RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE “GANGS”
1840-1846
About the year 1840 the change in the personnel and the policy of the
Wigwam became distinctly evident. After its absorption of the Equal
Rights party, the organization had remained “purified” for a year or
so, and then, as usual, had relapsed. But a new power and new ideas
prevailed. No longer did the bankers and merchants who once held
the Wigwam in their grasp, venture to meet in the secret chamber of
the hall and order nominations, command policies or determine the
punishment of refractory individuals. Tammany from this time forward
began to be ruled from the bottom of the social stratum, instead of
from the top.
Something had to be done to offset the disclosures of 1838-40.
Accordingly, the policy of encouraging the foreigners, first rather
mildly started in 1823, was now developed into a system. The Whigs
antagonized the entrance of foreign-born citizens into politics, and
the Native American party was organized expressly to bar them almost
entirely from the enjoyment of political rights. The immigrant had
no place to which to turn but Tammany Hall. In part to assure to
itself this vote the organization opened a bureau, a modest beginning
of what became a colossal department. An office was established in
the Wigwam, to which specially paid agents or organization runners
brought the immigrant, drilled into him the advantages of joining
Tammany and furnished him with the means and legal machinery needed
to take out his naturalization papers. Between January 14 and April 1,
1840, 895 of these men were taken before Tammany Marine Court Judges
and naturalized. Judges of other courts helped to swell the total.
Nearly every one of these aliens became and remained an inveterate
organization voter. Tammany took the immigrant in charge, cared for
him, made him feel that he was a human being with distinct political
rights, and converted him into a citizen. How sagacious this was,
each year revealed. Immigration soon poured in heavily, and there
came a time when the foreign vote outnumbered that of the native-born
citizens.[1]
The Whigs were bewildered at this systematic gathering in of the
naturalized citizens. After the election of April, 1840,[2] when
Tammany reelected Varian Mayor and carried the Common Council, the
Committee of Whig Young Men[3] issued a long address on the subject.
After specifically charging that prisoners had been marched from their
cells in the City Prison by their jailers to the polls to vote the
Tammany ticket, the address declared that during the week previous to,
and on election day, naturalization papers had been granted at the
Marine Court on tickets from Tammany Hall, under circumstances of great
abuse.
In the campaign of 1840 the so-called best elements of the town
were for General Harrison. The Wigwam men had much at stake in Van
Buren’s candidature and exerted themselves to reelect him. Tammany now
elaborated its naturalization bureau. A committee sat daily at the
Wigwam, assisting in the naturalization process, free of charge to the
applicant. The allegiance of foreign-born citizens was further assured
by humoring their national pride in the holding of Irish, German and
French meetings in the hall, where each nationality was addressed in
its own language. The more influential foreigners were rewarded with
places on the Assembly or local ticket, and to the lesser workers of
foreign birth were given petty jobs in the department offices, or
contract work.
The outcome was, that in the face of especially strong opposition
Tammany harvested 982 plurality in the city for Van Buren, though
the vote of the Western counties gave Harrison the electoral vote
of the State. It was such instances as this--demonstrating its
capacity of swaying New York City even if the rest of the State voted
oppositely--that continued to give Tammany Hall a powerful hold on the
Democratic party of the nation, notwithstanding the discredit that so
often attached to Tammany men and measures.
Another example of the change in the personnel of Tammany was shown in
the rise and progress of the “ward heeler” and his “gangs.” The “gangs”
were not conspicuous in 1841, when the organization elected Robert H.
Morris Mayor.[4] In April, 1842, when Morris was reelected,[5] the
“gangs” were still modestly in the background. But in the Fall of that
year they came forth in their might.
One of their leaders was “Mike” Walsh, who became a sort of example
for the professional “ward heelers” that followed in his wake. Walsh
had no claim at all on the ruling politicians at the Wigwam, and would
have been unnoticed by them. But he was ambitious, did not lack ability
of a certain kind, and had a retinue of devoted “plug-ugly” followers.
He spoke with a homely eloquence, which captivated the poor of his
ward. The turbulent he won over with his fists. On November 1 the
Tammany Nominating Committee reported to the great popular meeting.
