Tammany Hall

Edward Morse Shepard, with papers extending from his back pocket labeled “Reform” and “Tammany,” stands in front of an old woman labeled “Democracy” who is holding a piece of paper labeled “Bryan’s Recommendation.” She is turning him down, just as the New York City voters did in the mayoral election. Caption: Miss Democracy — You must have a better reference than this, Mr. Shepard, if I’m to consider you.

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Edward Morse Shepard, unfortunately, was typical of New York Democrats in the age of Tammany Hall, the pendulum-swings of reform and corruption, the internecine New York Democrat fights between rural and New York City factions, the influence of Bryanism on local loyalties, and such. Shepard was a reform Democrat from Brooklyn (and then New York City after consolidation in 1897) who occasionally allied himself with Citizens Union and Republican reformer Seth Low. Within New York Democracy (that is, the Democratic Party) in 1902 an endorsement from William Jennings Bryan was not necessarily a golden recommendation. Shepard never attained a major nomination for mayor or governor; he got closest in a gubernatorial convention in 1911. The Democrat convention was deadlocked for 74 days, after which a Shepard opponent was nominated. Shepard died a few weeks afterward.

Seth Low, possibly as Odysseus, raises a sword labeled “Nonpartisanship” to strike a sea monster labeled “Misrule,” as a woman labeled “Greater New York,” standing on rocks and chained to a rock labeled “Tammany,” tries to get away from the monster.

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For a season the New York City municipal election profiled in this cartoon was a “perfect storm” for reformers. The corrupt Democratic “machine” was in decline, its “boss” Richard Croker foolishly having retired to his native Ireland to run the city from afar. Tammany lost local elections and was enmeshed in more scandals than usual. New York City had recently consolidated with the City of New York (hence the label “Greater New York”) and Seth Low, shown here wielding a sword, had been a reforming mayor of Brooklyn who now sought the mayoralty on a Citizens Union ticket. When the Republicans endorsed the independent candidate, he won handily. Two years later, Tammany, having licked its wounds, defeated him by running George B. McLellan, Jr., son of the Civil War general.

A hunter in the woods, carrying a rifle labeled “Gov. B. Odell,” stands next to a tree with a sign that states “Presidential Timber.” He is looking at a tiger labeled “Tammany.” Caption: Gov. Odell. — What a fine White House rug his skin would make!

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The date of this cartoon gives extra significance to an otherwise mundane depiction of a New York governor having presidential ambitions. Around this time, New York had a surfeit of officials with publicly-discussed possibilities, if not credentials, to be president of the United States. Democrats had President Cleveland himself, a two-term president and a rumored candidate for 1904. Former Governor David Bennett Hill was a perennial aspirant. On the Republican side, Levi P. Morton had served as vice president under Benjamin Harrison, and serious consideration was afforded former Governor Frank S. Black, Lieutenant Governor Timothy Woodruff, and Governor Benjamin B. Odell. These discussions and putative career-paths were upset by the person and public acclaim of New Yorker Theodore Roosevelt… and, while he was Vice President, the assassination of President William McKinley. Also interesting is the fact that this cartoon was published only days before McKinley was shot.

Richard Croker, as the Tammany Tiger dressed as a cardinal in England, receives long distance news about an explosive “Tammany Investigation” in New York. Caption: Croker Wolsey. — I have touched the highest point of all my greatness, / And, from that full meridian of my glory, / I haste now to my setting. I shall fall / Like a bright exhalation in the evening, / And no man see me more. [Shakespeare, Henry VIII, act 3, scene 2].

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The “boss” of Tammany Hall, the corrupt Democratic machine in New York City at this time was Richard Croker. Irish-born, he returned to Great Britain and Ireland at the time of this cartoon when things went against his plans and control in New York. He fought with the national party about support of William Jennings Bryan, his involvement, including stock kickbacks, with the Ice Trust as a blistering summer heat-wave struck, and loss of his iron grip of precincts, all paved his retreat. Nominally he looked after stables of prized race horses, and he ran his affairs by cable, but soon retired from politics when investigations were launched. The cardinal’s cassock and other vestments are to maintain the relevance of the Shakespearean analogy; Croker was a Protestant until shortly before his death.  

Richard Croker, looking pleased with himself, holds a large knife labeled “Tammany Vote” behind his back. Hobbling down the road in the background is a wounded William Jennings Bryan.

