The Tammany Society, or Columbian Order, was founded in 1786 in New York City as a fraternal organization. Centering on the figure of the legendary Delaware chief Tamanend, members developed a ritual based on Native American symbols: The leaders were sachems, the members braves; Tammanyites wore Native costume at celebrations; and they called their meeting place a wigwam. Although the Tammany Society had some more affluent members, it attracted a disproportionate number of artisans. Initially, its aim was “to cherish. . . the great principles of civil liberty. . . to cultivate political information.
. . to give exercise to the divine emotions of charity—and finally. . . to enjoy without restraint the generous effusions of national enthusiasm.” Given its membership, the Tammany Society quickly took on an egalitarian and democratic caste.
In the early 1790s Tammany centered its activities on celebrating various patriotic holidays, but the controversies of 1793 and 1794 brought it into politics, supporting the Democratic-Republicans and Thomas Jefferson. With almost 500 members, Tammany helped to garner artisan support for Jefferson in the election of i8oo. By that time, Tammany was a political bastion of Aaron Burr. After Burr’s fall from grace, Tammany continued to be important in Democratic-Republican politics. Representing worker interests, Tammany supported a number of democratic causes, including ending imprisonment for debt and universal manhood suffrage. Tammany became part of the political organization of Martin Van Buren and the Democratic Party. By the 1830s Tammany had become a political machine that many viewed as the epitome of corrupt urban politics.
Further reading: Alfred F. Young, The Democratic Republicans of New York: The Origins, 1763-1797 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1967).
World History