Walsh, with the express purpose of forcing his own nomination for the
Assembly, went there with such a band of shouters and fighters as
never before had been seen in the hall. His “shoulder-hitters”--men,
as a rule, of formidable appearance--did such hearty execution and so
overawed the men assembled there, that upon the question being put
to a vote the general committee decided in his favor and placed his
name on the regular ticket. While in the ensuing election he received
not quite 3,000 votes to the nearly 20,000 cast for his opponent (the
nominee first reported by the committee), he eventually was successful
in his aim. Seeing how easy it was to force nominations at the Wigwam
if backed by force, other men began to imitate him and get together
“gangs” of their own.
This was the kind of men who, with their “gangs,” superseded the former
Democratic ward committees, nearly every member of which kept a shop or
earned his living in some legitimate calling. By helping one another
in introducing “gangs” of repeaters from one ward to another at the
primary elections, the “ward heelers” became the masters of the wards
and were then graduated into leaders, whose support was sought by the
most dignified and illustrious politicians.
In fact, the city was frequently in a state of turmoil. Since 1834
there had been half a dozen riots.[6] There were constant fights
between rival volunteer engine companies, to which lawless and
abandoned characters attached themselves. Engines were stolen, clubs,
pipes, wrenches and other weapons were used, and the affrays generally
closed with stabbings and broken skulls.[7] There was no police
force to speak of; even Mayor Morris, whom the “gangs” called “Bob”
and tapped familiarly on the shoulder, described it as “lamentably
defective.”[8] One out of every twenty-one white persons in the city
could not read and write.[9] From so large a population of illiterates,
the “ward heelers” easily recruited great numbers of followers. Morris
allowed the “gangs” full sway, and was popular accordingly. Naturally,
with this encouragement, the “gangs” grew and became ever bolder.
General disgust at the low character of politics was felt by the
independents, who rightly held both Tammany and the Whigs responsible.
During the time each party held power affairs had gone from bad to
worse. A joint special committee of Aldermen, appointed under public
pressure, reported, in 1842, that dishonest office-holders had
recently robbed the city of little short of $100,000.[10] A street
cleaning contract was awarded for $64,500 a year, for five years, when
other responsible persons offered to take it for not quite $25,000
a year.[11] The fraudulent selling of city land to cover up the
increasing debt was continued.[12] The city office-holders sold real
estate for unpaid assessments, frequently without giving notice to the
owner, and bought it in themselves and so “possessed themselves of
estates.”[13] Heavy and oppressive assessments for improvements never
actually made were laid on the taxpayers.[14] Hundreds of thousands of
dollars were expended uselessly and extravagantly.[15] Mayor Morris
complained that he had no power over expenditures; that he knew nothing
of legislative action on public works until the warrants for payment
were sent to him.[16] In violation of the charter, the Aldermen
participated in all the profitable “jobs.”[17]
Convicts were allowed to escape from Blackwell’s Island on condition
that they voted as their keepers ordered them.[18] Prisoners whose
terms had expired were kept at the public expense until election day,
to get their votes. The inmates of the Almshouse and the Penitentiary
were forced to manufacture articles for the use and profit of the
officers of those departments. “It is a well-known fact to all who
have been familiar with those establishments,” declared the Almshouse
Commissioners, “that large quantities of cabinet furniture, clothing
and sometimes elegant carriages, cut-glass decanters, punch-bowls, and
other articles have been made at the expense of the city; and this has
been carried on more or less for years.”[19] It was the custom of the
officers “to expend large sums in sumptuous and costly dinners for the
entertainment of partizans.” Persons confined in the City Prison were
frequently swindled out of their money or effects by the officers, or
by “shyster” lawyers, acting in connivance with the jailers; and to
get a mere note or message delivered to friends they had to pay an
exorbitant price.[20]
Despite the disclosures, Tammany again elected Morris, in April, 1843,
by nearly 5,000 plurality, he receiving 24,395 votes to 19,516 for
Robert Smith, the Whig candidate. The storm, however, was gathering,
both in and out of Tammany. Inside the organization, charges were
common of monstrous frauds in the primaries. Frauds against the Whigs
were acceptable enough, but by Democrats against Democrats were
intolerable. So pronounced was the outcry over these frauds that the
Tammany General Committee, in the Fall of 1843, directed that in
future the ward meetings should be held on the same night and that
only those whose names appeared on the poll lists should be allowed to
vote.[21]
Outside criticism materialized in an independent reform movement. It
found a rallying point in the Native American or American Republican
party, which previously had polled about 9,000 votes. It resented
the intrusion of foreigners into politics, large numbers of whom had
secured office. It was partially industrial in its character and
following; numbers of American workingmen believed that with 100,000
immigrants[22] pouring into this country every year they would soon
have to be satisfied with a shilling or twenty cents a day for their
labor, instead of $1.50 they were receiving. The native element also
complained of the organization of the Irish into a distinct and
separate element, with a high Roman Catholic prelate at its head, in
order to get part of the public school funds. The discussion of the
public school question only the more accentuated hatreds, bringing to
the surface the most delicate questions touching the religious feelings
and prejudices of the major part of the community.