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“Boss” Richard Croker was perhaps the most coarse of Tammany Hall’s leaders through the years. He was likely as corrupt as any of the Democrat power-brokers in that role, and none were were more brutal. He survived a trial for killing a man, and typically made millions of dollars from salaries that officially were meager. In 1900 he had little enthusiasm for William Jennings Bryan, the Democratic presidential candidate, yet dutifully supported the ticket. Tammany’s candidates vastly outperformed Bryan, somehow, in the city’s wards. In the few subsequent years Tammany candidates fared less well, and Croker moved to Ireland, the land of his birth. By that time he parlayed his successful business of breeding racehorses, scoring notable victories in England, Ireland, and the United States. This cartoon depicts the wealthy Croker, attired in pretentious garb with Irish touches, holding a knife of a treacherous “ally,”as the wounded Bryan limps into the sunset.

Cartoon showing Richard Croker, leader of New York City’s Democrat machine Tammany Hall, as a laborer carrying a block of ice labeled “Ice Trust” and a sheet of paper “N.Y Dock privileges;” he cries out, “Stop thief,” while himself being pursued by an angry mob of citizens.

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Richard Croker, the boss of New York City’s corrupt Democratic machine Tammany Hall, ruled his domain so strongly that he even lived away from New York for three years — in England, where the Irish-born politician raised racehorses on an estate — controlling events through cables and assistants. However, in 1900 the city was in a crisis, a heat wave where ice prices doubled. The poor suffered, but the commodity was in the hands of one supplier, the American Ice Company, owned by Charles Morse. Among Croker’s emoluments were “gifts” of stock in the ice company, more properly the “ice trust,” or monopoly. The public was outraged, especially as Croker tried to hide behind criticism of trusts in general. He eventually quit politics, succeeded at Tammany Hall by Charles F. Murphy.

New York City Mayor Robert Anderson Van Wyck is drowning in a sea of ice blocks labeled “Ice Trust.” Richard Croker, holding a life preserver labeled “Tammany Machine Power,” is swimming toward him. Caption: Help me, Cassius, or I sink!

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Judge Robert Anderson Van Wyck was easy to portray as a “clean” politician — old-line New York family; sitting judge — but as a Tammany puppet he was as corrupt as other Democratic mayors of the era in New York City. This cartoon delineates complicated political “currents” of the day, but also illustrates the fact that average readers were quite literate, perhaps more so than those of the twenty-first century. Politics: Tammany allowed the American Ice Company a monopoly in the city of New York. Boss Richard Croker and Mayor Van Wyck profited from stock kickbacks. When a heat wave threatened New York, a scandal erupted which threatened Van Wyck’s standing. The subtext: In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Cassius recounted to Brutus how he had persuaded Caesar to swim the stormy Tiber River, but Caesar feared drowning and called out for help. The point of Cassius’s story was that Caesar could be manipulated and also was less than omnipotent. This cartoon portrays Van Wyck as being manipulated by Tammany and vulnerable politically.

Richard Croker, dressed in formal wear and wearing a sash labeled “Tammany,” proclaims that he/Tammany supports William Jennings Bryan for president while, behind his back, he slips a vote for William McKinley into the pot labeled “Nov. Election.”

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This cartoon attacks Tammany Hall Boss Richard Croker for alleged hypocrisy. He endorsed Democrat William Jennings Bryan for President in 1900 but secretly favored Republican William McKinley’s reelection. Croker, if he had any economic views, was for “sound money” and the McKinley prosperity. Tammany candidates outpaced Bryan’s vote tally in New York City in 1896 and increased its margins in 1900, carrying the city despite the Republicans carrying the state. Yet Croker, through the 1900 campaign, softened his routine praise of Bryan, and suspended making predictions at all. Despite the profiles of Tammany Hall members, and his own scruffy appearance (his gray-striped beard invited cartoonists’ depictions as the Tammany Tiger itself), Croker was a prosperous figure who bred racehorses. He was perhaps comfortable with President McKinley, yet always towing the Democrat line.

Tammany Hall boss Richard Croker, inflated like a hot air balloon, wears a medallion showing the Tammany Tiger and a laurel wreath with a ribbon labeled “Kansas City Convention.” Running up behind him is David B. Hill carrying a spear labeled “N.Y. State Democracy.” The title is a quotation from the Bible: “Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18).

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For many decades, following the Civil War, the Democratic Party in New York State was split into factions — usually two, sometimes more. Copperheads (Southern sympathizers) and Union Democrats, Tammany Hall grafters and honest Upstate Democrats, city (New York) vs. rural. Occasional Reform Democrats (Samuel J. Tilden, Grover Cleveland, Abram S. Hewitt) vs. Tammany Hall and/or David B. Hill, governor and Presidential aspirant. In 1900, the reformer and radical William Jennings Bryan was renominated for the Presidency by the Democrats and cast his lot with the Tammany faction in New York instead of the bloc led by Hill, who was by then a former governor and former senator. But, as this cartoon suggests, Hill was as much concerned with New York inter-party rivalries as he was the national campaign.

