Tammany Hall

William Stephen Devery and a saloon known as “the pump” have returned to the Democratic party with fanfare. Although the article points out that Devery had previously been removed from the Democratic party, his return has been greeted warmly by high-ranking party officials including Thomas Taggart and Norman Edward Mack. Other articles on this page include commentary on vice presidential candidate Henry Gassaway Davis’s age, the delay in the opening of the subway system, and the inspection of the boat, the Grand Republic.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-08-03

President Roosevelt agrees with Attorney General Bonaparte in not interfering on behalf of Eugene A. Tucker, but that his lawyer should be punished. He believes that former Illinois Governor Richard Yates could be employed in the powder trust case. In a postscript, Roosevelt discusses how state and local governments use extralegal measures to combat non-governmental entities.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-07-27

Surveyor James Sullivan Clarkson tells William Loeb about a secret movement in Tammany Hall to put General Ulysses S. Grant’s son, Jesse Root Grant, on the democratic ticket for 1908. All the states involved in organizing the movement so far are in the West and Northwest, and the idea is to “head off” William Jennings Bryan and William Randolph Hearst. Clarkson thinks it is “a pretty smart game” and emphasizes how important it is to keep it from going public.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-01-24

Francis C. Travers wishes President Roosevelt health and strength “to continue the contest for right” against political corruption and shares the encouragement of the people of New York due to his efforts.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-02-01

President Roosevelt holds his hands back and sweats as he watches a fight in “New York” that includes a Republican elephant, a Tammany tiger, William Randolph Hearst, Charles Evans Hughes, and the “Independence League.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-10-31

Uncle Sam points President Roosevelt, who holds his rifle, to the “grafter’s paradise” woods. There are a number of wild animals in there, including a “government land grabber” beaver, a “tobacco trust” hog, a “Tammany” tiger, and a “Panama Canal” cat. Caption: “Mr. President, there’s the big game. Now, fire away!”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-09

President Roosevelt, an elephant, and a tiger all hold up their glasses for a toast at the “Iriquois Club, Chicago, Illinois.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-05

Several newspaper articles from The Commercial Advertiser primarily pertaining to New York state politics.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-09-17

The author argues that Charles Francis Murphy and Senator Patrick Henry McCarren are not “fit for decent political society” and that they are machine organizers. The author believes that Judge Alton B. Parker needs to secure the independent vote to be elected.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-08-19

This advertisement for a subscription package for both the New York World and the Citizen announces the impartiality of the World in covering the upcoming elections.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-08-27

Charles M. Pepper reports on the political situation in New York, specifically focusing on the upstate region. Overall indications are that the Republicans will be very successful in the state, with the Democrat Alton B. Parker failing to inspire support in rural voters there. It is likely that Elihu Root will be nominated as the Republican gubernatorial candidate, although he has expressed that he is not interested in the nomination.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-08-14

John A. Hennessy writes to Henry L. Stoddard to make plans to visit a mutual friend. Hennessy discusses the current attitude towards Theodore Roosevelt in the press and proposes political strategies to defeat William Barnes and Charles Francis Murphy in the elections. Hennessy maintains that criticism of the national government needs to be left out of their campaign platform. Though Roosevelt has excellent judgment, he is “out of touch with public sentiment” and his criticism of President Wilson will not help them defeat Barnes and Murphy.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1914-07-06

Theodore Roosevelt informs Henry L. Stoddard that he will not run for Governor. Roosevelt has a responsibility to the national Progressive Party and cannot separate himself from national issues. He mentions John A. Hennessy as a candidate for Governor on a third party ticket.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1914-07-08

Theodore Roosevelt informs his sister that, although still in a lot of pain, Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt is recovering and out of danger after an accident that left her with a concussion and dislocated vertebrae. Roosevelt also writes of his dislike of the “outrageous political scoundrelism” of the past year due to the victory of Tammany Hall in the polls.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1911-10-05

William Travers Jerome, District Attorney for the State of New York, defends a bridge that leads to “Honest Government” against a group of men led by Benjamin B. Odell, with “Big Tim, Little Tim, Abe Gruber, [and Charles F.] Murphy” among his followers. Caption: “Now, who will stand at my right hand and keep the bridge with me?”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Timothy Daniel “Big Tim” Sullivan, the “Boss of the Bowery,” controlled everything — voters and voting, the police, dives, opium dens, and prostitution — in lower Manhattan below Union Square. He was killed when run over by a train (and his body unidentified for weeks) at only 52 years old. Ge might have risen to be the next boss of Tammany Hall but for his death and an apparent case of advanced syphilis.

Democrats and Republicans, capitalists, social reformers, political symbols, and others enjoy a summer outing at a park.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1904-08-17

New York City Mayor George B. McClellan and Police Commissioner William McAdoo are pictured washing the Tammany Tiger labeled “Corruption” and “Graft.” In the background, Tammany Hall boss Charles F. Murphy is posting a notice for the “Democratic Convention” on July 6 in Saint Louis, Missouri.

comments and context

Comments and Context

In 1904, New York City had a new Democratic mayor, George B. McClellan, son of the Civil War general and 1864 Democratic presidential candidate against Abraham Lincoln; and a new “boss” of Tammany Hall, the city’s corrupt Democrat machine.

New York City mayor Seth Low, as a lion tamer holding a whip, stands next to the Tammany Tiger which is bound in ribbons labeled “Civic Honesty, Fusion, Decent Government, Municipal Reforms, [and] Local Improvements.” Standing in the background is Charles F. Murphy, Tammany Hall boss, holding a large pair of scissors labeled “Election 1903.” Later in the year, Low would lose the election for mayor to George B. McClellan Jr.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Seth Low was identified with reform and efficient administration his whole career, as mayor of Brooklyn, mayor New York City (Brooklyn and the City merged in 1897 as “Greater New York”), and as president of Columbia University. His political activities were allied with the Republican Party and various reform groups like the Fusion Party and the Citizens Union.

New York Mayor Seth Low directs the bombardment of a Tammany Hall bunker flying a flag labeled “Tammany Graft.” Several men, among them former President Grover Cleveland, and Charles V. Fornes, pass shells labeled “Clean record, Capable administration, [and] Just return for taxes” for an “Anti-Tammany” howitzer. They are behind a sand-bag bunker labeled “Honest Government” and are flying the flag of “Municipal Reform.” Caption: “That ammunition fits our gun only.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

“Regulars and Irregulars” — cartoonist Keppler illustrated the “fusion” aspect of Mayor Seth Low’s New York City administration.In 1901 Low had been elected as a Reform Republican and Fusion candidate, on the Citizen’s Union ticket.

Tammany Hall boss Richard Croker, as a pirate, nails a new figurehead labeled “McClellan” to the bow of a ship labeled “Tammany.” The old figurehead labeled “Van Wyck” lies on the ground.

comments and context

Comments and Context

If there is a historical flaw in Joseph Keppler’s cartoon, it is not that the Tammany ship (of the corrupt Democratic organization typically controlling New York City) found it facile to change the figureheads — mayors who were pliant to the will of the Tammany “boss.” Since Boss Tweed and John Kelly and Richard Croker, it had been so for decades.