Tammany nominated Jonathan I. Coddington for Mayor, and placed very few
naturalized citizens on its ticket. The Native American candidate was
James Harper, and the Whig, Morris Franklin.
Mayor Morris called a meeting in Tammany Hall at which resolutions
were passed denouncing the Common Council for its corruption and its
failure to carry out reform. The advocates of the new party declared
that they were not to be deceived. Their campaign was carried on with
vigor. Honest men generally were roused against both Tammany and the
Whigs. Religious and racial vituperation were partially cast aside and
forgotten for the time when the reform men took hold of the movement;
not wholly so, however, for we find one of the chief native orators
declaring in a campaign speech that “the American Republicans will not
be found with Roman Catholics in the same ranks.” This bigotry was
overlooked, inasmuch as the Native Americans promised city reform, good
police, reductions in taxes, clean streets and economical expenditure
of the public money. The community was pervaded by a profound sense
of the corruption and inefficiency of the old parties, and ordinary
political lines were forgotten.
Tammany made desperate efforts to carry the election. On the preceding
night, convicts in batches of twenty and thirty were taken from
Blackwell’s Island to New York, where they were lodged, and the next
day given Democratic ballots, free lunch and in some instances were
employed to electioneer.[23]
The Native Americans won, however, the vote standing: Harper, 24,606;
Coddington, 20,726; Franklin, 5,207.
The new administration was a distinct disappointment. Though it had
a majority in the Common Council, it accomplished few or none of
the reforms its supporters had promised. The scramble for office
continued as before; municipal improvements progressed slowly, and
though salaries and appropriations were cut to some extent, taxes
and expenditures increased. A part of this increase was doubtless
justified, but the people had been promised reduction, and they refused
to take into account the fiscal needs of a rapidly growing city. The
administration further weakened its hold by passing and enforcing
stringent “blue laws.” Not only were the unfortunate women of the
streets warred upon and quiet drinking places raided, but irritating
measures, such as the prohibiting of fireworks on the Fourth of July
and the driving of apple women and other vendors from the streets, were
taken. The result was a public reaction.
Mayor Harper was a quaint character, and his odd rulings when presiding
in Special Sessions were the talk of the town. If a shoemaker, for
instance, was arraigned before him, he would say: “Well, we want
shoemakers on the island, so we’ll send you up for three months, and be
smart while you _last_, John, be smart.” Or, in the instance of a man
who claimed to be “a sort of carpenter”: “Well, we’ll send you up for
two months to round your apprenticeship, and the city will take care of
your lodging and board, Matthew.”