Theodore Roosevelt perceives a threat in T. Augustine Dwyer’s most recent communication. To defend himself, Roosevelt gives Dwyer permission to publish every letter he has ever received from Roosevelt. Roosevelt has heard that Dwyer has made statements to the effect that he received money from Roosevelt and William Loeb to travel to various countries as a missionary, which is not true. Neither Roosevelt nor Loeb ever gave money to Dwyer, though Roosevelt is aware that Dwyer was paid by the National Republican Campaign Committee for an article he wrote about Roosevelt’s administration that was widely circulated during the campaign. This payment was, however, comparable to other payments made to individuals who had written for, or worked on, the campaign.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-04-21

Theodore Roosevelt thinks that the Lorimer case is clear and believes that it is worse then anything done by Tammany Hall in the last thirty years. He does not want Senator Lodge to be influenced in support of Senator Lorimer.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-01-27

Theodore Roosevelt is interested in supporting the progressive movement but does not want to appear as seeking political control of the party and feels that he should avoid active participation in politics. He would declare that he would not accept a presidential nomination but is opposed to such unqualified assertions. The bitter antagonism towards Roosevelt limits him as a political leader.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-01-24

During the libel suit, Theodore Roosevelt would like William Merriam Chadbourne to recall the circumstances of how Roosevelt entered the political fight with William Barnes. Roosevelt remembers meeting with Chadbourne who argued that the Barnes machine and Tammany Hall were working together to defeat Charles Evans Hughes. He recommended that Roosevelt side with Hughes and fight for the primary bill. They discussed general political corruption but not specific personal corruption by Barnes.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1915-01-22

Theodore Roosevelt thinks it is probable that in the course of his libel suit with William Barnes he will need to relate how the fight was undertaken. Roosevelt notes that it started at Cambridge, when Charles Evans Hughes asked him to do all that he could to get the Primary Bill through. Hughes had told Roosevelt that the “Barnes-Republicans” had joined with Tammany Hall to hold up the legislation, and that an appeal needed to be made to decent citizens to override the combination. Roosevelt cannot recall whether Hughes had used the term “Barnes-Republicans” or “Barnes-machine,” but he does remember Hughes using the word “Barnes.” Roosevelt does not remember Hughes using the word “Murphy” when speaking about Tammany Hall. Roosevelt writes simply to let Hughes know what his memory is in the matter.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1915-01-13

Theodore Roosevelt thanks Edward S. Van Zile for his letter and agrees with Van Zile’s sentiment that Tammany Hall represents a more direct, if deeply flawed, type of humanitarianism for the New York City “down-trodden” compared to the “Evening Post mugwump type of reformer.” 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-12-18

Theodore Roosevelt informs William A. Prendergast that newspaper reports that Roosevelt antagonized Prendergast’s position on the municipal contests are false. Roosevelt agrees with Prendergast that Progressives must get the best men nominated for the New York municipal election. Roosevelt objects to a deal with Republican bosses.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-11-25

President Roosevelt feels similarly undecided about direct primary elections, which have been proposed in New York. Roosevelt can see strong reasons in favor of them, but, having seen them in practice in western states and imagining how political machines, like Tammany Hall, may abuse them, he has his doubts. Accordingly, Roosevelt does not want to speak on them until he better understands the proposal raised in New York.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-01-11

President Roosevelt is concerned about remarks made by Mayor of Philadelphia John Weaver and believes William Randolph Hearst’s political influence through his newspapers is an “even more dangerous machine than Tamanny Hall.” Roosevelt tells Charles Emory Smith, editor for the Philadelphia Press, that he only alludes to Hearst newspapers. 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-10-09

President Roosevelt comments to Senator Lodge on the election results in various states. He is particularly pleased about the Massachusetts results. He wishes that Ambassador George von Lengerke Meyer had gone back to Saint Petersburg when the trouble started three weeks ago.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-11-08

President Roosevelt expresses to Columbia University President Butler his conflicted feelings taking personal action in the New York mayoral election. He does not think it wise to attend a dinner in support of William Travers Jerome, because he does not trust Austen G. Fox. He is also hesitant to write anything in support of Jerome, because he fears Jerome may use it “in some totally different contingency.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-11-10