The Tammany Hall building where the society was located. Cartoon from 1898, where the whole New York politics "revolves around" the great boss Richard Croker, Grand Sachem of Tammany Hall.
The Tammany Society (later known as Tammany Hall), also known as the Colombian Order, was an American patriotic organization dedicated to preserving democratic ideals. Later it became synonymous with the powerful party machine of the Democratic Party in New York City.
The Tammany Society was founded in New York by William Mooney in 1789 and initially aimed at the Federalist Party. 13 "tribes" were established, one in each of the then 13 states. The national character of the society was only a short life, and in 1798, Aaron Burr gained control of the society and turned it into the party machine of the Democratic Republicans, the forerunner of the Democratic Party.
In 1858, William Tweed's political rise began when he became Grand Sachem in Tammany. Tweed gained more power for himself and his political counterparts in the following years. The Tweed Ring, as they were called, operated from Tammany Hall where the society had its headquarters. The corruption in New York took great forms until the New York Times newspaper in 1871 challenged these practices in a series of articles. Tweed was then arrested and convicted but eventually managed to escape Spain. He was delivered to the US in 1876 and died in a prison in New York in 1878.
Even after that, the Democratic Party continued to exert great influence from Tammany Hall. Candidates of the Society occupy several political positions including those of Mayor of New York. Tammany mayor Jimmy Walker had to resign after a corruption scandal in 1932. After the Second World War and reforms in the Democratic Party, Tammany Hall gradually lost its influence, and with the mayor of independent Democrat Ed Koch, Tammany's influence on the New York Democrats was finally broken.
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