In the reaction that set in, many voters swung back to Tammany on
the general belief that it was no worse than the other parties. This
change of sentiment put the organization in good form to carry the
city for James K. Polk in November, 1844. A short time before this
there had come into distinction one of the most effective auxiliaries
of the Wigwam. This was the Empire Club,[24] of No. 28 Park Row. Its
chief was Captain Isaiah Rynders, and its membership was made up of a
choice variety of picked worthies who could argue a mooted point to a
finish with knuckles. Rynders had a most varied career before entering
New York politics. A gambler in New Orleans, he mixed in some bowie
and pistol fights there in which he was cut severely on the head and
elsewhere, and his hat was perforated by a bullet. On a Mississippi
steamboat he drove O’Rourke, a pugilist, out of the saloon with a
red-hot poker, after O’Rourke had lost at faro and had attempted to
kill the winner. These were but a few of his many diversions. In
Washington he was arrested with Breedlove and Jewell on suspicion of
being connected with the theft of a large sum in Treasury notes, though
no proof was found against him. He was a very considerable power in
the Wigwam for over twenty years, frequently officiating at meetings
there. Chief among the club’s other members of like proclivities were
such noted fighters and “unterrified Democrats” as “Country McCleester”
(McClusky), “Bill” Ford, “Manny” Kelly, John Ling, “Mike” Phillips,
“Bill” Miner, “Denny” McGuire, “Ike” Austin, “Tom” McGuire, “Tom”
Freeman and “Dave” Scandlin. After the nomination of Henry Clay,
“Johnny” Austin--a common report of the day had it--was offered the
sum of $2,000 to bring himself and five of his associates--McClusky,
Kelly, Ford, Scandlin and Phillips--into the Unionist Club (a Whig
organization) with the hope that they could secure success to the Whigs
in the city. Offices also were promised, but the offers were refused;
whether because the Wigwam held forth greater inducements is not clear.
Aided by these worthies, and by the popular indignation against the
reform administration, the Wigwam men grew confident. They were now
heard boasting that they intended electing their entire ticket. There
being no longer fear of the Registry law (which the Wigwam had recently
influenced a friendly Legislature to repeal on the ground of its
discriminative application to New York City alone), fraud was open and
general. The vote on its face proved this; since, while New York City
could claim a legitimate vote of only 45,000, the Polk electors were
credited with 28,216, and the Clay electors with 26,870 votes. For
James G. Birney, the Abolition candidate, but 118 votes were polled, or
at least counted.
The Tammany General Committee, on January 13, 1845, passed resolutions
favoring the annexation of Texas and calling a public meeting. With a
view of glorifying John Tyler--to whom they owed their positions--and
at the same time of winning the good will of the incoming
administration, the Custom House officers tried to anticipate the
committee’s action, but were not allowed to use the hall. Resolved,
at any rate, to control the meeting regularly called, they crowded two
thousand of their creatures, under the leadership of Rynders, into
the Wigwam. The meeting was soon one of uproar, turbulence and some
fighting. Rynders had his resolutions adopted “amid yells, shouts,
screams, oaths, cheers, blasphemy, hisses and an uproar never before
known in the pandemonium of politics.” It was the generally expressed
opinion that the time had come when the proceedings of a meeting at
Tammany Hall were no longer to be considered as any certain indication
of the opinions of the Democratic party; that a class of men who
chose to organize themselves for the purpose, by being early on the
ground, acting in concert and clamoring according to certain understood
signals, could carry any set of resolutions they pleased, in the very
teeth of the large majority of the Democratic party.
In the local campaign of 1845 Tammany acted sagaciously. It nominated
William F. Havemeyer for Mayor, laying stress on the fact that he was
a “native New Yorker.” The Native Americans renominated Harper, and
the Whigs, Dudley Selden. The vote stood: Havemeyer, 24,183, Harper,
17,472; Selden, 7,082. Tammany secured a majority of 26 on joint ballot
in the Common Council--the real power.
Mayor Havemeyer sincerely tried to effect reforms. In the beginning
of his term he urged the fact that the Common Council united in
itself nearly all the executive with all the legislative power,
and declared that its main business was to collect and distribute,
through the various forms of patronage, nearly a million and a half
dollars a year.[25] His attacks upon the arbitrary powers and corrupt
practises of the Common Council made so little impression upon that
body that on May 13, the very first day of convening, the Aldermen,
immediately after the reading of the Mayor’s message, removed not
less than seventy officials, from the heads of departments to Street
Inspectors;[26] and on subsequent days the process was continued until
every post was filled with a Tammany man.
