.
With the Adams committees put out, the Jackson men began to quarrel
among themselves for local and State nominations. The Wigwam’s
inveterate foe, De Witt Clinton, was out of the way, he having died on
February 11, 1828, while still Governor. As nominations continued to
be looked upon as almost certainly resulting in election, there was a
swarm of candidates.[7] The ambitions of few of these were gratified.
The nominations were settled beforehand by a small clique, headed, it
was said, by M. M. Noah.
Of a voting population of 25,000, Tammany Hall secured a majority of
5,831 for Jackson[8] and elected all its candidates except one. That
hundreds, if not thousands, of illegal votes were counted was admitted.
Boys of 19 and 20 years of age voted and were employed to electioneer
for the Jackson ticket. On the other hand, raftsmen just arrived from
the interior and men who had no homes were gathered in bunches and sent
to swell the Adams vote, though it is doubtful whether their votes
were counted. For the first time in city elections money was used to
influence voting.
The Common Council soon after removed every office-holder not of the
Jackson faith. As a matter of course, Jackson rewarded his friends. He
made Samuel Swartwout Collector of the Port and filled every Federal
local post with his Tammany adherents.
FOOTNOTES
[1] William Paulding was succeeded by Philip Hone (1825-26), who in
turn was followed by Paulding (1826-29).
[2] This anniversary was the first on which the society, since its
formation, did not march in the streets and go to church. Each
“brother,” wearing a bucktail in front of his hat, went instead to the
great council chamber, where the Declaration of Independence was read
by Matthew L. Davis.
[3] See Chapter vi.
[4] _Minutes of the Oyer and Terminer_, Vol. 6, pp. 3-137.
[5] Barker maintained that a conspiracy had been formed against him. A
pamphlet entitled, _Jacob Barker’s Letters Developing the Conspiracy
Formed in 1826 for His Ruin_, was extensively circulated about this
time or later.
[6] The action of the general committee had a sweeping national
importance. “The State of New York represents the Democracy of the
Union; the City of New York gives tone to the State; the General
Committee govern the City.” Quoted by “A Journalist” as applying to
these years in his _Memoirs of James Gordon Bennett and His Times_, New
York, 1855.
[7] “Should the Independent electors,” wrote one of them, Aaron
Sergeant, “give me a nomination (for Sheriff) (as there will be several
candidates for the office) I shall succeed by a handsome majority. The
Sons of Erin are my most particular friends. I rely with confidence on
their support.
“Knowing the office to be one worth $10,000 per annum, should I be
elected, I shall give one-third of the income of this office to be
divided equally to [among] the several charitable Religious Societies
in the city. My claims for the office are, that I am a citizen born,
and my father one of the _Patriots of the Revolution for seven long
years …_.”
[8] This was the first election in the State in which Presidential
electors were voted on by the people.