But the effect upon the public mind was such that in 1846 a new charter
was drafted and adopted, which deprived the Common Council of the power
which it hitherto had enjoyed of appointing the heads of departments,
and gave their election direct to the people.
Mayor Havemeyer not being pliable enough for the Wigwam leaders, they
nominated and elected, in the Spring of 1846, Andrew H. Mickle, by a
vote of 21,675, the Whigs receiving 15,111, and the Native Americans
8,301.[27] Mayor Mickle was regarded as “one of the people.” He was
born in a shanty in the “bloody ould Sixth,” in the attic of which a
dozen pigs made their habitation. Marrying the daughter of the owner of
a large tobacco house, he later became its proprietor. He improved his
opportunities, business and official, so well that he died worth over a
million dollars.
FOOTNOTES
[1] The statement was made at a reform meeting in City Hall Park on
April 11, 1844, that from 1841 to 1844 not less than 11,000 foreigners
had been naturalized at $1 a head, though the legal fee was $5. The
Judges, the speaker said on the authority of Judge Vanderpoel, signed
their names to the papers without asking questions.
[2] This was the first election in the city occupying only one day.
Before 1840 three days were used. The vote stood: Varian, 21,243; J.
Phillips Phoenix (Whig), 19,622; scattering, 36; total, 40,901.
[3] The Whigs had formed committees in imitation of the Tammany
organization.
[4] Election of 1841: Robert H. Morris (Tammany), 18,605; J. Phillips
Phoenix (Whig), 18,206; Samuel F. B. Morse, 77; scattering, 45; total,
36,93.
[5] Election of 1842; Morris, 20,633; Phoenix, 18,755; total, 39,388.
[6] _Documents of the Board of Aldermen_, 1839, No. 29. The _Weekly
Herald_, February 15, 1840, stated that official documents showed,
for the previous ten months, a total of nineteen riots, twenty-three
murders and nearly 150 fires, the latter involving a loss of about
$7,000,000.
[7] See _Documents of the Board of Aldermen_, Vol. VIII, No. 35, and
No. 41, 1843-44, for extended accounts.
[8] Mayor Morris’s _Message_, July, 1842.
[9] _Documents of the Board of Aldermen_, Vol. VIII, No. 22.
[10] _Ibid._, 1842-43, No. 5.
[11] _Ibid._, Vol. IX, No. 69.
[12] _Ibid._, Vol. X, part 1, No. 46.
[13] _Senate Documents_, 1842, Vol. IV, No. 100.
[14] _Ibid._
[15] _Message_ of Mayor Morris, 1843.
[16] _Message_ of Mayor Morris, 1843.
[17] _Ibid._
[18] _Report of Commissioners of the Almshouse_, _Documents of the
Board of Aldermen_, Vol. XI, No. 40.
[19] _Ibid._: 400.
[20] _Ibid._; see also _Presentment of Grand Jury_, _Ibid._, Vol. X,
part 1, No. 53.
[21] About this time the general committee was enlarged. Until now the
delegates had been selected from each ward. In 1843 the practise was
begun of sending them from each election district.
[22] Sixty thousand of these entered the port of New York yearly. The
total immigration rose to 154,000 in 1846 and to 427,000 in 1854.
[23] _Documents of the Board of Aldermen_, 1844-45, Vol. XI, No. 40.
[24] Within a few months after its organization the Empire Club had
thirty-three parades and had been hired to go to Albany, Trenton,
Tarrytown and other cities to help the Democracy. Whenever the Empire
Club met a rival political club, a fight was sure to follow.
[25] _Annual Message_, 1845.
[26] _Proceedings of the Board of Aldermen_, Vol. XXIX, pp. 1-55.
[27] Tammany won by a minority vote both in 1845 and in 1846. That
neither Tammany nor the Native Americans had enacted any competent
reforms in the matter of the taxation of property was conclusively
shown in an Aldermanic report of 1846. It appeared from this report
that thirty million dollars’ worth of assessable property escaped
taxation every year, and that no bona fide efforts were being made by
the officials to remedy this state of affairs. _Proceedings of the
Board of Assistant Aldermen_, Vol. XXIX, Document No. 24.